Category: Biography

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Dark Avenger: The Strange Saga of The Shadow (Will Murray Pulp History Series)


By Will Murray, illustrated by Frank Hamilton, Rick Roe, Colton Worley, Joe DeVito & various (Odyssey Publications)
ISBN: 979-8-36971-672-4 (PB/Digital edition)

In the early 1930s, just as the Great Depression hit hardest, The Shadow afforded thrill-starved Americans measured doses of extraordinary excitement via shoddily produced periodical novels and over eerily charged airwaves via an iconic radio show.

The “Pulps” were a blend of book and monthly magazine, made exceedingly cheaply and published by their hundreds in every style and genre. The results ranged from truly excellent to pitifully dire, but for exotic or esoteric adventure-lovers there were two stars who outshone all others in terms of quality and sheer imagination. The Superman of his day was Doc Savage, whilst the premier relentless creature of the night darkly dispensing grim justice was the enigmatic vigilante discussed here.

Detective Story Hour licensed and dramatised stand-alone crime yarns from Street & Smith publication Detective Story Magazine, deploying a spooky-toned narrator (variously Orson Welles, James LaCurto or Frank Readick Jr.) to introduce each tale and set the scene and mood. Think of it as just like our Jackanory, but for grown-ups and rather toned down….

The anonymous usher absolutely obsessed listeners and became known as “the Shadow”. From the very start on July 31st 1930, he was more popular than the stories he highlighted…

Dark Avenger: The Strange Saga of The Shadow is a beguiling and utterly compelling history of how the phenomenon occurred: revealing exactly how that voice evolved through sheer popular demand, smart business acumen and the writing find of a generation, to manifest as proactive character/brand The Shadow: solving instead of narrating mysteries, defending the innocent and punishing the guilty, and reshaping how the public viewed its leisure and entertainments.

Thanks to fervent and incessant demand, on April 1st 1931, the sepulchral stranger began mastering newsstands in his own adventures, mostly written by incredibly prolific and astounding gifted Walter Gibson. He was a journalist, author, historian and aficionado of stage magic and legerdemain who broke records and sired legends under the house pseudonym “Maxwell Grant”.

On September 26th 1937, the radio show was officially rebranded as The Shadow and the menacing call-&-response motto “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Men? The Shadow knows!” resonated out unforgettably over the nation’s airwaves and into common cultural currency.

Over the next 18 years, 325 novels were published, usually at the rate of two a month. The uncanny crusader infested comic books, movies, newspaper strip and all the hoopla and merchandising paraphernalia you’d expect of an indisputable superstar.

The pulp series officially ended in 1949, although Gibson and others added to the canon during the 1960s when a pulp/fantasy revival gripped the world. This trend generated reprinted classic yarns and new contemporary stories in paperback novels from Belmont Books, catapulting the sinister sentinel back into print in both books and especially comics.

In graphic terms The Shadow had always been a major player. His national newspaper strip – by Gibson & Vernon Greene – launched on June 17th 1940 and, when comic books really took off, the Man of Mystery had his own four-colour title; running from March 1940 to September 1949. Stablemate Doc Savage was also present in his own solo strip…

Archie Comics published a controversial contemporary reworking in 1964-1965, crafted by Robert Bernstein, Jerry Siegel, John Rosenberger & Paul Reinman under their Radio/Mighty Comics imprint. In 1973, DC acquired the rights, producing a captivating, brief and definitive series of classic sagas unlike any other superhero comic on the stands. Thereafter, DC periodically revived the venerable vigilante and even made him an official influencer of Batman…

After the triumph of Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, Howard Chaykin was allowed to utterly overhaul the vintage vigilante for an audience at last acknowledged as mature enough to handle some sophisticated fare. This led to further, adult-oriented iterations and one cracking outing from Marvel, before Dark Horse assumed the license for the latter half of the 1990s and beyond.

There’s been another movie (1994) and the promise of still another, whilst Dynamite Entertainment secured the comic book option in 2011: reissuing much of those other publishers’ earlier efforts, and releasing fresh Shadow comics sagas closely adhering to the tone, timing and continuity of the pulp epoch.

In prose, new novels by the author of this mighty monograph have followed, including a fan’s dream teaming of the Man of Mystery and Man of Bronze…

Just as compelling as the stories themselves is how the Dark Avenger was born and precisely how he changed the world. This dossier details how it all came about in fascinating detail, beginning in a ‘Preface’ revealing how Will Murray’s 1970’s fanzine Duende has been retooled and remastered. Sharing the secrets and setting the scene, ‘The Men Who Cast The Shadow’ recounts precisely how The Shadow came to be: introducing the hidden men who made him and telling the tale of wonder scribe Walter Gibson.

What follows is a critical appreciation and outline of the publishing phenomenon, divided into discreet eras and tracked by cited individual issues. The formative cases are covered in ‘Phase One, 1931-1934: The Living Shadow to The Chinese Disks’, laying out how Gibson/Dent crafted fortnightly thrillers whilst building a supporting cast, core mythology, rogues gallery and new ways to enchant and confound readers.

The literary deconstruction continues with a period of confident experimentation in ‘Phase Two, 1934-1936: The Unseen Killer to Crime, Insured’, the pivotal payoffs of ‘Phase Three, 1933-1940: The Shadow Unmasks to Crime Undercover’ and confidant consolidation of ‘Phase Four, 1941-1943: The Thunder Kings to The Muggers’.

Firmly established and perhaps more risk-averse because of it, ‘Phase Five, 1943-1946: Murder By Moonlight to Malmordo’ deals with a managed decline. Wartime restrictions, substitute and auxiliary writers like Theodore Tinsley, as well as the series sheer age and ponderous back canon, augured a lack of assured spontaneity, even though the vigilante was now a cinema star too.

Another supplemental scripter signalled interim era ‘Phase Six, 1946-1948: The Blackest Mail to Reign of Terror’ as Noir-tinged, post-war attitudes and style infiltrated the established mystery detective oeuvre before the end came with a too-late return to first principles in ‘Phase Seven, 1948-1949: Jade Dragon to The Whispering Eyes’…

Although the magazine was gone, certain shadows lingered in the place where he’d begun. The 325th and final issue of The Shadow was cover-dated Summer1949, but his radio crusades against crime continued until December 21st 1954. As the Sixties unfolded he was back on the airwaves again, in comics and in new tales, whilst outside America he never went away. The British Shadow magazine, for example, kept on going until 1957…

Wrapping up the investigations, ‘Epilogue’ explores those later years and discusses that Batman connection and influences, before we learn a bit more of the backroom boys. That includes illustrator Joe DeVito in ‘About the Artist’, “angel” Dave Smith in ‘About our Patron’ and Murray himself in ‘About the Author’.

If you’re addicted to classic pulp fiction but need more than just the stories, you really need to check out Will Murray. New prose stories continue the primal legends of Doc Savage – including sidebar novels starring his phenomenal kinswoman Pat Savage; The Spider; the C’thulu mythos; Sherlock Holmes; King Kong; The Green Lama; The Bat; The Avenger; The Shadow; The Destroyer (Remo Williams); and Tarzan even as his astoundingly accessible scholarly books about the characters, era and especially creators, published as the Will Murray Pulp History Series.

You’ll probably want to see – or may already enjoy – Murray’s comics too: gems like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (co-created with Steve Ditko), Spider-Man, Hulk, The Destroyer, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Secret Six, The Spider, The Gray Seal, Ant-Man, Green Hornet, Zorro, The Phantom and many more…

When Sherlock Holmes wrote such informational tracts like this one, they were called monographs. These days we just call them unmissable.
© 2022 Will Murray. All rights reserved.

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Frida Kahlo – Her Life, Her Work, Her Home


By Francisco de la Mora, translated by Lawrence Schimel (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-10-2 (HB)

The creation and crafting of an image is infinitely variable and the response to it even more so: dependant entirely upon the mood, status, attitude and temperament of the viewer. Even that interaction is absolutely certain to shift and change from moment to moment.

The wedding of image to text is a venerable, potent and astoundingly evocative discipline that can simultaneously tickle like a feather, cut like a scalpel and hit like a steam-hammer. And again, repeated visits to a particular work will generate different reactions according to the recipient’s emotional and physical snapshot state.

The art of comics is a nigh-universal, overwhelmingly powerful medium lending itself to a host of topics and genres, but the area where it has always shone brightest is in its chimeric capacity for embracing incisive biography or autobiographical self-expression. Whether fictionalised narratives or scrupulously candid personal revelations, such forays inevitably forge the most impressive and moving connections between reader/viewer and author.

That alchemy is further enhanced when the subject under scrutiny is also fundamentally chimeric, fascinating, infinitely engaging and revelatory. Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 and died in 1954. In between those years, she lived an extraordinary life: one filled with pain, triumph, loss, silently-suffering endurance, astounding creativity and, always, passion.

