Hey, everybody. Welcome to another exciting episode of the Number One Comics Podcast. I'm your host, Jonah, and with me is Bill. Bill, how's it going? Not too bad, Dylan. How are you? I'm doing well. Doing well. At the time of this recording, we had free comic book day just on Saturday. It's past Saturday. It's past Saturday. Did you have a chance to check it out? I think you said there's stuff going on. I did not, unfortunately. I even completely forgot it was free comic book day, and I got one of those marketing emails from Des Moines Con. They said they were handing out stickers and stuff like that at a few other locations. I had not participated in a free comic book day in years.
I've never participated in one. Yeah. How does it work exactly? You just show up at a comic shop and they've got a table set up with like certain free comic. Okay. Usually say like free comic book day on them. So I believe the retailers have to buy them from the distributor or from the companies. Right. So they're paying something out of pocket for it. And the idea is they bring people into shops, introduce people to new stories, new characters, and it's all kinds of comics. It's like superhero comics. It's some indie books. It's kids books or kind of ones that are more for younger audiences. Very cool. I didn't pick up one of everything. I just picked up, I think, you know, one of like VR Troopers, I think had a book out this year, which I hadn't seen VR Troopers in forever. Yeah.
Yeah, so there's quite a few of them that I picked up. I haven't really had a chance to sit down and check them out yet, but looking forward to that. The one thing that I was very excited about is some retailers were going to have like other incentives or sales going on. And it was kind of funny because the shop that I went to doesn't typically, so there's multiple locations. They don't typically sell new comics at this location. They do have some, you know, dollar bins that I love to root through from time to time. Right.
The owner, you know, they were bringing out a lot more long boxes that they were all going to have as, you know, dollar books that were all 50% off. So basically every book, other than the free comic books, was a big sense of peace. Okay. And so we went through, my brother-in-law was out there and we got there kind of like right when it opened up. And so we were going through the books. Another guy showed up and he tore through those books. He was like really fast. Nice. He was pulling out a shit load of stuff. And then find out later on, well, let me go back. I ended up buying like.
340 books, something like that. It was ridiculous amount, but a 50 cents a piece, right? So I didn't, I mean, it wasn't terrible. But I found out later on that when he was bringing, the person bringing long boxes from other shops into this one was grabbing boxes that were not necessarily dollar boxes. Oh. They were kind of just like regular long boxes. Uh-oh. And so I got to go through and see kind of like what I ended up with. My brother-in-law ended up with like a little like milk and cheese issues, including like the first issue of that, which, you know.
that's not a cheap comic necessarily right um and so our buddy who owns the shop he's like you fucking guys got one over me i was like oh man i kind of felt bad yeah but and i'm i don't know if someone lost their job in that or not right i am excited though to go through the long box or the the basically i walked out with like one long box and then a short box okay and i'm really excited to go through uh those to see kind of what i did end up with and if there was any real gems in there because here's the deal i'm not looking for things that are worth money necessarily i'm looking for like oh that's a cool cover that looks like a fun story right never heard of this one that looks cool or whatever um like one of the ones like i didn't even realize that dc and had done this and if i did i'd forgotten all about it but at one point they had dc characters joining with hanna-barbera characters huh so like i picked up a couple of comics that's like Superman and like McGillagorilla. Really? And then there's like Superman and like Tomcat. And so there's like all kinds of like weird ones like that. That's kind of fun though. They're not just some old comics. They're relatively new, but that's cool. I hadn't heard of that. So anyway, hopefully you guys out there had a chance to participate in a free comic book day as well. If not, hopefully it continues because I think it was kind of a diamond distribution thing and diamonds not really a thing anymore or will not be anymore with their bankruptcy troubles. So I don't know what's going to happen for your comic book day going forward, but it's always fun. And I'm glad I got, I'm glad I went back this year. So, but.
That's not ultimately what we're here to talk about. We are here to talk about another number one comic. This is Pitt number one from Image Comics. That's the publisher. Cover date on this was January of 1993. And the cover price on it was $1.95. Pitt was created by Dale Keown. Keown was also, he also did the pencils and inks on this. And then Brian, I believe it's Houghton, if I'm not mistaken, is listed as the writer.
Did you read any of, or not read, see any of Kion's previous work? Because you did check out Pit when it was new in stores, right? Right. Back in the day. I think every 90s kid was picking up all of those image titles. Yeah. And another thing we've talked about previously, too, was I didn't have a subscription, but I picked up every Wizard magazine I could get my hands on. Oh, yeah. So I'd always see the splash pages of new image comics coming out. So I was not a Hulk reader.
