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Dripping With Fear: The Steve Ditko Archives volume 5


By Steve Ditko with Joe Gill & various; edited by Blake Bell (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-706-2 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Once upon a time the short complete tale and the anthological package were the sole staple of the comic book profession, with the plan being to deliver as much variety as possible to the reader. Sadly, that particular creative discipline is all but lost to us today except in compilations like this already lost-treasure trove…

Steve Ditko (November 2nd 1927 – c. June 29th 2018) was one of our industry’s greatest talents and probably America’s least lauded in his own lifetime. His fervent desire was to just get on with his job telling stories the best way he could. Whilst the noblest of aspirations, that dream was always a minor consideration (and frequently stumbling block) for the commercial interests which for so long controlled all comics production, and still exert an overwhelming influence upon the mainstream bulk of funnybook output. Let’s see what happens in the days and months to come now that the entire world is on the edge of financial, physical, emotional, spiritual and digital assault by plagues, rogues and rogue actors. Hey, that might make a good comics story…

Before his first time at Marvel, young Ditko mastered his craft creating short stories and visual vignettes for a variety of companies and in every genre imaginable, and it’s an undeniable joy to be able to look at some of this work from a such an innocent time. By the time of the tales in this titanic tome, Ditko was just starting to make waves and be noticed around the industry: as he tirelessly honed his craft in any category of sequential narrative and for whichever publisher would have him. That, despite an increasing presence at the small, dying outfit that used to be called Atlas, was primarily quiet, non-nonsense Connecticut company Charlton Comics. For them Ditko toiled determinedly and utterly free from the interference of intrusive editors…

This fifth fantastic full-colour deluxe hardback – or potently punchy digital treasure trove – re-presents another heaping helping of his ever more impressive efforts: published between July 1957 and March 1959, and almost all courtesy of the surprisingly liberal (at least in its trust of its employees’ creative instincts) sweat-shop publisher Charlton Comics. If we’re being technically accurate it’s also important to note that the eventual publication dates of the stories in this collection don’t have a lot to do with when Ditko rendered the mini-masterpieces. Charlton paid so little, the cheap, anthologically astute outfit had no problem purchasing material it would leave on a shelf for months – if not years – until the right or most convenient moment arrived to print…

All the tales and covers reproduced here (in strictly chronological creation order) were created after implementation of 1955’s draconian, self-inflicted Comics Code Authority rules. These sanitised the industry following US Senate Hearings, a media witch-hunt and subsequent public outcry accusing comics stories of harming children and meant that the public’s apparently endless hunger for scary, strange and uncanny thrillers were once again the main territory of movies, and a range of television and radio shows that had populated airwaves for decades. They too were anthological, with names like The Twilight Zone, Boris Karloff’s Thriller and One Step Beyond. Of course with such a dominant zeitgeist, comics competed as they could, with licensed spin-offs or original vehicles offering bowdlerised kiddie-appropriate fare in place of shock and terror once EC was killed and Atlas Comics imploded. In comics books fantasy fables became a region of wonders not horrors, with human nature as the narrative engine and at this Ditko excelled.

Here these include uniformly enticing, bizarrely baroque and marvellously inexplicable fantasies and life-affirming atomic age Sci Fi yarns, whilst also offering a smattering of general comic book mainstays of the post-war Superhero Interregnum. Like any dedicated freelancer, Ditko tackled assignments for almost any consumer sub-strand from to crime war to humour, or western and romance and let editors decide where to run his work. In this book everything is helpfully annotated with its original purchase and commissioning numbers to indicate approximately when they were actually drawn.

Sadly, there’s no indication of how many he actually wrote, but at this time astoundingly prolific writer/editor Joe Gill was churning out hundreds of stories per year for Charlton, so he’s always everyone’s first guess when trying to attribute script credit…

This time however we open with a dash of controversy. Prior to the strip sensationalism starting comes another historically informative Introduction and more passionate advocacy by Blake Bell. However, this time the essay is easily as interesting as the comics that come after, as it catalogues and discusses a period and genre output Ditko the artist/auteur was not proud of and spent years denying ever even happened…

‘Comic Books & Kinky Hooks’ augments the usual historical background and context with Bell’s exploration of an open secret that was seemingly Ditko’s greatest shame: his long and productive association with Fetish pornographer Eric Stanton. The closest thing yet to the truth is exposed and images included that reveal all, highlighting how and where the two old friends’ separate oeuvres overlapped and cross-fertilised especially in Ditko’s Doctor Strange tales. And yes, you sad deviants, there are many artistic snippets among the candid historical photos to be “appreciated”…

From there it’s straight into the curated comics classics (all published between release dates May 1958 and April 1959 and spanning a remarkably broad cross-section of differing staple-genres (think “as seen on TV…”) but specifically tracking the artist’s transition from moody macabre fantasy towards gleaming space opera and foreboding fictional futures…

Scripted by Gill (as was probably everything in this collection) and as first seen in Out of This World #9 (August 1958), ‘Journey’s End’ is a parable of hope as aliens flee extinction perpetrated by the thinking machines they built to cosset and narrowly escape being caught up in potential refuge planet Earth’s own mistrust and paranoia…

This is followed by ‘Second Chance’ from Unusual Tales #11 (March 1958) which sees an elderly scientist on the verge of changing the world suddenly slip back 30 years in time, forced to review the life choices that brought him to this juncture. That tense moment is maximised when city authorities face a torrent of missing persons cases in ‘Second Hand’ (Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #7 February 1958), No one expected the cause to be that the humans were being replaced by extradimensional infiltrators…

In Out of This World #8 (May 1958), mean little slingshot-wielding animal-abuser Danny gets far too close to nature and experiences events that cannot be put down to ‘Imagination’ before Unusual Tales #11 (March 1958) sees a returning soldier explain to a newly-bereaved war-widow the impossible act of service performed by ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Die’.

The rocketing appetite for space opera meets contemporary ruminations about souls for machines next as ‘Moon-Run!’ (Space Adventures, vol 1 #24, July 1958) sees an unlucky pilot leaving all he loves behind to learn a cosmic truth, after which the first late-published holdover of an earlier success makes itself known. ‘Valley of Eternity’ was published in Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #11 (February 1959). He was one of Charlton’s earliest star characters, with the title derived from a radio thriller show which the comics publisher licensed. The lead was a host and narrator who acted more as voyeur than active participant, speaking “to camera” and asking readers for opinion and judgement as he shared a selection of funny, sad, scary and wondrous human interest yarns all tinged with a hint of the weird and supernatural. That format readily translated to comic books when rendered by Ditko, whose page design, storytelling acumen and full, lavish brushwork were just beginning to come into maturity. Here, the Traveler is in India, observing the fate of four scoundrels who rendezvous at a holy place and meet a holy man who reveals that not all of them will ever be saved…

Then from Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #9 (September 1958) Emperor Kasimir of Cretonia encounters in incredible, inconceivable doppelganger in ‘The Imperial Double’ in advance of Strange Suspense Stories #36 (March 1958) highlighting ‘The Shadow’ that stalked and stopped two criminals sup to no good. The masterfully moody cover to Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #10 (November 1958) heralds – from that very issue – cosmic thriller of scale and misunderstanding ‘Forbidden Planet’ before Out of This World #9 (August 1958) shares a Hispanic-flavoured parable about thrift, diligence and effort in ‘Mañaña!’

Charlton’s other cloaked host was Doctor Haunt – usually seen in This Magazine is Haunted but moonlighting here in Out of This World #11 (January 1959) to detail the fate of ‘The Careless Man’. Fired for negligence, he used magic to gain vengeance but wasn’t really paying attention when he should have…

Still in residence, Dr H delivers paired tales from Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #10 (November 1958) begin with a dying boy’s ‘One Way Trip’ that offers a vision of hope and salvation before a spy stealing atomic secrets is accidentally exposed and thwarted by ‘The Joke’ before expounding in depth on the mesmerising power of ‘The Green Peace’ (This Magazine is Haunted vol. 2 #16, May 1958) that grips and transforms deep sea divers…

For MoUW #9 (August 1958) Ditko’s ‘Can This Be Real?’ exploits US Atom Age paranoia in the tale of a paparazzi who uncovers a fantastic federal secret whilst ‘A Matter of Luck’ (Unusual Tales #12, July 1958) details the domestic fallout of a decent family guy afflicted with unflinching good fortune…

In Outer Space #18 (August 1958) an unstoppable threat to Earth is finally traced to aliens acting ‘For Amusement Only’ prior to breezy comedic diversions ‘Such a Strange Case!’ (Strange Suspense Stories #40, February 1959) and ‘The Strange One’ (MoUW #10, (November 1958) wryly exploring psychiatry on one hand and castaway mutants on the other. An aura of Kafkaesque confusion then pervades ‘The Night Was Strange’ (TMiH vol 2 #16, May 1958) as a voyager returns home to discover nothing is the same… or ever was…

The wealth of Big Hat energy is amplified as returning to Tales of the Mysterious Traveler results in many more captivating Ditko yarns. The evocative procession of mystery and imagination commences with ‘The Statues That Came to Life’ (TotMT #10, Nov. 1958) as the wanderer observes firsthand the tragedy of Pygmalion, Phidias and Galatea, before the cover of #11 (Feb. 1959) is backed up corresponding interior conundrum ‘The Other Form’ wherein a greedy French colonial seeks too much from a fakir and pays a heavy price.