She travelled the world many times over, yet barely escaped her bed for months at a time; joined with modern legends, and added immeasurably to the culture and beauty of existence. She is at once a modern deity and icon of her beloved Mexico and a universal example of the power and perseverance of female creativity and determination. Frida is an inspirational role model whose influence grows stronger every day…

Designated part of SelfMadeHero’s Art Masters imprint, Frida Kahlo – Her Life, Her Work, Her Home is a visually resplendent celebration of what made and shaped her, devised with great care by cartoonist Francisco de la Mora – who also gave the same treatment to her male counterpart and occasional husband in the award-winning companion volume Diego Rivera.

De la Mora’s other efforts include a regular monthly graphic residency in the Hackney Citizen, tales like El Infierno: Bienvenido Paisano and an 8-volume Brief History of Mexico…

Here, the author uses Kahlo’s paintings as a springboard for leaping headlong into her momentous, contradictory life. Her images become a fulcrum balanced on her beloved family home Casa Azul (“the Blue House”) and her story is told in diary extracts and quotes from her biographers and the great and the good. Completed works and contemporary historical accounts reconstruct and demonstrate how a vivid and vivacious child at the centre of pivotal political events overcame a lifetime of hard knocks. Kahlo faced polio, life-altering crash injuries, untrustworthy, unfaithful men, miscarriage, constant gender iniquity and inequality, isolation and a life of constant unrelenting pain, reshaping the world of painting and restoring pride to and in her country…

Augmenting the visual odyssey is a forthright and effusive Foreword by Circe Henestrosa (Head of the School of Fashion, LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore) preceding a range of added extras at the rear: a highly detailed and informative illustrated chronology of ‘Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)’, a full ‘Bibliography’, commentary ‘Notes’ on specifics images used in the text and a fulsome ‘Acknowledgements’ section.

Kahlo has become a household name since her death and her images and life have become common cultural currency and a symbolic especially amongst women, the socially disenfranchised, fringe dwellers, outsiders fighting against ingrained toxic masculinity and in fact anyone attuned to narratives of endurance, resistance, suffering, othering and simple common cruelty. Her life of pain has blossomed into a stunning lexicon of beauty that for many will begin by picking up this colourful but challenging chronicle of coping and comfort.
© 2023 Francisco de la Mora/Sara Afonso. Foreword © Circe Henestrosa. All rights reserved.

Frida Kahlo – Her Life, Her Work, Her Home is published on 16th March 2023 and available for pre-order now.

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The Provocative Collette


By Annie Goetzinger, translated by Montana Kane (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-170-3 (HB)

Publisher NBM struck pure gold with their line of European-created contemporary arts histories and dramatized graphic biographies. This one is one of the very best but is tragically still only available in physical form. Hopefully that oversight will be addressed soon as it is a most enticing treat: diligently tracing the astoundingly unconventional early life of one of the most remarkable women of modern times.

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (January 28th 1873 – August 3rd 1954) escaped rural isolation and stagnation via an ill-considered marriage but, by sheer force of will and an astonishing gift for self-expression, rose to the first rank of French-language (and global) literature through her many novels and stories. The one you probably know best is Gigi, but you should really read a few more such as La Vagabonde or perhaps The Ripening Seed…

For her efforts she was elected to the Belgian Royal Academy in 1935 and France’s Académie Goncourt a decade later. She became its President in 1949, the year after she was nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her grateful country also celebrated her as Chevalier (1920) and Grand Officer (1953) of the Légion d’honneur.

Colette’s relentless search for truths in the arena of human relationships – particularly in regard to women’s independence in a hostile and patronising patriarchal society – also led her to pursue freedom of expression through dance, drama, acting & mime, in film and as a journalist.

The fact that – for most of her early life – men controlled her money also prompted her far-reaching career path until she finally managed to win control of her own destiny and coffers…

Our drama unfolds in 1893 as 20-year-old Sidonie-Gabrielle readies herself for her wedding to prestigious and much older music journalist Henry Gauthier-Villars. The great man is celebrated nationally under his nom de plume “Willy”.

That’s also the name under which he will publish his wife’s first four, hugely successful Claudine novels whilst pocketing all the profits and attendant copyrights…

Eventually breaking free to live a life both sexually adventurous and utterly on her own terms, Colette never abandoned her trust in love or reliance on a fiercely independent spirit. And she shared what she believed about the cause of female liberty with the world through her books and her actions…

This bold, life-affirming chronicle was meticulously crafted by the superb and much-missed Annie Goetzinger (18th August1951 – 20th December 2017). Tragically it was her last in a truly stellar career. The award-winning cartoonist, designer and graphic novelist (The Girl in Dior, The Hardy Agency, Félina, Aurore, Marie Antoinette: Phantom Queen, Portraits souvenirs series) supplied here sumptuous illustration perfectly capturing the complexities and paradoxes of the Belle Epoque and the wars and social turmoil that followed. Her breezy, seductively alluring script brings to vivid life a wide variety of characters who could so easily be reduced to mere villains and martinets, but instead resonate as simply people with their own lives, desires and agendas…

The scandalous escapades are preceded by an adroit and incisive Preface from journalist and author Nathalie Crom: and bookended with informative extras such as ‘Literary References’, and full ‘Chronology’ of the author’s life, plus potted biographies of ‘Colette’s Entourage’: offering context and background on friends, family and the many notables inevitably gathered around her.

Additional material includes a suggested Further Reading and a Select Bibliography.

A minor masterpiece honouring a major force in the history and culture of our complex world, this book should be at the top of the reading list for anyone who’s thought “that’s not fair” and “why do I have to?”

The Provocative Colette is a forthright and beguiling exploration of humanity and one you should secure by any means necessary.
© DARGAUD 2017 by Goetzinger. All rights reserved. © 2018 NBM for the English translation.

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Invisible Men – The Trailblazing Black Artists of Comic Books


By Ken Quattro, and featuring material by Adolphus Barreaux Gripon, Elmer Cecil Stoner, Robert Savon Pious, Jay Paul Jackson, Owen Charles Middleton, Elton Clay Fox & George Dewey Lipscomb, Clarence Matthew Baker, Alvin Carl Hollingsworth, Ezra Clyde Jackson Alfonso Greene. Eugene Bilbrew, Orrin C. Evans, George J. Evans Jr., John H. Terrell, William H. Smith, Leonard Cooper, Calvin Levi Massey & various (IDW/Craig Yoe Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68405-586-9 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68406-912-5

I’ve spent a lot of time here talking about “firsts” and “breakthroughs”, “role models” and changes in culture, and frankly, I’m not apologizing for any of it. We are not just the Naming ape and the Making ape, we’re also the Worshipping ape: contriving a never-ending blend of guesses, fiction and unexplained phenomena to bolster our courage, feed our hopes and explain away bewildering mysteries.

No other animal worships anything or uses supposition to build a model of the universe. Well, maybe cats do, but only in front of refrigerators. I’m still pondering that one and I’ll get back to you…

In comics we have always noted what hero and villain does what, mused on how that affects the reader and generally congratulated ourselves on how far we’ve come. What we don’t do so often is focus on how those comics are made, who did the work and how their lives were and are shaped by and impacted upon in what has always been a very hard-hearted if not actually cutthroat commercial industry.

For decades, a notion persisted that American comic books and the newspaper and magazine strips they grew out of were the sole preserve and creation of white men. It’s a blatant lie of omission fuelled by ignorance and apparent lack of interest. In recent years, as the world of word/picture stories became both an acceptable art form and cultural wellspring as valid and profitable – and high-fallutingly pompous – as movies, ballet or even jazz, it’s a belief that has been thoroughly challenged and utterly rubbished.