Back in the day. So I didn't really, I think it was probably the first time that I noticed or saw Keown's artwork. But he did make a name for himself on Marvel's Incredible Hulk title first. He left Marvel in 1993. And he did that to go and do the self-publishing of this self-created title over image. He was actually offered founder status originally.
He was offered that after Wills Portacio, who we talked about previously with Wetworks, after he was forced to withdraw because of his sister. But Keone had declined that. So he didn't take him up on that. Now, the Pit series is Brian Houghton's only credited comic work. Because he's a writer I was not familiar with, so I had to do some Google searching. It looks like he's a Canadian-based musician and songwriter. And so my assumption is he was probably one of Keon's friends or something like that. And Keon was like, hey, I want to draw this. Will you write it? And he was like, sure. So I'm guessing that's how that happened. I don't really know. But for those of you who may not be familiar with what Pit is, Pit is an alien-human hybrid created by an alien race known as the Creed. He's been engineered to be the perfect killing machine.
Among his powers and abilities are super strength, stamina, durability. He's got enhanced healing factor, and he's got some big-ass claws that come out of his hands, which is my favorite thing about him and why I thought he was way cooler than the Hulk. Now, some sources that I've come across have cited Youngblood, issue four, as Pitt's first appearance. However, I think that issue came out after this one. Okay.
I think the cover date might have been earlier, but if I recall correctly, that issue was delayed. So I think this came first, and then Youngblood 4 had come out shortly thereafter, which that was not uncommon among those early image titles. You know, something would get delayed. But yeah, Youngblood 4 basically had a backup story which introduced us to the characters in this book, and that backup feature is referenced really several times throughout here. Anyway, anything else you want to say about the character itself before we get into the interior? No, I don't think so. Okay.
Well, let's get into it. Let's start with the cover. It's really easy to sum up because it's his giant face. It looks badass, though. We're told at the bottom that this is a ripping first issue. Once we get inside or past the cover, we start out in New York City at 3 a.m. This is the Detroit chapter of a motorcycle gang called the Vipers. They're kind of making the rounds, tearing up the town. I am curious as to why they're making the rounds in New York City if they're from Detroit. But I think they actually reference at some point how weird that city is, I think, maybe compared to where they're from or something along those lines. But anyway, I digress.
They see Pitt kind of walking down the street in the distance. He's huge. He's butt-ass naked. The vipers roar up behind him, and one hits him in the back of the head with a bat. Another bashes Pitt in the side of the face with a flail, and that gets Pitt's attention, but he doesn't go down.
Pit fights back. After taking out the two that drew first blood, he tears through the rest of the bikes, and he's just throwing these things around. That's a really cool splash image of him tossing these bikes and dudes all around. Yeah, the motorcycles, their riders, they're being tossed in all directions. One of the Vipers shoots Pit point blank with a double-barreled shotgun. However, I did notice, and this bothered me, and it might be because I'm, I don't want to say I'm a gun nut, but I'm an enthusiast. Right. And when it's a picture of a double-barreled shotgun, but it's making...
the sound of like a pump action shotgun. Right. When the onomatopoeia doesn't match the image with something like that, it like bothers me. So I did notice that. Anyway, again, I digress. I don't want to end up down a rabbit hole there. All the blast does is, all it does is piss Pit off. Large claws protrude from his giant hands. And the last thing his assailant sees is Pit's massive fangs bearing down on him. We then cut to...
a young boy who sees this in a nightmare and it snaps him awake in his bed. And the boy screams out, which brings his grandfather into the room. So the boy tells grandpa about his nightmare, but that it's real and that it's happening at that very moment. It sounds like based on what the grandfather says that they've already had quite the night. And then that's kind of that first callback to that young blood issue for scene. It's revealed to us that the child's parents are dead and that he's being raised by his grandfather. We then cut to a different part of the city where a new detective is being brought in to handle the subway case.
I don't know if this is happening at the same time as the other scenes. That's like 3 o'clock in the morning. This detective is coming in. Maybe they're starting their shift at 3 a.m. I don't know. That just seems really early to be clocking in as a detective. But I could be wrong. I'm not a detective. I don't know what their hours are. Anyway, this detective is being brought in to handle the subway case. Again, that's another reference to that image issue 4. Or Youngblood issue 4. The detective's name is Bobby Harris, which I believe is a reference to Bob Harris, the Marvel editor at the time.
