Whisper #18 Cover (First Comics, 1988)

Featured as a top pick on CAF Update #78. Thanks, Bill!

"Only true ninjas can balance a liquor bottle on their leg in a driving rainstorm…"*

Bear with me...this is a long writeup for a piece that only a fraction of CAF gallery owners might remember but it's worth highlighting pieces of art that might otherwise slip through the cracks.

I returned to the U.S. in the late '80s after spending a few years living in Japan. While there, I'd kept up with the usual mainstream superhero books that were readily available on military bases, but without access to a comic shop overseas I lost touch with vibrant work from independent publishers like First Comics, Eclipse Comics, and others. In particular, I was a huge fan of First's lineup that included Nexus, American, Flagg, Jon Sable, and Whisper. Nexus, Badger, and Whisper were carryovers from Capitol Comics.

One of the first things I bought after returning to the U.S. and going to a comic shop again was Amazing Heroes #145, their semi-annual Preview Special which offered a preview of nearly every comic that would be published in the next six months. Pre-internet, the Preview Special was as good as it got when it came to understanding the comics publishing universe. I bought countless books as a direct result of reading about them in these Preview Specials.

Rather than reading the Preview Special cover-to-cover, I skimmed it and quickly glanced at the entries for my First Comics faves:

- Chaykin wasn't drawing American Flagg anymore.
- Grell had stopped drawing Jon Sable.
- Steve Rude was only intermittently drawing Nexus, although Mike Baron was still writing.

When it came to Whisper, I was never really sure of the direction writer Steven Grant was taking the series when I stopped reading during my Japan years. Lead character Alexis Devin had an ambivalent relationship to her costume and ninja abilities, and only suited up irregularly. At one point, she chucks her life as Alexis and takes on a new identity as Diane Young. There were Japanese and Bolivian crime lords, rogue national security operatives. It was a whole thing.

But then I saw the preview of Whisper in Amazing Heroes, accompanied by an early look at the glorious cover to issue #18 (see accompanying screenshot). I remember coming back to the cover and how infused it was with big brooding energy. Okay, I remember thinking, guess I'm reading Whisper again!

Unfortunately, Whisper the comic couldn't live up to the promise of that amazing cover by Neil Hansen, working under his pen name at the time, "Spyder." Hansen turned in terrific work in his short stint on the series and later went on to work on such characters as the Punisher, the Badger, and even his own creator-driven book for Marvel's Heavy Hitters Epic Comics offshoot, Untamed. All of Hansen's strengths as an artist are reflected in his cover to Whisper #18. A beautiful composition, lush linework, and a barely restrained intensity that would serve him well on characters like the Punisher.

Even though I have focused on artists like Jaime Hernandez during my short time as a collector, this was the first piece I considered trying to track down. I was lucky to strike up a correspondence recently with Neil, who left comics long ago but who held on to a small collection of pieces of his original art, including this cover. What can I say? Some things just stick with you and unlock a particular time, place, and mood.

* I once tried balancing a liquor bottle on my leg. Never quite got the hang of it. Respect to Whisper.