This superb, Award-winning collection drives a final great big stake through the notion by detailing the lives of black contributors to and workers in comics who were unnecessarily neglected and sidelined from the start. Here is a catalogue of almost universally unsung stars whitewashed out of comics history – just like in so many other areas of human endeavour over the last three centuries…

This scholarly examination details and commemorates the artists (some of whom you may have even heard of), threading and weaving them back into the full tapestry through a concise history of America’s negro culture spanning the end of slavery to the latter quarter of the last century. when the Civil Rights movement reminded white America and the wider western world that black people still dwelt amongst them and would no longer tolerate being Separate and (un)Equal…

Published under the aegis of Craig Yoe’s pioneering, tireless efforts to legitimise the world of funnybooks, Invisible Men is Compiled and written by author, essayist and historian Ken Quattro (Hoo-Hah!, The Al Williamson Reader). It shines a light on dozens of African Americans who contributed to the burgeoning comic book field. Many also had lengthy careers in a parallel but unspoken, black-only publishing industry (to which, just like the movies, made books, comics and magazines white audiences were utterly oblivious). Others were not so fortunate…

These personal histories are supported by copious examples of their work and even the other sort of stories: complete strips to read and enjoy, elevating this collection beyond mere historical tract and cultural correction whilst conveying and sharing the joyous exuberance and “anything goes mentality of Golden Age” comics entertainments…

Setting the scene is an Introduction from archaeologist, cultural anthropologist and comics fan Stanford W. Carpenter, PhD, addressing the vast, varied and deliberately buried social and racial mix that was almost uniformly subverted to a male, white, Anglo-Saxon sensibility and agenda in the natal moments of the comics industry…

Then Quattro’s essay ‘Seeing the Unseen’ scrupulously details the lousy, dangerous working world for non-white mass media artists and how the situation so-slowly altered over decades. He also bravely takes the bull by the horns in addressing the ever-shifting terminologies used to define racial (and religious) differences over decades. If even reading certain words or mercifully archaic and obsolete phrases might cause you difficulties, you’re better off stopping here and staying unenlightened. We’ll just go on without you…

The first candidate for your attention is ‘Adolphus Barreaux Gripon – Visible Man, Invisible Pioneer’ and he is the perfect example to discuss the far from clear-cut social scene of this era. Well-educated and relatively well-off, he was also called Adolphe Leslie Barreaux and was officially classified by the US Census Bureau as “mulatto”. For many that meant he was just white enough to acceptable…

He worked as a magazine illustrator, newspaper strip artist and – when comic books were born – drew those too. Here, that translates to beautiful examples of The Enchanted Stone of Time (Dell’s The Comics), Flossie Flip (a regular of the Police Gazette), Dragon’s Teeth from Champion Comics, and the legendarily salacious Sally the Sleuth (Private Detective Stories, Crime Smashers). His entry concludes with Sally saga ‘Death Bait’, as seen in Private Detective Stories volume 21, #3 from June 1949.

‘Elmer Cecil Stoner – Harlem Renaissance Man’ traced his lineage back to George and Martha Washington (before the first First Lady freed his ancestors), and became a prominent artist in Pennsylvania. His comics efforts included The Golden Age Blue Beetle, The Challenger and Phantasmo whom he created for Dell’s The Funnies. After WWII he moved into producing commercial and promotional comics as well as high profile advertising work. His major contribution here is ‘The Threat from Saturn’ as originally seen in The Blue Beetle #34, September 1944 and biographic strip ‘Rev. Ben, Fighter of Fascism’ (detailing the life of black anti-fascist preacher Ben Richardson from 1945’s The Challenger #1).

Money talks and at this juncture enforced egalitarianism. The new big thing in entertainment was exploding and publishers needed pages filled as cheaply as possible, even if they had to be written, drawn and lettered by black people or even women…

Legendary designer and Civil Rights activist ‘Robert Savon Pious – The Afrocentric Historian’ is represented by many of his most important works. However we’re focussing on his early strips The Dopes, Blue Bolt covers and Kalthar the Giant Man (Zip Comics). Also on show is informational feature ‘Facts on the Negro in World War Two’ with horror classic ‘The Ghost from Algol’ (Adventures into the Unknown #8: December 1949/January 1950). Tragically short-lived ‘Jay Paul Jackson – an Artist Apart’ is celebrated in many racy works (such as Tisha Mingo, Speed Jaxon and Home Folks) from black newspapers; patriotic cartoons and paintings and his only known comic book strip ‘Blond Garth’ (from Colossus Comics #1, March 1940).

Troubled ‘Owen Charles Middleton – Resilient Idealist’ reveals a talented creator who spent much of his as an incarcerated black man, union worker, and American political campaigner. His art entries include paintings, political advertising imagery, newspaper cartoons and comics such as Fawcett’s Spy Smasher. His complete tale is ‘Two Months in the Bush’ from Dell’s War Heroes #5 (July-September 1943).

The contrasting lives of ‘Elton Clay Fox & George Dewey Lipscomb – The Progressive and the Professor’ displays Fax’s landmark posters for the NAACP and his rousing anti-“Jim Crow” newspaper cartoons. Less well known are pioneering teen magazine Young Life, syndicated biographical panel cartoon ‘They’ll Never Die’, cover/interior illustrations from Dr. George Washington Carver, Scientist and extracts from the Classics Illustrated newspaper serial. Also on view are Susabelle and Afro Comics strips, as well as a complete Bull’s-Eye Bill episode from Target Comics (vol. 6, #3 May 1945). Lipscombe’s contribution is the script for African adventure strip ‘Simba Bwana – Lion Master!’, limned by Fax for Jack Armstrong #1 (November 1947).

If the nebulous cohort of black comics artists had a super star, it was absolutely ‘Clarence Matthew Baker – The Natural’ who lived fast, drew lots and died notoriously young. Matt Baker is famed for racy sexy adventure, but he evolved into a sublimely gifted master illustrator of subtle drama and romance. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Baker did most of his work in comic books, as seen here in covers for Phantom Lady, Seven Seas Comics, Cinderella Love and Teen-Age Temptations. Interior Tiger Girl pages complement extracts from Canteen Kate – an early, outrageous “crossdresser” challenging those hidebound male role models…

Examples of his magazine illustration work comes from Pulp Mystery Tales #6 and the Flamingo newspaper strip, but the true gold here is the complete Voodah adventure from Crown Comics #3. Cover-dated Fall 1945, it featured the first clearly, indisputably black hero in American comics: an otherwise standard jungle god type character battling white hunters and marauding natives. By issue #6, the editors had noticed what was happening and Voodah magically and without fuss turned into a far more believable white guy king of the jungle…

Baker is so darned wonderful that his chapter includes a second complete strip with the improbably pneumatic Phantom Lady polishing off ‘The Subway Slayer!’ in a wild romp from the appropriately dubbed All Top Comics #12 (July 1948)…

A pre-eminent illustrator of a later era, ‘Alvin Carl Hollingsworth – The Young Professional’ blends fascinating tales of the educational opportunities enjoyed by young black and ethnic artists (like Joe Kubert or Alex Toth) with later adult success. Many comic books ultimately benefited from New York’s forward-looking scholastic integration policies as seen in images re-presented here.

These include Hollingworth excerpts from Diary of Horror #1, Inspector Roc’s Felony Files (inked by Kubert), ‘Farewell to Love’ (True-To-Life Romances #9, 1949), and even superhero Bronze Man. Horror snippet ‘The Ripper’s Return’ precedes a selection of prospective newspaper features about black schoolteachers. Somehow, neither Dorothy Tutor or Bob Mentor caught on in the 1950s…

Hollingsworth was of Afro-Caribbean rather than African American origins and the dichotomy and tensions between the distinctly different communities makes for fascinating reading here, supplemented by later fine art, design, political, editorial and journalistic paintings and prints.

His comic book section delivers biographical tale ‘Lena Horne’ (Juke Box Comics #2, May 1948) and ‘Where Zombies Walk!’ (Witchcraft #5, December 1952/January 1953)…

Triumph and tragedy tinge the stories of ‘Ezra Clyde Jackson & Alfonso Greene – A Tale of Two Students’ who attended Manhattan’s High School of Industrial Art.

Originally Jackson paired with white veteran Maurice Whitman before going solo, in features such as The Iron Ace (Airboy Comics), ‘The Secret Seven’ (Patches Comics #1, 1945) and Classics Illustrated: Typee. His complete solo outing here is eerie chiller ‘Sentence of Death’ (Suspense Comics #9, August 1945).

As described in a heartbreaking testimony from Alex Toth, Alfonso Greene had a far harder ride and died the way so many black men still do today, but his work at least survives in strips like ‘Swimming Lessons Save a Life’ and true crime yarn ‘Bandit Patrol’ (both from New Heroic Comics #64, January 1951), ‘Boy Hero’ (life-saving black youngster Roy Marshall Jr.in New Heroic Comics #53, March 1949), and ‘Wonder Women of History: Sojourner Truth’ (Wonder Woman #13, Summer 1945).

‘Eugene Bilbrew – A Different Talent’ found his place in comics via popular music and record design, via strips like Astro Girl, The Charlie Mingus Record Club, fetish magazines and the comedic Clifford back-up strip in Will Eisner’s syndicated Spirit Section.