And she is being partnered with another detective named Smithers. The police look over photos of the pit from his appearance on the subway, again, back in issue four of Youngblood. They mention a gang of neo-Nazis attacked some pedestrians when this mysterious third party arrived, or rather just appeared. The captain orders Harris and her new partner Smithers to link up with forensics at the crime scene. We then cut back to Pitt standing among the carnage from his battle with the biker gang. And again, that tells me that that scene with the detectives, all that is happening like three o'clock in the morning. Because we cut back to Pitt. He's standing amongst the carnage. There's a voice within him that urges discretion. And Pitt responds that he will not retreat from battle and that he is a warrior. We're then taken to a flashback in which a group of alien Buddhists, for lack of a better term, I don't know what the closest thing I could link them to, they're attacked by another group of aliens called the Creed. And this is playing out as a memory in Pitt's head, essentially.
That is, until he's heard enough of this memory or of this voice in his head, and this voice reminds him that he's not at war with this planet, but he may in fact play a role in its salvation. We then cut to Times Square subway station. The police are still investigating the crime scene. Some transit officer or person is not happy that the train is still locked down as an active crime scene, as it really throws an expletive of some sort into her day. On the subway car itself, the forensics team is gathering evidence.
There's some sort of electrical discharge that's building up behind them. And then we cut to outside where Harris and Smithers pull up, and they hear gunfire. It's coming from the subway below, and they rush down to check it out. They arrive on the scene, and really it's just in time to see three of their fellow officers thrown right into a brick wall. Smithers tells Harris to wait for backup, but Harris isn't listening. They turn the corner, and she's like, freeze, only to see three massive monsters standing there. And that is where we are going to be to be continued.
Let's talk about our thoughts on this issue. Bill, what were your thoughts? One thing that they do in this comic very well is a lot of the action panels, if you will, take up the majority of the page, which I think is my 90s experience for Marvel. They kind of went panel to panel, and sometimes it was a little bit difficult to follow sometimes. They'd have to cut something off, put those little arrows in, all that sort of stuff. This is really cool. It makes me feel like an action movie played out on...
A comic book. It is very splashy. And this is kind of where you started to get into that, you know, style over substance debate. And you could easily make that argument here because, you know, my first thought about this book, I would have to start with the art because that is why people were buying image comics anyway. Yeah, absolutely. In the 90s was art like this. And if we talk about the story too much, it's a much shorter discussion, right? Because there's really not a lot to the story as a whole. It's almost like half an issue worth of story, in my opinion, with callbacks to something else that hadn't even really happened yet or was really just a snippet.
But yeah, Keon's art is absolutely fantastic. It was, like I said, I was never aware of his art on Hulk since I wasn't a Hulk reader at the time. I wasn't either. But, I mean, if it was half as good as what this is, damn. Yeah, exactly. The attention to detail and the way that he, you know, also the fact that he inks his own work I think is what adds to that attention to detail because the inks really do a good job of bringing those images to life. Oh, yeah. It's funny because we talked about, you know, when we were kind of running through the synopsis and we were talking about the encounter with the motorcycle gang.
that's like the first 10 pages. And it literally took me a few seconds to describe. But that's 10 pages of a 22-page story, essentially, is him fighting with these motorcycle gangs. And the one thing that I noticed in that, or what attracted me from it, was the dialogue. If they had taken out the dialogue, I think it would have been a much stronger first 10 pages. I agree. Now, I don't know what you would have had in place.
Well, whether it be narration of some sort or even just leave it as as as it is There's a lot of the newer comics We've covered on this show where they have all this action going on and no dialogue whatsoever like no explanation nothing You're just kind of following these characters walking through a hallway or yep, whatever it might be I think that might have added to it a little bit Yeah, I think it would because I think it would have given you a chance to still study the art and the art tells the story itself you don't need any of the words in there in those first 10 page that opening scene you don't need any words yeah to tell any part of that story well i think you know you talk exposition or anything like that right and you mentioned the whole style over substance kind of thing i think that especially with the first issue and especially with the artwork being so prominent in this comic like you want to focus more on the art than you do the story right right they can always build on the story in the next few issues or so but um image did that really well in my opinion they always did i always felt like they focused on the art over the story to some extent, but not in a bad way. Sometimes in a bad way, but I always liked Image strictly for their artwork. Right. Like I said, I think that's why most people were buying it. And that's why, just as an example of kind of how noticeable that is, that's why you've got things like last month, Rob Liefeld recently re-released through Image a Youngblood number one that completely re-scripted by Joe Casey, if I'm not mistaken. So completely re-scripted.
