Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 4, 2025 | 4 comments

A doggone good time…

By PETER STONE

In the early ’80s, there was an explosion of unique comics. Some were generated through the Big Two, but many were published by a series of new comics companies like Eclipse, Comico, First Comics, Pacific Comics and the company I’m going to reference today, Fantagraphics.

Love and Rockets was their first major hit, but there were plenty of others — including the seminal interview magazine The Comics Journal — but especially a standout series called Dalgoda.

Written by Jan Strnad and drawn by Dennis Fujitake, Dalgoda was an eight-issue series that debuted in 1984, about an alien who traveled to Earth seeking help against an invading army. (It was followed by other appearances, as well.)

Dalgoda, the main character, is a biped with the DNA of a canine. In other words, he’s a dog-man. His people have discovered an alien race who appear as a series of sentient bubbles and whose only function is to gather and disseminate information.

They let the dog-people know of The Nimp, a race focused on domination. The Nimp plan to invade Dalgoda’s world — Canida — with their bloodthirsty desires, so off he goes to Earth. However, as we all know, making a deal with another society for weapons or aid can be very difficult.

Despite the machinations, Dalgoda is a wonderfully simple story about an alien struggling to save his planet. He becomes fast friends with a stalwart Navy man named Posey, but political forces who don’t want to help the Canidans send killer robots and deadly cyborgs after the pair.

But Dalgoda’s not a muscular, threatening canine/man who could easily defeat humans like some sort of K-9 war dog. He’s actually last in his class of astronauts, and only through an accident does he become the savior of his people. There are moments of political intrigue, but many more of touching humanity between two species. Dalgoda is a lovable hero as well as a loyal friend to Posey.

Strnad, a well-known writer for decades, created a very tight and complex universe to play with. The dialogue is clear and clean, while the twists and turns are unexpected. In my mind, Dalgoda could have run for years. Space battles, betrayals, gunfights, and love stories all drift through the storyline.

Fujitake’s art is heavily influenced by European graphic novels, but with enough American style to make Dalgoda very accessible. His love of Moebius and science fiction allows him to create unique designs for the spaceships and technology, but the real magic is his understanding of how to make a dog-man have human expressions that the reader easily recognizes.

Dalgoda can be furious like a growling, feral beast, or happy like a “good dog” with a wagging tail, or full of sorrow with tears flowing down his furry cheeks. None of the people who inhabit this universe are standard. Each gets a back story and a specific personality. Even a dude carrying boxes is unique.

The action sequences are exciting and full of gunfire and, occasionally, death. The reader is never confused by what is going on or by who is killing whom. Fujitake makes sure that each villain looks different from the heroes. Then, there’s Dalgoda with his dogface, which makes him stand out above all.

If you’re lucky enough to have the original issues, the back-ups include “Grimwood’s Daughter,” one of the first professional stories by the excellent Kevin Nowlan — and another BURIED TREASURE. In the last issue, there’s a back-up by Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse called “The Bojeffries Saga,” about an eccentric British family of vampires, werewolves, and monsters. Earlier Bojeffries stories from the UK’s Warrior appear in the four-part Dalgoda follow-up series Flesh & Bones.

The 12 Dalgoda issues, plus other stories and material, were collected in the The Dalgoda Omnibus, published just this year.

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MORE

— BURIED TREASURE: KEVIN NOWLAN and GRIMWOOD’s DAUGHTER. Click here.

— BURIED TREASURE: Archie Goodwin’s BLAZING COMBAT — 60 Years Later. Click here.

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Peter Stone is a writer and son-in-law of the late Neal Adams. Be sure to check out the family’s online Facebook auctions, as well as the NealAdamsStore.com.