As previously stated, America at this time supported two separate worlds, one black and the other acceptable. Even in liberal states that championed full equality, most black folk kept to their own neighbourhoods, ran their own businesses and ran their own churches and entertainments. Inevitably, that led to comics for coloured folks thanks to ‘Orrin C. Evans, George J. Evans, Jr., John H. Terrell, William H. Smith, Leonard Cooper – At Last, The First’ who acted in concert and launched All-Negro Comics in June 1947. Closely allied to left wing political movements the output was target-specific, limited in distribution and short lived, but it proved there was room for many kinds of readership. This chapter includes formative strips from black papers – such as Adventures of Tiger Ragg by John Terrell – and describes how All-Negro Comics was born and died. On show are house ad, covers, excerpts from assorted series ‘Sugarfoot’, ‘Lion Man’ various gags and cartoons and the complete first exploit of two-fisted street tough private eye ‘Ace Harlem’…

This astounding chronicle concludes with the life of breakthrough artist ‘Calvin Levi Massey – Vanguard of the Next Generation’. His later artistic endeavours advanced black culture on a rapidly-shifting world stage, but only after a relatively stellar comics career as a cartoonist. Employers included James Warren, and he was a mainstay of Atlas/Timely and a jobbing illustrator; as seen here in moments from ‘The Milton Berle Story’ (Uncle Milty #2, February 1952), and all of ‘Absent-Minded Professor’ (Horror from the Tomb #1, September 1954)…

Augmented by an affirming ‘Afterword by Ken Quattro’ and a prodigious ‘Index’, this powerful tract balances some historical scales and bestows acclaim on those unjustly excluded, by offering a sublime selection of strips and stories crafted by Invisible Men who – like women – were always there, if we’d only bothered to look…
™ & © 2020 Gussoni-Yoe Studio, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Represent!


By Christian Cooper, Jesse J. Holland, Regine Sawyer, Nadira Jamerson, Tara Roberts, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Onyekachi Akalonu, N. Steven Harris, Justin Ellis, Frederick Joseph, Gabe Eltaeb, Dan Liburd, Keah Brown, Camrus Johnson, Alitha E. Martinez, Mark Morales, Doug Braithwaite, Eric Battle, Brittney Williams, Yancey Labat, Valentine De Landro, Travel Foreman, Keron Grant, Koi Turnbull, Don Hudson, Tony Akins, Moritat & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77951-419-6 (HB/Digital)

Originally published digitally in 14 chapters from September 2020 to June 2021, Represent! was – in the words of Executive Editor Marie Javins – “designed to showcase and introduce creators traditionally underrepresented in the mainstream comics book medium.” As such it was part of a greater effort by that mainstream – which contemporaneously sparked a similar project from the House of Ideas that became a string of one-shot anthologies known as Marvel Voices…

Operating in conjunction with writers, artists and other creatives of colour (both In- and especially Out-Industry) allowed greater leeway and by displaying editorial willingness to address issues, themes and opinions – and even formerly entirely-ignored and marginalised sectors of society – the series was not dictated to by commercial economics and a militant fanbase addicted to continuity.

The results were admittedly mixed, but generally the freedom elevated the material to the levels of the best of adult European comics…

Here, the result is an engaging trek through history, studied observation, personal anecdote and even fantasy, with perspectives seldom – if ever – seen in your everyday funnybook. It could not possibly all be to everyone’s taste, but this weary, aged, comfortably privileged-yet broken English white boy found plenty to enjoy and much to ponder…

Exploring all aspects of the non-white American experience, from inner-imaginative landscapes and escapes to personal ideologies, each literary-leaning comics tales comes with a brief bio of the writer (sometimes that’s also the illustrator) and unless stated otherwise is lettered by the tireless Deron Bennett.

Not so Chapter 1:‘It’s a Bird’, which sees Robert Clark put words to a heartwarming tale of family and generational birdwatching written by 1990s comics creator Christian Cooper (Star Trek, The Darkhold, Excalibur and Marvel’s first openly gay writer/editor). The modern day rights activist is here supported by illustrated by Alitha E. Martinez (Heroes, World of Wakanda, Iron Man, Mighty Crusaders, Batgirl) & Emilo Lopez.

Editor, Educator, broadcaster, historian and author Jesse J. Holland (Black Panther: Who is the Black Panther?, Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Finn’s Story, The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House) unites with British born Doug Braithwaite (Hulk, Captain America, Justice, Judge Dredd, The Punisher) & colourist Trish Mulvihill to relate a true tale. In disjointed yet carefully tailored flashbacks, a saga of endurance on a farm in rural Mississippi from 1980 to now unfolds: tracing the lives of the Hollands – a family still working land secured by ancestor and freed slave Conklin Holland in 1899…

‘Food for Thought’ comes courtesy of award-winning writer, small press publisher, essayist and journalist Regine Sawyer, with Eric Battle (Kobalt, Hardware, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Flash, Walking Dead) & Bryan Valenza rendering joyous reminiscences of a daughter shopping, cooking, talking and learning with her father in Queens, NYC, after which journalist Nadira Jamerson joins Brittney Williams (Goldie Vance, Betty & Veronica, Rugrats, Shade the Changing Girl, Lois Lane and the Friendship Challenge, Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat) & Andrew Dalhouse on the harrowing, but ultimately triumphant, journey of a black mother fighting a hostile medical system to secure an accurate diagnosis of a mystery ailment. Sometimes, all that’s necessary is to find someone to ‘Believe You’…

Chapter 5 declares ‘My Granny Was a Hero’ as Tara Roberts – educator, writer, editor and fellow of both MIT’s Open Documentary Lab and the National Geographic Storytelling project – unites with Yancey Labat (DC Superhero Girls, Legion of Super-Heroes) & colourist Monica Kubina as a little girl in 1983 changes her idol from Wonder Woman to someone far closer to home after learning how her own family unwillingly “came to America” from Cameroon in 1860…

Coloured by Emilio Lopez, ‘The Lesson’ is otherwise an all-Dominike “Domo” Stanton (Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Starbrand & Nightmask, Nubia & the Amazons) affair about violent high school days and one crucial path to escape, before writer/journalist Onyekachi Akalonu connects with Valentine De Landro (Bitch Planet, Marvel Knights: 4, X-Factor, Silver Surfer: Ghost Light, Black Manta) & Marissa Louise to offer social context on repressed young black lives by advocating ‘Fight Fires with Spray Cans’…

Coloured by Walt Barna, Chapter 8 stands ‘In Defense of Free Speech’ as 20-year comics veteran N. Steven Harris (Aztek: The Ultimate Man, Batman: Officer Down, Deadpool, X-Force, Generation X, The Wild storm: Michael Cray, Indigo Clan) recalls a time when college lectures on black culture and experience required volunteer security teams to be heard at all…

‘Weight of the World’ – by writer/editor/media producer Justin Ellis (Problem Areas, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, The Cruelty of Nice Folks), Travel Foreman (Cla$$war, Doctor Spectrum, Immortal Iron Fist, Star Wars, Black Cat) & Rex Lokus – explores the pressures family can innocently inflict on a black kid graduating high school… and how the right librarian at the right moment can turn the page on the future…

For ‘The Flightless Bird’, prominent activist, philanthropist and bestselling author Frederick Joseph collaborates with Keron Grant (Fantastic Four, Kaboom, Son of Vulcan, Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus, New Mutants) on a tale of introspection and hope when a young man is diagnosed with a killer disease.

Gabe Eltaeb (Aquaman, Batman, Star Wars) then exposes an ‘American Mongrel’ with middle school kid Abdul learning some painful truths in 1991 as his mixed Hispanic/Iraqi heritage make him an instant and easy target during the first Iraq war. Thankfully, his grampa has seen all this before…

Celebrated sports science specialist Dan Liburd asks Koi Turnbull (Fathom, Wolverine: Dangerous Games, Superman Confidential) & Tony A?ina to join him at ‘The Water’s Edge Within Reach’; exploring the assumed limits of human aspiration and physical achievement via a career in “ironman” eventing, before journalist, actor, screenwriter and author Keah Brown (The Pretty One, Sam’s Super Seats) luxuriates in superhero excess with Don Hudson (Nick Fury/SHIELD, Forever Amber, Scalped, Curse of Brimstone) & Nick Filardi. They enquire ‘Who Hired the Kid?’: debuting a sheer escapist delight in time-travelling, monster-fighting schoolgirl adventurer “The Vet”…

The wonderment concludes by going out big with actor, director, animator and comics writer Camrus Johnson joining Tony Akins (Terminator, Star Wars, Hellblazer: Papa Midnight, Fables, Jack of Fables, House of Mystery, Wonder Woman), Moritat (Harley Quinn, The Spirit, Elephantmen, All Star Western, Hellblazer, Batman, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, Transmetropolitan) & colourist Dee Cunniffe for ‘I’ll Catch up’. It finds the author in painful nostalgia mode, recalling how his big brother Mo used to visit in New York every summer, teaching the kid all the tricks of staying alive and protesting in a white world whilst still making his voice heard and his opinions count…

The stories are augmented by Darran Robinson’s iconic ‘Cover Gallery’ and supplemented by fascinating ‘layouts’ of various stories as crafted by Braithwaite, Harris & Akins…

Visually compelling, extremely well-executed, imaginative, purely poetic and operating with a degree of allegory seldom seen in regular comics whilst offering a wide and disparate use of the medium, Represent! is stunning, intriguing and entertaining but still feels something of a mixed bag… but then, it’s not really meant for me, is it?