TotMT #10 then proffers a briefing on the Flying Dutchman in ‘Who Knows?’ before #9 (Sep. 1958) offers the lowdown on a ventriloquist act in ‘The End of Edward’ and #11 takes us ‘Inside the Crystal Globe’ of a conman swami who finally looks fate in the face…

The section ends with a case of painful hubris as a know-it-all janitor arrogantly and illegally cures an amnesia case at the asylum only to himself become ‘The Man Who Forgot’ (Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #9)…

The old saw of a genie who waits millennia to be freed and swears harm on his rescuer gets a mirthful makeover in ‘Glow of Woe’ (Strange Suspense Stories #39, Nov. 1958) before we momentarily drop fantasy for other preoccupations.

One of Charlton’s Fawcett-acquired properties was western Rocky Lane – AKA a celebrity tie-in featuring popular movie cowboy Allan Lane. As was so often the case. his heroic horse was also a big draw and for (Rocky Lane’s) Black Jack #24 (October 1958) Ditko delineated ‘The Enemy’ as wild-living wonder-steed was captured by a cruel horse-breaker and taught the inhuman brute a necessary lesson, after which ‘A Remembered Friend’ (#25, Dec. 1958) sees the ebony maverick lead a foal-hood companion (and its two humans) out of a deadly desert. The auteur assayed a more standard sagebrush saga in ‘Help Wanted!’ as an undercover US Marshal cleans up a town cowed by bandits and badmen (Outlaws of the West #18, Jan. 1959) before returning to Black Jack #24, to reveal how the horse won ‘The Fiery Feud’ instigated by another horse-breaker who thought he knew best…

The future beckons again in four Ditko delights from Strange Suspense Stories #39 (Nov. 1958), beginning with “robots-among-us!” parable ‘Orgo Serves!’, expanding in an early example of paranoid delusion “Replacement Theory” in ‘Mystery from Mars’ before sidestepping into cosy haunted house country for ‘They Say It’s Haunted’ and closing with a cautionary time-travel warning to all crooked scientists taking a ‘Doorway into Tomorrow’.

Staying with Strange Suspense Stories, in #41 (April 1959) Ditko drew brief light-hearted parallel worlds spoof ‘Off Limits’ and mermaid encounter ‘Casy’s Kiss’ for #40 (Feb. 1959), the last of which also featured extended saga of obsessive vengeance ‘The Strange Machine’ wherein a an impoverished genius toiled for years to bring back his dead grandfather only to regret the “treasures” the act unearthed…

Bowing to a UFO fad/frenzy and growing public notions of imminent conquest of the stars, Ditko frequently contributed to flagship sci fi vehicle Outer Space and here #18 (August 1958) details a voyage of discovery and the result of becoming ‘First on Mercury’ after which #19 (October) inventively speculates on ‘What Are the Flying Saucers?’ whilst Space Adventures #25 (Sep. 1958) opines on peaceful cooperation with thirsty refugees from the Red Planet when they get here in 1964 after escaping ‘The Great Martian Drought’…

This collection closes with an opportunity to savour Ditko’s action appeal when he was offered a chance to play with classic stars. Using a cleaner, open style, sans his signature feathering and scratchy textures for a bright, bold forest romp, he crafted ‘Lure of the Maiden’ for Robin Hood and His Merry Men #38 (cover-dated August 1958). When the wicked Sheriff seeks to capture the legendary good outlaw, the vile villain forces a Saxon maid to act as honeytrap. However, the archer also has allies in the opposition camp and a trick up his sleeve…

This capacious volume has episodes to terrify, amaze, amuse and enthral: utter delights of vintage graphic fantasy fiction with lean, stripped down plots and simple dialogue that let art set the tone, push the emotions and tell all. They stem from times when a story could end sadly as well as happily and only wonderment was guaranteed, hidden or not. Stories display the sharp wit and constrained comedic energy which made so many Spider-Man/J. Jonah Jameson confrontations unforgettable treats half a decade later, and the instant mood-setting that defined Doctor Strange. It all makes this penultimate collection not only superb in its own right but telling proof of the genius of one of the art-form’s greatest stylists.

This is a book serious comics fans would happily kill or die or be lost in time for…
This edition © 2015 Fantagraphics Books. Introduction © 2014 Blake Bell. All rights reserved.

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Jamie Smart’s The World of Bunny vs Monkey


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras, Armin Roshdi, Sophie Jones, Asimina Hollingsworth & various (DFB/Phoenix)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-367-7 (Trade HB), 978-1-78845-435-3 (Independent Special Edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Beyond Your Control, But Worth It… 10/10

¡Hola! Happy Dia de los Muertos! Ooh! Look! Funny little animals fighting! Is it a party?

Bunny vs Monkey has been the inspirationally bonkers breakout star of The Phoenix since the premiere issue back in 2012, cataloguing a madcap vendetta gripping animal archenemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia, masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully gusto – but with cerebral cosmic crescendoes in mind – by cartoonist/comics artist/novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember, Find Chaffy; Megalomaniacs), these trendsetting, mindbending yarns have been wisely retooled as multi award-winning, bestselling graphic albums available in digest softcover such as this one hardback and sponsored special editions and even as AUDIOBOOKs. Just let that one last one sink in…

All that tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in after a disastrous British space shot. OR DID IT? This epic tome is very much in the manner of our beloved and much-missed British Annuals (some of which are still going, so get out there and uphold tradition!!) and will be an ideal gift. Hint, Hint!

Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful inheritor of a strange new world, despite every effort of genteel, contemplative, reasonably sensible resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and refined breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this moment remains a rude, troublemaking, chaos-causing, noise-loving lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” and/or being a robot, with or without the aid of evil supergenius Skunky or useless “henches” Metal Steve & Action Beaver…

All those daily wonders and catastrophes were exacerbated by a mixed melange of mildly unconventional Crinkle creatures, none more so than aforementioned monochrome mad scientist Skunky, whose intellect and cavalier attitude to life and consequences presents as a propensity for building dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons. He is, at his core, a dangerously inquisitive thinker and tinkerer…

That’s an awful lot to remember, right? Thus, this tidy tome, delivering a dozen chapters of densely packed (and densely populated by dense creatures and deadly concoctions) fun-fuelled factoids and memory moments all bundled up around loads of maps, games, puzzles and activities, in an overarching new comics story, which neatly retells and recapitulates what’s gone before, sneakily decked out as the day when the ever-snooping Hooman spies dubbed “The Park Rangers” accidentally lost all their meticulously compiled Case Files…

With artistic amendments and augmentations supplied by inker/design deputy Sammy Borras, Armin Roshdi, Sophie Jones, Asimina Hollingsworth, and more, the unending war of nerves and mega-ordnances is re-assessed, after a bold opening spread reintroduces the recurring cast in ‘The Good, The Bad and The Baffled’ and one last chance to turn back by viewing the action-packed Contents section…

In opening chapter ‘Welcome to the Woods’ the potential catastrophe of the Rangers’ files fallen into the paws and claws of their subjects coincides with Skunky unleashing his awesome Egg of Knowledge. Mist people know that Knowledge is Power and his gadget was built to absorb every fact in creation. Typically, now that it’s almost finished gathering data, it’s also gone missing…

Aided by crucial intel in the form of the Rangers’ ‘Map of the Woods’, ‘Underground Map of the Woods’ and their handy guide to ‘The Mysterious Signposts’, the panicking animals split up to search as we focus of Chapter 2 and learn all about ‘Bunny… And What’s Bothering Him!’ through biographical data and snippets from past stories. These include what keeps happening to ‘Bunny’s House’, ‘Bunny’s House Repairs!’ and who to usually blame in ‘Who’s Bothering Bunny?’ That’s offset by ‘Bunny’s Guide to Self-Defence’ and a glimpse at his cosmic counterparts and alt-reality revisions in quiz ‘A Bevy of Bunnies’, before the third bit probes the immensely shallow depths of his nemesis in ‘Monkey… and Monkeyopia!’

Following full disclosures (with pictures!) in comprehensive ‘Confidential Top Secret: Park Ranger’s Case File #2 – Monkey’ the background origin is filled in with ‘The Adventures of Astro Monkey’, his guiding philosophy is discussed in ‘This is Monkeyopia!’, before a catalogue of his fiendish impostures in ‘Monkey: Master of Disguise!’ and a concluding test of what you’ve learned in perplexing puzzle ‘Masses and Masses of Monkeys!’

After checking in on the progress of the Egg of Knowledge it’s time to define ‘Skunky…  and his Ingenious Inventions!’ beginning with a scan of his case file and key calamities caused, with additional data specifically supplied via ‘Skunky’s Ingenious Inventions!’ extensively subdivided into ‘Animals of Terror!’; ‘Skunky’s Genius Inventions Guide’; ‘Vehicles of Destruction’; ‘Animal Mash-Ups’ and surprise pop-quiz ‘Skunky’s Crossed Cables’ before the stream of revelation resumes in ‘Skunky’s Inventions: Most Disgusting!’.

