Saga of the Victims or One Damn Thing After Another!
As you can see Victims lived up to its title delivering five issues worth of damsels in distress. The only problem was there were supposed to be six parts. Before we get into the story let's talk about that. Thanks to JK, SMS and Felon for filling me in on the background details via the c3c mailing list. "The Saga of the Victims" originally appeared Scream 6-9 & 11. Scream being published by a short-lived company called Skywald in the 1970s. It was a black and white magazine, similar to the old Warren mags (Creepy, Eerie, etc.). This accounts for parts 1 to 5 of the six part story. So what about part 6? Sadly Skywald went out of business before the final chapter of the Saga saw print. If that final chapter was actually ever written or drawn remains a mystery. Fast forward to 1988. Eternity comics begins reprinting the story under the title Victims. There was no indication to new readers that the series was going to dead-end at issue 5 but that's what happened. All of which raises the question just how did the reprint of that series come about? Who convinced the editor-in-chief of Eternity Comics to reprint an unfinished series published in a short-lived magazine by a long-defunct company? Why publish a mini-series with no conclusion? That's the sort of thing that could piss your readership off and cost you sales on other titles if a fan backlash got rolling. I suppose they could have been testing the waters to see if sales justified continuing and extending the series with one of Eternity's regular artists. Which it didn't so they let it stop at #5. Perhaps that's what happened, of course this is all speculation on my part. If anyone does know I'd like to hear about it. Enough background on with the story. The heroines were Josie Forster of Rhodesia and Anne Adams of Washington, DC. I mention their origins because both had parents working in the UN which was how they had come to be attending the same private school in New York. If this was at all significant or just a red herring I've no idea but I'll get back to that on the final page. Anyway the cover above shows how the action kicked off. They were heading back to their dorm when subteranean mutants snuck up on them and dragged them down into the tunnels under the school.
Charged with tresspassing by the human who controlled the creatures they recieved a very brief and unfair trial and were sentenced to be tortured to death. After successfully garotting a guard they escaped their cell, killing the creatures' controller on their way back to the surface. Naturally in the best gothic traditions it turned out to be their headmistress. Then things took an unexpected turn when they emerged onto a busy New York street to find the entire population transformed into mutants.
After the doctor has patched them up a man with transparent skin walked in and claimed it was behind all this madness. Which brings us to the end of the first issue.
The creature also told them that until they surrendered and admitted defeat things would keep getting worse. They refused to either accept this or give in and walked out unaware the creature self destructed as soon as they were out of the door. Back on the street the city had returned to normal and a limo pulled up with a man who claimed he knew what was happening to them. So they got in the car and asked how he knew that. It's not a good idea to throw around straight lines like that
Upon arrival in his small Europen Kingdom an unspecified amount of time later he casually claims to be both 400 years old and a vampire. Then returns to his coffin to sleep leaving them sealed in his crypt. Evading poisonous smakes and escaping a room with moving walls they ran into the vampire's brides. While crosses worked on them the vampire reappeared, revealing himself to be both a robot and immune to religious icons. However sunlight still did the job. The girls headed up to the castle's battlements to get some fresh air and into the vampire repelling daylight. At which point they were attacked by a pterodactyl and carried off to its nest. You might sense a pattern developing; out of the frying pan into the fire, then into a hotter fire. Anyway that concludes issue 2.
To see how this scene comes about click on the picture
