Whisper was one of the few titles from First comics that I didn't read it,or at least buy an issue of,when it was being published. Sure I saw it on the new release shelf/wall when I was grabbing stuff like American Flagg and Jon Sable. Part of it was by the time Whisper moved to First I was already kind of burnt out on ninja comics. And the cover price,at this time most of your color indie comics were up to $1.25. But at Marvel or DC a color comic was 55 or 65 cents IIRC. Higher price meant that that comic better be really good.
Then in the early to mid 90s comic boom,y'all know back when it felt like every capeshit comic from the big two had either a gimmick cover or some big shocking event that will change this comic FOREVER!!!,First had either died or was about to die. And two of the comic shops I went to often had dumped most of the First back issues in the cheap bins. I figured what the hel they are wanting 25 cents or maybe 50 cents an issue,I can afford to cheaply get a full run of Whisper. For a bit over 3 years I had a list of the issues I had in my wallet. 3 or 4 times a month I would go into Sincere Comics in Mobile AL. Spend an hour or so digging through the 20 longboxes that made up their "4 comics for a buck" area. It was summer of 96 and I needed 2 more issues to have the full First Comics run of Whisper. One of the issues I was missing was issue 36,which is the next to last issue. I don't remember what the other issue was. My plan was since I was off work on my birthday that year,July 10th, I planned on just laying around my house that day. Avoiding the heat outside and reading that almost complete run of Vol 2 of Whisper.
I didn't get to do this. Because not long before my birthday that year I lost a big chunk of my comic collection in a fire.
Over the almost 30 years since then I have managed to replace a good amount of what I lost. And when I was going through my unread comic boxes during the start of the lock downs in 2020 I noticed that I had a big stack of Whisper. I put them all to the sidee planning on seeing how many I needed to finish the run. That didn't happen. Because I got distract trying to cull my comic collection.
Back in January this year I got in a medium priority rate box filled with "random lot of indie comics,NO DUPLICATES". In that box I found 4 issues of Whisper I knew I didn't own. I haven't found what box/tub that stack of Whisper comics are in. I said fuck it I want to read some 80s ninja comics.
So what is Whisper? I was a comic book about a female ninja.Alexis Devin is her name. She is from Seattle. And before this comic started up volume 2 at First Comics,volume 1 had a very short run,I think 2 or 3 issues,from Capital Comics. If you don't remember Capital that might be because they didn't last long. They are best known for publishing the first volume of Nexus. And the little thing about them, until going under in the late 90s,being one of the two big comic book distributers to the Direct Market. Captial Comics is the comic arm of Captial City aka as Advance Comics
That is the first issue of volume 2.
Sure that cover isn't mind blowing,but I do like it. Dell Barras does the cover. IIRC Dell did the first year or so of this volume of Whisper. The writer,who wrote every issue of both volumes,is Steven Grant. A write I remember having a decent run on Punisher,and I think he had a good run on Wolverine. Interior pencils are credited to Dell Barras&Tim Burgard,which does make the interior art look a tiny bit different than the cover art. Inks are by Dell Barras&Rico Rival.
Cover date is June of 1986.With a US cover price of $1.25. First Comics always were priced way higher than an similar color comic from DC or Marvel. But you knew with First you were getting that nice really white paper. And First Comics didn't really make the creators of a comic keep the art and story at a PG 13 or lower level. You would get levels of violence in a comic from First that the big two would only do in Graphic Novels or the rare title like Swamp Thing.
This issue is a decent recapping what had happened in the first volume and also making sure any new readers will know what to expect in future issues. The story feels like a way better written Cannon ninja movie. You know stuff like American Ninja. Imagine if those films had unlimited budgets and way way better scripts.
By issue 18 of Whisper the comic was monthly. I have no idea when it went from Bi-Monthly to Monthly but that is a good sign that sales were good.
I like the Batman homage on the cover. As a kid I always enjoyed the Batman or Detective covers where you Batman on a rooftop corner. A stone gargoyle below him. And also with the rain I am getting a very heavy Frank Miller era Daredevil feel from the cover.
This issue is cover dated November 1988. And has a cover price of $1.95. So a bit over 2 years later the cost of the comic has went up 70 cents. The paper appears to be the same used on issue 1.
