1986 - Alpha Flight

Alpha Flight #30-41

Writer: Bill Mantlo

Artists: Mike Mignola/Dave Ross/Gerry Talaoc

On Alpha Flight, Bill Mantlo had this to say (taken from Mantlo – A Life in Comics):

“The team was never a team … What you had was a series of incredibly well-executed vignettes that did tie together into a total package, but you had to read all 28 issues to get it. Alpha Flight is a team book, it should be written as a team book … I [felt] that John laid the foundation; I [tried] to build the house.”

 And from Mike Mignola’s point-of view: 

“I didn’t want to do Alpha Flight at all. I think I said ‘no’ three or four times, but Bill talked me into it. I did three issues and hated almost every second of it. I wasn’t cut out to do superheroes. For a while there, I jauted hated to get out of bed in the morning. It was really awful."

Apparently while he did quit the title after drawing a handful of issues, Mignola had planned a Sub-Mariner graphic novel with Mantlo, but it never went beyond the planning stages.

“We were working on some ideas – a Sub-Mariner graphic novel (that turned into an Alpha Flight graphic novel) based on a story idea of mine. Editor Carl Potts turned that into a Death of the Sub-Mariner graphical novel so that, of course, didn’t get done.”

Canadian artist David Ross came aboard as the new regular penciller with issue #35.

Some of that year’s highlights included:

- a new headquarters on the West Coast of Canada

- the origin of Puck

- insights into the origin of Wolverine

- Heather Hudson donning a version of her husband’s Guardian armor and dubbing herself Vindicator (the original name Mac Hudson had taken)

- a couple of crossovers with the Avengers

- a few early inking assignments by Whilce Portacio