NEXUS by Baron, Rude & Co. Part 1 of 3

NEXUS is a long-running science fiction superhero comic created by Steve Rude and Mike Baron (with contributions from numerous other artists and occasional other writers), starting back in 1981 and with new material still coming out (most recently a novel and a collection of newspaper Sunday format strips).  With the exception of Dave Sim still (sort of) doing Cerebus and Wendy Pini still doing ElfQuest is there any other comic book from 1981 or earlier still being done by the same creators?

Anyway, I was late to the game on NEXUS, not buying from direct market stores when it began. I didn't start reading it until about 1992, when it was published as a series of mini-series over at its third publisher, Dark Horse. Over the next few years I got and read back issues in random order, first concentrating on the issues drawn by Steve Rude, then on some of the noteworthy fill-in artists, and eventually almost everything up to 2009, including some of the spin-offs (I'm missing the NEXUS THE LIBERATOR mini-series, not by Baron and Rude, a few HAMMER OF GOD mini-series, a few Clonezone stories from the back of issues of BADGER and a one-shot).

So I've got about 120 comics, which I've read out of order, a few of which I haven't read at all. Decided to finally read them all in order. It's going pretty good so far. In the past week I've read the original three issue black and white magazine (#1 through THE ORIGINAL NEXUS [1985] collection, since I never found a cheap enough original) and the first 40 issues of the main colour series. So far pretty good. Starts off a bit raw, but with an undeniable energy, very quickly improves.  Pretty steadily improves, probably hits a peak from about #10 to #20, with all the pieces in place and some clever exploration of the themes of the series. There are a few minor missteps, but nothing major, and I know there's some great stuff coming up.

Looking forward to the next group of issues, and I think I might decide to re-read it again soon after I finish in a more deliberate manner, maybe one issue a week.