The master of disruption diverts attention after ‘Skunky’s Inventions: World-Changing Genius!’ by rudely – how else? – interrupting with ‘Monkey’s: Much Beter Inventions’ so perhaps it’s just as well that we move on to the minor actors next…

In Chapter 5 we learn of ‘Pig and Weenie… and the Best Picnics!’ as the excitable and confused ninnies are covered by specific Case Files and explored through remembered moments including ‘Pig and Weenie’s Happy Memories’ and ‘Pig and Weenie’s Good Picnic Guide’ prior to ‘Weenie’s Tasty Treats Challenge’ taxing tastebuds and observational skills. Then, surviving ‘Pig and Weenie’s Train of Terror’ tumbles into close contact with Crinkle Woods’ master of the enigmatic and uncanny…

French-ish figure of mystery ‘Le Fox… and an Underground Maze!’ reveals much – but “nozzing of importance” – in his Case File, other than his irascible resting state of annoyance, but does deliver his own contradictory ‘Confidential! Le Fox’s TRUE CASE FILE #1 (Ignore the ozzer one!)’ before a large dossier on subterranean shenanigans is delivered, designated ‘Rumblings Underground’ and accompanied by a twistedly testing trip through ‘Le Fox’s Underground Maze’…

Adrenaline junkie ‘Action Beaver… and his Perilous Stunts!’ are put through the wringer in Chapter 7, with his rescued Case File supplemented by ‘How to Speak Action Beaver’ and a sharp look at ‘The Action Beaver Fan Club’…

The regulation end-of-chapter catch-ups on the search for the egg and vapid responses of the  Hooman Park Rangers swiftly segues in Chapter 8’s mechanoid meanderings as ‘Metal Steve. and Metal E.V.E…. and the Meaning of Life!’ augments probing Case File factoids with a cunning challenge in ‘Metal Steve’s Laser Maze’ and the crazed conditional logic of ‘The Meaning of Life (According to Metal Steve. and Metal E.V.E.)’ after which ninth segment ‘Lucky and Ai… and Mountain Mayhem!’ detail the appropriate Case Files before smoothly change lanes into a multi-player board game (complete with instruction to make a number-spinner at the back if you can’t turn up dice!) ‘Ai’s and Mountain Mayhem’ and offering the variably-fortunate Red Panda’s survival secrets in ‘Lucky’s Guide to Staying Lucky’, even as elsewhere extended searching is conveniently converging on that pesky Egg…

Closing chapters 10, 11 & 12 focus on ‘Everyone Else!’, tapping the vast expanses of space, time, parallel dimensions and other cosmic conventions, covering weird life forms, visiting extra and non-terrestrial beasts, bogles and bears (oh my!), explains the painful necessity for ‘The Whiff-o-meter’ constructed as vital woodland safeguard, and details how a grizzly mum passes her days in ‘Weenie’s Guide to Bear’. That’s all supported by participatory puzzle ‘Alien Invasion’; ‘Wanted’ poster for lesser inhabitants like ‘Stan Stoat’, ‘Brick Warthog’ & ‘Pootle B. Thunderbum’; Pig’s Family Album; Le Fox’s Family Album and observation test ‘Swallowed by Bungamungus!’ plus exploring aquatic aberrations in ‘Weird and Watery’ and learning nothing of use from ‘Pig and Weenie’s Weird Hooman Facts’…

‘The Worlds of Bunny vs. Monkey!’ offers ‘The Tour of Infinite Dimensions’ that were changed forever by contact with our warring wild things: regions of ‘Fire Ice and… Poo’ prior to ‘A Crash Landing!’ spilling pasts and present together for a mashed-up mix-up that culminates in ‘The Worlds of Bunny vs. Monkey Quiz… and a Massive Explosion’.

In fact all the preceding sidereal shenanigans, farty fooffawraws, rampaging reconstructions and monster bum gags only result in a rather difficult ‘Fiendish Bunny vs. Monkey Quiz’, some daunting self-determinism of ‘Who Are You in the World of Bunny vs. Monkey?’ and that aforementioned biggish bang before comfort comes in ‘Answers – How Many Puzzles Did You Solve?’

Inextricably linked to the Phoenix Comics Club, the back of this book is a virtual (but printed!) emporium of further things to do. Bring paper, pencils and yourself to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by Jamie Smart and others on the website instantly accessible via QR or maybe first peruse a commercial presentation of all the other wonderful comic tomes your life will remain incomplete until you also own…

Another book for your kids to explain to you, this is glorious concatenation of weird wit, wild invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning – but with TESTS & EXAMS! – crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Is that you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.

The World of Bunny vs Monkey will be released on November 5th 2026 and is available for pre-order now.

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DC Finest – Batman: The Demon Lives Again


By Denny O’Neil & Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Frank Robbins, Robert Kanigher, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Bernie Wrightson, Michael Wm, Kaluta, Nick Cardy, Sol Harrison, Jerry Bingham, Rudy Nebres & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79951-030-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect Moments for when the Knights Draw In… 10/10

More than any other hero Batman has come to be defined by his enemies. As part of the reclamation project that ensued once the self-made super saviour had stopped playing the fool on TV for three years, for comics books that meant harsh new interpretations of his venerable rogues gallery but also demanded someone fresh, contemporary, uncompromising and above all else terrifyingly formidable…

After three seasons, the overwhelmingly successful Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes plus a theatrical-release movie since the sensation premiered on January 12th 1966, sparked a global frenzy dubbed “Batmania” and triggered hysteria for all things costumed, zany and Mysteryman-ish. Once the series was done and sentenced to syndication, humanity’s fascination with “camp” superheroes burst just as quickly as it had boomed, and the Caped Crusaders were left to a hard core of dedicated fans and followers who hoped they might now have Their hero back.

For comic book editor Julius Schwartz – who had tried to keep the most ludicrous excesses of the show out of his books whilst still cashing in on the magnified global popularity – the solution was simple: ditch the tired shtick, gimmicks and gaudy paraphernalia and get Batman back to basics; solving baffling mysteries and facing life-threatening perils. After all, that had worked back in 1963 when the problem was silly aliens. Moreover, in an era of teen revolt, that could mean phasing out the boy sidekick, too…

Although college freshman Teen Wonder Dick Grayson would still pop back for occasional guest-shot yarns, this massive monument to comics ingenuity and narrative brilliance features him only sporadically. Robin had finally spread his wings and flown the nest: for a solo back-up slot in Detective Comics, alternating with Batgirl.

Chronologically collecting Batman’s cases from cover-dates April 1971 to November 1972, in issues #231-245 of his own title and the front halves of Detective Comics #410-429, and including bonus marital from Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-51and 1988 reprint series The Saga of Ra’s Al Ghul, the original exploits gathered here (some Batman issues were giant reprint editions, so only their covers are reproduced within these pages) were written and illustrated by forward-thinking creators determined make the hero relevant and interesting on his own terms once more.

One huge factor aiding the transition was that the publishers had finally acknowledged that a large proportion of the faithful readership were discerning teens (or even adults), not just kids looking for a quick, cheap, disposable entertainment fix. Moreover, working through other contemporary tropes – most notably a renewed global fascination in all things supernatural and gothic and an increasing awareness of environmental breakdown – the creators reshaped Batman into a champion capable of working within the new “big things” in comics: realism, organised crime, social issues, suspense and even supernatural horror…

During this period the long road to our modern obsessive, scarily dark Knight incrementally reintroduced a harder-edged, grimly serious caped crimebuster, whilst carefully expanding the milieu and scope of Batman’s universe. That especially meant re-assessing those fearsome foes, who again ceased to be harmless buffoons to and inexorably metamorphose back into the macabre Grand Guignol murder-fiends that had typified the villains of the early 1940s.

This mini-renaissance also resulted in a groundbreaking experiment now lauded as one of the first great extended Batman epics…

The moody mayhem begins with Detective #410 and a chillingly memorable murder-mystery from the most celebrated creative team of the decade. Crafted by Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams & embellisher Dick Giordano at their spectacular best, it revealed an exhausted masked Manhunter tracking one ruthless killer and inadvertently stumbling into another wave of slaughter amidst an enclave of retired circus freaks. Multi-talented Giordano was inker of choice for the Darknight Detective at this time: his slick, lush line and brushwork lending a veneer of continuity to every penciller. Unless I say otherwise, please assume it’s him on every cited saga from now on…

The Caped crimebuster was then lured to Vietnam to save an airliner full of hostages in Batman #231 (by Frank Robbins with Irv Novick pencilling), and barely survived a vicious vengeance scheme triggered by the ‘Blind Rage of the Ten-Eyed Man’. This was war veteran Phil Reardon who blamed Batman for the loss of his sight and a macabre operation that allowed him to “see” through his fingertips!

Next, came the first subtle plot-strands of a breathtakingly ambitious saga unlike anything seen in comics before. They were woven into Detective Comics #411, as still in the East, undercover and hunting Dr. Darrk (leader of the lethally clandestine League of Assassins as introduced in DC #405), Batman’s pursuit leads him ‘Into the Den of the Death-Dealers’ (by O’Neil, Bob Brown &Giordano) where a climactic struggle resulted in the death monger’s demise and freedom for the exotic but biddable hostage he was holding. Her name was Talia…

We learned more about her in Batman #232 when O’Neil & Adams introduced her father – an apparently immortal eco-terrorist calling himself Ra’s Al Ghul – in a whirlwind adventure which became a signature highpoint of the entire Batman canon. ‘Daughter of the Demon’ is a timeless globe-girdling pulp-inspired mystery yarn drawing the ever-more grim detective from Gotham’s concrete canyons to the Himalayas in search of Robin and Talia: both apparently hostages purportedly captured by forces inimical to both Batman and the mysterious figure who claims to working in secret to save the world…

Ra’s was a contemporary, yet hopefully more acceptable embodiment of the classic inscrutable foreign devil (typified in a less forgiving age as so many “Yellow Perils” like Dr. Fu Manchu). This sort of alien archetype permeates – more like infests – popular fiction and is still an astonishingly powerful villain-symbol, although back in the 1970s the character’s Arabic origins (neutral at that time) seem to uncomfortably embody a different kind of ethnic bogeyman…

The notion of a villain who has the best interests of the planet at heart is also not new, but Ra’s Al Ghul – whose avowed intent is to reduce teeming humanity to safe, manageable, viable levels and save the world from our poisons – struck a chord in the 1970s: a period where ecological issues originally came to the attention of the young. It was a rare kid who didn’t find a note of sense in what “the Demon’s Head” planned.