And you read it, and the art's still really good to look at. The story was still just okay, in my opinion. But it's one of those things where I think if you could go back and maybe re-script some of it, not necessarily pit exclusively, but a lot of those old issues, I think could benefit well from it. Now, I also don't necessarily agree with that because I like letting it stand as it is on its own. And then you can also kind of see a artist or a writer's growth over the years. But yeah, I agree with your point 100%.
One more thing about the art, too, before I move away from that, is Keown's really good about drawing different body types and faces really well. Not everyone looks the exact same. I can say that about all the other image artists at the time. And not everyone was, you know, I think McFarlane also did a really good job with this, but there's just different body styles. Not everyone looks like they belong in a comic book, you know what I mean? And so that's really good. The other thing, too, the last thing I'll mention about the art is...
Kion is really, really good at conveying a sense of motion. Whether it's jumping at you or the scene where those officers are being tossed into that wall is so good because you can feel the thuds hitting that wall. It's very kinetic. It's not static. You can feel the movement. That's so important in a comic like this. Anything else about the art that you want to mention and then we'll talk a little bit about the story? Even without ever reading this comic before, Pitt's a very recognizable character.
I knew who Pitt was before I even read this, and I think that's what really made him stand out as a character to me. Yeah. That and, you know, seeing him in Wizard Comics, or, you know, Wizard Magazine, rather. Yeah, was it issue 15 he was on? It was with a darker image character. So it was Pitt, Max, Bloodwolf? I think so. And who was the fourth? There was another one on there. I probably even have it in my notes. Right. But, yeah, I think that was the first time I saw Pitt, too, because that came out before the issue did, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. And I was, just from that, I was like, when this comes out, I've got to pick it up. And I did. I picked up, you know, as a kid, I picked up the first.
five or six issues. And what happens, I think if there's a delay in there or if something, you know, you miss a month or that week at the comic shop and then you can't find it again. And when you're relying on your dad to take it to the comic shop, you couldn't always get there when you wanted to get there. And so I missed issues here and there and then eventually it fell off my radar. Yeah. Which all comics fell off my radar about that point anyway. Yeah. Let's, all right, so let's talk about the,
You know, one more thing, too, I want to mention on the art before we move on, and I apologize about that. The character himself, the design of the character. Because it's so easy for, with a lot of the image creators, to look at their original creations and be like, okay, it's a derivative of this, this, or this. Spawn is a derivative of, you know, you can see Spider-Man in Spawn. You can see Cable and Deadpool in everything that Liefeld does. You can see all of that. And you can see the Hulk inspirations in Pit. But I think that there's enough differences.
between the characters in terms of the look the design i don't look at it as like a direct copy right he's enough of his own character in my opinion um in fact i would argue that i think marvel 2099 hulk is more of a copy of pit than pit is a copy of hulk i would agree yeah um so that's the other thing i want to say is i absolutely love the character design and i i know it's a you know it's derivative of the hulk but it's still different enough that i'm like oh that's really cool and it doesn't bother me one bit yeah uh okay So let's talk story. So it's pretty much non-existent, right? I mean, there's really not a lot going on here story-wise. There is several callbacks to what happened in Youngblood 4. And like I said, 22 pages, three of those pages are splash pages. And 10 of those 22 pages is the one fight sequence in the beginning. So we're given very little backstory of Pit or really any of the supporting characters. Because I think even in the Youngblood issue 4, you just kind of, you see Grandpa, you see...
timmy or the kid you see the pit but you don't it's really just a snippet of a scene right it's like a sneak preview so you really don't learn about it much there either uh the dialogue is pretty terrible um i have a few examples of the dialogue quoted on here um like one one i'm not gonna i don't get into the examples i've got them on my phone but i will i'm gonna read this real quick okay here we go i'm gonna i will play both characters here okay I'm Philip Johnson. You can call me Phil. Are those photos of the incident? That's what I was told. They're in a sealed envelope marked confidential. Thanks for picking them up on your way to the station, Harris. I'll fill you in while we look over the shots. That's so bad. Yeah. Whoever wrote this did not read these out loud. This one's my favorite, though.
