A lot happened in 2022! Zestworld Comics, a newsletter driven platform for creator own comics, debuted with  creators like Phil Jimenez, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner and Alex Segura. And Alex Segura had a busy year, including the debut of his novel Secret Identity, which brought together his career as an acclaimed noir mystery author, and his career in comics to tell the story of Carmen Valdez, a 70s comics industry assistant who wants to write comics….until murder gets in the way.

Secret Identity was a critical hit, with positive reactions in the NY Times, Publishers Weekly and everywhere else. Part of its charm was excerpts of Carmen’s “Lynx” comics that drive the plot of the tales. A story within a story, the comics have a creative line-up straight out of the book….while real creators in 2022 are credited with restoring these Triumph comics originals.

In an extensive interview with The Beat’s own Zack Quaintance, Segura revealed that both Carmen Valdez and The Lynx would be reappearing – Carman in a sequel (yay!) and The Lynx as a comic on the Zestworld platform. And today, the LEgendary Lynx reapepared for the first time in nearly 50 years, as Segura wrote:

It all starts here! For the first time in decades, The Legendary Lynx is back! Thanks to archivist Alex Segura, art remastering guru Sandy Jarrell, color retouching master Grey Allison, all-pro production guy Jack Morelli, and collections editor Allison M. O’Toole, readers will get to experience the long out-of-print issues that put Triumph Comics on the map! Once thought lost to the sands of time, Segura, Jarrell and co. have meticulously compiled all of THE LEGENDARY LYNX‘s original 12 issues, featuring the work of writers Harvey Stern and the legendary (and complicated) artist Doug Detmer. Additionally, the remastered series will feature the sole issue written by Carmen Valdez and include the brief (and much-maligned) Jensen/Tinsler run. So dive in and experience one of the 1970s most acclaimed superhero comics – for the first time ever!

The first installment of the Lynx’s return just debuted today on Zestworld and will continue with more pages and stories for eventual print collection. To subscribe to Segura’s newsletter is free, but you’ll need to input an email address to see the web archive version. 

So it’s a pastiche of 70s comics,  part of a cracking good mystery, and part of a whole fictional world drawn from a novel, as with Cavalier and Clay, (another historical nove about the comics industry which also spawned its own print comics line from Dark Horse, The Escapist.) Lots of levels and lot of fun! Subscribe for the further adventures of the Lynx in the link.

Credits:

Issue Credits:
Harvey Stern (writer)
Doug Detmer (artist)
Todd Morelli (letters)
Rich Berger (editor – original series)
Jeffrey Carlyle (President/CEO Triumph Comics)
Alex Segura (editor/archivist)
Sandy Jarrell (art remasters)
Grey Allison (color remasters)
Jack Morelli (production design)
Allison M. O’Toole (reprint editor)