Crucially, the spectacular introductory tale ended with a shocking pronouncement of what Ra’s intended for Batman…

A return to relative normality came in Robbins & Brown’s ‘Legacy of Hate!’ (DC #412) with Bruce Wayne heading to Northern England for a convocation of kin gathered to settle the ownership and disposition of ancient Waynemoor Castle. Sadly, even Batman couldn’t separate the spate of attempted murders which followed into purely human perpetrators and the fault of the manor’s vengeful ghost knight Lord Harold…

After pausing to admire Giordano’s cover for reprint edition Batman #233, Detective #413 then blends the spooky tone of the times with a healthy dose of social inclusion as ‘Freak-Out at Phantom Hollow!’ (Robbins & Brown) finds Batman saving two abused hippie kids being picked on by the decent folk in a rural hamlet, only to become embroiled in a local witch’s curse and a mad bomber’s plot prior to Batman #234 spectacularly reintroducing one of the hero’s most tragic foes.

As comics became increasingly anodyne through the 1950s, traumatised, psychologically warped actualised schizophrenic Two-Face slipped from The Gotham Guardian’s roster of rogues, but with ‘Half an Evil’ (O’Neil, Adams, Giordano) coin-tossing Harvey Dent resurfaced at the forefront of grimmer, grittier stories. This time, a string of bizarre, brutal and baffling robberies afflict the city, and bewildered baffled Batman must use all his ingenuity to discern the reasoning and discover the identity of a ruthless hidden mastermind in time to thwart a desperately diabolical scheme…

In DC #414, an aura of Film Noir redemption colours and flavours O’Neil & Novick’s ‘Legend of the Key Hook Lighthouse!’ when the dread detective tracks gunrunners to a haunted coastal bastion in Florida. However, only supernatural intervention enables him to save bystanders who, whilst not exactly innocent, certainly don’t deserve the fate psychotic banana republic despot General Ruizo planned for them. Then Batman #235’s ‘Swamp Sinister!’ (O’Neil & Novick) offers further insights into Talia’s true character and her ruthless sire’s agenda when the hero races to recover a bio-weapon stolen from “the Demon” before Detective #415 sees Robbins & Brown’s deliver the ‘Challenge of the Consumer Crusader’ as the Gotham Gangbuster uncover and dismantles an extortion ring inside the nation’s most respected product-testing organisation…

Detective Comics #400 had introduced a dark twisted doppelganger to Gotham’s Guardian after driven scientist Kirk Langstrom created a serum to make him superior to Batman – and paid a heavy price. Over two further tales Langstrom and his fiancée Francine endured his monstrous transformations until Batman found a cure. Now that trilogy expanded in DC #416 as Robbins illustrated his own script in ‘Man-Bat Madness!’ Here Kirk seemingly slips back into his mutative madness. Luckily, Batman has the faith to look beyond appearances and discerns a hidden factor in the scientist’s inexplicable recidivism…

In Batman #236, Robbins & Novick merge mysticism with a solidly mundane murder-plot, cover-up and blistering action intervention with ‘Wail of the Ghost-Bride!’ after which a persistent but annoying journalist seeks to become ‘Batman for a Night’ (Detective #417, Robbins, Brown) but only succeeds after experiencing similar crime-created loss. The next issue then delivers a (temporary) finish to the short-lived career of Steve Ditko’s outsider hero The Creeper. Concocted by O’Neil & Novick, ‘…And Be a Villain!’ pits the Gotham Guardian against a former hero being simultaneously killed and driven crazy by his own powers. At the heart of the problem is a criminal scientist forcing The Creeper to steal in return for a promised cure, but that’s no help for Batman who must defeat a deranged foe faster, stronger, more agile and far scarier than he…

O’Neil, Adams & Giordano reunited for Batman #237’s ‘Night of the Reaper!’ Regarded as another of the era’s most revered tales:, this harrowing Halloween epic finds Robin working with his former mentor to solve a string of barbarous killings, only to uncover atrocity leading back to Nazi Germany and a pitifully deranged perpetrator as much sinned-against as sinner.

Following the Adams/Giordano cover of all-reprint 100-Page Super-Spectacular Batman #238 (plus the key to all the heroes depicted there), in Detective #419 a corpse weighed down with Batman figurines leads our hero into an underworld imbroglio brimming with shameful family freaks, a ruthless master smuggler and the pitiful ‘Secret of the Slaying Statues!’ (O’Neil & Novick) before contemporary Christmas classic ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night!’ by the same creators over in Batman #239 sees the masked manhunter strive to save a desperate, poverty-struck single parent from making the worst decision of his life…

The evocative redemption saga sees him triumph – with some seasonal help from a Jolly higher power.

As the company’s flagship title increasingly dug back into its roots and pursued nominative determinism on all levels in its anthological pages, Robbins flew solo again in Detective Comics #420’s lead strip ‘Forecast for Tonight… Murder!’ Here a radioactive dead man stalks one of Gotham’s greatest philanthropists, outwitting Batman’s every preventative measure. It only gets tougher when the hero discovers he might be safeguarding the wrong injured party…

The long-brewing war between Batman and Ra’s Al Ghul went to Def Con 3 in Batman #240 (March 1972) as O’Neil, Novick & Giordano set the scene for the groundbreaking “series-within-a-series” soon to follow. When Batman uncovers one of his austere opponent’s less worthy and far more grisly projects, he clashes with diabolical rogue brain-surgeon Dr. Moon and must compromise his principles to deliver ‘Vengeance for a Dead Man!’ The end result is to be open conflict between Batman and the Demon’s Head…

First though, and for the best of reasons, the hero has to break a blackmailer who knows all Gotham’s dirty secrets out of prison during a full-scale riot in ‘Blind Justice… Blind Fear!’ (another all-Robbins affair from DC #421) whilst in the following issue O’Neil and Brown have the Dark Knight crush a cunning hijacking ring using radical methodology for corporate reasons in ‘Highway to Nowhere!’ Another sociopathic killer debuted in Batman #241 as the hero ferrets out freelance spy Colonel Sulphur, whose extortion scheme revolves around his threat to kill a Pentagon officer’s wife. O’Neil & Novick’s ‘At Dawn Dies Mary McGuffin!’ sees Batman scouring Gotham in a tense race against the clock in direct counterpoint to DC#423’s ‘The Most Dangerous Twenty Miles in Gotham City’ (Robbins, Brown) wherein the masked manhunter’s cognitive skills are tested trying to slip a Russian agent past a gang of US ultra-patriots. The killers don’t care that he’s being exchanged for a captive American, they just want to kill a commie and send a message…

Batman #242-244 (plus a 15-page epilogue in #245) comprised a single extended saga, unfolding outside normal DC continuity. It promised the final confrontation between two opposing ideals. O’Neil, Novick & Giordano opened the campaign in #242 with ‘Bruce Wayne – Rest in Peace!’ as, with his civilian identity taken off the board (to prevent The Demon exposing it), Batman gathers a small team of specialist allies. These comprise criminal alternate-identity Matches Malone, scientific advisor Dr. Harris Blaine and Ra’s’ top assassin Ling all coerced and sworn to destroy Ra’s Al Ghul forever.

Meanwhile back in regulation continuity, it was business as usual in Detective #424 where Robbins & Brown’s ‘Double-Cross-Fire!’ played out an astoundingly cunning murder plot with Batman challenging Commissioner Gordon (and us readers) to spot a telltale clue giving the game away. One issue later O’Neil & Novick got all Shakespearean when ‘The Stage is Set… for Murder!’ and Batman carefully seeks to glean which thespian is plotting a big, bloody finish before the curtain comes down forever…

O’Neil, Adams & Giordano resumed operations with the second chapter of their landmark epic in Batman #243 as the team – plus latecomer Molly Post – bombastically invaded Ra’s’ Swiss citadel moments after their intended target passes away. Nobody suspects the ageless villain’s resources include ‘The Lazarus Pit’ which can revive the dead…

In Detective #426, a spate of inexplicable suicides amongst the wealthy leads Batman to suave gambler Conway Treach: a man who just can’t lose. Soon, however, the huckster learns his grim opponent has his own system for winning ‘Killer’s Roulette!’ in another suspenseful all-Robbins gem leading chronologically and conclusively to Batman #244 and the fateful finale wherein ‘The Demon Lives Again!’ Sadly, despite all his supernal gifts and forces, Ra’s cannot escape the climactic vengeance of his implacable foe in dream-team O’Neil, Adams & Giordano’s compulsive climax.