If you’re like me, get it read and learn something…
© 2021 DC Comics, All Rights Reserved.

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Irmina


By Barbara Yelin; translated by Michael Waaler (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-13-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Award-winning German illustrator, cartoonist and comics maker Barbara Yelin (Le Visiteur, Le Retard, Gift, Riekes Notizen, Spring, Gigaguhl und das Riesen-Glück, Tagebuch eines Zwangsarbeiters, But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust) was born in 1977 and studied illustration in Hamburg before scoring her earliest successes in the French Bande Dessinées market.

She favours fact-based human interest stories and biographical tales. When Yelin found letters and diaries revealed unknown aspects of her own grandmother’s closeted past, she was inspired to dramatize the history: crafting an exploration of race and identity; forensically dissecting the notion of compromise, allure of self-deception, force of social pressure and weight of personal responsibility. The graphic novel won great acclaim and led to her being celebrated as Best German Graphic Novelist 2016 at the Erlangen comics festival.

First released in English that year, the tale of Irmina is now available in a paperback edition and offers timely and still uncomfortable insights into a problem that has never really gone away…

It begins in ‘Part One: London’ as in 1934, Irmina von Behdinger skirts the fringes of English society. Dour and a bit dowdy, she is extremely forthright and outspoken as she pursues a dream. Seeking education and a profession, she studies at a commercial school for young women: learning to be a typist. Dragged to a party for useless snobs and swells, she again feels a like a target and communal object of amusement for the so-cavalier In-Crowd until she meets Barbadian law student Howard Green.

Mistaking him for a waiter when he’s actually one of the first black students at Oxford, she finds they have lots in common…

A close, covert and frequently strained relationship develops as they trade life stories that are far from commonplace and compare experiences of being outsiders in a hidebound culture constrained by class, race and constant disdainful judgement by distant, graciously hostile and forever exclusive British society. As the odd couple get to know each other better, it transpires that neither was particularly well-suited to life in their own homelands either…

For instance, the new rulers of a resurgent Germany encourage women to eschew learning and self-reliance in favour of motherhood and the building of a stronger Fatherland through service to their men and the state. All she wants is to be her own woman and see faraway places like the sunny West Indies that spawned such a complex paradox as Howard…

Further complicating her life – which she sees as separate from the greater world – are newspaper reports from Germany which her “host parents” and everyone else around her somehow feel are connected to her. It’s as if they hold the exchange student responsible for the acts of all her countrymen. The defence that these are not “her Germans” means nothing…

Of course, it’s not much better in England, as Howard learns when he and Irmina stumble into a “Blackshirt” rally in Hyde Park. The encounter with the British fascist movement prompts a move and Irmina becomes the companion of an émigré countess from Germany: an old suffragette who has made the Empire her homeland and now works with the Labour Party to improve the lives of the poor, disenfranchised and female…

Despite being ferociously gripped by her ideal of an independent, autonomous existence, Irmina cannot escape the labels and assumptions piled upon her. Howard too is feeling the pressure as his exams loom. Both are caught up in the chaotic tides of the times and as the global political situation calcifies and crystalises, they part and she is compelled to return home and adapt to a new Normal in ‘Part Two: Berlin’…

Having finally achieved her long-desired independence, Irmina in 1935 is far from secure or happy. Behind on rent, underpaid in her government secretarial/translator’s position at the Ministry of War and a constant target for lecherous men in uniform or administrators taking the credit for her work, she persists because of a promise of an official transfer to London. The promise is never fulfilled and the pedestrian chore of staying ahead, making no waves and endless stream of bureaucratic form-filling that comprises her life gradually wears the ambitious isolationist dreamer down.

Even the occasional social flurry – like a party held by her cousin – only serves to highlight that she is not a proper German anymore, tainted as she is by her time amongst the decadent British…

Moreover, her sense of being “othered” kicks into overdrive after meeting up-and-coming architect Gregor Meinrich, who has embraced the new national philosophy with the frenzy of a zealot. As promises fail to be met and national pride swells, Irmina endures perpetual disappointment and, as her chances to leave Germany dwindle, she withdraws from life, slavishly passing each successive day. The drear existence culminates in marriage to SS officer Gregor and the shattering boredom of a dutiful hausfrau…

Sidelining and abandoning her few friends, Irmina becomes a ghost of her former self as all around her ordinary people are caught up in a new zeitgeist: embracing pride and a toxic ideology. By the time her son is born, Germany is officially at war and Gregor is gone all the time. Now she doesn’t even have his borrowed dreams and ambitions to sustain her and as the war proceeds her beliefs and hopes and all human decency are similarly whittled away…

The story climaxes in ‘Part Three: Barbados’ as in 1983, stand-offish school secretary Irmina Meinrich contemplates her imminent retirement. Her life is carefully and scrupulously devoid of all emotional extravagance and foolish, pointless joy or hope: everything is simply making time with the least effort until death claims her. Then one night she receives a letter from Barbados. His Excellency Governor General Sir Howard Green is hoping to carry out a promise he had made to a young exchange student in 1934…

Delivered in moody muted colours and rendered in expressionistic soft tones and childlike simplified lines, Yelin’s exploration of extraordinary people in catastrophic times is uncomfortable, distressing and challenging, but is all the more powerful and topical for that.

Counterpointed by Dr. Kolb’s stringent exploration of everyday life in Nazi Germany and enquiring just how an entire nation seemingly surrendered to its collective dark side, this is a timeless and compelling treatise on aspiration and personal integrity as affected by extreme circumstance and unrelenting peer pressure.
Potent, powerful, moving and memorable, this is a true romance tale well told and impossible to forget. © 2014 Barbara Yelin & Reprodukt. All rights reserved.

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Fists Raised – 10 Stories of Sports Star Activism


By Chloé Célérien & Karim Nedjari translated by Peter Russella (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-303-5 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-304-2

Having just recently endured the most nauseating and crass example of sports-washing I can think of – and I’m including the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 in that statement – here’s a wonderful comics counterpoint and riposte, detailing the power of sports to do good.

Sadly – and as seems quite usual now – it’s generally cases of well-meaning individuals working against the advisement and wishes of their own sporting governing bodies and governments. It’s almost as if the people running the show care more about money and power than honour, history, achievement or the fans that pay their wages…

It seems there’s nothing you can’t craft compelling comics about if you’re talented and inspired, as seen in this spellbinding celebration of sports stars weaponising their fame and glory to change the world in ways that truly matter.

Originally released au Continent in 2021 as Générations Poing Levé, quand le sport percute l’histoire, this beguiling and amusingly infuriating book blends history, biography and social commentary thanks to scripter Karim Nedjari (French pundit, journalist and CEO of Radio Monte Carlo and RMC Sport) who teams up with sports-mad cartoonist Chloé Célérien to précis the lives and careers of ten true champions.

These noteworthy stars have all used their celebrity to call out hypocrisy and injustice, fighting to better the lives of the Poor, Disenfranchised, Oppressed or otherwise Othered our rulers choose to ignore or outlaw…

Sports and public competition have always enraptured the masses: eternally viewed as a great and unifying leveller. Even the most lowly and downtrodden can derive joy from playing or participating and, for the impoverished, excellence has always offered a means of escape: a way to turn their talents into a kind of liberty and agency.

It has never, however, been enough to make players into billionaires. Even the greatest can’t make the leap from “player” to “owner”. That takes generational wealth…

Moreover, we haven’t changed much from ancient times. Women are still excluded or simply included on arbitrary male terms and there’s little difference in the status and treatment of a top footballer and a champion racehorse, a boxer or a show dog: ultimately they’re all property of an elite that runs the game and makes – and changes – the rules.

Even so, some modern-day gladiators risking themselves for the benefits granted by cunning commerce and contemporary Caesars may have personal Spartacus moments: telling the powers-that-be when, how, how much and how often they are betraying the people they smugly lord over…

That’s certainly the case in the brief biography of ‘Marcus Rashford – Big Brother to the Poor (1997, soccer, England)’. He’s a young black athlete who translated his astounding footballing triumphs into a very public war of wills with the entire British Government, and especially inept, pitifully attention-addicted prime minister Boris Johnson.

Émigré comedian Henning Wenn summed it up best when he said “We don’t do charity in Germany. We pay taxes. Charity is a failure of Government’s responsibilities…”

A grateful beneficiary of free school meals as a child, Rashford used his elevated public position to school the ruling Conservative party – who had near-unanimously voted AGAINST FEEDING STARVING CHILDREN – in a media campaign that resulted in Johnson repeatedly bowing to the footballer’s gadfly “suggestions”.

