User:The Dark Nebula

The Dark Nebula is an Australian comic superhero created by Tad Pietrzykowski.



The Dark Nebula is the story of Col. Mark Medula, an Australian astronaut who is endowed with power beyond description from beyond the grave as well as hosting the spirit of a dormant vengeful alien warlord, Cerellus, of Caileu.

The character debuted originally in a graphic novel titled 'The Dynamic Dark Nebula' back in 1982. The release of this graphic novel has been regarded as the starting point of the next wave of comics & graphic novels since the hey day of Australian Comics' Golden & Silver Ages.

From there The Dark Nebula found a home in the pages of the Anthology title Cyclone! Australia where, along with Gary Chaloner's Jackaroo, Dave de Vries' Southern Squadron & Tad's other co-creation (along with Glenn Lumsden), The Golden Age Southern Cross set the standard for Australian comics in the late 80's/early 90's. As Cyclone! grew in popularity each character gravitated to their own title, including The Dark Nebula, which enjoyed 8 fine issues, with The Golden Age Southern Cross as the back-up feature. From there the character moved on to short stories in Southern Aurora Comics Presents before taking a break for some years.

Fast forward to 2003 where Tad retooled The Dark Nebula for web release & had new versions of the first two stories in the story rotation made for release on the world-wide web. Quietly working behind the scenes by October 2006 everything was in place to put The Dark Nebula on the web & http://www.thedarknebula.com was in operation. As much of the material from the Cyclone! stable is connected the website also boasts the serialised adventures of The Golden Age Southern Cross & The Southern Squadron.

The State Library of Victoria used The Dark Nebula as the centre-piece of their Heroes & Villains: Australian Comics & Their Creators in 2006 as well as featuring in the on-line version of their Mirror Of The World exhibition.

New full-colour prestige edition graphic novels of The Dark Nebula & The Golden Age Southern Cross as well as Southern Squadron have been made available at http://www.indyplanet.com The continuing adventures of all these characters can be viewed at http://www.thedarknebula.com

From January 2011 The Dark Nebula, The Golden Age Southern Cross & The Southern Squadron were available on Iphones, Ipads & other electronic devices courtesy of Spectrum Pacific Publications & http://www.cloud9comix.com

There are several new Dark Nebula graphic novels in various stages of development.

As of early 2021 the on-going Dark Nebula title resumed with #9. #10 was released in December.

2022 marks The Dark Nebula's 40th anniversary with more new issues being released as well as a couple of separate mini-series.

The Dark Nebula & logo are copyright & trademark of Tad Pietrzykowski. All rights reserved. No reproduction is allowed without the express permission of Tad Pietrzykowski.