''Aztec Ace'' is an American

creator-owned In the United States, creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-publishing, self-published or published by a corporate publisher. I ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

formerly published by

Eclipse Comics Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book store, comic book specialty stor ...

. Created by writer

Doug Moench Douglas Moench (; born February 23, 1948, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American writer of comics, novels, short stories, newspaper feature articles, weekly newspaper comic strips, film screenplays and teleplays. He is notable for his ''Batman'' wo ...

, it was published for 15 issues from

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

. ''

Amazing Heroes ''Amazing Heroes'' was a magazine about the comic book medium published by American company Fantagraphics Books from 1981 to 1992. Unlike its companion title, '' The Comics Journal'', ''Amazing Heroes'' was a hobbyist magazine rather than an anal ...

'' would describe the series as "a strange cross between ''

Dr. Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterrestrial being called the Doctor, par ...

'' and the ''

Illuminati The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1 ...

'' trilogy".

Publication history

The series kept an irregular schedule due to main artist Dan Day's meticulous approach; by 1985 the book was aiming for a six-weekly schedule, with Eclipse editor-in-chief

Cat Yronwode Catherine Anna Yronwode (née Manfredi; May 12, 1947) is an American writer, editor, graphic designer, typesetter, and publisher with an extensive career in the comic book industry. She is also a practitioner of folk magic. Early life Catherine ...

hoping for nine or ten issues a year. Other contributors to ''Aztec Ace'' included Mike Harris and

Mike Gustovich Michael Gustovich (born November 15, 1953) is an American artist, known for his comic book art and inking in the 1980s and early 1990s for such publishers as Marvel Comics, DC Comics, First Comics, Comico, and Eclipse Comics. He is the creator of ...

. The Aztec Ace logo was created by Denis McFarling. ''Aztec Ace'' featured appearances from numerous historical figures, including

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; July 24, 1897 – January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her li ...

Glenn Miller Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band conductor, arranger, composer, trombonist, and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces ...

and

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the ...

. The series ended abruptly, leaving several storylines unresolved. This was announced as being due to the difficulty in finding adequate fill-in artists. In 1988, a copy of ''Aztec Ace'' #13 - featuring Bridget dressed as

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

- was part of an

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Ancient Greek, Greek , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian History of Egypt, history, Egyptian language, language, Ancient Egypt ...

exhibit at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

. For Eclipse's 10th anniversary in 1988, they commissioned the crossover mini-series ''

Total Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...

'', and the creators of ''Aztec Ace'' gave permission for

Marv Wolfman Marvin Arthur Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's ''The Tomb of Dracula'', for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade (character), Blade, and DC Comi ...

to use the characters in the series. The characters had sizeable roles in the series, with Nine-Crocodile the overarching villain, while Moench contributed a short "Interlude" story centred on Aztec Ace for the second issue, with art by Tim Sale. This led to the announcement of plans to collect the earlier material as a trade paperback and to continue the story as a three-issue mini-series - tentatively titled ''Aztec Ace - Time Tripper'' - in 1992 with artist Doug Heinlein; however, these plans would not come to fruition.

Synopsis

The story revolves around a time traveller named Ace (real name: Caza), whose goal is to save the timestream from unravelling through various intricate adventures. Ace is from the 23rd century, with his base in pre-contact

Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

; he often visits

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

. Caza is aided by Head - formerly his assistant Tempus Fugit, reduced to a disembodied head after an accident - and Bridget Kronopoulous, Ace's sexy, adventurous girlfriend from 1940 who may or may not be the Queen of Egypt. They travel through time in a time machine called the ACE (Azure Crosstime Express, though the characters often call it 'the Egg' due to its distinctive shape), which Head controls. Ace's main enemy is Nine-Crocodile, who creates

time paradox ''Time Paradox'' is a point-and-click adventure game developed and released by Flair Software for the MS-DOS in 1996 only in Europe. Plot A futuristic agent named Kay is sent on a mission to stop the evil Morgana Le Fay. She first travels bac ...

es in an attempt to save his own dimension at the expense of other realities - especially the modern day planet

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

; his minions include the Nightgaunt and the Ebonati.

References

External links

*
International Hero Catalog on Aztec Ace
1984 comics debuts 1985 comics endings Comics characters introduced in 1984 Fictional characters from the 23rd century Comics about time travel Comics by Doug Moench Comics publications Comics set in Mexico Defunct American comics Eclipse Comics characters Eclipse Comics titles Glenn Miller Cultural depictions of Amelia Earhart Comics set in ancient Egypt {{comics-stub