COLEY: Breathless, Pt. 2

(Continued from COLEY: Breathless)

The 3rd self-published Coley book by John Blackburn was a 147-page graphic novel broken down into 4 chapters.  It was a very complex soap-opera detailing the adventures and interactions and relationships of a dazzling and sometimes confusing number of characters, all of whom seem to get involved with Coley in one way or the other.

TEXT TO BE DETERMINED

As I stressed with the earlier books, I don't own this work, and I'm cleaning up and coloring these stories purely FOR FUN.  But if circumstances present themselves where I am able to re-publish this work at some time, the FIRST thing I'd do would be to contact Blackburn's estate, find whoever it is that owns the Copyrights, and strike a deal to SPLIT any potential profits from such an undertaking.

In the meantime... ENJOY!

BREATHLESS
cover by JOHN BLACKBURN  (John Blackburn / 1991)

"BREATHLESS"  /  Story & Art by JOHN BLACKBURN
Page 24  /  "Our story continues..."

Page 25

Page 26

Page 27

Page 28

Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Don't go away!  Our story will continue...

TEXT TO BE DETERMINED.

Copyright (C) 1991 JOHN BLACKBURN.
New COLOR Copyright (C) 2022 HENRY R. KUJAWA.

Scans from MY collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about John Blackburn at the Prism Comics site.
Read about "Coley Running Wild" at the Graphic Novels Info site.
See my detailed indexes of these books at the GCD site.
See my COLEY overview at this very blog!
Read GreyIrish' review of "Dagger Of Blood" at the
     Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein blog.

Read COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND in COLOR!
Read COLEY: WILD IN THE STREET in COLOR!
Read COLEY: BREATHLESS in COLOR!

Don't miss the 3rd PART of this... coming up next!!!

(Continued in COLEY: Breathless, Pt. 3)

COLEY: Breathless

(Continued from COLEY: Wild In The Street, Pt. 3)

The 3rd self-published Coley book by John Blackburn was a 147-page graphic novel broken down into 4 chapters (the other 3 titles being "The Atomic Blonde", "Voodoo Dancer" and "Flowers of Evil", the latter also being the title of Coley's epic "art film").  It was a very complex soap-opera detailing the adventures and interactions and relationships of a dazzling and sometimes confusing number of characters, all of whom seem to get involved with Coley in one way or the other.

Of the early Coley stories, I got the impression that this was the one that Blackburn was most proud of.  It remains utterly baffling to me that Eros Comix (the now-defunct subsidiary of Fantagraphics) chose not to publish the first 3 books.  This left readers of the 4th book, "RETURN TO VOODOO ISLAND", mostly unaware and/or confused about all the events that led up to it.

As I stressed with the earlier books, I don't own this work, and I'm cleaning up and coloring these stories purely FOR FUN.  But if circumstances present themselves where I am able to re-publish this work at some time, the FIRST thing I'd do would be to contact Blackburn's estate, find whoever it is that owns the Copyrights, and strike a deal to SPLIT any potential profits from such an undertaking.

In the meantime... ENJOY!

BREATHLESS
cover by JOHN BLACKBURN  (John Blackburn / 1991)

Intro Page 1  /  Signature

Intro Page 2  /  Title Page & Pin-Up

Intro Page 3  /  Copyright

Intro Page 4  /  Pin-Up

Intro Page 5  /  Introduction

Intro Page 6  /  Title Page & Pin-Up

Intro Page 7  /  Pin-Up

Intro Page 8  /  Pin-Up

"BREATHLESS"  /  Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

Page 12

Page 13

Page 14

Page 15

Page 16

Page 17

Page 18

Page 19

Page 20

Page 21

Page 22

Page 23

Don't go away!  Our story will continue...

