comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
adventure hero. He first appeared in March 1977 in American company
Warren Publishing
Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded by James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades. Magazines published by Warren include '' After Hours'', '' Creepy'', '' Eerie'', '' F ...
's ''
Eerie
''Eerie'' was an American magazine of horror comics introduced in 1966 by Warren Publishing. Like '' Mad'', it was a black-and-white magazine intended for newsstand distribution and did not submit its stories to the comic book industry's volunta ...
'', ''
Vampirella
Vampirella () is a fictional vampire superheroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and comic book artist Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine ''Vampirella'' #1 (Sept. 1969), a sister publication of '' Cre ...
'' & '' Warren Presents'' magazines. In the 1980s, the Rook became popular and gained his own comic magazine title of the same name, ''The Rook Magazine''. In the 1990s, The Rook would be recreated in Harris Comics’ ''Chains of Chaos'' and ''The Rook'' comic book miniseries. In 2014, The Rook was re-introduced in Dark Horse Comics’ ''Eerie Archives'' 17. The Rook returned with new adventures, written by Steven Grant and illustrated by
Paul Gulacy
Paul Gulacy (; born August 15, 1953) is an American comics artist best known for his work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and for drawing one of the first graphic novels, Eclipse Enterprises' 1978 '' Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species'', ...
in ''Dark Horse Presents'' and ''The Rook'' comic book series in 2015.
The Rook was created by Bill DuBay and Budd Lewis, and was influenced by pulp magazines’ heroic characters like
Doc Savage
Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a doctor, scientist, adventurer, detective, and polymath who "rights w ...
.
Fictional character biography
Scientific industrialist Restin Dane has a penchant for dressing as an Old West gun-slinger as he travels through time. Restin Dane is the grandson of Adam Dane, the man who told his story about those adventures in the future to his friend
The Time Machine
''The Time Machine'' is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively for ...
'', but at Dane's insistence withheld his name.
Restin Dane's time machine is the Time Castle, a dark-energy powered vehicle that resembles a large rook chess piece; which is how Restin became known as The Rook. The Time Castle was created by Restin, with help from his grandfather's, Adam Dane's (the original Time Traveler*3) journals. Restin is no stranger to the space-time continuum either; having an undergraduate degree from Oxford in Engineering, Science and Physics and a PhD from Caltech in both Materials Science and Applied Physics-Quantum Mechanics. While at Oxford, he discovered artificial intelligence with his creation of two sanitation robots, Nuts & Bolts. Restin would later create a more complex robotic servant known as MAN-RS, an acronym for Man's Robotic Servant. The Rook's journeys through time reveal the illusion of human history and the separation between past, present and future. Restin Dane (The Rook) now travels not only through time, but through the "reality stream". Since The Rook's last documented appearance in the early 1980s, he has undergone significant changes: he now travels the reality stream in a different ship. It is much more eclipse than his old ship.
Another mystery surrounds Restin Dane's romantic entanglements. In the initial stories, Restin appears to be involved with January Boone, while Bishop Dane is involved with Katie McCall. Restin tells Katie he loves her as he departs on another mission. In a later issue, January calls him "lover". And yet, in "Terror of the Spaceways", Part II, Restin kisses another woman while in the future. Later on, it is established that Restin and Katie have a long-standing relationship.
Creation
Early in 1976, many of Warren Publication's content was geared towards vampires, zombies and the sort. Jim Warren wanted to create the next big craze. Although he had been captivated by Superman in his youth, his real fascination was the adventure more than the superhero characters themselves. For this project, Warren enlisted Bill DuBay and Howard Peretz. Peretz had created children's toys for large toy manufacturers, while DuBay had stepped down earlier that year as editor from Warren magazines. Jim wanted a cowboy and Bill realized that his goals were no easy task since Westerns appeared to be a passé genre. Peretz eagerly agreed with Warren suggesting that Mattel could pull out their old toy molds from the 50s. Bill however was not as thrilled with the idea since it was he that would have to create the future from the past. Bill and his creative partner, Budd Lewis eventually conceived of a modern man in search of his roots, setting the story arc for the inaugural series in the old west. This would satisfy Jim and allow them the flexibility to serialize every great adventure trapped in time. The character would also be an inventor of robotic artificial intelligence, traveling through time as a swashbuckler of sorts. DuBay enlisted Jim Stenstrum, whom he considered the best writer that he had worked with. Bill and Jim would establish the first storylines that would thrust the Rook's adventures into the forefront of the reader's imaginations. Jim would design The Rook's costume in all black attire and the character was born.
