Innovation's '91 DS Comic, Book 3

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Let me take a guess. Sarah was only posing as a London Bridges singer reject from Kids Got Talent. She was in fact a paranormal private investigator like a ghostly Mannix solving murders and bringing closure from the great beyond.

Maybe.    But that's not my theory...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

There isn't much more to share from this issue. Page 29 is Innovation's usual ad for their Anne Rice's The Queen of the Damned and Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire comics. And Page 30 is their usual ad for their Quantum Leap comic. But Page 31 is unusual given what happened very soon after this issue mailed:

And here's the thirty-first page:

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

Who knows what that ad might have been heralding? We'll never know. But as I said when I posted the last page of the letters column, the fact that there is no preview for Book 3, Issue 2 on the letters column's last page, as had been normal practice, may not have meant that there is no preview because they knew they were going out of business - not when a few pages later there's an ad like that. Or maybe they were just hopeful that some miracle would happen and they wouldn't go out of business so they still included Page 31's ad in the issue. Another thing we'll never know...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And now we'll be getting to the last to share from this issue. Page 32 is an Innovation ad for something that supposedly was going to be "beginning next month": a two part mini-series entitled Lost In Space: Project Robinson. Apparently according to the ad, Part 1 was to feature the early life of Dr. Maureen Robinson, and Part 2 was to feature the early life of Professor John Robinson. Who knows if either ever came out? And while the inside back cover had always featured promotions for DS merchandise and the addresses for ShadowGram and the Fest, the back inside cover of this issue is a ballot to fill out for the Comic Buyer's Guide 1993 Fan Awards. (And yes, Favorite Painter is one of the categories - what a shame Gothick and patrickm probably never got the chance to vote for Felipe Echevarria!  ) Which brings us to the back cover:

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version) (without any of the artifacts that the forum's system created when downsizing the image))

And one does have to wonder if it was really such a good idea to have Jose Pimentel draw the back cover head portraits. Doesn't his excellent depictions of the characters only call more attention to Felipe Echevarria's often, um, unique take on the characters? But I suppose we're not supposed to go there...

And don't think for a second that this will be the last post in this topic or even the last topic on the Innovation DS comics. No, no, no. There's still more material regarding Book 3, including images that were never released (though none were done by Felipe Echevarria, and I know how extremely disappointing that must be to learn  ). And there's material regarding completely unreleased Book 4, including images that were never released. And when I dug out SG #67 today to scan, I discovered more '93 NYC Fest photos...

[patrickm]

I do have a little inside info about the 2 Innovation Dark Shadows posters I might post.

[Uncle Roger]

I do remember reading the Maureen Robinson issue. I thought that it was well done. I don't remember if I read the John Robinson issue or not. But I recall reading an issue that gave the back story of Judy Robinson. Judy was the most underdeveloped character on the show. I was amused to see that she had given up a promising  career in musical theater to join her family on the Jupiter 2. Judy had apparently appeared in a production of Cats.

[KMR]

Who knows what that ad might have been heralding? We'll never know. But as I said when I posted the last page of the letters column, the fact that there is no preview for Book 3, Issue 2 on the letters column's last page, as had been normal practice, may not have meant that there is no preview because they knew they were going out of business - not when a few pages later there's an ad like that. Or maybe they were just hopeful that some miracle would happen and they wouldn't go out of business so they still included Page 31's ad in the issue. Another thing we'll never know...

Perhaps what the kids see coming is the demise of Innovation...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

When I made this post -

Here's the seventh page -

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

...

- I hadn't found this version of the page -

(Click here for a 1070X1075 version)

- without the dialogue bubbles...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Now that the "Everyone In Collinsport's Favorite Word Slideshow" is in full swing I can finally get back to finishing this topic. Nothing like a 3 month hiatus.    But as it turns out perhaps my theory of how Book3_Issue 1 most certainly seems to be set around the same time period that Books 1 & 2 are set isn't a valid theory after all - not after reading what I plan to post after this post. However, just for the sake of actually posting the theory, it hit me after Sarah's remark to David on Page 17 about the turning path -

 - and then how the issue concludes with Sarah telling Robin that they're on the turning path and she's going to show Robin some things, that perhaps Sarah can travel through time on the turning path. If so, the reason David Campiti kept insisting that Book 3 takes place right before 1790, around the time of eps 6 & 7 could be  in Issues 2 through 4 of Book 3 Sarah travels via the turning path to that time and that's how Book 3 takes place at that later time in the '91 Series. It seemed like that might have been reinforced by how Campiti also remarked that Book 3 explores Sarah's world. But as logical an assumption as all that may seem, a remark from what I'm going to post from SG #67 definitely seems to shoot it down. So who knows...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's what SG #67 from January 1994 had to share about Innovation:

From the issue's editorial:

And from inside the issue:

Certainly interesting from the standpoint of Innovation's closure. But again, Campiti makes a bizarre remark: 'Innovation released Book 3/#1, first in the "A Motion & A Spirit" ghost story about Sarah Collins. By Scott Rockwell with Felipe Echevarria's art, it's placed shortly before Victoria's time travel episodes begin.' Uh, no, clearly Book 3_Issue 1 is not placed in that time frame! And since my theory was simply trying to offer that Book 3 might have jumped to that later time period in subsequent issues, it in no way reconciles how Campiti claims that Issue 1 is already taking place then. But I throw my hands into the air and give up! Clearly there's no way to reconcile Campiti's remarks with the reality of what takes place in Issue 1.
 
And while it's probably not the least bit surprising given how many delays the comics experienced, it's fascinating nonetheless that Scott Rockwell hadn't even completed all of the scripts for Book 3!

But from here on we'll move on to more pleasant things, like unused art work, more Fest photos, and some other stuff...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And here's the first far more interesting thing: artwork for the cover of an upcoming issue of Book 3 -

(Click here for a 2494X3000 version)

- though it wasn't specified which issue...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's what SG #67 had to say about DC's proposed movie based on the '91 DS Series. As I said before, even though nothing ever came of the project, it's still fun to read how it progressed and how it was publicized -

- though this isn't all that different from what was said in SG #66 back in October of 1993 (See reply #15).

[Uncle Roger]

Has this script ever surfaced?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Not that I'm aware of, though I would love to read it! Somewhere along the way we learned that Barbara Steele co-wrote it and she teased that she made sure that quite a few new twists and turns were added. But alas...

[Uncle Roger]

I guess that KLS never got ahold of it!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Updates from SG #67 about the AKI models and the Abbelare watches with some interesting info regarding each:

I wonder how many fans were actually willing to pay nearly double the price to get their models already assembled and painted? It will be interesting to see if there's any indications in SG #68 of how that deal went over.

And it's interesting that QVC offered the watches but didn't showcase them or use the info Marcy provided. And one has to wonder what the hell QVC was thinking to offer them during a section on Milton Berle videos?! Sure, the watches and the videos are both TV related, but they're so far removed from each other as to be a ridiculous pairing!!