Final issue of Planetary ships today

The final issue of Warren Ellis and John Cassaday’s “Planetary” ships to stores today.  The series debuted in April 1999 and has been a critically acclaimed and Eisner-nominated comic book throughout its run.  The much-delayed series features an organization tracking down the world’s secret history.   “Indiana Jones meets the X-Files” was what I used to pitch people on the series at my comic book store, where Planetary along with “The Authority,” also by Warren Ellis, were among my favorite books of 1999.

In fact, the WildStorm of 1999 was something of a reader’s paradise, especially for someone like me, with a fascination for pulps and superheroes.  In addition to Ellis, Alan Moore was creating the America’s Best Comics line for WildStorm, with Tom Strong, Promethea and others.  In retrospect, we should have known it was too good to last.   But in 1999, my first full year of owning a comic book store, it seemed the future was at our fingertips, and brilliant, wonderfully illustrated comic books would be ours forever.

This is not to knock what there is today; there are great comic books coming out all the time, anymore.  Just this year, we’ve had  Asterios Polyp, A.D.: After the Deluge, The Big Kahn, The Photographer, and I’m sure lots more I’m not thinking of at the moment.