About the Author
Mike Baron is the creator of Nexus (with artist Steve Rude) and Badger two of the longest lasting independent superhero comics. Nexus is about a cosmic avenger 500 years in the future. Badger, about a multiple personality one of whom is an costumed crime fighter, will appear in 2015 from a resurgent First Comics. Baron has won two Eisners and an Inkpot and has written The Punisher, Flash, Deadman and Star Wars among many other titles.
Baron has published four novels, Helmet Head, Whack Job, Biker and Skorpio. Helmet Head is about Nazi biker zombies. Whack Job is about spontaneous human combustion. Biker is hard-boiled crime about a reformed motorcycle hoodlum turned private investigator. Skorpio is about a ghost who only appears under a blazing sun. Look for Banshees, about a satanic rock band that returns from the dead, later this year from Wordfire Press.
Art by Jim Fern, cover by Paul Pope
I created Badger when Capital City asked me to give them a costumed crime fighter. I asked myself, why would anybody put on a costume and fight crime? They’d have to be crazy! I walked down State Street in Madison. Badger Liquors. The Badger Pub. Go Badgers! His name stared at me from every storefront. I saw Jeff Butler’s artwork on
Baron Speaks About Badger's Creation
posters around campus and asked him to collaborate. This was before I got the go ahead from Capital City, so Jeff and I did an eight page story about Ham the Weather Wizard, a sixth century Druid. When I got the Badger go-ahead, Jeff said, “We can’t waste these pages!” So we shoehorned them into the first issue and thus their relationship blossomed! Who doesn’t love a weather wizard/psychotic team-up?
Badger is a multiple personality only one of whom is a costumed crime fighter. The others include Emily, a little girl, Gastineau, a tough-inner city black, Pierre, a homicidal Frenchman, Max, a gay architect, and Leroy, a dog. Norbert Sykes, the core personality, is a dull fellow. I got the idea from The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes (Flowers For Algernon.) Since then, the psychiatric establishment has decided that multiple personality syndrome doesn’t exist, but is a mere manifestation of a psychopathic mind wishing to avoid responsibility. Perhaps. But what do they know?
Jeff was slow and we wanted to go monthly. I saw Bill Reinhold’s work and asked him to take over, initiating a long and satisfying run. Bill’s art achieved apotheosis on the two part “Roach Wrangler” story which he inked himself.
Neil Hansen (“Spyder,” “Bannen”) is another notable Badger illustrator. I consider Neil one of the greatest masters of comic book illustration I’ve ever encountered and yet today he does not draw, he holes up in a Canadian log cabin writing a vast philosophy on the nature of faith and reality. No joke. I have asked Neil repeatedly to come back but he is wedded to this project and says he isn’t sure he can draw anymore. His last commercial work was for the Badger anthologies published by IDW.
Ron Lim had a long, notable run on Badger, illustrating one of my favorite stories, the Nazi Nun saga.
Kelley Jones drew “Foot Soldier.” I hope to work with Kelley on the Badger again.
If you have Badger questions, feel free to ask. Visit my Mike Baron Author Facebook page.
Badger #1 Review
Written by: Mike Baron
Illustrated by: Jim Fern
Colored by: Paul Mounts
Published by: Devil’s Due Entertainment and First Comics
Reviewed by: Kristian Horn
I’ll be honest…when it comes to Mike Baron’s creations (or co-creations) Badger was always second to Nexus. There was something about the Badger’s adventures that I found a bit harder to connect to. His personality(ies) were way off kilter, he was always yelling “Larry” at people, and the strange presence of a fifteen hundred year old wizard didn’t help the narrative connect with me as much as I connected with Horatio Hellpop. To be fair, Badger comics were a little harder for me to come by when I was younger and it wasn’t a series that I came across in local comic shops all the time. Despite Badger not being my favorite of Baron’s creations, whenever I did pick up a Badger book I found myself more than entertained and definitely intrigued by who the central character was and what, exactly, his deal was. More often than not his adventures were very different than anything else you’d read on the comic stands and that alone was a reason to read the comic. Unfortunately, Badger’s adventures would only appear sporadically due to the realities of the comic book market and Badger was a character that would sometimes be forgotten to the majority of comic book audiences.