In DC #427, Robbins & Novick detail ‘A Small Case of Murder!’ as, long after arresting the admitted killer – an automated ventriloquist’s doll – the Gotham Gangbuster finally takes down the mastermind who really pulled the trigger. With the job done, an addendum in Batman #245 resolves ‘The Bruce Wayne Murder Case!’, restoring the billionaire to his rightful place in Gotham’s social whirl by catching a devious desperado who had opportunistically pinned the non-murder on a business rival…

In Detective #428, Robbins, Brown & Giordano channel movie blockbuster The French Connection and debut by-the-book maverick cop Steve “Shotgun” Smith as the masked manhunter clashes with an obsessive equal in ‘The Batman vs the Toughest Cop in Gotham!’ Despite initial friction, the heroes bond once Batman proves shotgun isn’t a corrupt, bribe-taking killer, after which Robbins does it all again in closing inclusion ‘Man-Bat Over Vegas!’ from Detective #429 (November 1972). This was an epilogue to the triptych of tales which introduced tragic Kirk Langstrom, whose experiments doomed him to life as a monstrous winged mutant. Although here and now Batman assumed the scientist was cured, after a nuclear test led to a rash of vampire attacks in Nevada the Caped Crusader rushed west to investigate and discovered nothing was what it seemed.

Adding even more value to this print-only paragon of passion and peril, also included are Adams & Sol Harrison’s iconic wraparound cover to 1977’s tabloid compilation Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-51 and the wrapround covers to 1988 reprint series The Saga of Ra’s Al Ghul #1-4 by Jerry Bingham, Adams, Giordano and Rudy Nebres…

With the game-changing classics in this volume, Batman finally and fully returned to the commercial and critical top flight he had enjoyed in the 1940s, reviving and expanding upon his original conception as a remorseless, relentless avenger of injustice. The next few years would see the hero rise to unparalleled heights of quality so stay tuned… the very best is just around the corner . That dark, dark corner….
© 1971, 1972, 1977, 1988, 2026 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Gillbert volume 1: The Little Merman


By Art Balthazar (Papercutz)
ISBN: 978-1-5458-0144-4 (HB/Digital edition), 978-1-5458-0145-1 (PB)

Art Baltazar has come long way since he self-published The Cray-Baby Adventures. In the interim he has crafted – singly or in conjunction with similarly fun-loving artisans – a veritable maelstrom of books and comics for kids: magical and award-winning, sublimely strange, instantly engaging tomes and series such as Tiny Titans, Itty Bitty Hellboy, The DC Super Pets, Action Cat, Adventure Bug, Encounter and so many more. Throughout all the multicoloured madcappery, he remained a dedicated and passionate advocate of children’s literacy and adhered to a set of unswerving principles: keep it fun, keep it funny and keep it accessible.

That’s certainly the case in this sadly stranded venture with family publisher Papercutz. Gillbert, The Little Merman introduced a charming wide-eyed little prince about to embark on his initial learning experience…

After opening a bottle floating in the ocean, Gill finds a message from the surface world and wants to read it. None of his finny, scaly, gelid, crusty or amphibian friends can help him, so he returns home to Atlanticus to consult his ma and pa, Queen Niadora and King Nauticus. They, however, expect him to wait until later…

Impatient and overexcited, Gill is soon lured away by a mysterious mermaid who says she can help. Before long Anne Phibian is escorting him to so many new and thrilling places such as submerged party house Wewillrocktopolis and the Sub-Atomic Awesomator, but all the while Gill is blithely unaware that his world is increasingly imperilled by a swarm of Fiery Pyrockians: blazing meteor creatures with a grudge against his dad…

Anne and her allies are on the ball though, with unsuspected connections to the Royal Family, and are taking steps to ensure everything will be okay, especially with Gill’s help…

Available in hardback, soft cover and digital formats, Gillbert offers a rapturous escapade of thrills and frolics to delight any imaginative reader of any vintage. My long-cherished review copy even included a tantalising free glimpse at another all-ages star with captivating cartoon pages from the upcoming Gumby: 50 Shades of Clay release. So I’ll bet yours will, too…

As it’s seemingly fallen off the radar (Sonar? Asdic?) since its release, we’re all keenly awaiting another voyage with Gill, and if we all wish hard enough, maybe that will happen soon…
© 2018 Art Baltazar. All Rights Reserved. All other material © 2018 Papercutz.

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Archie Horror Presents Chilling Adventures in Sorcery


By Harry Doyle, Gray Morrow, Marvin Channing, Don Glut, Steve Skeates, Mary Skrenes, Carol Seuling, Phil Seuling, Larry Hama, Bob Holland, Stan Goldberg, Vicente Alcazar, Dick Giordano, Carlos Pino, Dan DeCarlo, Howard Chaykin, Alex Toth, Bruce Jones, Ed Davis, Frank Thorne & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-62738-990-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Shockingly Wicked Chronicle of Chills… 9/10

For 85 years Archie Comics have been synonymous with safe, wholesome good fun, but the company has always been a surprisingly subversive one. Family friendly – and not – iterations of superheroes, spooky chills, sci fi thrills and genre yarns have always been as much a part of the publisher’s portfolio as the romantic comedy capers of America’s cleanest-cut teens.

As you probably know, eponymous Archie Andrews has been around since 1941, but the publisher has other family-friendly feature players – like Sabrina the Teenage Witch or Josie and the Pussycats – in their stable, almost as well known – and just as prone to radical reinterpretation. To keep all that accumulated attention riveted, the company always looked to modern trends with which to expand upon their archetypal storytelling brief. A recent revival in horror across all media thus resulted in a few supernatural sidebar titles such as Afterlife with Archie and Jughead: The Hunger…

Moreover, in times past the publisher cross-fertilised their pantheon through unlikely team-ups such as Archie Meets the Punisher, Archie Vs Sharknado and Archie Vs Predator, whilst every type of fashion fad and youth culture sensation was invariably accommodated into and explored within the pages of regular titles. Thus, following-up the stunning success of aforementioned zombie apocalypse Afterlife with Archie, they took another brazenly controversial step, and radically reinvented their saccharine-sweet TV teen witch in an astoundingly sophisticated way with Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. That was done by playwright, screenwriter and comics scribe Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (The Mystery Plays, 4: Marvel Knights Fantastic Four, Stephen King’s The Stand and Afterlife with Archie) who pitched the idea to re-imagine the saucy sorceress in terms of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist.

Archie Comics was no stranger to such material. In the 1970s the company had formed sub-imprint Red Circle for anthology terror tales during a previous supernatural boom time, before gradually converting the line to superhero features as the decade progressed and a fad faded. They even had resident witch-girl Sabrina narrating Chilling Tales of Sorcery for the first two issues. The title dropped subhead …As Told by Sabrina… for #3, and with #6 (cover-dated April 1974) became Red Circle Sorcery until folding with February 1975’s #11.

In a great example of circularity, a newly-wicked 21st century Sabrina featured snippets from the ’70’s anthology, sparking this edgy compilation of lost classics in a spiffy monochrome collection. Following a fervent Introduction by letterer and fright-fan Jack Morelli, a volley of vintage terrors open with Chilling Tales of Sorcery… as Told by Sabrina #1 (September 1972): a rather standard anthology of short thrillers with twist-endings, little different from those manufactured by DC, Marvel, Gold Key or Charlton at the time, as crafted by Archie’s on-staff comedy creators.

Frank Doyle & Stan Goldberg’s ‘Behold the Beast’ revealed the fate of a misunderstood and malformed lad, before ‘The Boy Who Cried Vampire’ (Doyle & Dan DeCarlo) dealt out ironic justice to a pesky kid and ‘Assignment in Fear’ (Doyle & DeCarlo) saw a teacher with a secret sort out a class bully in horrific style…

Anonymous prose yarn ‘A Real Hot Talent’ got under the skin of a juvenile fire-starter after which Doyle & DeCarlo returned to exhibit ‘Quick Justice’ in an art gallery before Doyle & Goldberg reveal how ‘Curiosity Kills’ in a story of an accursed inheritance.

Issue #2 opened with Doyle & Goldberg’s ‘The Ultimate Cure’ wherein a waiting bride’s tragic misapprehension destroyed her man and her sanity, whilst text tale ‘Look Upon Your Legacy’ recapitulated the dangers of an over-active imagination. Pictorial perils resumed with ‘Sonny’s World’ (Doyle & Dan DeCarlo) as a little brat learns how to make reality his plaything, and ‘The Measure of a Monster’ Doyle & Goldberg) sees mad science unleash a colossal creature and (almost) find a safe conclusion. The same creators thereafter outline the fate of a jewel-obsessed lass succumbing to ‘The Cameo’s Curse’…

A total shift in style and tone (like from Goosebumps to Carrie) began with #3 (October 1973) as writer/artist Gray Morrow came aboard, personally crafting or supervising far more mature fare closer to Warren’s adult horror magazines than contemporary newsstand standards such as House of Mystery, Ghostly Haunts or Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery.

Dwight Graydon “Gray” Morrow was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1934 and studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. After army service he moved to New York City in 1955 and began a steady career contributing strips, covers and illustrations to Atlas Comics (pre-Marvel), Cracked, Classics Illustrated, numerous children’s books and pulps like Galaxy.

A master of graphic realism, his art and stories graced countless comics books, magazines like Space: 1999 and alternative vehicles such as Wally Wood’s Witzend. Morrow freelanced for dozens of companies; he co-created DC’s El Diablo & Marvel’s Man-Thing, revamped Archie’s Black Hood into a gritty urban avenger (during his tenure at Red Circle), as well as drawing newspaper iterations of Tarzan & Buck Rogers. Morrow won numerous awards – including 3 Hugos – over a long and extremely far-reaching artistic life. He died in 2001.