Steven Grant is again the writer of the issue. And it is nice when the full run of a comic is wrote by the same author each issue. The pencils are credited to the pen name Spyder. Inks are by Alex(no last name listed) & Spyder.I will reveal who Spyder is a pen name for in a bit.
The art by Spyder and Alex(no last name) is as good as Dell Barras art on issue 1. Spyder has more energy in his fight scens and does more with the backgrounds. Also Spyder likes the gutters of the comic page to be black.
This is another Whisper cover that would catch your eye. And it is way simpler than the cover of issue 18. But both of them do what a good cover should do. That is get you to pick up the comic and buy it. This cover is penciled and inked by Vincent Giarrano. That is a name I have never heard before.
Cover date is May 1990. Cover price is $1.95. This time the issue is not quite 2 years after the last one I showed. And I didn;t mention this with the previous 2 issues,I like how First would use the inside front cover to give a couple of paragraphs telling you the history of Whisper aka Diane Young AKA Alexis Devin. Then has a paragraph recapping the previous issue. Cause like Jim Shooter use to tell the writers at Marvel ,every issue can be someone's first issue of that comic. So instead of using up a page or so of the story to recap(like Shooter had people at Marvel do) First didn't use up any of the story pages recapping.
Issue 36 is the next to last issue of volume 2 of the series. It is part 4 of the 5 part World Gone Crazy storyline. Whisper is in Burma. Look at that art it reminds me of the art you would see in many Vertigo series in the late 90s/early 2000s. That art where the people looked like real people,that slight brown tint to everything. Add in the type of paper First is still using on Whisper and reading these issues with the Vincent Guarramo art makes me keep expecting Animal Man or the Doom Patrol to make an appearance. As you can see Vincent is very good and drawing and pacing an action scene. I do think from what I have seen so far Spyder is the best artist Whisper had. But Vincent is not far from Spyder.
The cover in the bottom has Giarrano 89. But the cover date for this final issue of volume 2 is June 1990. The cover price stayed at $1.95. I am tempted to take this cover and see if the shop in town that makes t shirts will put that on a shirt for me.The full moon with Whisper crouching in front of it on a rooftop. The way Whisper's sword has cut the Title. The random pieces of paper floating down the cover. All of that adds up to a great cover. The creative team is the same as it was on the previous issue.
Steven Grant manages to wrap up the World Gone Crazy story,and he does a good job at doing this. He figured out a way to write the ending where if there was never another issue/appearance of Whisper the fans wouldn't be pissed. The ending also leaves you really wanting more adventures of the lady ninja in dark blue.
Inplace of the normal letters page the last page Steven Grant thanking all the fans and everybody who worked on Whisper. Mr Grant names 6 pencilers that worked on Whisper. Oddly not naming Dell Barras. I do wonder why. Seeing the list of 6 artists I see that the late Norm Breyfogle had a run on Whisper. That I bet looks really good. Plus Steven Grant revels who Spyder was. Spyder is Neil Hansen. No clue who that is. I might look them up and see if I can find out why they used the pen name on issue 18.
From what I have seen there is no in print trades or hardcovers collecting vol 1 or vol 2 of Whisper. Which is odd cause most of the First Comics have gotten tpb from various companies like IDW,Dark Horse and Image. I am am guessing who ever bought First when they went under owns Whisper. But it might be a case like Grimjack,American Flagg or Nexus where the creators of the characters own them. I think that when Whisper vol 1 was published by Captial Comics Steven Grant retained ownership of Whisper.
Anyways hope y'all enjoyed this trip down memory lane. While there was surely piles of crappy ninja comics in the 80s from indie publishers,and who can blame them after how big a hit Miller's run on Daredevil and then Eastman and Laird's TMNT run was. What makes Whisper stand out in the crowded field of 80s Indie Comics about Ninjas are Steven Grant writing every issue. The nice paper and great colors on all the issues,most of the 80s Ninja comics were b/w. Then all three of the artists that handled the pencisl on these 4 issues are much better artists than whoever did crap like Ninjabots or any of those shit Solson Ninja books. So next time you are at a con or comic shop,take a few minutes to dig into the cheap bins and if you see any issues of volume 2 of Whisper grab them and give them a try.
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