Now Mike Baron’s creation returns in an all new series through the merger of formerly defunct comic book publisher First Comics with Devil’s Due Entertainment and if this first issue is any indication…it’s a book that comic fans should definitely take notice of. This first issue of the new Badger series is a re-telling and modernization of Badger’s origin. It’s a more disciplined and streamlined take on the beginnings of the character and serves to bring his origin into the 21st century. This re-examination of The Badger’s beginnings brings a focus to the character that didn’t necessarily exist in his original incarnation. For all intents and purposes Baron has created somewhat of a “Batman: Year One” for the Badger in that he has stripped the character to its bare bones and re-built him somewhat from the ground up. Longtime fans of the character and his mythology shouldn’t be too concerned, however, as many of the elements and characters that made The Badger and his background so unique are still there…the pieces of the story all just fit together in a more cohesive whole. This is a Badger origin story that benefits from the experience of having a seasoned comic book pro behind the wheel.
As a matter of fact it’s pretty amazing to see how much Mike Baron’s writing skills have evolved over the years. Not so long ago I picked up the first Badger trade to re-read the early adventures of the titular hero. I was pretty blown away at the time by how disjointed the original series seemed to me. It was pretty obvious that, while the series was entertaining, it was the work of someone who was trying to find his way through telling a story. The original Badger series was definitely the work of a writer and artist who were working in the indie trenches, possibly without a specific plan for how things were going to go for their series. This first issue presents a Mike Baron who has mastered his craft and has a storied career behind him to fall back on. This opening salvo of the re-launched Badger is a comic that benefits from having a writer who definitely knows how to structure a story, how to develop a character, and has a definite focus behind his narrative. This issue of The Badger may be one of the best issues of the comic I’ve ever read because it is grounded in the present and gives us a lead character who is sympathetic and laced with humanity. I, for one, welcome this new vision for The Badger. This Badger has a Mike Baron behind him that is laser focused on making the character work better than he ever has before and this issue has actually made me more enthusiastic about following up with the continuing adventures of Norbert Sykes and his plethora of personalities.
It would be criminal of me to close out this review without addressing how amazingly beautiful this issue of The Badger looks. Part of what makes this comic work so well is the fantastic art team of line artist Jim Fern and colorist Paul Mounts. Holy Hannah…does this book have some beautiful art. As a matter of fact I think I’m going to come out and say this may possibly be the best illustrated issue of The Badger that I’ve ever seen. Granted, I haven’t read every issue of the title, but from what I’ve seen in the past this is the best this book has ever looked. Jim Fern’s draftsmanship and storytelling are spot on and the addition of Paul Mount’s beautifully subtle color work make each page a delight to behold. This is a beautifully rendered comic book. This issue of The Badger seethes with professionalism as everything from top to bottom looks and reads beautifully.
So, there you go. The Badger is back. And his return is gloriously fantastic. If you’ve never heard of The Badger before reading this review then believe me when I say this is a comic book you should definitely check out. It’s one of the most original super-hero concepts ever created and this issue is a perfect jumping on point. If you’re a longtime fan…I’m pretty sure you’ll love it as well. Baron has done a great job of scraping off the barnacles off of the character and presenting a Badger that is ready to kick ass in the modern era. This book is entertaining as all get out and I hope this first issue is one that launches this version of The Badger into a series that lasts longer than any of the other issue runs that came before it.
Stealing the Badger (By Darrick Patrick)
Back in elementary school, I was a fairly unhinged kid. A highly energetic child who didn't quite understand the idea of self-constraint. Always pestering the other students, being loud, doing stunts, running around, talking vulgar, bothering my teachers, partaking in occasional destructiveness, and generally making it hard for my classmates to understand what they were being taught. This got me into a lot of trouble at school, and I saw the inside of the principal's office quite a bit.
