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Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, The Fly, was originally launched in 1959 as a comic titled, The Adventures Of The Fly, which ran for thirty issues. In 1983 the character was revivied and published under Archie Comics Red Circle line, helmed by Rich Buckler and sporting covers by Steranko, Buckler and Tom Grindberg. The artists tapped for the relaunch included Steve Ditko, Buckler himself, Alan Kupperberg, Gonzales, Dick Ayers and Jim Sherman. After issue #3 Robin Snyder took over the editorial reigns of the book and Steve Ditko was handed the main art chores and eventually began to plot the title. This relaunch of the title lasted for nine issues in total.
Trevor penciled one story in the series, presented here, titled "Mr Justice...And The God Who Fell To Earth." The story has a definite Steve Ditko feel to it. "The Ditko 'feel' to The Mr. Justice story in The Fly #1 was not intentional," says tTevor, "I'm not a particularly big Ditko fan, except for his Spider-Man work. Unless he'd drawn the pictures of Mr. Justice that I'd been given for reference, and it was a subliminal influence."
Contents & Editorial © Copyright & ™ 2009 ACAB
Art & Text © Copyright &™ 2009 Trevor Von Eeden
All characters © Copyright &™ Archie Comics
"This particular Mr. Justice story, though," says Trevor, "is one of my all-time favorite shorts! I thought I did a great job in the layouts and story-telling, especially in the opening DPS, and in the fight scene at the end. I also loved Frank Giacoia's inks on this job!"
"There's another obscure Mr. Justice job," recalls Trevor, "feature length and inked by Alex Nino(!) that I also like quite a bit--Blue Ribbon Comics #2. Cover by Rich Buckler, featuring a scene from the aforementioned feature story. I did full pencils for that job (now lost), and Nino did a GREAT job--being both faithful to my pencils, while adding his own inimitable embellishments to the proceedings. Unfortunately, it was Part One of a two-parter, and was never completed--I think Red Circle went out of business, or the book itself was cancelled--I don't recall which. Still one of my favorite comics, nonetheless.
"I'd also done layouts for a second full-length Fly job, finished by Buckler (titled 'The Jekyll-Hyde Decision' it appeared in Blue Ribbon Comics #4) but that's nothing to shout about. I believe they wanted me to do layouts for Rich as a time saving device, since I was capable of doing 'em pretty quickly. Robin Snyder is the only name I remember associating with, from that time. I think he may have been the one to have called me initially, to ask if I would do some work for Red Circle. That's about all I remember--except doing a job eventually inked by David Lloyd, and wishing I'd done a better job, had I known he'd be inking it!"
