Confusing Time Travel or Rex Havoc & The Missing Magic Trick

Today, let us travel back to 1984 in 1978. As confounded as that might sound, it's actually pretty simple - the year was 1978, the comics appeared in Warren's 1984 magazine.

When a series opens with "You will never see anything more horrible than a boy's dead dog return from the grave to bite its young master's face off" one might immediately suspect that things are going to get a bit strange. And then when you see who's doing it, fun strange can be expected.

The team of Jim Stenstrum and Abel Laxamana, who we've seen previously with their Joe Guy: America's Foremost Hero, bring us another odd hero - Rex Havoc. As you might suspect from the opening statement, our hero lives in a world of monsters and denizens of the unknown.

Let's take a look, shall we?

Unsurprisingly, Rex Havoc's adventures were gathered together into a reprint magazine -
 

But! They skipped the second tale since they only had 72 pages, and this one was another 14 pages long. However, in so doing, they jumped right past the great magic trick, in which Abel and Jim turn a carrot into a potato -

That blurb should read "NEXT: The Scroll Of RA-Sisboom-Bah" but i guess the old Egyptian censors didn't like the nudity.

page art by Abel Laxamana for 1984 #s 4 & 5 (1978, 1979)

Generic Post #1

Standard introductory sentence for Generic Comic Book - Type: Super-Hero Action-Adventure. Published in 1984 by Generic Publisher #2, Generic Comic Book #1 was written and drawn by uncredited generic creators. 

(Note that this was back when generic products first started showing up in supermarkets with similar plain white labels)

Typical semi-obscure revelation as to the writer - Steve Skeates confessed just over a decade ago.

Generic Comic Book (GCB) starred a man. Our hero is an average joe working in a boring office job who one day has a strange encounter with radiation, as had so many before him...

Our hero tries to go about his normal daily life...

...and soon...

That night, he heads out on his first patrol...

His new powers allow him to easily deal with the thugs on the street, but then - his first supervillain shows up...

Left bruised and battered by the encounter, he tries to shake it off and lose himself in his daily routine...

...later, on his way home for the day..

...and that night, he returns to action and finds the thugs he'd beaten previously now serving the villain who took him down...

And so the generic origin of our generic hero comes to a generic end.

page art by generic artists for Generic Comic Book #1 (1984)

The Ways Of Tantri Are Stange Indeed

Well...
Didn't expect That.

What's "That"?
Let's work up to it. (Fret not. No Inquisitions, Spanish or otherwise, are involved)

After the previous post, i went hunting for some information on Tantri The Mantri, hoping to at least find his first appearance. As is not infrequently the case, it turns out that there's a reason why the Universe prompted me to go looking at this time. Not only is Tantri still appearing in Tinkle, but he's also in the news!

Unfortunately, it didn't really help with my primary quest. Both the Telegraph of India and The Hindu report that Tantri's first appearance was this one, from Tinkle #85...

I'm not really buying that. I found that story i was talking about earlier in issue #51...

...and this one comes from #53...

...#77...

...#81...

I cannot say with certainty that this is a complete listing of appearances from before the alleged debut. I have only about a hundred out of the first 420 issues, so - lots of holes. Those are the tales i spotted while flipping through the issues i have here.

Anyway...
Why is Tantri in the news?

As i said above, it's certainly unexpected to me -
After 35 years of trying, Tantri was finally crowned King in the April issue of Tinkle. The kids had been asking for it for a long while; he tries so hard, y'know.

How did he finally succeed in taking the throne? What dastardly, conniving plot finally delivered the crown to his head?

35 years of loyal service.
He was named successor when Raja Hooja died. Of natural causes, one might presume. It seems unlikely that one of his plans actually worked out in his favour.

Of course, the decision to put an evil clown on the throne has nothing to do with current politics on the other side of the globe, right? Kind of wish i had a subscription these days.

page art by Ashok Dangre for Tinkle #s 51, 53, 77, 81, & 85 (1984, 1985)