In a backward-looking Britain that has adopted the dogma that money is more important than people, the toxic policies of the Tories had never been more powerfully or effectively opposed than in this case of a working-class hero who never forgot where he came from…

‘Muhammad Ali – The Greatest (1942-2016, boxing, United States)’ recalls the career of another icon. Ali was a sporting superstar who evolved into a paragon of black liberation and human equality, and global symbol of power, endurance and dignity.

American prize fighter Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., found his true name and purpose after years of social othering, where he was readily permitted to entertain millions of Americans, but only to eat, sleep or share space where white people said he could…

Born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17th 1942, Clay began boxing at age 12. He won titles and acclaim and notoriety, not simply for his incredible sporting achievements but for his quick wit, cultural savvy and moral standing. Gold medal Olympian, World heavyweight champion, critic, pundit and street poet, in 1966 Clay took on the American government and paid a high personal price for refusing to fight a “white man’s war” in Vietnam.

Originally declared 4F due to dyslexia, he was abruptly re-classified and called up after becoming a voice of the Civil Rights Movement. Many still believe he was only drafted to shut him up… a tactic repeated over and over again throughout modern history.

A lifelong equal rights advocate, in 1964, the forceful Conscientious Objector had converted to Islam and formally renounced his “slave name”, adopting new appellation Muhammad Ali.

A living symbol of black pride, Ali retired from boxing in 1981 to concentrate on commercial, social, political and philanthropic works. He was declared Sportsman and Sports Personality of the (20th) Century by Sports Illustrated and the BBC respectively, and died in June 2016 from complications associated with Parkinson’s disease. Like Pelé, he changed the way the world saw colour…

Such was also the case with ‘Surya Bonaly – Black Blades (1973, figure skating, France)’: a black female skater who overcame all odds, broke records and revolutionised her sport, only to be denied its greatest awards and rewards thanks to constant gaslighting and the immovable forces of institutionalised racism. Her fight to correct those injustices for all who followed in her spectacular footsteps comprises the greater part of her entry here.

The same is true for the now largely anonymized icon whose very stance and image gave rise to the concept of sport as symbolic culture weapon.

‘Tommie Smith – The Black Clenched Fist of America (1944, track and field, United States)’ overcame poverty and entrenched bias to win gold at the 1968 Olympics, educating himself to the rank of college professor

His actions particularly outraged closet racist and antisemite and President of the Olympic Committee Avery Brundage (you should look up his sterling record…): a man whose influence tainted sport for generations from his apologist stance at the 1936 “Nazi Olympics” all the way through to the terrorist-blighted 1972 Munich games. He’s worthy of his entry if not book, but it wouldn’t be very complimentary…

How Tommie Smith willingly surrendered everything to make the political statement he believed more important than his own future, and how not just he and black teammate John Carlos (bronze medallist) but also white Australian silver medallist Peter Norman (who contributed a crucial twist to the Raised Fist incident) were punished for the visual statement is something every sports lover should be ashamed of and outraged by…

This chapter also carefully deconstructs the events and planning leading to that moment and the carefully conceived symbolic assault on the Establishment. Here we see Smith enduring decades of FBI surveillance in the aftermath. Moreover, he was designated one of ten athletes considered “a threat to America”, but ended on a triumphal high as the man who inspired Colin Kaepernick’s latterday protest, the Black Lives Matter movement and the career of Barack Obama finally received the acclaim he deserved…

Just as ingrained and unassailable was the attitude to women in sport and ‘Megan Rapinoe – An American Feminist (1985, soccer, United States)’ traces a painfully similar and oft-rerun path. Rapinoe was born to a poor white staunchly Republican family, and endured a different kind of bigotry. She and her siblings employed sport – or petty crime – to escape their stifling social problems, but Megan’s unique triumphs in soccer made her a global icon.

World Cup winner, Gold-winning Olympian, openly gay and a media megastar, she used her fame to champion pay inequality in US sport and constantly battled racial, sexual and gender bias. She was the first sports professional to support and emulate Colin Kaepernick’s stance and gesture, and proudly basked in the wrath of one-time President Donald Trump: constantly doubling down in a personal campaign to “smash the Patriarchy”, against the express wishes of much of her family. She too was celebrated and encouraged by more rational American Presidents and continues her forthright war on repressive conservatism…

‘Caster Semenya – The Woman Who Ran Too Fast (1991, track and field, South Africa)’ relates the shameful treatment of an African Olympian whose actual biology was considered aberrant and unwelcome. Targeted by (some) fellow competitors as well as international sporting authorities, the World Champion runner’s achievements and gender were constantly and repeatedly questioned. She was accused of being a man unfairly competing against women, and that man Brundage had plenty of unpleasant, unhelpful things to say on this issue too…

Her struggle for personal validation encompassed and overcame many official attempts to reclassify the sporting definitions of gender, and her later life has been dedicated to championing the rights of intersex women across the world…

‘Arthur Ashe – Humanitarian Aces (1943-1993, tennis, United States)’ was a world-shaking trailblazer who broke a monopoly. As seen above, sporting success has always been the only real weapon poor people have in a world tailored to accommodate the wealthy – usually white – and their offspring. A descendent of slaves, second class Virginian citizen Ashe shattered an age-old State colour bar preventing “his kind” playing tennis against white players. He fought hard and progressed, going on to become a global superstar: the first black man on UCLA’s team, first to play on the USA’s International (Davis Cup) team and first to win a prestigious Wimbledon tournament (where he controversially raised a Tommie Smith style fist after beating ferocious rival and Great White Hope Jimmy Connors).

Ashe was also a self-educated intellectual, a pacifist, a fashion icon and born social warrior who happily made waves. He too was classified as fodder for Vietnam, but his brother – a veteran – volunteered to take his place, leaving Arthur to continue his campaigns against injustice and intolerance, such as his early opposition to Apartheid in South Africa.

The crusader seemed born under an unlucky star: his sporting career ended early after a massive heart attack, and he survived quadruple bypass surgery to become a tennis coach who numbered John McEnroe amongst his protégés. His influence inspired many players of colour, from Yanick Noah to Venus and Serena Williams …

A second heart attack led to an agonisingly slow decline and dictated the course of his last crusade. Blood used during another heart operation had been contaminated with HIV and infected Ashe with AIDS. Diagnosed in 1988 with the mystery disease then decimating gay and black communities – and whilst writing a definitive history of black sportsmen and women in America – Ashe became the spokesman for AIDS sufferers everywhere after blackmailers threatened to expose his condition.

Instead, he went public, frustrating the criminals, demystifying the modern bête noir and becoming a UN consultant on HIV/AIDS until his death in February 1993. He lived long enough to see Apartheid end and meet his idol Nelson Mandela…

An unending fight for personal freedom and autonomy follows in the history of ‘Nadia Comaneci – The Dictator’s Doll (1961, gymnastics, Romania)’. Raised in the Soviet satrapy of Romania, determined sportswoman and legendary Olympic gymnast Comaneci fell under the absolute control of monstrous dictators and deranged personality cultists Nicolae and Elena Ceau?escu. Henceforth, her astounding accomplishments (first ever to achieve maximum possible scores and youngest athlete to win gold) became just like her pay, awards and prizes: property of the State as manifested in Mrs & Mrs Ceau?escu – whose many insane edicts included classifying sex education as a state secret and establishing Menstruation Police to enforce a population boom the bankrupt nation could not support…

Nadia’s abuse, struggle, flight to freedom in the West and subsequent bondage to a coercive controller is the stuff of nightmares and her eventual triumph and loving later life an utter cathartic joy.

Even for a nation that has produced many messianic footballers ‘Sócrates – Half Plato, Half Pelé (1954-2011, football, Brazil)’ is a remarkable figure. Another poor, talented and self-educated soccer star drawn from the underclasses, his struggles against addiction (“beer, cigarettes and women”) and the toxic allure of celebrity fed a fierce desire to be the best, but never affected his aims to help the people through socialism, medicine and ultimately political power. His early death might have robbed the world of a force for change, but his admirers’ and followers’ successful struggles against the Right – as manifested in dictatorial President Jair Bolsonaro – prove that his legacy ranges far beyond his sporting miracles…

Ending this potent exploration of individual achievement lifting all boats is the inspirational story of ‘Hiyori Kon – Little Miss Sumo (1997, sumo wrestling, Japan)’.

A resolute Japanese girl of lowly origin, she was early besotted by the national sport and battled two millennia of entrenched chauvinism and anti-female prejudice in a paradoxically forward-looking but hidebound society where many male and female roles are backed up by draconian laws and ironclad cultural conditioning. Even today Japan is one of the most gender-restricted societies on Earth (ranked 121st of 153 in terms of gender inequality by the World Economic Forum). The very term “feminism” equates with “hate” and “hysteria”…

Hiyori’s battles to compete as a female sumo wrestler were the stuff of legend, taking her across the country and the world as both competitor and coach for a sport growing evermore popular amongst women everywhere but in its nation of origin.

