We all have trade paperback (TPB) collections we'd like to see. Here's one of mine:

Gallery

In the early Eighties, the mini-series was considered a testing of the market, to see if a concept could sustain sales as an ongoing series. As such, a lot of new concepts were thrown out to the fans in the 1980's, and probably my favorite had to be Spanner's Galaxy, written by Nicola Cuti, the creator of E-Man. Just for context, in December of 1984, when Spanner's Galaxy #1 came out, Atari Force was just past the halfway point of its run, Jemm was slugging it out with Superman in Jemm, Son of Saturn #4, and a couple of months later, Conqueror of the Barren Earth would leap from the back pages of Warlord to its own mini-series, which would finish up the same time as this one. Neither of them would continue to an ongoing series.

Spanner's Galaxy could have just as well taken the DC title Mystery in Space, because that's certainly what it was, with a good amount of action. Spanner is framed for a crime, and runs all over the galaxy, trying to figure out who did it. My memories of the details are a little fuzzy, but there are three cool elements that I remember about this story. The first is a unique form of teleportation, called "castling." Basically, you reach out telepathically to another castler, and if they agree to switch places with you, you teleport to their location, and they teleport to yours. The second was the weapon you can see on the first and last cover - called a "shek." The last was a substance called "narconium," which blocked a person's ability to castle. At the time, I remember thinking that the shek bore a strong resemblance to the weapon from the cover of Krull #1. They look substantially different now. I seem to remember something like castling in another story too, but haven't been able to remember where.

With all of the rehashed plots that seem to be coming out in recent years (which I admit, I don't always mind), seeing a fresh concept in reprint would be kind of cool. Spanner's Galaxy was a really cool read, and as a space drama, it should hold up pretty well, not seeming quite so dated as much of the Eighties material does.

The alternate title suggestion of Mystery in Space: Spanner's Galaxy is because, as I already noted, the title fits this story well, and gives DC something familiar to market this unfamiliar title under.

For the cover, I'd simply go with issue #1. It's the best shot of Spanner and his weapon.

More WUBI: