The Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis comic is a four-part adaptation of the video game of the same name. Installments were published by Dark Horse Comics every two months from March to September 1991. All four issues were collected into a trade paperback published with new cover art in June 1992. The entire story was reprinted in Indiana Jones Omnibus: Volume 1 in 2008.
Plot summary[]
Issue 1[]
Late at night on May 5, 1939, Indiana Jones awoke from a dream in which he had been rejected as an offering to Tenochtitlan. In the dream Tenochtitlan had ordered him to be thrown to the crocodiles. Indy had used his Bullwhip to escape them, only to be hit by a rain of arrows. On waking Indy told himself to stop dwelling on the lecture he was giving the day after.
On the morning of May 6, as a stranger approached Barnett College singing "...the morning will come when the world is mine...", Indiana Jones was finishing up his lecture on Indian arrowheads.
Appearances[]
Characters[]
Klaus Kerner as Samuel Corn.
- Indiana Jones
- Tenochtitlan
- Kate
- Jerry Travis
- Klaus Kerner / Samuel Corn
- Marcus Brody
- Jastro
- Klaus Kerner
- Sophia Hapgood aka Madame Sophia
- Roger Fontane
- Nur-Ab-Sal
- Miss McMurphy
- Hans Ubermann
- Thorskald
- Charles Sternhart
- Jutta Schwarzkopf / Beth Addams
- Rodrigo
- Hector Uribe
- Conchita Uribe
- Professor Vladimir Radichenko
- C. Trottier
- Omar Al-Jabbar
- Berber Marksmen
- Habib Ouarzaza
- Arthur Evans (Mentioned only)
- Niklos
- Joseph Stalin (Mentioned only)
- Henry Ford (Mentioned only)
- Adolf Hitler (Mentioned only)
- Charles Lindbergh (Indirect mention)
- Zeus (Mentioned only)
- Midas (Mentioned only)
- Minotaur (Mentioned only)
Locations[]
- Atlantis
- Azores
- Horta
- Germany
- Greece
- Malta
- Capri
- Blue Grotto (Mentioned only)
- Capri
- Greenland
- Iceland
- Mexico
- Monaco
- Morocco
- Moulay Idriss
- Portugal
- Spain
- Soviet Union
- United States of America
- New York
- Barnett College
- New York City
- Park Avenue
- Midtown General Hospital
- Long Island
- New York
- Duke University (Mentioned only)
- Valhalla (Mentioned only)
Artifacts[]
Miscellanea[]
- Fantasia
- Hindenburg (Mentioned only)
- Shergi
Behind the scenes[]
An avid Indiana Jones fan since seeing like seventeen times Raiders of the Lost Ark and being inspired by the title character's spirit for his 1983-1986 independent comic book miniseries Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire, William Messner-Loebs was approached by editor-in-chief Bob Shreck to write Dark Horse Comics' adaptation of the LucasArts video game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, leading Messner-Loebs to refuse a contract he was about to sign with DC Comics for the opportunity to write for Indiana Jones.[1] LucasArts staff member Hal Barwood would later claim in 2024, however, that he wrote all four issues of his game's comic book adaptation due to living in Portland, Oregon, whereas Dark Horse's headquarters were in Milwaukie, the next town down the line, but didn't end up entirely excited with the finished result due to the artist allegedly thinking they knew more about writing than he did and they being wrong.[2]
To prepare, Messner-Loebs phoned Barwood to California and described the game as having barely been initiated. Barwood told him about the algorithms employed but little of the actual narrative beyond the involvement of "globetrotting", thus Messner-Loebs wrote a breakdown of all the details involved in the story to the point, he says, he ended up influencing the game quite a bit. For character names, the writer originally simply mixed and matched the names of the cast and characters from the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown, expecting the source to be easily forgotten during the long production time comics take, which got him a stern lecture from Diana Schultz on Dark Horse and Lucasfilm Ltd.'s behalf. For inspiration, Messner-Loebs drew exclusively upon the Indiana Jones movies. He was just vaguely aware of Marvel Comics' prior book The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones and felt the company's licensed adaptations at that time often suffered from all being give the same tone as their superhero books. Dan Barry got assigned to assist Messner-Loebs as his penciller, but all they had was just one professional chat about the project and rarely talked, as Barry felt he knew what had to be done while Messner-Loebs felt the same despite Schultz's attempts to coordinate everything.[1] Barry took five months to finish the story, which he treated as one part Milton Caniff's action-adventure Terry and the Pirates comic strip and the other part Ray Taylor's 1933 film serial The Perils of Pauline.[3] Dave Dorman was hired to do the covers after contacting publisher Mike Richardson as soon as he heard rumors of Dark Horse getting the license in 1988, resulting in Richardson sending Dorman's art after receiving feedback and guidance from Randy Stradley to Lucasfilm for approval, which they granted, so Dorman completed his art and was given a plot breakdown and some of Barry's interior art for reference.[4]
According to the preview of issue #189 of the Amazing Heroes independent comic news magazine published in March 1991, the comic's original title was going to be Indiana Jones and the Keys to Atlantis.[5] LucasArts staff member Noah Falstein mentioned this was the game's working title[6] and Messner-Loebs confirmed that thus it was the comic's title as well when he came onboard before its change.[1] Furthermore, Marion Ravenwood was going to make an appearance before her inclusion was scrapped due to "too much plot" in the storyline,[5] despite the game the comic adapted not featuring her.[7] Messner-Loebs apparently was kept in the dark of these plans, as he later responded in his IndyCast guest appearance in 2015 that he doesn't know how he would have included Ravenwood. In line with his statements about influencing the game's story, Messner-Loebs created the non-game character Jerry Travis and claims he created Sophia Hapgood by basing her on a friend of his who made a living as a psychic. Messner-Loebs credited Barry for designing the horned beings and the God Machine as the game's developments weren't yet in place at the time.[1] In respect to the covers, Dorman was dissatisfied with his original art for the second issue which had Indy looking at a body frozen in a glacier. Although it was already approved by Lucasfilm, the artist didn't think the design captured the spirit of adventure, so he opted to redraw the cover to give Indy a more dramatic and active pose.[4]
Having moved to Portland, Oregon and with his then-wife Barbara working for Dark Horse, Karl Kesel was asked by Richardson if he would like to work on Indiana Jones comic books, which Kesel eagerly accepted due to a love of the franchise since seeing Raiders five times in theaters. The two then lunched and Richardson offered Kesel the opportunity to ink their Fate of Atlantis adaptation, having already hired Messner-Loebs and Barry as its writer and penciller respectively. When inking the book, Kessel used the drawing style of his idol Milton Caniff's action-adventure Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips as inspiration and started thinking about perhaps doing his own Indiana Jones adventure, for which he talked to Richardson. However, Barry had different ideas for the adaptation and slowly forced Kesel and Messner-Loebs off the comic by its fourth issue.[8] Due to an ear infection Messner-Loebs was suffering plus the fact Richardson favored him, Barry got promoted from penciller to inker then to colorist and finally to writer, in spite of Messner-Loebs having written the first issue and plotted the following three. This led him to not be that curious over seeing the finished product and never signing copies despite having laid most of the groundwork. Thus, Messner-Loebs and almost everyone involved in the comic declined to do any follow-up issues out of tiredness for the experience despite Shreck's hopes of making a continuation akin to their Predator comic book series.[1]
Collections[]
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis TPB
- Omnibus: Volume 1
Cover gallery[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 IndyCast: Episode 216 at IndyCast
- ↑ Best Of 2024 "An Enormous Headache" - The Amazing Story Behind Indiana Jones & The Fate Of Atlantis at TimeExtension
- ↑ Indymag, September 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Indymag, February 2017
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Indiana Jones: The Return of the Great Adventure – Amazing Heroes #189
- ↑ Noah Falstein AMA on Reddit
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
- ↑ IndyCast: Episode 267 at IndyCast