How long do you plan to hold this subway car, Sergeant? As long as it takes to get the job done. You got a problem with that? Yeah, I got a problem with that. This car was due at Coney Island three hours ago. This really throws a fuck into my day. Now, I don't know if that's even what the expletive is, but I can't figure out what type of expletive actually fits there. I don't either. But yeah, the dialogue is just real bad. Is it Smithers? When Smithers and Harris arrive on scene and he's talking to her, and I don't know why, because we've encountered this before, even when we were talking Silver Sable number one. Whenever you get these strong female characters, you have these dudes that want to...
sexualize them in some way or knock them down a peg by objectifying them yeah and i'm not the kind of i don't get into the whole like oh let's get woke or anything like that like that drives me insane right but this also drives me insane is this and it was a very 90s thing right so there's this when they pull up smithers is saying to harris he says you know my last partner used to be jealous because i used to get all the chicks i guess that won't be a problem with you a harris unless you go in for that kind of action if so maybe we could dot dot dot And I'm like, what? That's so bad. And this entire comic would read better as a silent issue, now that I think about it. You just take out all the dialogue, and this would be so much better. I'm not saying I don't enjoy it. Right, but I think that's a product of the time. But they can't just have a conversation. He's got to immediately make it creepy. That's the thing. Again, it's almost like whoever wrote this has never talked to a woman. And certainly didn't read this out loud.
All right, let's talk a little bit about what came next. So Pit ran for 20 issues, so not a long run. The first several were published through Image Comics. Issues 10 through 20, it moved over to Keown's own Full Bleed Studios. And that's really where I think I dropped off, because I think for whatever reason, I just couldn't find him. I could not find the later issues of this comic as a kid. Aside from his own title, he also appeared periodically in other Image Comics like Gen 13, Savage Dragon, The Max. The last appearance of Pit that I know of was in a crossover with Darkness.
That was published in August of 2009. So I really haven't seen him for, you know, almost 20 years at this point. Yeah. I did come across an article as I was, you know, doing some research for this that touted it was an article on a website or. periodical called criticalblast.com, which I've never heard of it. It was from back in 2022, and it touted the return of the pit in comics. Now, I don't know what's ever come of that, but I would love to see this guy return in comics in some form or another, because that's very cool. What are your final thoughts? I definitely would have read more. I'm kind of kicking myself now for not really getting into this, but I could say that about a lot of the Image series, ones that we've covered and ones that we probably haven't yet. You know, I was just like such a hardcore Spider-Man Marvel guy.
Back in the day, you know. I was too. And even with the Image Comics that I was getting, I mean, I did pick up the pits when I could find them, right? But it was Stormwatch and Youngblood. Max, Shadowhawk. There was a lot of them that I was about, but there was a lot of them that I just kind of passed for whatever reason. And I was that kid. I had to pick up all the number ones, right? Thinking I'd retire early off of my Wildcats number one. Which was very easy to do in the 90s because there was a new number one every week. Yes, which is why we have this show today. I will never run out of content because there will always be new number ones to talk about. In terms of...
This series, I know I don't have a full run of Pit. Okay, I can tell you right now. I've got it right here. I'm missing issues 11 and 13 through 20. So like I said, most everything that went over to full bleed, I don't have. Right. So I'm still tracking those down, you know, as I find them, especially cheaply. In fact, my brother-in-law just picked up this first issue of Pit for 50 cents. Nice. I mean, it's not a 50-cent comic necessarily. It's like a $20 comic. Yeah. He got it for 50 cents. So you can find them out there in a good deal if you're patient and keep your eyes open for them. Yeah. My final thoughts on it. The issue is worth checking out for the art alone.
absolutely forget about this you put your brain on hold for the story the art is gorgeous um throughout the series the story was always just okay but the art was always really good in my opinion so check it out this is pit number one from image comics thanks for tuning in be sure to check us out on facebook you can find us as part of the field of geeks network wherever you get your podcasts or on youtube which if you're watching this on youtube you probably already know that um special thanks to everyone at the field of geeks network for making this episode happen special thanks to raven x for the theme song um Like, subscribe. What are the other terms that kids use when it comes to... Like, share, and subscribe. Yeah, like, share, and subscribe. Appreciate it. And we'll see you guys next time. Thanks, Bill. See you.