MISC. MANGA, *Gizmo

Sometime before Gremlins came out, a different character with the same name of the movie's mascot came out in underground comics by Michael Dooney. Gizmo was a reoccurring segment in various independent comics, specifically under Mirage Studios who most will know as the company that premiered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In fact, his adventures take place in the same universe as the TNMT, sometimes in the background, but mainly in a 2-issue crossover with Turtles regular Fugitoid. The black-and-white comic was a sci-fi comedy which in retrospect is similar to certain 80s manga.

Gizmo Sprocket is a shiny robot that cruises through the stars in his spacebound coupe with its snappy onboard computer Soto. In the first issue of his 6-issue mini-series, Gizmo has a fateful reunion with his longtime buddy Fluffy Brockleton, a fluffy canine-humanoid looking more like a polar bear than a dog. Their galactic tours has them coming across a multitude of enigmatic strangers including a ghostly stellar goddess, a world modeled after Wizard Of Oz, and a thinly veiled tribute to Space Ghost. These escapades can go from slapstick comedy to stylish space operas, and its non-colored format adds even more to the underground comics of the 80s.

Gizmo is a fine example of counterculture media which still resonated after the 70s during the later half of the Bronze Age of comics. There were quite a number of other space humor titles of the time such as Albedo, but Gizmo was a tad cleverer with amazing character designs. Creator Michael Dooney went on to design toys as well as doing artwork for nose cones on military aircraft. There is a paperback titled The Collected Gizmo which assembles the entire mini-series along with a few other back-up stories from various publications, so keep your eyes peeled for this elusive treasure.