His influence on Chilling Adventures in Sorcery was instantaneous. With the imprint retitled Red Circle Comics for the third (almost all-Morrow) issue, the new boss introduced a growing band of fresh writers and master artists, as the title unleashed a wave of terror tales that owed much to movies and TV of the period.

It began with ‘…Cat’ (written, drawn & lettered by Morrow) wherein a ruthless, misogynistic society burglar targets the wrong gem-bedecked senorita and lives to regret it forever. After text thriller ‘A Stab in the Dark’ – exposing a plot to murder by witchcraft – a diversion into EC-tinged science fiction finds a time traveller accidentally become an evolutionary ‘Missing Link!’, whilst a bereaved man investigates the death of a sister and discovers a new ‘Immortality Factor’ is anything but.

An embezzler pays the price for betrayal in ‘Haunted Gallery’ before the issue closes with fact-page ‘Essays into the Supernatural’ – a featurette by Phil Seuling & Morrow exploring timeless rituals of magic and the use of ‘Familiars’…

Due to his prestige and sheer artistic quality, Morrow could call upon a lot of high-end associates to fill pages, as #4 (December 1973) introduced internationally famous Spanish master of mood Vicente Alcazar (Jonah Hex, Commando Picture Library, Star Trek, Space: 1999) who began his association by writing & illustrating ‘Suicide… Maybe’, a saga of Faustian tragedy wherein a lifelong failure makes a fool’s bargain and discovers politics is the Devil’s playground…

Text vignette ‘Loophole’ also explores such contracts before Don Glut & Dick Giordano highlight the ‘Horripilate Host’ whose TV show excesses lead to infernal doom, after which Morrow adds a sinister tweak to the legend of Midas when a greedy creep gains the legendary ‘Golden Touch!’ The power of a Hebrew Golem deals poetic justice to a modern oppressor in ‘A Thousand Pounds of Clay’ (Glut & Alcazar) before the issue ends on another fictive factoid as ‘Essays into the Supernatural’ finds Morrow exploring truths and fictions of ‘The Witch’…

Cover-dated February 1974, #5 opens with a vivid pastiche of Arabian adventure courtesy of writers Morrow & Larry Hama. Limned by Alcazar ‘The Two Thieves of Baghdad’ exposes the fatal flaw of overconfidence before the all-Alcazar ‘Esme’ details the fate of a hit-&-run victim whose vision is horrifically enhanced by her accident. Morrow brings his lifelong affinity for baroque, barbaric science fantasy to the creepy epic ‘Barometer Falling…’ after which Alcazar’s ‘The Choker is Wild’ reveals the shocking history of blood-drinking sovereign Queen Maleena and ‘Essays into the Supernatural’ featurette (by Seuling & Morrow) catalogues the totemic value of ‘Dragons’.

In Red Circle Sorcery #6 (April) Steve Skeates, Mary Skrenes & Morrow open with ‘Warrior’s Dream’ as a lusty barbarian finally pays the price for all that wenching and, following Marvin Channing & Morrow’s ‘Essays into the Supernatural’ page detailing legends of ‘The Werewolf’, a conjuring upstart is destroyed by a sagacious warlock in ‘Out of Practice’ by Seuling & Ed Davis.

British comics stalwart Carlos Pino was Alcazar’s studio partner for years (they often collaborated as “CarVic”) but here solos in Channing’s tale of vengeance-by-witchcraft ‘Death Goes to a Sales Convention!’, before Carol Seuling & Howard Chaykin go full medieval in ‘The Patience of a Cat’ – an epic saga of demonic manipulation and feline retribution…

Illustrated by Morrow, futuristic sensory-inundation tech is the driving force in T. Casey Brennan’s extended prose mystery ‘Black Fog’ – after which Channing & Alcazar dole out just deserts to a serial womaniser in ‘Face of Love – Face of Death’ to close the issue.

RCS #7 commences with Skeates & Pino’s ‘A Twist in Time’ as an ancient wizard is drawn into Fate’s plan to punish a modern-day murderer before Channing & Morrow explore legends of ‘The Dibbuk’ in another gripping ‘Essays into the Supernatural’ featurette. Then Channing & Alcazar memorably reveal the dangers of owning ‘The Knife of Jack the Ripper’…

Channing scripts a rare but welcome artistic exploit by Bruce Jones when ‘The Rivals’ follows two kids from mid-western poverty to dizzying heights prior to their grim, witchcraft-assisted ends, after which Brennan & Alcazar detail the frustrating fate of ‘The Benefactor’ nobody will listen to…

Closing the chronological portion, ‘Essays into the Supernatural’ offers Morrow’s lowdown on ‘Possession and Exorcism’ which happily leads not to the end, but instead to a selection of Bonus Stories from later issues.

From #9 (October 1974) comes ‘…If I Were King’ by Channing & magnificent Alex Toth, as a meek nobody gets his greatest wish fulfilled – with the usual regrets – before #8 (August 1974) offers a compelling ‘Essays into the Supernatural’ featurette by Channing & Frank Thorne, exposing the tricks of pesky ‘Poltergeists’ and contains closure via illustrated calligraphic ode ‘The Spectre’ by Bob Holland & Morrow.

The company’s 21st century resurgence on TV and in comics generated a variety of alternate iterations of the timeless pantheons and this no-frills terror tome is the perfect complement to those aforementioned horror-haunted titles.

Please don’t be put off by the black-&-white reproduction: these tales are crafted by masters of line art and tonal values whose efforts actually benefit from the subtraction of the cheap colour used in the original releases. These are superb voyages into the bizarre unknown that no lover of dark fiction should miss.
© 2017 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Morbius Epic Collection volume 1 (1971-1975): The Living Vampire!


By Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Don McGregor, Gerry Conway, Mike Friedrich, Doug Moench, Gil Kane, Pablo Marcos, Ross Andru, Paul Gulacy, P. Craig Russell, Tom Sutton, Rich Buckler, Luiz Dominguez, Virgil Redondo, Mike Vosburg, Frank Robbins , Frank Giacoia, Steve Mitchell, Mike Esposito, Jack Abel, George Roussos, Vince Colletta, Klaus Janson, Ernie Chan, Frank Chiaremonte, Esteban Maroto & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2835-3 (TPB), 978-1-3029-3616-7 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Bloody Marvellous Spooky Treats… 9/10

One of the most crucial aspects defining classical horror archetypes and characters is inherent tragedy in equal amount to fear and violence. Frankenstein’s monster and werewolves are more victims than villains and even true predators like Dracula wed desire to necessity to underpin their dark depredations. This factor was the prime driver of many of Marvel’s misunderstood monster stars in the early 1970s, and none more so than doomed researcher Michael Morbius who surrendered his humanity in service of physical survival and paid the price in shame, regret and guilt every time his thirst resurged….

This century’s transition of Marvel’s print canon to every size of screen seems unstoppable and with their pioneering horror hero/villain admitted to the ranks of a film presence, the company released a wave of collections to support the release. The most comprehensive and contextually crucial are two Epic Collections revisiting his life in more or less chronological order. This initial tome re-presents Amazing Spider-Man #101-102; Marvel Team-Up #3-4; Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1; (Adventure into) Fear #20-26; Giant-Size Werewolf by Night #4 and pertinent cuts from Vampire Tales #1-8, cumulatively comprising cover-dates October 1971 to April 1975. These trace a science-spawned nosferatu through debut, guest villain shots and ultimately to his time in the spotlight as a confirmed but conflicted horror hero…

It all began with The Amazing Spider-Man #101: the second chapter of an anniversary trilogy tale begun by Stan Lee, Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia which saw the wallcrawler accidentally mutate himself and gain four extra arms…

Our voyeuristic participation starts as Roy Thomas takes over with ‘A Monster Called… Morbius!’ as our 8-limbed arachnid oddity desperately seeks a way to reverse his condition. Whilst hiding out in Dr. Curt Connors’ Long Island home/lab, Peter Parker stumbles across a costumed horror who drinks human blood. The newcomer has just reached shore, fleeing a ship that he left a charnel house. Making matters even worse is Connors’ sudden arrival in his scaly savage form of The Lizard. Suddenly surprised and always enraged, the saurian attacks, set on killing all intruders…

Amongst the many things banned by the Comics Code Authority in 1954 were horror staples zombies, werewolves & vampires, but changing tastes and spiralling costs of the era were seeing superhero titles dropping like flies in a blizzard. With interest in suspense and the supernatural growing globally, every publisher pushed for a return to scary comics, and the covert introduction of a “Living Vampire” in superhero staple Spider-Man led to another challenge to the CCA, the eventually revision of the Code’s horror section and a resurgent rise of supernatural heroes and titles.

For one month Marvel also experimented with double-sized comic books (DC’s switch to 52-page issues lasted almost a year: August 1971 to June 1972 cover-dates). Thus, Amazing Spider-Man #102 featured a bombastic 3-chapter blockbuster brawl beginning with ‘Vampire at Large!’ wherein octo-webspinner and anthropoid reptile joined forces to hunt a science-spawned bloodsucker after discovering a factor in the bitey brute’s saliva could cure both part-time monsters’ respective conditions.

‘The Way it Began’ abruptly diverges from the main narrative to present the tragic tale of Nobel Prize winning biologist Michael Morbius and how be turned himself into a haunted night-horror in hopes of curing his fatal blood disease, before ‘The Curse and the Cure!’ brought a blistering conclusion: restoring the status quo and requisite appendage-count!