Well, this seemed like the appropriate time to take a break before the next part of the story.  Anyone who's been reading here probably noticed that pages 14-22 were reprinted from the previous book, "WILD IN THE STREET", although there were substantial changes made to page 14.  This gave me a chance to compare the printed artwork, and as I suspected, ALL of the lines in "BREATHLESS" had thickened up compared to the earlier printing, where, by comparison, many of the lines "broke up".  I decided to just re-post the earlier pages AS-IS, as I thought they looked better, and saved me having to clean and color the same pages twice.

It then became just a choice of where to put the break, after page 22 or 23, and as 23 finished up the scene of Coley relating the earlier incident, while 24 begins the next major sequence, I decided to put it here.  There's so many pages in this book, that at this point, I haven't decided how many blog pages I'm going to spread it out over, but I'll just figure it out as I go.

Copyright (C) 1991 JOHN BLACKBURN.
New COLOR Copyright (C) 2022 HENRY R. KUJAWA.

Scans from MY collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about John Blackburn at the Prism Comics site.
Read about "Coley Running Wild" at the Graphic Novels Info site.
See my detailed indexes of these books at the GCD site.
See my COLEY overview at this very blog!
Read GreyIrish' review of "Dagger Of Blood" at the
     Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein blog.

Read COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND in COLOR!
Read COLEY: WILD IN THE STREET in COLOR!
Read COLEY: BREATHLESS in COLOR!

Don't miss the 2nd PART of this... coming up next!!!

(Continued in COLEY: Breathless, Pt. 2)

COLEY: Wild In The Street, Pt. 3

 (Continued from COLEY, Wild In The Street, Pt. 2)

The 2nd self-published Coley book by John Blackburn was a collection of short stories that apparently all took place sometime after his 6 weeks on Voodoo Island.

Jessica returns from the previous episode, and this one involves an incident that winds up leading directly into Blackburn's lengthy graphic novel, "BREATHLESS".  It continues to baffle me to this day that Fantagraphics / Eros never published the first 3 Coley books.  I was so lucky to be able to get copies directly from Blackburn himself!

As I stressed with the 1st book, I don't own this work, and I'm cleaning up and coloring these stories purely FOR FUN.  But if circumstances present themselves where I am able to re-publish this work at some time, the FIRST thing I'd do would be to contact Blackburn's estate, find whoever it is that owns the Copyrights, and strike a deal to SPLIT any potential profits from such an undertaking.

In the meantime... ENJOY!

COLEY, WILD IN THE STREET
cover by JOHN BLACKBURN (John Blackburn / 1989)

"COLEY LOVES HIS BIKE"
Story & Art by JOHN BLACKBURN
Page 25

Page 26

Page 27

Page 28

Page 29

Page 30

Page 31

Page 32

Page 33

Page 34 / pin-up

Page 35 / pin-up

"ON THE EDGE AGAIN"
Story & Art by JOHN BLACKBURN
Page 36

Page 37

Page 38

Page 39

The above story ends rather abruptly!  But don't worry.  It does lead (more or less) directly into the BIG soap-opera graphic novel, "BREATHLESS".  When will I get to that?  NO idea!  But, I guess we'll see.

This pin-up here looks much sharper than the above story, suggesting to me it was done sometime later.  (Or, maybe, earlier.  Can't really say!)

Page 40 / pin-up

John apparently cut up the original art when the books were printed and included a panel in the back of each copy.  Here's the one included in mine.

Page 41 / original art ("ROLLER BOOGIE HOTROD")

Copyright (C) 1989 JOHN BLACKBURN.
New COLOR Copyright (C) 2022 HENRY R. KUJAWA.

Scans from MY collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa.

For more:
Read about John Blackburn at the Prism Comics site.
Read about "Coley Running Wild" at the Graphic Novels Info site.
See my detailed indexes of these books at the GCD site.
See my COLEY overview at this very blog!
Read GreyIrish' review of "Dagger Of Blood" at the
     Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein blog.

Read COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND in COLOR!
Read COLEY: WILD IN THE STREET in COLOR!

(Continued in COLEY: Breathless, Pt. 1)