21 #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free21 #1 is a modest but historically textured artifact of the mid-1990s Top Cow imprint, notable chiefly as one of the earliest professional showcases for Billy Tan Mung Khoy, a Malaysian-born artist who would go on to define the look of Uncanny X-Men and New Avengers at Marvel and Green Lantern at DC. The issue also features a centerfold pin-up by Michael Turner at a moment when he was just beginning to distinguish himself inside the Top Cow studio before his breakthrough co-creation of Witchblade. Together, the two artists' participation makes this three-issue limited series a quiet nursery for two careers that would reshape mainstream superhero comics over the following decade. Beyond talent-spotting, the series represents Top Cow's mid-decade effort to develop original sci-fi and robot-driven IP alongside its supernatural-action flagships.
In this pivotal issue of 21 #1 (1996), Scrap’s victory in a high-stakes race takes a sudden turn when Jagger arrives at his uncle’s junkyard with flames in his eyes—intent on destroying Scrap’s prize. Just as the tension peaks, a mysterious robot named 21 bursts through a strange portal, searching for Dr. Menckan Kline, and throws the situation into chaos. With 21’s help, Scrap barely escapes Jagger’s wrath—only to be pulled through the portal into an unknown world. Written by Len Wein and Marc Silvestri, and brought to life by Billy Tan’s dynamic pencils and a stellar team of inkers and colorists, the cover by Billy Tan and D-Tron captures the moment the portal opens, hinting at a journey far beyond the junkyard.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
21 was conceived as a science-fiction limited series within Marc Silvestri's Top Cow Productions imprint of Image Comics, co-plotted by Silvestri and veteran Marvel writer Len Wein — a pairing that reflected Top Cow's strategy of anchoring new projects with established industry names while promoting emerging house artists. Billy Tan Mung Khoy had entered Top Cow through a talent competition run by Silvestri, and 21 served as one of his first sustained sequential-art assignments in American comics. Silvestri provided the cover for the standard first-print edition, while Tan and Mung Khoy supplied a separate wraparound cover for the direct and newsstand editions, making the first issue a genuine multi-cover launch by mid-90s standards. The complete three-issue run was quickly collected in a trade paperback, 21: The Saga Begins, published by Image in August 1996.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published February 1996 by Image Comics under the Top Cow Productions imprint; the series ran for three issues (Feb–Apr 1996).
- Story plotted by Marc Silvestri and Len Wein; scripted by Len Wein; colors by Ashby Manson; letters by Dennis Heisler.
- Interior pencils by Billy Tan Mung Khoy with inks by Duy Truong (credited as D-Tron), marking one of Billy Tan's earliest professional comics credits after breaking in through a Top Cow talent competition.
- Issue #1 exists in two distinct cover editions: a standard cover by Marc Silvestri and a wraparound cover edition by Billy Tan and Mung Khoy (released in both direct and newsstand formats).
- Includes a centerfold splash pin-up by Michael Turner, D-Tron, and Juan Carlos Rodriguez — Turner was in his early Top Cow tenure, doing background and supporting illustration work before co-creating Witchblade.
- The story introduces the robot character '21,' who arrives through a portal seeking a Dr. Menckan Kline, and a teenage protagonist named Scrap; the series involves time travel to a dystopian future ruled by a corporation called Internex Corp.
- The complete three-issue series was collected in 21: The Saga Begins (Image, August 1996), an 80-page trade paperback with a cover by Billy Tan.
- No known adaptations (film, television, animation) or reprints beyond the 1996 trade paperback have been documented.
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Reprinted in Titans #220 (1998)
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