She has won medals everywhere but Japan, where the National Olympic governing body actually excluded the sport/discipline from their own (Covid-delayed) 2021 games because all events in any Olympiad must be open to male and female competitors…

Nevertheless, as part of a growing, inexorable tide of resolute women working for change, Hiyori has started a wave of reform and her crusade continues to this day…

These days a seemingly infinite variety of subjects fit under the umbrella of modern graphic novels – everything from superheroes, sci fi and the supernatural to philosophy, journalism and education. Thanks to their global reach and outlook, NBM are at the forefront of this welcome revolution, bringing a range of visions to the English-speaking table that apparently daunt most mainstream publishers here and in America.

Today’s book is a perfect case in point: a sequence of visual adaptations of some of the world’s most celebrated role models, chosen not only for their scintillating accomplishments but also the force of their convictions. The result is an utterly enticing graphic treasure, and there’s not a single tragic supervillain in sight… unless you count assorted governments, individual politicians, scurrilous administrators and business owners…

NBM’s library of graphic biographies are swiftly becoming the crucial guide to the key figures of modern history and popular culture. If you haven’t found the answers you’re seeking yet, then you’re clearly not looking in the right place…
© Hatchette Livre (Marabout) 2021. © 2022 NBM for the English translation. All rights reserved.

Fists Raised – 10 Stories of Sports Star Activism will be released on January 12th 2023 and can be pre-ordered now in both print and digital editions.

Most NBM books are also available in digital formats. For more information and other great reads see http://www.nbmpub.com/

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Josephine Baker


By Catel & Bocquet, translated by Edward Gauvin (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-91059-329-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: The Story of an Actual Wonder Woman… 9/10

Here’s a rather short review of an astonishingly eventful life celebrated in a superbly expansive, compellingly detailed account from two of the best graphic biographers working in the field. As I’m always implying, my Less is your More, and this is one story you’ll want to appreciate fresh and full-on, so just buy it and be done. You won’t be sorry and will have a revelatory time…

Born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3rd 1906 in St Louis, Missouri, the black icon, free spirit and symbol of self-determination who called herself Joséphine Baker was no scholar or schemer, but used her innate gifts as a dancer and entertainer to survive horrific acts of random racist violence and ultimately escape her origins as a despised second class citizen in the land of her birth.

A forceful, irrepressible, warm-hearted optimist with colossal empathy and a relentless sense of humour, Baker’s drive and willingness to take chances carried her to the peak of European sophistication and culture: rubbing shoulders with royalty and the cream of global creative intelligentsia: everyone from Picasso and Man Ray to Le Corbusier and Hemingway, Max Reinhardt, Buñuel, Cocteau, Colette, Pirandello, Georges Simenon and so many glittering others.

She was a vedette, singer, dancer, actress, movie star, civil rights activist, paramount artistic inspiration and – during WWII – an actual spy and French resistance operative working for future President Charles de Gaulle, as well as a ferocious defender of animals and devoted mother. Above all else, she was an entertainer par excellence…

Here, Baker’s incredibly eventful life is traced from cradle to grave in black-&-white vignettes, concentrating on her achievements, family life and relationships, seen through her progress from exploitable bit player to media sensation “La Baker”: Queen of Paris in the Jazz Age.

Her astounding energy, creativity and resolve to succeed was only exceeded by her adoration of children, secret acts of charity and unfailing ability to love men who were bad for her, but her legacy was almost erased in the years after she stopped working. Countless comeback attempts and financial troubles followed.

Perhaps she was never truly in earnest but pursuing the means to a greater end. Due to her inability to have children and immense fellow feeling for the downtrodden, Josephine had turned her post war years into an incredible social experiment, gathering orphans from many devastated countries into a single loving family… her multinational, multi-ethnic Rainbow Tribe…

All that achievement, accomplishment, unprofitable charity, disillusionment and ultimate abandonment by the august and wealthy in her own country (both of them!) led to Josephine fading from history until relatively recent times, but now she is being reclaimed by a world which could really benefit from her example…

Baker’s international fame led to frequent and painful attempts to reclaim her birth nation’s attention. Eventually – in 1937 – she renounced her American citizenship to become officially French. In later years she tried to help America’s fight against Segregation, but was shunned by both side of that struggle. At the end, as economic woes, life and ongoing illness plagued her final years, she found a few unexpected friends in powerful women like Brigitte Bardot and her final years were spent in Monaco, a guest of equally constrained and misused female icon Grace Kelly. Josephine Baker died on 11th April 1975.

Her public and private lives coalesce in this chronological dramatised narrative from award-winning graphic novelist Catel Muller (Ainsi soit Benoîte Groult, Adieu Kharkov, Lucie s’en soucie, Le Sang des Valentines) and crime novelist, screenwriter/biographer/comics writer José-Louis Bocquet (Métal Hurlant, Sur la ligne blanche, Mémoires de l’espion, Panzer Panik, Anton Six), who in their other collaborations have also explored the lives of Kiki de Montparnasse and Olympe de Gouges (…and we’ll get to them in the fullness of time).

Entertaining, enthralling, informative, and continually sparking explosions of aggrieved but justified outrage on Baker’s behalf, the book is supplemented by a vast supporting structure of extras, beginning with a heavily illustrated and highly informative ‘Timeline for Josephine Baker’, incorporating pivotal events in her public and private lives. It’s further augmented by ‘Biographical Notes’: 55 character portraits in prose and sketch form of the historical figures with supporting roles feature in this epic saga, plus as an essay on ‘The Rainbow Tribe’ by her son/historical consultant Jean-Claude Bouillon-Baker. Also included are a Bibliography and Filmography for further study.

If you love history, comics, justice triumphant or just great stories, you really need to set some records straight and read this book.
© Casterman 2021. All rights reserved.

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Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin


By Émilie Plateau, with Tania de Montaigne, translated by Montana Kane (Europe Comics)
No ISBN: digital only edition

Sometimes history doesn’t just happen. On occasion – and for the grandest and noblest of reasons – it has to be manufactured…

On December 1st 1955, Rosa Parks rode the bus home. She had taken said public transport vehicle many times before and until that moment had always followed the rules. This was in Montgomery, Alabama, where “Jim Crow” laws had been continually clawing back from black citizens every vestige of freedom and precious personal liberty won with shot and shell during the War Between the States, almost from the moment the shooting stopped…

Thus, on those commuter routes – as everywhere else – white people had priority, and if a black person was seated, they had to get up and literally move to the back of the bus to let “their betters” sit.

On that evening, weary Rosa refused to give up her seat, even when told to by the white bus driver. She knew there would be consequences, anticipated them and was ready for them. Perhaps she wasn’t quite as sure where that act of passive defiance would take her and the entire country…

That moment is as much part of mythology as history, but we know today that her action wasn’t the spontaneous, world-changing act of rebellion it has become mythologised as. The struggle for equality and to end segregation in America was a calculated, carefully planned campaign, with white and black people working in tandem to overturn a racist, supremacist power structure that had entrenched the principle that some human beings were less than others based on the colour of their skin.

There was always a goal, and often a plan, but the leaders of the cause were savvy and agile enough to understand that they must capitalise on random events as they happened…

Colored is a graphic novel encapsulating and re-examining events you might not know of, delivered in simple terms and enticing pictures any bright child can grasp. Mimicking a kid’s book, it’s delivered in bold two-toned (black and browns on white) images and opens with a reprise of the then current situation in America…

Montgomery in the 1950s. Interracial marriage is illegal. Social and even workplace mixing between black and white is discouraged: reinforced by laws preventing them sitting together, eating in the places and even using the same toilets. In every location and situation black skin defers to white privilege and exclusion is a fact of life. In spaces where mixing is unavoidable draconian rules apply. Separate stores and eating places. To travel, black customers have to buy tickets from drivers at the front of buses, but must then get off the vehicle and reboard at the back using a separate door…

There was understandable tension to everyday life but the 1950s was the era of rebellion and change was coming.

Claudette Austin was born black in 1939. Her wandering father only stayed around long enough to father her little sister Delphine, before vanishing forever. Their mother Mary Jane sent them to live with great aunt Mary Ann and husband Q.P. Colvin in King Hill: one of the most deprived parts of Montgomery. Despite hardship and early tragedy, Claudette was a good student and hoped to become a lawyer, but those dreams ended on March 2nd 1955. After school, the 15-year old boarded the bus home in the approved manner, but today, as it filled up, she refused to surrender her seat to a white woman and drew down upon herself the full force and brutality of the law…

Beaten, abused and sent to adult jail, Claudette’s case came to the attention of crusading groups. Black lawyer Fred Gray, Jo An Gibson Robinson of The Women’s Political Council and NAACP representative Rosa Parks considered pleading her cause at the federal level to challenge Segregation laws. However, crucial local support necessary to carry the program of resistance – which included a bus boycott – faded away as local residents questioned her age, experience, resilience and especially reputation.

