Michael's Long Box: Warrior Nun Areala - The Anime (1997, Antarctic Press Video)
Regular readers of my column know I've amassed a considerable collection of comic paraphernalia ranging from the mildly interesting to the downright bizarre. The stranger, more off-the-wall it is, the more likely I am to add it to the hoard. While I own a spectacular lot of WTF-worthy books, this right here is one I consider a showpiece of the collection.
You normies can keep your Action Comics #1's and Amazing Fantasy #15's and Incredible Hulk #181's all hermetically sealed away in their CGC-graded coffins, maintained in temperature- and humidity-controlled environments. This nonsense right here is what comics are truly all about. Dedicated to @cryplectibles, @blewitt, @bryan-imhoff, and the rest of the nutcases who keep upvoting and commenting on my comic-related junk, I present what is, to my admittedly-limited, knowledge the only instance of a comic book shipping with a VHS tape (as opposed to vice versa). Welcome to Warrior Nun Areala: The Anime - Special "Opening Animation" Edition.
Note: All images are scanned by me from my own sources.
Antarctic Press has luck that could only be described as spectacularly rotten. Creator and owner Ben Dunn struggled for years to grow his plucky little company, and the 90's seemed to be the moment when AP had finally hit its stride: books were flying off the shelves, little-known and first-time artists and writers were making their first steps into the medium, and the credit could be laid solely at the thigh-length boots of one Sister Shannon Masters. Once a plucky but green Warrior Nun in the Vatican's army, Shannon's bravery, steadfastness, and righteous defense of both the innocent and her faith in the face of overwhelming odds should have led to her death.
Instead, it led to her rebirth. Granted the name of Areala, the original Warrior Nun blessed with the supernatural strength and powers of heaven to lead the armies of Earth in the fight against Hell, she returned to her body with both a new cybernetic arm and renewed vigor to oppose the very real demons walking among us.
The plot of Warrior Nun Areala sounds like something dredged out of SyFy's archives at 2am, but the result was nothing less than a phenomenon that rippled across the independent press of the day. WNA outsold every other Antarctic Press book of 1993-94, prompting multiple printings of the original three-issue series, and ensuring we'd see much more of the fearless, sword-slinging redhead in the years to come. Not bad for a character who was initially an unnamed throwaway gag in an issue of Ninja High School.
Following a dip in sales after he left the book in the hands of other artists and writers in 1995, Dunn returned to the title as artist four years later...but why had he left the book in the first place? Ben wanted to move more than comics, and turned his attention to the lucrative potential offered by other merchandising opportunities. While he started out with action figures, doing a test run of a single Areala figure, its success led him to believe there was room for more. He commissioned an entire line of figures, including rarer variants. Their continued sales numbers spawned a set of trading cards, which added more money to the AP coffers. Finally in August of 1997, AP was ready to bring their dreams to fruition: a full-fledged animated, anime-style feature based in the world of WNA featuring Shotgun Mary, Demon Foster, Father Crowe, Tomorrow Man, Lillith the demon princess, Father Gomez, Jason, and, of course, the titular (giggity!) protagonist herself. Phase one of their hard work and investment was this little piece of comic book history.
Warrior Nun Areala: The Anime came in a shrinkwrapped cardboard box, roughly the size of a comic book but with the thickness of a video tape. Opening the box allows you to slide out the inner cardboard sleeve, which is specially formed to hold the VHS tape within, and a small sixteen-page "Special Collector's Edition" comic, bundled loosely into the box:
The book isn't a story, but rather a companion piece to the video. It gives a short two-page introduction to Areala, explaining the various costumes she had worn in the series up to that point and the world she and her friends (and foes) exist in...
...and then turns its attention to the model sheets given to the animators so they could bring Areala's world to life in vivid 32-bit color cels:
These are neat, but what you paid your $19.95 for is the video tape. Let's take a look at it!
The text on the back is likely impossible for you to read, so I'll be a good Zorker and transcribe it. I wouldn't want to give anything less than the full experience of this piece, after all.
The FULL experience, I say!
Welcome. This is Antarctic Press's first video endeavor, and what an endeavor it is! This special introductory video will make you privy to the next step in animation evolution: AMERICAN ANIME. For years, fans have been wanting to see what American comics would look like translated into genuine anime, and for the first time ANTARCTIC PRESS now breaks that barrier! You have before you history in the making! Not only does this tape include the opening promo animation for the upcoming WARRIOR NUN AREALA original animated series, but it also includes commentary on the animation's creative process by BEN DUNN, FRED PERRY, TED NOMURA, and BRIAN DENHAM. Also included are: early stop-motion animation experiments by the ANTARCTIC PRESS crew, model sheets, a brief history of WARRIOR NUN AREALA, news clips, behind-the-scenes footage of ANTARCTIC PRESS, and more!
The twenty-four minute tape, which I am unfortunately unable to provide screen grabs from since I no longer own a VCR, is equal parts awesome and hilarious. Ben Dunn is so earnestly enamored of his creation, but it's clear he never put points into the Public Speaking skill. His delivery is untrained and wooden, even when he should be excited. After introducing the video to viewers, we're treated to the just-over-one minute clip which would serve as the show's opening montage:
After this clip plays, we get awkward Ben Dunn delivering the line, "Wow. Let's see that again."
Just as I punctuated it, and clearly read off cue cards. No joking. It's painfully awkward, and I feel terrible saying so, because I love Ben so much, but...well, it's been twenty years, so hopefully he can forgive me.
Then they play the clip again. In full. Not even joking. :D
The rest of the video is, as advertised, views of model sheets and discussions with other AP staff about the Areala property and AP in general. It's pretty cool, seeing the working environments and being able to put faces to names. It's also kind of funny seeing the video name-drop different people's MySpace pages, but this was 1997 after all. Everybody who was anybody had one. Even you.