The Rook's first adventures appeared in ''Eerie'' #82 (March 77). The character got more fan mail than any other Warren Publication character. By 1979, The Rook gravitated to his own title for 14 issues. Until February 1982, the distribution statistics were held close by the absent Jim Warren. In February, as a matter of federal mandate, circulation statements would be issued for the first and final time for all Warren titles; ''The Rook'' turned out to be Warren Publications' most popular title, followed by ''Creepy'', ''
Famous Monsters of Filmland
''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' is an American genre-specific film magazine, started in 1958 by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman.
''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' directly inspired the creation of many other similar publica ...
'', ''Eerie'' and ''
Vampirella
Vampirella () is a fictional vampire superheroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and comic book artist Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine ''Vampirella'' #1 (Sept. 1969), a sister publication of '' Cre ...
''.
International syndication
The Rook's adventures were also syndicated in 24 countries, in many languages, from the mid-seventies to the early nineties in Ediciones Delta's ''Dossier Negro'' and ''Delta'' magazines throughout Spain and Europe, Ekim's ''Vampirella'' in Turkey, Ibero Mundial de ediciones ''Rufus'' magazine throughout South America and in Eura Editoriale's ''Skorpio'' in Italy.
Alternate realities (Harris Comics)
In 1994, Harris Publications (Comics) licensed the character for the miniseries ''Chains of Chaos'' with longtime Warren Publishing crossover character Vampirella. The following year,
Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics artist and writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', '' Abe Sapien'', '' Lobster Johnson'', '' Wit ...
,
Tom Sniegoski
Thomas E. Sniegoski is an American novelist, comic book writer and pop culture journalist.
Career
A number of Sniegoski's works have been related to the Buffyverse, the fictional universe established by TV series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ...
, and Kirk Van Wormer teamed up for a five-part comic book miniseries, ''The Rook''.
Rook being a scientist and an adventurer, he was recruited into Danse Macabre. One day he was attacked and he bonded with chaos skin as the last resort. Now he has a powersuit-living entity named Slough, and they need each other to survive. He responds to his mental commands and can form any weapon he can think of. (Comicvine) An altogether different proposition from his Warren predecessor; The Rook is now master of the reality flow, involving himself in alternate realities instead of contenting himself with hopping back through time. The first two issues have him fighting the undead in the Old West, though, while the latter two see him fighting hoods, one of whom is possessed by a piece of chaos manifesting as an embedded spider. The revised Rook is a half-cyborg who travels through time and alternate universes known as the reality stream. The Harris version of the Rook still retains an Old West heritage.
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...
' ''Eerie Archives'', which was released in twenty-seven volumes from 2009–2019, contains dozens of adventures that were previously unavailable beginning with volume 17 in 2014. In 2017, Dark Horse also released three volumes of ''W.B. DuBay's The Rook Archives'', collecting part of ''The Rook'' comics' magazine run in ''Eerie'' issues 82–105 (though the character was not featured in issue 86) and ''Vampirella'' issue 70. Uncollected is ''The Rook'' magazine (14 issues) and subsequent appearances in ''Eerie'' #116, 120, 130, 132, 134, 136.
From September 2015 to January 2016 a four-issue mini-series of ''The Rook'' was published by Dark Horse, written by '' 2Guns'' creator Steven Grant and illustrated by Paul Gulacy. The mini-series was collected in the trade paperback ''The Rook Volume 1: Save Yourself'' (2016), and was followed by the original graphic novel ''The Rook Volume 2: Desperate Times'' (2016). A press release described the series with "Seeking his roots, a time traveling adventurer stumbles across history’s darkest secret, Quarb: an immortal genius who has terrorized and shaped human culture since the dawn of man. Though seriously outgunned he begins a lone guerrilla war across time, in pasts unheard of and futures undreamed off, to free humanity from the immortal’s unending grip."