Still on the Shelf #79 – Twilight X
Nov 08
As it sometimes goes with creator owned titles, they take a long time to develop. And sometimes an even longer time in between new story parts. It can be quite trying, but sometimes for fans of a series, it is always worth the wait.
Twilight X is a good example of this. Joe Wight’s Post-apocalyptic story got its start way back in 1991, making its first appearance in Antarctic Press’s Mangazine. Twilight X appeared in many forms over the years at Antarctic Press (as well as a limited self-publishing run under the Porkchop Press label), appearing in Mangazine, it’s own various titles, and a short run as a back-up in Ninja High School. The interesting thing is that even though the title itself bounced around to different books, the story just plodded forward over the years, picking up wherever it left off when it was last printed.
Twilight X takes place shortly after the Third World War, and a nuclear holocaust that changes the face of the world forever. The US is shattered, and deep in civil war, the Soviet Union has been divided between the mafia and the military, and whole continents are radioactive wastelands. Twilight X is set in the Caribbean, where a lone US soldier (and his companions) struggle to find some peace, despite the trouble they keep getting into with different factions in the region.
Cast of Characters
Jed Saxon is a member of the US Special Forces, and though he really has no idea how things are going back on the home-front, he remains loyal to his country, and does not hesitate to pick up a gun and fight against what he thinks of as un-American. He does have a wife, or did – a woman named Michelle the left him some time ago. He thinks about her often, and his feelings of loyalty to her do prevent him from getting closer to Toots at times. Jed also has a weakness for Ding Dongs and Cocoa Puffs.
Catherine Michelle Wolf, called Toots by just about everyone, has been many things in her short life, including a model, a torch singer, and “the property” of a crime lord named Vinnie. One night Vinnie decided that he was going to have Toot’s “earn her keep,” something she clearly wasn’t interested in. She was rescued by Jed, who killed Vinnie, and the two escaped on Vinnie’s private yacht.
Toots pretty much fell in love with Jed immediately, and has aggressively pursued him ever since. Though lacking in military training, she is often too eager to take up arms along side Jed, in order to protect him. She abhors killing, but will even cross that line when his life is at stake. She also fancies herself a chef, much to Jed’s displeasure, who has to endure her attempts at cooking during her efforts to please him.
Richard Goldman is the last living member of his Israeli Special Forces Unit. He was sent to the Caribbean by his government to see if there was somewhere Israelis could flee too in the wake of the war. He fell in with Jed and Toots during a battle with the White American National Klan (WANKers), and has stuck with them ever since. He is highly motivated by revenge, and to willing to throw caution to the wind and attack his enemies, even when the best course of action is retreat. He is also distrustful – it takes a lot for him to let his guard down around new people.
Nigel Thomas is a recent addition to the group, a British Special Forces member. He seems, so far, to have an attraction for Toots, and doesn’t much like the fact that she is so devoted to Jed.
Melissa DuVall is a Genetic Engineer who also doubles as a doctor for the group. How she ended up with them is a bit cloudy – she was just, on the yacht when they took it back from the WANKers, and never really left. She dies appear to be more than she seems, having been able to reprogram and take control of the artificial intelligence on the computer of a Soviet sub recently.
Thoughts
One of the first things that struck me about Twilight X was the fact that it read like a Role Playing Game. Once upon a time, I was a pretty avid RPGer, playing everything from Shadowrun to Call of Cthulhu. The way Twilight X flowed reminded me very much of a standard RPG campaign, when a group of my friends would sit 
through with the same characters and play adventure after adventure. I don’t know if I can describe it in any more detail, but I could almost swear that Wight was writing a story that could easily be “played.” It makes for a very new-reader friendly story.
Wight’s skill and style have certainly developed over the years, as have the characters in this story. The art is in a manga-esque style, and though I generally don’t like manga, it is pretty tolerable here. Only rarely does he revert to the overly cartoony, silly manga art, and even then it is only for a panel or two. Wight is credited (by some) for being one of the first to fully paint a comic digitally. Though the computer doesn’t play that large a role in Twilight X, he does play with it, and other techniques throughout the course of the story.
While the core story is good, Twilight X has been veryinconsistent over the years. Not having the powerhouse of a major publisher behind it, the story languished at times, having large gaps between episodes, and even having some episodes appear out of order, or not at all. The art style fluctuated wildly, since Wight was clearly evolving as an artist, constantly experimenting with new things. Since Twilight X would sit on the shelf unworked on while he worked on other projects, sometimes there would be a huge shift in the art quality from one episode to the next. While the shift is perfectly understandable, part of me wonders just how good this comic could be if Wight went back and redid the whole thing in a monthly, full-sized comic format. In any case, even if there is a long wait bewteen new story parts, there is enough in terms of back story to keep you occupied until a new part hits the shelves. In that aspect, it is a good thing that there is so much in terms of past issues to catch up on.
There is one other pretty serious issue with this title – the cover price. The most recent Twilight X series, Storm, carries a cover price of $3.50 an issue. The book is a full 32 pages, with no ads and printed on high quality stock, in its defense. And I have always been more than forgiving when it comes to the cover price of comics from some of the smaller houses, but this is a case where it is borderline too much. I always have to pause when faced with a comic over that magic $3 an issue price, and this one is no different. Personally, I think dropping the quality of the paper, and reducing the cover price would be a great step for this title to make. I have never understood the NEED for glossy pages, and if it is going to put the cover price of a comic out of reach, I would just assume not have it. I read a comic for the quality of the story and art, not for what it is printed on. I enjoyed comics back when they were almost all printed on newsprint, after all. That hasn’t changed just because printing technology has advanced some.
Bottom Line
To fans of manga, and solid post-apocalyptic adventures, however, the cost might be worth it. Most of the back-issues are available from Antarctic Press online, and I am sure that most local comic shops should be able to scrounge up an issue or two. The last issue of Twilight X: Storm #8, came out in May of this year. Issues 9 and 10 are in the works, and set to come out early next year.
For those willing to pay the money, there is a collection available (Book 1: After War), which contains the entire Twilight X storyline up to Storm, at a price of $49.95. Yeah, I blanched at that price too. I do know that with some digging, you can find it for about $10 cheaper than that. The collection is 600 pages long, which does explain the high price. There are a few pocket mangas out there (about 4 I believe), which should help those looking to buy the back-story a few parts at a time.
In the end, I do recommend that you check this series out. The individual issues are pretty easy to get into even if you haven’t read the back story (that is part of what I meant when I said that it read like an RPG), and if you enjoy it, that might help justify the cost of the back issues. The characters are simple, yet distinct, and very easy to understand. On the whole, Twilight X reads very well in a collected format, and if you do enjoy the individual issues, I highly recommend picking up “Book One.”
Credit Where Credit is Due
Twilight X is
Written, drawn, and created by Joseph Wight,
Published by Antarctic Press.
Twilight X
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