So what ultimately happened to the anime?
Well, remember how I said AP suffered from spectacularly rotten luck? In 1997, the bottom was in the midst of collapsing out of the comic book market. Speculators stopped buying books in the hopes of turning a profit, Marvel filed for bankruptcy, and a lot of indie studios shuttered their doors. AP wasn't among those wiped out, but they did see a tremendous crash in the value of their properties, and the largest decline of all came from Areala. Belt-tightening was the order of the day, and first on the chopping block was all the non-comic merchandise Ben had spent the last few years readying for the big time. No more trading cards. No more action figures. No more anime.
Just comics as usual.
In a way, the indicia entry for the comic included with the video tells the whole story. Each individual AP title ran the same info at the bottom of the page, with the exception of a single quote that changed based on the book. For Warrior Nun Areala: The Anime Special Edition Comic, that quote reads:
"It cost a sh*tload of money...but we did it!"
And that, it seems, is that. AP had the misfortune to heavily invest in one of their biggest properties right around the time readers stopped investing in comic books en masse. This wasn't the end of Areala--not by a long shot. She continued her globe-trotting adventures, meeting other 'bad girls' of the era (mainly Razor of London Night Studios, along with Maximum Press's Avengelyne and Glory from Image Comics) in crossovers, starring in her own one-shots as well as longer series, and popping up as a guest star or background character in other AP books. Selfless martyr that she is, Areala made sure a lot of other creators shared in the fortunes of her adventures.
Even today, Areala's an optioned property for a potential film or television series though not much has come of it. Still, it just goes to show: you can't keep a good nun down.
At least not for long.
If you enjoyed this, or have any fun memories of this series, please leave a comment. An upvote would be nice too, seeing as I've caught the attention of the Steemit Defense League, a group of super villains dedicated to flagging everyone and everything they see. Now's your chance to be a hero and (metaphorically) punch a flag-spammer in his comically microscopic wang. "Avengers, assemble!", "Thundercats: ho!", "Autobots: transform and roll out!" and all that.
If you want to see more AP love, make sure to follow me, as December is Areala's 25th anniversary, and I'm planning something special for the glorious occasion. Check out the rest of the #comics group here on Steemit too--even if my weird stuff isn't your thing, I guarantee there are other creators offering stuff which is right up your alley.
Hey @modernzorker, you just received a random 100% upvote for your activity at the @minnowsmith project! Stay tuned and keep mining. :)
I don’t even own a VCR anymore. Lol.
This was a big book back in the day. I have some tucked away...not the VHS though. You are a madman. Lol
Look man, if you don't have room in your life for a VCR, that's cool. But if you don't have room in your life for a thigh-high-boots-wearing, demon-and-devil-ass-kicking, sword-slinging devout Catholic nun...well, I'm not saying we might come to blows, but we might come to blows, if you know what I mean. ;)
I’d love to see that in real life. I’d swing to have a shot at a lady like that. 😜
Your destruction is all but assured, sir. ;)
Rest assured that when I do, I won't need a group of high school cheerleaders to protect me. ;)
But they are strong....and sexy...and in college. Not high school.
I have never heard of this one before, looks interesting. Ok, so I'm not into comics as much as I once had been. But, there was time when I would dive into the comic book store devour anything Spider-man. after spidy, I almost entirely dismissed all of the major comic titles and got interested in the smaller press ones. I found that not only was the art work better and the story lines, but the entire fan base for these smaller groups felt more devoted.
You put your finger right on one of the things I loved about the 90's indie scene. Nobody in all of comic-dom was a bigger fan (in the sense of being passionate about their interest to the point of spending absurd loads of cash on things) than the hardcore indie readers. You could subscribe to DC or Marvel fare and have it delivered to your mailbox, but if you wanted to read stuff from the smaller guys, you had to make the trip to the comic shop.
If the local comic shop didn't carry it, you had to beg them to order it. If you begged and they ignored you, then you went to the next store and tried again. Marvel picking up another reader of X-Men was a drop in the bucket when you were talking about millions of issues sold every week. Picking up another reader, for an indie book, was often a matter of life and death. That was another thirty dollars a year or so they could spend on advertising, hiring guest writers/artists, or just keep the lights on in the studio for another month.
Antarctic Press was special precisely because it didn't do anything the big boys did. They focused on manga and manga-style titles decades before 'manga' became a pop culture phenomenon in the US. Nobody expected Areala to explode the way it did, but they sure as hell used the opportunity to try a bunch of new things because they could afford to risk the money, and I respect the hell out of them for that. :)
My wife got me into a comic called "Elf Quest" it is written and drawn by a husband and wife team and only recently ended after a long long run. Elf Quest has some of the best art work I have seen. It also has a deep story line and offshoots. (makes me want to read one of the comics just thinking about it) but dispute a loyal fan base it never found a main stream popularity. and that's a good thing, because there is something special in fewer people knowing about it, like a secret that is shared between fans. Smaller is definitely better.
You, like my favorite games journalists - Ray Barnholt, Jeremy Parish - manage to make interesting something I otherwise would never care for. I don't know how any of you do it, I really don't, but it's fantastic and I learn all sorts of cool things. :D
The secret is an engaging story. Anybody can write an article or review about a thing, but those things don't exist in a vacuum. They're a product of their times, with all the good and bad that can entail. I start pieces like this with the question: "What is it I want my readers to really know after they're done reading?"
That's the story I tell.
Maybe I should do a more in-depth piece about that, eh @terry93d? :)
Hello. I appreciate you for giving me a comment to help me before. I got the same weird comment on my new post. I don't know what to do. If you have a good idea, please help me.
You have been removed from their list, @sakurasui. :)
Thank you very much. they are very scary.