BOOGEYMAN • CROSSFIRE • DNAgents • FANBOY • GROO THE WANDERER
HOLLYWOOD SUPERSTARS • MAGNOR • SPACE CIRCUS • OTHER STUFF

SPACE CIRCUS is one of those ideas I've been carrying around for decades.  One evening over dinner at Hamptons Hollywood Cafe (where they used to serve a mean Groo Burger, by the way), I told the concept to Sergio.  He slapped his palm down on the table top and said, "That is next series we do" and, by God, it was.

The Space Circus of the title is the Doodah Brothers' Astral Travelling Entertainment and Fun Brigade — an interplanetary institution that wanders from world to world, amusing folks of all species, eluding the machinations of the insidious Captain Quark and his Space Pirates of Salgari.  After one near miss, the D.B.A.T.E.A.F.B. has to make an unscheduled stop on Earth for quick repairs and that's where they pick up a stowaway.

Young Todd Cooper was running away from home.  (Actually, I didn't realize until after I'd written it but "running away from home" is an antiquated concept.  Kids today keep the home and force their parents to move into a condo.)  Anyway, Todd winds up aboard the Space Circus, where he's mocked and/or befriended by creatures of all shapes and colors, including Grlx the Space Gorilla, Harmonia the Alien Acrobat, the Ringmeister and the Doodah Brothers, themselves.  Oh, yes — and there's a little creature named Bork who is the first to take a liking to the young, misplaced lad.

At first, Todd appears pretty useless and freakish to the members of the show.  Eventually, they find he comes in handy when it comes to battling back the Space Pirates, leading to a happy ending.

This was a four-issue mini-series from the fine folks at Dark Horse Comics.  They'll soon be collected into a paperback, and Sergio and I are really hoping to do a sequel one of these days.

Space Circus and all related characters and artwork are
Copyright © 2007 Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés