The 1st Appearance of the Green Lantern known as Mogo!

This little beauty was delivered to my greedy little hands yesterday afternoon. It is a newsstand bought copy of Green Lantern, Volume 2, Issue number 188. I bought it for a measly 75 cents back in 1985 and read it once or twice, maybe three times. It was graded 9.4 (Near Mint); not bad for a 28 year old comic!

Lamentably, I can't remember what the main story is about... I have just a vague recollection based on the cover: John Stewart decides to share his secret identity with Coast City and the rest of the DC Universe... and sadly that's all I can remember.

However, it is the back-up story, the "Tales of the Green Lantern Corps" written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons that truly makes this issue special. Said story is a key 1st Appearance of the Green Lantern known as Mogo. Who? Mogo is a sentient planet... that's right... a living, breathing, planet! This is something I truly love about Alan Moore's wildly active imagination! Who the hell would think of such a thing? A sentient planet and a Green Lantern no less? But it makes sense... Why couldn't planets be living organisms? Now just imagine Galactus trying to cannibalize Mogo? I think he might be in for a rude awakening. Now that would make for a cool story!

Anyway, Mogo is introduced in this whimsical little tale, as narrated by Corps favorite Tomar-Re to rookie Anisia. It is a very brief story, and also introduces a villain named Bolphunga the Unrelenting: a bad- alien mutha-f*cka along the lines of Lobo. So this pink-skinned alien comes looking to pick a fight with Mogo... based solely on Mogo's reputation for being the toughest Green Lantern in the universe. I don't want to give any more away, but it is a clever little piece and worthy to read and to collect, not only for the fact it is written by Alan Moore (stamped with his wicked and sardonic sense of humor), but also because of Mogo's eventual mention in The Prophecy: The Blackest Night: "The Planet-Form Green Lantern Mogo will be the last to fall, as Ranx explodes a Blink-Bomb within his core. And after that, there will only be the Demons dancing in the ruins of OA to the rhythm of drums bound with taut blue skin."

Just for clarification, that last quote does not appear in GL188 but comes from Alan Moore's other TOTGLC classic story "Tygers", first appearing in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual 2, 1986. In "Tygers", Abin Sur (Hal Jordan's predecessor) journey's into the nightmarish planet known as Ysmault, in space sector 666, where a distressed ship has crash landed. While on the rescue mission, Abin Sur encounters Ysmault's demonic denizens and the ghastly being known as Quill of the Five Inversions, who bestowes upon Abin Sur the apocalyptic prophecy of the horrific end of the corps: The Blackest Night... thus this little story serves as the impetus and inspiration for Geoff Johns' Blackest Night.

If anyone is interested in reading these stories, you can find them both reprinted in: DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore, in both soft and hard cover formats. I highly recommend this book for any fans of Alan Moore... heck for anyone in general!... for it also contains the classic Superman stories: "For the Man Who Has Everything" and "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow Parts I and II"; and the classic Batman story: "The Killing Joke".

Back to GL 188... as you can see, the cover features two signatures: One from veteran artist Joe Stanton (co-creator of E-man), and the second from the legendary Dave Gibbons (of Watchmen fame). I was lucky to get these autographs at the New York Comic Con this past October. Both artists were true gentlemen; very gracious with the public and me. If you care to look, if you visit my gallery of images from my CGC collection, I took a photo of Joe Stanton autographing the comic pre-encapsulation (see link: http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/ComicDetail.aspx?PeopleComicID=366984&PeopleSetID=67626 ). I also snapped a shot of Dave Gibbons, but sadly it came out too blurry (I must have been nervous), so it didn't make the cut. Oh well, perhaps next year.

If you have any stories about your comics and what makes them special... please share.

And if you're wondering why I'm back on the Journals... I am suffering from a bad case of writer's block and really need a "breath of fresh air".

And with all honesty... I miss it here!

Happy Collecting!

SW3D

To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.