Gerry Conway assumed the writer’s role for the third appearance of the living (not dead; never ever undead but “Living”, okay?), breathing humanoid predator who drank blood to live. Illustrated by Ross Andru & Giacoia, Marvel Team-Up #3 (July 1972) saw Spidey and Human Torch Johnny Storm hunting a resurgent Morbius after he attacks student Jefferson Bolt… and somehow passes on his plague of thirst. The conflicted scientist still seeks a cure and tracks old colleague Hans Jorgenson to Parker’s college, but his now-vampiric servant Bolt wants just what all true bloodsuckers want in ‘The Power to Purge!’

The horror was still acting the villain in ‘And Then… the X-Men!’ (MTU #4, August) as the Torch was replaced by most of Marvel’s sole mutant team as The Beast – having gone all hairy and solo – helmed another science-based workaround to publish comic book monsters who were anything but supernatural. This enthralling thriller was magnificently illustrated by Kane at the top of his game and inked by Steve Mitchell, with the webslinger and X-Men at odds while both hunting the missing Jorgenson. After the unavoidable butting of heads, the heroes united to overcome Morbius and left him for Professor Charles Xavier to contain or cure…

Sadly, as we already know, his Nobel Prize-winning research only led to the death of his greatest friend and colleague, the abandonment of his true love and an unlife sentence as a rampaging killer…

Like Hawkeye, The Punisher, Wolverine and many others, Morbius followed the classic Marvel character arc and tradition of villain-turned-hero, but he fits far more in the mould of Doctor Doom, Magneto, The Hulk and Namor the Sub-Mariner: a driven protagonist whose needs and agendas generally set him apart from and in conflict with society and civilisation. Despite his every wish and effort, Morbius is repeatedly forced to feed on humanity: a victim of his own mutated body.

As the ‘70s superhero decline continued and horror bloomed, Morbius found refuge in Marvel’s black-&-white magazines. Designated mature material, these titles skated around Comics Code rules, offering adult scenes and themes and an early home for numerous horror stars, barbarians like Conan and Kull, as well as more sophisticated superhero fare for The Punisher, Mockingbird, Moon Knight and others. Vampire Tales #1 launched in August 1973 with ‘Morbius’ as lead feature. Following the painted cover by Esteban Maroto, contents page and vintage vamp movie still, a moody monochrome shocker from Steve Gerber & Pablo Marcos details the bloodsucker’s relocation to Los Angeles and immersion in its wild night life scene as he searches for former lover Martine. Instead he became entangled with sinister swinger Carolyn: a satanic cultist looking for recruits… and victims.

Lured to a séance with spiritualist Madame Laera, Morbius is intended to feed a demon but instead turns the tables on his attackers…

The bloody predator was a constant presence there, but in this instance story-sense overrules chronology and that first outing is followed by a return to four-colour publishing with a classic monster team-up from Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 (June 1974).

With the monster boom in full swing, Marvel during this period flooded newsstands with horror antiheroes. Morbius had already launched in his own newsstand, code-sanctioned series but is here cannily paired with another of  the Amazing Spider-Mans’s eeriest enemies in a double-length epic as ‘Man-Wolf at Midnight!’ (Conway, Kane & Mike Esposito) finds John Jameson again gripped by murderous moon-madness. Now, however, the tormented former astronaut was controlled by the Living Vampire and used to help the bloodsucker secure a possible cure for his appalling condition ‘When Strikes the Vampire!’

The saga then shifts to (Adventure into) Fear #20 (cover-dated February 1973). The title had previously hosted the macabre Man-Thing, and his/its promotion to a solo title gave Morbius opportunity to spread his own (glider) wings. Spawned by scripter Mike Friedrich and artists Paul Gulacy, Jack Abel & George Roussos ‘Morbius the Living Vampire!’ revealed how the bloodsucker escaped X-Men captivity before moving to Los Angeles to live (whenever possible) off victims who deserved his voracious bite. The first tale also set up a bizarre relationship with Rabbi Krause and Reverend Daemond who sought to cure him, before one was exposed as a human devil, catapulting Morbius into an intergalactic conflict that had shaped humanity over millennia.

That began in Fear #21 as ‘Project: Second Genesis!’ – by Gerber, Kane & Vince Colletta – sees Morbius ordered to consume a most remarkable little girl by Daemond. Despite his best intentions and all his moral compunctions, the vampire succumbs to temptation and attacks the child Tara …only to unexpectedly face her super-powered future-self. He is then reluctantly recruited by a cult of alien technologists who claim to have shepherded homo sapiens from barbarism to civilisation. These “Caretakers” are trying to create a race of supermen but are losing a secret war with Daemon.

By the time Morbius returns to the reverend’s fold however, the mage and his acolyte – Martine – have summoned cat demon Balkatar to destroy the Living Vampire…

Illustrated by Rich Buckler & Luis Dominguez ‘…This Vampire Must Die!’ finds Morbius easily overwhelmed before the victorious demon abruptly defies Daemond, bringing his foe to another realm – The Land Within – to become a very grim saviour. His kind breed but do not die and their king wants Morbius to cull the overcrowded herd by acting as an invited apex predator…

A little fan side note: this storyline fed into Gerber’s later arcs in The Defenders and Guardians of the Galaxy so continuity completists should pay close attention…

Instead the appalled vampire escapes and discovers he is on another planet, standing ‘Alone Against Arcturus!’ (Fear #23, by Gerber, P. Craig Russell & Colletta). That world has been devastated by genetic conflagration and is now populated by automatons, cyborgs or mutants who were once the same race as the Caretakers. They long only for death…

Realising the same unresolved conflict is currently unfolding on Earth, Morbius employs alien technology and volunteer “meals” to ‘Return to Terror!’ and his birthworld in #24 (October 1974, and inked by Jack Abel). Tragically the ship crash lands in front of Blade the Vampire Slayer…

Morbius has still not met an actual vampire and thinks he’s fighting a crazy man whilst Blade believes he’s facing a bloodsucker from space but the brutal clash ends inconclusively. In the aftermath Morbius treks back to LA to find the war between Daemond and the Caretakers has intensified…

We now travel back to October 1973 for a run of Vampire Tales appearances starting with #2 and ‘The Blood Sacrifice of Amanda Saint!’ as Don McGregor, Buckler & Marcos reveal how a potential snack becomes an unlikely and enduring ally after devil cult Demon-Fire targets her. Forced into the role of rescuer and defender, Morbius endures mystery, monsters, the torture of a toxic family and his own taste of American Gothic as he unceasingly defends Amanda whilst tearing apart a mystic secret society entwined around a culture in decline and modern American mythology.

The fightback begins with ‘Demon Fire!’ (#3 February 1974 and inked by Klaus Janson), moves mercilessly on to Malevolence, Maine and the ‘Lighthouse of the Possessed’ (April 1974, illustrated by Tom Sutton) to repel more monstrosities and turn back a ‘Blood Tide!’ (#5 June, Buckler & Ernie Chua/Chan)…

Morbius took a break in #6 – represented here by the cover and ‘Frontispiece’ – before we resume in Malevolence, Maine with #7 asking ‘Where is Gallows Bend and What the Hell Am I Doing There?’ before events shamble to a chilling conclusion in #8 (December 1974, limned by Mike Vosburg & Frank Chiaramonte) at ‘High Midnight’ presenting a final clash with hidden manipulators Apocalypse and Death-Flame and a return to less complex exploits in the colour comics…

The monochrome madness was supported throughout by painted covers from JAD, Boris, & Maroto and was all augmented by essays, photo-features and material from the magazines.

Also cover-dated December 1974, Fear #25 sported a Gerber plot & Doug Moench script for Frank Robbins & Frank Giacoia to illustrate. After briskly recapitulating the Caretakers of Arcturus storyline ‘And What of a Vampire’s Blood?’ rapidly brings events to a conclusion as Morbius’ presence triggers a premature final battle between the ancient schemers, Daemond, Martine, Tara, and freshly-hatched Children of the Comet, resulting in ‘A Stillborn Genesis!’ (Moench, Robbins & Giacoia in #26, February 1975) and an abrupt change of direction…

That’s for the next volume however, whilst here we enjoy a crossover clash from April 1975’s Giant-Size Werewolf by Night #4 which brings the story portion of this pulse-pounding package to a close with a long-delayed and anticipated clash with fellow hostage to macabre fortune Jack Russell. Cursed with uncontrolled lycanthropy under a full moon, and also a California kid, he endured ‘A Meeting of Blood’ (by Moench & Virgil Redondo) after the mutated biologist tracks Martine following Daemond’s destruction and discovers a possible cure for his own exsanguinary condition.

Unfortunately, the chase brings him into savage and inconclusive combat with a certain hairy hellion and the solution is forever lost…

This initial outing comes with a wealth of extras beginning with 9 house ads from 1973-1974; editorial page ‘Mail it to Morbius’ from Fear #21; un-inked original art pages by Kane; full art originals by Gulacy & Abel, Russell, Colletta & Abel; cover art by Kane, Giacoia, John Romita Sr., and Ron Wilson.