My mother Rita was living with my great-grandmother Lora Morris back in 1987 and/or 1988. So, I was in either second or third grade at this time. By this point already, my favorite things to collect and read for hours were comic books. Knowing this, Rita had a stack of comics she was going to utilize as an incentive for me to do my best to behave at school. Each day that I came home and didn't get in trouble, I could have one of those books.
Now, it was a fairly small bundle of comic books she had in this batch. Just enough to keep me entertained with the idea of not disturbing other humans for a few weeks. What those books were though was awesome. A great collection of material that I love to this day, and the first time I ever really put genuine effort into acquiring that "next one" in a series.
The first day after she told me about the comics, I came home without any problems at school. That's when she handed me The Badger #5, by Mike Baron and Bill Reinhold. The Badger is Nobert Sykes, a Vietnam war veteran who suffers from a multiple personality disorder. His main identity is "The Badger", a costumed vigilante who is a martial arts expert and can talk to animals. As the Badger, he is often arrested for punching people in the face. His other personalities include a nine-year-old girl, a homicidal maniac, a dog, a gay architect, and a black man who is unaware of the other six personalities.
Maybe not your typical reading for kids my age at that time, but I loved it. I did my best to keep my teachers happy at Grafton Kennedy Elementary School over those next couple weeks. I nailed it okay, only messing up and bringing home discipline slips a few times. The issues she had of The Badger were numbers 5 through 23, and I really wanted to read them as soon as I could. It got all bad for me though when I got halfway there.
Since I wasn't in school on the weekends, Rita didn't count those days in my quest for Badger comics. I hit a snag when I got my issue #15 on a Friday and it ended up being a two-part story that continued in #16. I couldn't believe it. I had to wait three days until I found out what happened? I couldn't wait for three whole days. That's like waiting for three months through the eyes of a person who is seven or eight years old.
That issue #16 was right there. In mom's room. Just sitting on the top of that stack in the closet. She wouldn't notice if it was gone. It's not like she's all into them like I am. Mom has left for the night. She'll be out working and partying all weekend. All I have to do is wait until grandma is in the kitchen.
Needless to say, when the time was right, I pulled up a chair so that I could reach the top shelf of that closet. I hid the book away under my shirt, slipped it into my backpack, and took it home with me that night to my grandmother Nancy's house. When I got to read The Badger #16 for the first time that evening, in my head it was the greatest thing I had ever read. I was so happy to finish the story that I had started.
A couple of days later and it's Monday. I have a good day at school. Stoked as can be to come home and get my copy of issue #17. Rita pulls the first one off the top of the pile and hands it to me. I start to run off to read it in the other room and then she tells me to wait. She grabs the book back and says, "What's this?" Turning around, she snags the whole stack out of the closet and flips through it. She then gives me the ol' Rita eye.
"Where's the other one before this?" she asked. "There was another one here." I played stupid, thumbing through the comics myself, looking at them, trying to think of something to say. "I don't know," I quietly respond. I ask her if she's sure that there is one missing. She starts to see me sweat. I'm not making eye contact. My fidgety behavior is acting up more so than usual.
"You're telling me you don't have it," Rita says, "that you didn't get in here and take it?" I tell her no, and she asks again. I say no again. She questions me again. She's staring at my face, grabbing my chin and making me look her in the eyes. This goes on until I know that she knows. And I start crying like a baby.
She adds to the tears by really grilling into me once she had me admit my guilt. The stealing of the book was one thing, but she really didn't care about that in comparison to me lying about it. As far as she was concerned, the comic book was mine. I just hadn't earned it yet. There would have been a conversation about that and a punishment, but it was nowhere near how mad I made her by telling a lie when she asked me about it.
I got tore down that day by Rita, both verbally and physically. I don't need to get into the details of all that, but she definitely made sure that I felt like a piece of shit for my actions. And of course, I didn't see a new Badger comic book anytime soon afterward. It worked out to be what it was meant to be though. I can't really think of any other time after that when I lied to Rita, for better or worse. We were always fairly straight up with each other from that point on.