There is a pandemic in the galaxy. Something, some virus-like alien lifeform, is spreading from world to world, bringing death and chaos with it. It adapts itself to any form of life it encounters, breeding and spreading, apparently unstoppable. And now it has come to the Earth.

The symptoms: Usually the infected experience cold sensations and itchy skin, followed by hallucinations scripted by the virus to make the victim unknowingly do the virus’s bidding. When the virus’s bidding is more complex, it can also cause mutations in its hosts, giving them otherworldly powers. And it is not limited to humans, it can also infect animals, plants, even Earth-viruses. Humanity needs an expert. That expert is: Dr. Vedzax.

Dr. Vedzax is a member of the League of Space Doctors, the most highly-trained medical minds in the Cosmos. He has devoted his life to eradicating this disease.

So anyway, Dr. Vedzax is an alien. I’m always annoyed when alien characters look just like humans, so Vedzax here does not. Real alien life is probably going to be astoundingly different, and science fiction should be preparing us for that (after all, if fiction teaches us to relate to inhuman beings, we’ll probably even get better at relating to other humans). Even Vedzax here has eyes and a mouth on his face, which is on his head and all that. Vedzax has limbs in the basic configuration we’re used to (though notice the small extra set of arms under his coat). But I figure, it’s less humanoid than a lot of aliens in comics, so it is a step in the right direction.

Also, having the hero be a doctor means that I don’t have to have every story solved by violence. I will grant you, that there have been excellent comics starring doctors who solve problems with violence, but a bit less of that would not hurt superhero comics at all. For real.

Lynn Leaton was a brilliant scientist working on some sort of super-science experiment when she was caught in a chemical explosion. Her body mutated into a sort of viscous slime, and her mind went blank. This astounding Gunk went on a rampage, destroying the laboratory and several surrounding buildings, then fled. Now the Gunk wanders the countryside and has no memory of life as Lynn Leaton, except when it sleeps and dreams with Lynn’s thoughts, usually leading the Gunk to wake up and try to do things that Lynn would do, but without Lynn’s consciousness to guide her. hunted by her former colleagues and by the military, who have to stop the Gunk to keep the public out of harm.

Our society places an awful lot of importance on the appearance of women. It’s true that the vast majority of male action heroes are super handsome, but you can get away with all sorts of deformity in a male protagonist that you don’t see in females ones. Especially this particular kind of mutated-into-a-monster-person type like the Hulk or the Thing. Off the top of my head I can think of very few women who fit that kind of niche. There’s some She-Hulks, but you’d better believe they’ve got bodies that aren’t exactly frowned upon. There is Sharon Ventura, who goes back and forth between hottie and monster, but she is, and the She-Hulks for that matter are too, just female versions of the male characters. I don’t doubt that there is a few ladies trapped as monsters in comics, but I don’t know them off the top of my head.

As an extension of that, you can get stories where the mutated male hero gets an attractive woman who falls in love with him. It’s the Beauty and the Beast thing, and it is almost never the woman who is the Beast of that pair. Sure, Ben Grimm’s first love interest as the Thing was a blind woman, but even there, she knew full well that he was a dude made of rock, and there have been other, sighted women who also fell in love with Grimm in spite of his looks. So, if I were to make some sort of Astounding Gunk comic, I’d have to explore that route, with a man who is in love with Lynn. Maybe he’s trying to track her down and help her find help, but with her lack of memory, she continues running from him like everyone else. Something like that.

In the amazing days of the Twenty-First Century, humanity has found itself reaching into the vast and mysterious universe and found danger. Who can keep the Earth safe in this time of cosmic change? None other than Gus Comet, Rocket Officer! Soaring through the cosmos in his Rocketship, Gus Comet battles evil aliens, captures space criminals, and explores new planets of all kinds. Hooray for Gus Comet!

Gus’s crew includes:
Brains O’Brien, a scrappy rough-and-tumble super-genius orphan from Brooklyn. Hyram, a talking cyborg hyena who solves mysteries. And, Andrianna: Princess of the Robots.

I don’t think that anyone can argue that the golden age of science fiction would be a bit disappointed about how the twenty-first century has turned out. I am the first to admit that we’ve got some great technology going on with out internets and our computers, but it is all kind of lazy technology. It’s the sort of technology that makes sitting around really great, but isn’t exactly the stuff of Adventure. I approve of sending robot drones to Mars and all that, but there’s no denying that the world would feel a little bit more special if we had heroic people off doing wonderful things at the frontiers of human experience. That’s a world I want to live in. Shame on us for not being there. If I ever had a means to tell stories of Gus Comet, the juxtaposition between his adventures and the mundane truths of our world would be at the forefront.

Malevolent spirits waft through the cold night. Demonic imps lurk in the shadows, waiting for a chance to strike. Evil is on the Earth and humanity needs a protector. The Conjuroid is that protector. Fashioned from metals from beyond this world, this robotic champion tracks down demons and captures them, storing them inside its own enchanted chassis. The captured demons are then offered a choice: They can seek redemption by serving the Conjuroid, or they can remain trapped for eternity. As a result, the Conjuroid has a legion of demons and spirits willing to serve it in its quest.

I admit it: I’ve got a weakness for a robot in a cape. There needs to be more robots in capes. Sure, there are a few high profile superheroes who are androids wearing capes, like the Vision or DC’s Red Tornado. But those are practically just humans in appearance. What I want is proper robots in capes. The only one I can think of right now is Bender from Futurama as Super King. That is not enough. Not nearly enough. (See also Ezekiel Purple in Secret Government Robots.)

I didn’t know where I was going when I started drawing this one. I knew I wanted a robot, but this fusion of robotic and the supernatural just took shape as I was going. I guess the basic idea here is that Conjuroid is basically a walking containment unit that will shoot a demon into a bad guy’s face when the situation calls for it. I suspect that the situation would call for it a lot.

(Guest Coloring by my friend @sanityormadness)

Dr. Amanda Freeman was an astronaut performing scientific experiments on the moon, but a key piece of equipment malfunctioned and sent a wave of reality-warping energy coursing through Amanda. When she recovered, she found that she was transformed into a being made of the same material as the moon’s surface. Amanda found that she could now reshape her regolith-body into all manner of different forms. Unfortunately, her “at-rest” form includes her space-suit, which she can not remove. She continues to use her powers to help the space program, but is always seeking some way to return herself to normal.

Regolith is a character I made up for the sketch. Basically, Regolith is a good guy, moon version of Marvel’s Sandman. I threw in the bit about being trapped in the space-suit to add a bit of a tragic drawback, like many of the classic superheroes have. She’s not likely to be the type of superhero who goes around foiling bank robberies, but she would be right at home foiling alien invasions and the like.