THE DALGODA OMNIBUS by Fujitake & Strnad

 DALGODA was a science fiction adventure comic by Jan Strnad and Dennis Fujitake serialized for a dozen issues from 1984 to 1986, eight issues of DALGODA followed by four issues of FLESH AND BONES, published by Fantagraphics (the latter under their short-lived imprint Upshot Graphics).

It was a well regarded series, with some striking covers.  I came to it late, having heard some good things and seeing ads for it in old comics and fanzines I was buying in the early 1990s.  I can't recall now, but I also might have been interested in the Bojeffries Saga back-ups by Steve Parkhouse and Alan Moore that appear in the last five issues (an original story in DAL #8 and newly coloured reprints from WARRIOR in the second series).  Really enjoyed the first few I read, and over time got the full run.

It's a lot of fun, with Strnad writing a strong character driven piece among epic events, providing a lot of original perspective on classic pulp science fiction, a well thought out story structure and a clear understanding of his characters.  Fujitake has a striking style, mixing in a lot of European influences (most obviously Giraud and Remi among artists best known in North America) plus some classic American comics (quite a bit of Ditko and also some of the classic newspaper adventure strip artists). A very clear and pleasing style, with some great science fiction designs with sophisticated world building.

The series is the story of Dalgoda, a pilot from an alien world where the people resemble dogs and have only made brief contact with Earth. He's sent on a mission to get the help of Earth against a threat from another alien race, forcing him to deal with human politics and prejudices.

I've read the whole thing a few times over the years, and was definitely interested when I heard that About Comics had released THE DALGODA OMNIBUS, a complete collection of the series, with a striking version of the original first issue cover up front.  Re-read it in this form over the last few days, and it still works well, very much as a cohesive book with three acts, some great set-up, a few adventures and an exciting climax which wraps things up while leaving room for a continuation, which we never really got unfortunately.

The reprint is in black and white, which really does look like a whole new book from the original, which was coloured in a style then very sophisticated for American comics.

The first six issues were originally coloured by Kenneth Smith, and for those issues it looks like they had access to some really high quality source material, so it looks very sharp and fresh, really showing off Fujitake's linework better than ever.

The second half was originally coloured by Mark Wheatley and Katheryn Mayer, and for those they were apparently using printed comics as the source material, using a combination approach to use the colours to create greytone shading in some areas while completely suppressing the colours to leave it open for the linework in others.  It works quite well compared to many comics which are reproduced from printed comics, suffering only in comparison to the front half of the book.  Obviously nothing beats having superior source material, but a thoughtful rendering of second-generation sources can go a long way.

Also included are two short stories, one published during the original run as a promotional back-up in another book and a second (with art by Kevin Nowlan) published a few years later in an anthology and providing a brief coda to the story.  Strnad provides a three page afterword with some reflections on series forty year later and there's a gallery of a dozen pages of additional images by Fujitake from the 1980s, including fanzine covers, promotional art and more.

Highly recommended for both old fans and for anyone new to the worlds of Dalgoda.

Publisher's site

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 359 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949996824

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996821