An interesting and—let’s be honest—wordy house ad for Jason’s Quest. This was a three-issue series that ran in the pages of Showcase #88-90. At this point in its history Showcase was running three-issue try-outs, none of which really went anywhere. Manhunter 2070, Nightmaster, Firehair… these are not names to list alongside the likes of Flash, Atom or Green Lantern.
Written and drawn by the prolific Mike Sekowsky, Jason’s Quest was indeed largely about a boy and his bike—the guitar didn’t last long. The premise was that 18 (or 19) year old Jason is told by his dying father that he was actually adopted, his real father having been murdered when Jason was a baby. What’s more, Jason is a twin and his sister was similarly spirited away upon their real father’s death. It soon becomes clear that the man who murdered Jason’s father is now gunning for Jason and his sister, not least because the sister has some incriminating evidence “secreted on her person.” So, Jason must now try to find his sister somewhere in the world all the while attempting to stay one step ahead of the murderers…
The first issue was solid and exciting, but Sekowsky was unable to maintain the pace. By the third issue the writer was finding it increasingly difficult to keep the plot going. Jason and his sister had met, but an unlikely series of mishaps meant that Jason hadn’t been able in properly introduce himself. The promised kooky and kinky characters were a middle-aged man’s idea of kooky, and annoying rather than interesting. Sadly, the series ends on a cliffhanger—never to be resolved. Ironically, in the letters page Sekowsky claims to have sufficient ideas to keep the premise running for years.
One aspect of the strip that might well have proven intriguing was just where upon her person Jason’s sister had had the evidence secreted. The mind boggles. You’d think that by the age of 18 (or 19) she might’ve noticed…
In his autobiography Carmine Infantino claims that Jason’s Quest was based on an idea he had a for a newspaper strip.
Showcase #88, February 1970
Images ©2014 DC Comics
I have a lot of sentimental feeling for the oddball unpredictable Showcase in its later years, but the book might be remembered differently if the strip originally planned to follow Manhunter 2070 had appeared there:
http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/401/
On the other hand, a debut in the last issue of Showcase might have doomed the new series to the same relative obscurity as Dolphin or The Maniaks…
Yes, I was aware of the New Gods link and was going to cover it one of these days. Now I don’t have to!
The interesting thing about all this is that the Fourth World saga clearly actually starts with Forever People #1: the zoom into the Boom Tube as the FP arrive on Earth is a very cinematic opener, in keeping with Kirby’s love of movies. It ought to have been the Forever People that appeared in Showcase to kick things off, but I guess that wasn’t on the cards. The New Gods was a stronger book.
Please don’t let my big mouth preempt another blog post! Your further observations on Kirby’s potential debut would be very enlightening.
(I have a theory of my own along the very same lines you suggest, but I’m holding it in reserve until you do a full post on the subject.)
A few posts on those other last few Showcase tryouts would be welcome too.
Much of my time is taken up the with A Distant Soil restoration at the moment — I just started volume 3 — so I can’t guarantee when I’m gonna get back to regular posting. It happens when it happens.
Manhunter 2070 is on the pile at the moment, so may well be next. Firehair, too, was a wonderful book. And actually managed a — brief — life after Showcase.
Few people seem to be aware that DC remade Jason’s Quest in 1996: Vertigo Verite: The Unseen Hand, a 4-issue miniseries written by Terry LaBan and drawn by Ed Hillyer, is a surprisingly faithful retelling of JQ, although the lead character is renamed Mike (after Sekowsky, presumably).
You can count me among those unaware. I shall have to check it out. Thanks!