The Brinke of Greatness.

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So I had one of the above comics show up in a collection the other day, a copy of 1994’s Brinke of Eternity autographed by actress and writer Brinke Stevens. And judging by context clues from other items in the collection (price tags and such) there is a very good chance this came from a signing we had at my previous place of employment.

Now at that shop, one of our regular customers was a friend of Brinke’s (and in fact would later script the movie Hybrid in which she was featured) and helped set up the event. Brinke showed up in costume, brought a bunch of photos ‘n’ such to sell, autographed a boatload of comics, and was just as nice as could be. And when I ran into her two or three times in the years after that, she continued to be just an absolutely delightful person.

So the end result was that there are plenty of signed copies of this book floating around out here in Ventura County and surrounding environs, with the usual attrition that happens to many comic collections after thirty years (water damage, dog ate it, stolen by aliens, y’know, the usual). I mean, I’m supposing there are, since I haven’t seen too many over the decades. I’m assuming everyone’s just hangin’ onto them.

There was only one issue for Brinke of Eternity, but the follow-up endeavor Brinke of Destruction in 1995 ran three issues:


Pictured is the first issue with the Boris Vallejo cover. Interestingly, the third issue contains illustrations/pin-up pages by Stan Sakai and Sergio Aragones, with the latter featuring…Groo the Wanderer? Hoo boy, it’s off to eBay for me, I guess.

In 1997, issue #1 was re-released with an audio cassette:


…and, try as I might, I couldn’t find it on YouTube. Either I’m not typing in the right search terms, or somehow the Copyright Cops actually managed to keep it from being uploaded. I’m mostly curious as to the credits…did Brinke herself do any of the voicework?

The next original comic in the “Brinke” series is Brinke of Disaster in 1996:


…and this is surprisingly the only one with a photo cover, featuring Brinke as “Brinke,” and Cynthia Johns as “The Blonde Avenger.”

The final entry in the Brinke Saga — so far — is another iteration of Brinke of Destruction in 1997:


…which was another one-shot, featuring new material and not reprints from the previous Brinke of Destruction series.

So there you go, the Brinke Stevens comics collection. A nice little selection of comics created and/or inspired by a very nice person.Maybe she’ll get back to them someday…may I suggest “Brinke of Ruin,” named after her favorite long-running comics blog, of course?

8 thoughts on “The Brinke of Greatness.”

  2. I was in a low budget film called SMART HOUSE (Not to be confused with the Katey Segal version) that featured the voice of Brinke Stevens as the evil AI. My only claim to fame!

  4. @Joe Sposto

    Back in the ’80s Americomics had a short run of Sybil Danning as Black Diamond–I think it lasted for five issues.

    I don’t know what will be happening with Dynamite Comics now that Diamond has gone belly up, but if they still have the license to use Bettie Page, and if they could negotiate with Brinke Stevens and with the estate of Dave Stevens, I think a really fun miniseries could be made, set in the early ’80s, starting Bettie, Brinke, and Dave.

    I’m not certain on the details as to when Dave befriended Bettie, if it was after he and Brinke were already divorced, or if Bettie and Brinke ever met each other or not, but, since, it would be a comic book story, it could go in any number of directions.

    It could be interesting to have Bettie as her actual age in the early ’80s, or, have Dave and Brinke time travel back to the ’50s and have an adventure with younger Bettie. If they were to travel to the ’50s it would be cool for Dave to meet younger Wally Wood. Maybe they could meet Ed Wood and the actors from Plan 9 from Outer Space. Or, if the story were set in the ’80s maybe we could get cameo appearances by The Cramps or DEVO?

    The main thing would be to get a top notch artist like Adam Hughes, Art Adams, Mike Kaluta, Micheal Golden, or Tim Vigil to illustrate the comic.

  5. No link to the audio, but I did find a pretty good interview with Brinke in (the very NSFW) Scream Queens Illustrated (page 56) about Brinke of Destruction: https://archive.org/details/Scream_Queens_Illustrated_13_1996/page/n55/mode/2up?view=theater

    “and High-Top agreed to package it with a 30-minute audio cassette to recap the prequel, Brinke of Eternity, produced like a classic science fiction radio play. (Accompanying [the] last two issues, we’d do all-new material for two more unique audio tapes.)”

    I wonder if the other audio was ever created?

    The interview also says that “Brinke of Madness” was supposed to be the next series.

  8. why does that first issue look a LOT like a Valiant comic?

    “I’d be keeping a Linea Quigley book selling to this day.”

    OH YEAH.

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