Tales From The Heart #5 [1989] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Tales From The Heart #5 [1989]

TALES FROM THE HEART was a series written by Cindy Goff and Rafael Nieves and drawn by Seitu Hayden (and later by Aldin Baroza), with eleven issues published from 1987 to 1994, initially from Entropy for two issues, then by Slave Labor for the next nine. There were also two related specials, a bit off to the side of the main narrative and in full colour, published by Marvel/Epic in 1990 and 1992. There were two collections in the 1990s collecting the first six issues.

The series is based on Goff's experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1980s, though fictionalized to be about the lead character "Cathy Grant" and a small group of other volunteers she's working with. Starting with her training in 1983, the series then moves to the Central African Republic for stories about her tour there. It's a delightful series, one of my favourites of all time, which sadly didn't seem to find an audience (the editorial by Dan Vado this issue says it sold 2025 copies) and remains unfinished. Whenever there's a publisher that starts picking up orphaned comics of this era I keep hoping TALES will be among them, with at least a complete reprint and a perfunctory epilogue, ideally with a whole second volume at least as long as the existing material telling the rest of Cathy Grant's story. It's a fascinating mix of humour and drama, history and education, exploration and introspection, examination of the cultural baggage that people bring in to new situations and much more.

This issue's cover is drawn by Peter Krause and Hayden, part of a string of guest artist covers, presumably to get some more attention to the series. Other artists on covers for the book include Charles Vess, Matt Wagner, Grass Green, Brent Anderson, Charles Troug, Brian Stelfreeze and Jill Thompson, plus Neil Gaiman writing an introduction to one of the collections.

The story this issue is about a vaccination program that the volunteers start for local villages, with a lot of different sections showing all the things the book does well. There's a lot of humour to make taking the serious issues discussed of malnutrition and disease a lot easier. There's a lot of information about the technical details of the program, and some drama about the difficulty for the volunteers in realizing how little they can actually do against systemic problems that make even getting a clean glass of water a daunting prospect for most of the local population.

Anyway, very enjoyable comic, I definitely have to pull out the full set of issues for a long overdue re-reading sometime, and keep hoping we get more of it someday.