Eventually a council of concerned elders including E.D. Nixon of the NAACP and activist reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met with police and civic authorities, bargaining over her upcoming trial. On her day in court, she was convicted of Disorderly Contact, Violation of the Segregation Laws and Assaulting Police Officers.

Fearing she could never be a lawyer, Claudette agreed to an appeal, and was vindicated of the first two verdicts. The Assault charge stood however, and in the aftermath the crusading advisors moved on to the next cause leaving her life and dreams in tatters. A sexual scandal followed, and although Claudette was a minor and probably a victim of abuse, it was hushed up by the Colvins, who shipped her off to distant relatives.

At that time Rosa Parks got on her bus and the desired scenario finally began unfolding the way it was supposed to. The initial response had been organised by The Women’s Political Council, but they were soon edged away from all decision making by male-dominated activists led by King and Nixon. To keep the impetus and hone focus, it was decided that Colvin – and five other women who challenged Segregation laws and been brief candidates for the role of inspirational figurehead – would be forgotten.

Gaslighting began at once. Claudette was called “mentally unstable” and immoral: giving the movement a very negative image. When she returned to Montgomery after delivering her baby, she moved back in with her mother. Meanwhile Rosa Parks went to trial and was successfully convicted of Disorderly Contact, Violation of the Segregation laws and Assaulting law enforcement officers. The entire black community rallied around her and a devasting boycott began…

Claudette tried to join them but was silently excluded from events and activities, yet still suffered daily threats and actual retaliation from thugs belonging to the racist opposition of The White Citizens Council. And then, the cautious strategists had another idea, and Claudette and those other possible martyrs became a crucial tool in their next campaign tactic and won their day in federal court. Here Claudette won her moment and shone…

On December 20th 1956 the boycott ended with a Supreme Court ruling that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. The decision was the death knell of the practise across the South.

Thus is told a revelatory tale of how an impetuous, wayward girl changed the world: how she became pawn and part of a studied, thoughtful plan, sacrificed to an inarguably greater good. Happily this wonderful story also traces her life beyond The Boycott, hopefully showing that being part of men’s ruthless, political “Cold Equations” isn’t all there is for women…

Released in France in 2019, this graphic novel is based on Tania de Montaigne’s 2015 book Noire, who here contributes a selection of Historical Notes, explaining how Jim Crow Laws came about and operated. Also provided are biographies and crucial details on the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People), WCC (White Citizens’ Council), WPC (Women’s Political Council), and the key minor players in the political drama: Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Fred Gray, Rosa Parks, E.D. Nixon, William A. Gayle, Martin Luther King, Mary Louise Smith, and Jeanetta Reese.

Devastatingly powerful thanks to its primal and cunningly devised simplicity of execution, Colored takes a hard second look at the defining events and mythology of an oppressed minority, but does so through the eyes of the other downtrodden underclass dominated by both white and black men. Forthright, disturbing and necessary, it shows that even the most noble of causes needs to police itself and beware its own bias and intolerances, if we truly want everybody to be free and equal.
© 2019 – DARGAUD – Émilie Plateau. All rights reserved. This graphic novel is based on the book Noire, by Tania de Montaigne. © Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, 2015.

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Suzanne: The Jazz Age Goddess of Tennis

By Ted Humberstone (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-910395-69-1 (HB)

I’m sure by now you have realised that history is utterly filled with women we apparently can’t stop talking about quickly enough. Happily, the medium of comics is one area where we’re digging deeper and revealing obscured accounts of past giants to make vibrant new stories about. Here’s a particularly poignant one that actually qualifies as living memory for many, yet is about a wonder woman so many have literally never heard of…

…And it’s not like these stories are hidden away where none can find them: it’s simply a case of invisibility by tacit omission, WG Grace died in 1915 and Don Bradman played his final Test Match in 1948, but I grew up with – and still hear – their names cited at every modern meeting.

For years Suzanne’s near-contemporary Fred Perry was downplayed if not actually excluded from the history books and media celebration before being reclaimed as a “Great” (politics: you should look him up too, and see how he was mostly rediscovered by the simple expedient of being the last Brit to win a Wimbledon title until 2013!).

For so many stars like Suzanne, it’s hard not to consider a conspiracy of silence was at play amongst previous generations of pundits and sports writers…

This torrid hardback tome opens with a handy diagrammatic guide to the rules of Lawn Tennis before we trace in a carefully audited and beautifully visualised manner episodes of a truly unique individual’s life.

In Paris in 1938, fading American tennis star Bunny Ryan visits an old friend. Her great friend and colleague is dying of the undiagnosable mystery ailment that has plagued her entire life, but which never prevented her from becoming the greatest woman player in history. Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen was born on May 24th 1899 and would die in July 1938. In between, she courted controversy, lived life her way, embraced personal and career scandal, and changed the course of Lawn Tennis.

Her accomplishments were truly astounding. Between 1912 and her death, Suzanne won 241 titles, enjoyed a 181 match-winning streak, was World Number One for 8 years and held a 341-7 match record, but that is only the tip of this social and sporting iceberg…

Our examination truly begins in Nice in 1908, when Suzann’s father Charles observed a (men’s) tennis match and realised the attention and approbation the players basked in. At this time, the pastime was a rich man’s diversion: strictly amateur status with nothing but “expenses” paid to the gentry who indulged in it. There was a thriving women’s game too, but this also was more freak show than serious sport.

Lenglen was an athletic child who loved dance, and the family was comfortable with inherited wealth. Had her older brother not died, her life might have been utterly different, but her father then and there decided that his remaining offspring would be greatest tennis player who ever lived…

How his ruthless ambition shaped the life of sporting superstar who broke all the rules is tantalisingly outlined in snapshots of Suzanne’s life: the men who shaped her career, rare friendships (usually men and women connected to the rarefied world of tennis) and particularly her rebellions.

Suzanne refused to play in corsets, ultimately liberating all female players and pioneering a dashing, vigorous, aggressive style of play. Keenly understanding that she was a centre of attention, she had a clothes designer create a string of daring costumes that forged today’s link between sports and fashion. She drank alcohol between sets, partied hard and won match after match.

Dubbed “the Maid Marvel” by the all-male press that she developed an increasingly hostile relationship with, her personal life consisted of dazzling success, broken by recurring periods of debilitating illness no doctors could understand of properly treat. The only thing that caused temporary remissions was the next tournament…

Possibly her greatest achievement began after an exhibition tour of America in 1921. Here, in the shadow of Prohibition, she met financier Charles Pyle and was asked for the first time to consider becoming a professional player. At this juncture tennis was a sacrosanct, pure and “amateur” game with all rewards and inducements being “under the counter”. Only the clubs like Wimbledon and Nice or the newspapers made any sordid profit from players efforts and labours, whilst the rulers of her country’s Tennis Federation even tried to sabotage her with patriotic nonsense, demanding that she only play doubles matches with French nationals rather than her preferred (and equally triumphant) Bunny Ryan.

In 1926, her eventual acquiescence to Pyle’s offer to join his American league and go on a world tour – brought on by her advancing age and Charles Lenglen’s financial losses – saw her ostracised and exiled from the circuit she had dominated for decades, but also paved the way for fair and equitable remuneration of tennis players, rather than the glad-handing rewards and mutable generosity of being exploited by the rich and privileged…

Rather than a straight catalogue of events and assessment of achievement, this examination is carefully fictionalised and massaged to capture what Suzanne Lenglen may have been. Unwell or unstoppable, confused, angry and always desperately seeking to please her father and still be herself, this bright, breezy account of Suzanne details appalling treatment, but succeeds in painting the Goddess of the Courts as a triumphant survivor and not a victim, thanks as much to the astonishingly engaging and open drawing style of the biographer as an astute appreciation of the times and the players involved.

The revelatory saga also includes an Introduction from founding co-secretary of the Women’s Tennis Association and International Tennis Hall of Famer Françoise Dürr; Thank Yous, Foot Notes and a list of Further Reading, and comes courtesy of staggeringly gifted Scottish cartoonist Tom Humberstone (Doctor Who, Nelson, Solipsistic Pop) and publisher Avery Hill.

You should buy all their books and, if you want more of similar, after buying this you could also check out publishers such as SelfMadeHero, Myriad, NBM and so many more outfits seeking to correct the historical balance through informative entertainments.

Trust me, you can’t lose…

© 2022 Tom Humberstone.