The compendium concludes with cover reproductions of Marvel Treasury Edition #14 (1977: front by Kane & Giacoia, back by Romita Sr., plus contents page by Dave Cockrum); #18 (1978: front & back by Bob Budiansky & Chan); cover galleries of Marvel Tales – #234 (Todd McFarlane), #252 (Marshal Rogers) and 253 (Moebius & Sylvain) – Spider-Man Megazine #3-4 (Ron Frenz/Stuart Immonen), Spider-Man Strange Adventures (Steve Lightle) and Marvel Selects: Spider-Man #2-3 4 (Mike Wieringo).

Compelling, complex, dark, often daft and always fretfully poised on the tightrope between superhero shenanigans and antihero angst, Morbius is one of Marvel’s most fluid and versatile characters, and can honestly promise something to please every type of fan or casual reader. Moreover, there’s even better to come that won’t work unless you take a big bite out of this tempting tome.
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel


By Kevin Grevioux, Mat Broome, Roberto Castro, Sean Parsons, Álvaro López, Lorenzo Ruggiero, John Rauch, David Lanphear, Blambot’s Nate Piekos, Kaare Andrews, Juan Doe & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2409-2 (TPB), 978-1-3024-0664-6 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

Marvel Comics was an early champion of civil rights in the Sixties, adding characters of colour to every aspect of their expanding universe despite potential fallout and lost sales from states and regions upholding segregation and supporting Jim Crow laws. As racists retreated and retrenched on all fronts, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Gene Colan and the liberal rest grew bolder. Actual black heroes were created: role models to confront Nazis like the Hatemonger (Fantastic Four #21, December 1963), homegrown supremacists like The Sons of the Serpent (beginning in The Avengers #32, September 1966) and other bigots.

A entire sub-strand evolved in-world, depicting mutants as allegories and analogues for all manner of intolerance, exclusion, and prejudice – albeit with the safety net of distance coming from the fact that they weren’t “really real”. Ultimately, however, issues of race (and gender, and eventually even sexuality) were confronted head on in groundbreaking and controversial series like The Truth – Red, White and Black or Panther’s Quest and The Panther vs The Klan. These explored actual societal problems in comic book contexts but by employing the readers’ shared experience (Stan Lee often called the MU “the world outside your window”), stories of merit and meaning addressed worthy topics through a shielding lens of fantasy.

Such was definitely the case with Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel, a 5-issue miniseries from 2009 written by actor/screenwriter/director Kevin Grevioux (Batman, Blade, Iron Man, ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction) and brought to life by pencillers Mat Broome & Roberto Castro, inkers Sean Parsons, Álvaro López & Lorenzo Ruggiero, with colourists John Rauch & Ruggiero, letterers David Lanphear & Blambot’s Nate Piekos, and additional input from Kaare Andrews, Juan Doe and others.

Although mostly-overlooked at time of publication, its protagonist – one of the most powerful and smartest heroes in the Marvel Universe – has since become a stalwart elder statesman of the continuity who largely deals with cosmos-level threats as an occasional Avenger and founding member of multiversal saviours The Ultimates.

The tale itself is simply told and begins as a formidable Avengers squad including Iron Man, The Wasp, Yellowjacket, Wonder Man, Black Widow, Ms Marvel (Carol Danvers), Ares, She-Hulk and Sentry is utterly overwhelmed by a mystery villain who thrashes them all before vanishing. The scene shifts then to 4th June 1962, where the self-same villain – Anti-Man – cataclysmically battles cloaked-&-helmeted hero The Blue Marvel. As a city crumbles around them, the hero – beloved by citizens after only mere months as a crusading superhero – exerts his greatest efforts to defeat his foe. However, when the hero emerges bruised and battered from the rubble, the world changes in an instant as news cameras capture his shredded costume and the negro skin exposed beneath it…

By August 1st, the Pentagon and President Kennedy’s administration have formed a response. With a febrile atmosphere caused by the growing civil rights movement, and fearing the secession of already truculent southern states, the President caves in to his advisors (who include savants and specialists who will be instrumental in forming future US policy on superhumans and especially the growing mutant population) on the mystery man so many Americans no longer respect or trust…

Security services have identified Blue Marvel as a leading American of colour: segregated college sporting star and Korean war hero Dr Adam Brashear, who has worked quietly but brilliantly as physicist in Washington DC since coming home. The fact that the mightiest person on Earth has been exposed as NOT WHITE presents terrifying possible outcomes in a bitterly divided and inherently racist nation. With his advisors all predicting civil war and worse, Jack Kennedy makes his most pragmatic, shameful decision and secretly asks the patriot to quit and disappear…

Decades later as Avengers and Fantastic Four scour Earth’s records for clues to Anti-Man, occasional references are found to a short-lived but long-forgotten hero named Blue Marvel. Now a desperate search begins to find out what happened to him before the ferocious antimatter menace returns to fulfil his promise to end the world…

By use of cunning backwriting and inspired “historical” in-filling, the tragedy, betrayal and ultimate triumphant return of Adam Brashear seeks to set right wrongs done to him in the name of national security. It begins as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Tony Stark unearths and unlocks the “Blue Marvel Protocols”, before interviewing aging agent Dum-Dum Dugan over an issue he was sworn to hush up decades earlier. The result is a trail of unsavoury breadcrumbs and layers of lies including a supposition that Blue Marvel left Earth for a more forgiving cosmos. Instead it all leads to Maryland where the hero and his federally-mandated wife Candace Brashear (AKA Marlene Frazier – Agent 314) have obliviously lived in total secrecy and seclusion since the crisis fizzled out in 1962…

Thus begins a race to restore a broken man’s spirit against a backdrop of impending annihilation as Brashear shares his cancelled hidden past and debt the whole world owes Blue Marvel, as well as the shared origin of his and Anti-Man’s awesome power prior to a decades-delayed final confrontation that demand even greater sacrifices, a degree of redemption and the spectacular return of a forgotten champion…

With covers by Broom, Parsons, Rausch & Juan Doe, the bonus section offers unused covers; Broome’s art process; sketches by Roberto Castro & Broome and Kaare Andrews’ costume designs.

It’s always rewarding when comics’ established continuity can be successfully expanded and much more so when as here, the effort can also make points of social issues. Best of all, this yarn is a ripping Fights ‘n’ Tights spectacle that screams to be read and revered. Go do that, please…
© 2022 MARVEL

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Yakari: The Wolverine’s Revenge (volume 24)


By Derib & Job, coloured by Dominique and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-198-9 (Album PB), 978-1-80044-737-0 (Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: The World We All Want… 9/10

In 1964 children’s magazine Le Crapaud à lunettes was founded by Swiss journalist André Jobin (October 25th 1927 – October 8th 2024), who then wrote for it under the pseudonym Job. Three years later, he hired artist and fellow Swiss Francophone Claude de Ribaupierre, AKA “Derib”. The illustrator had launched his own career as an assistant at Studio Peyo (home of Les Schtroumpfs): working on Smurfs strips for venerable weekly Le Journal de Spirou. Thereafter, together they created the splendid Adventures of the Owl Pythagore prior to striking pure comics gold a few years later with their next collaboration.

Born in Delémont, Jobin split his time between Bande Dessinées (39 Yakari albums and 3 for Pythagore) and his other writing, editing and publishing briefs: an admirably restrained and outstandingly effective legacy to be proud of.

Derib – equally au fait with enticing, comically dynamic “Marcinelle” cartoon styled yarns as well as devastatingly compelling meta-realistic action illustrated action epics – became one of the Continent’s most prolific and revered creators with such groundbreaking strips as Buddy Longway; Celui-qui-est-nà-deux-fois; Jo (first comic to deal with AIDS); Pour toi, Sandra; Les Aventures d’Attila and La Grande Saga Indienne. They haven’t been translated into English yet, but still we patiently wait in hope and anticipation…

Yakari is considered by fans and critics to be the strip which led Derib to his deserved mega-stardom. Debuting in 1969, self-contained episodes trace the eventful, nomadic life of an Oglala Lakota boy on the Great Plains, with stories set sometime after the introduction of horses (by colonising Conquistadores) but before the coming of modern Europeans. The series – which also generated two separate animated TV series and a movie – has notched up 42 albums thus far: a testament to its evergreen vitality and brilliance of its creators, even though originator Job moved on in 2016, replaced by Frenchman Joris Chamblain.

Abundant with gentle whimsy and heady compassion, Yakari’s life is a largely bucolic and happy existence, at one with nature and generally free from privation or strife. For the sake of dramatic delectation, however, the ever-changing seasons are punctuated with the odd crisis, generally resolved without fuss, fame or fanfare by a little lad who is smart and brave, and who can – thanks to a boon of his totem guide the Great Eagle – converse with all the beasts of the field and birds of the air.

For the majority of its existence the series generally produced one album per year, which UK publisher Cinebook has mostly released in original order, but this year we skip what was Le Lombard’s 25th edition (Le mystère de la Falaise from 1999) and instead revel in the riotous acts of 2000’s La vengeance du carcajou which, for our intents and purposes is translated into The Wolverine’s Revenge…

As ever, content and set-up are both stunningly simple and sublimely accessible, affording new readers total enjoyment with a minimum of familiarity or foreknowledge required…

It’s high summer and life is slow, easy and comfortable. Yakari’s chores are few and there’s time for the boy and his opinionated pony Little Thunder to catch up will all their beastie best buddies. Meanwhile up-river  a somewhat surly and cantankerous wolverine called Smooch climbs a tree for a nap. He needs to sleep off the monumental amount of food – fresh caught and happily-recovered carrion – that he’s just scoffed, but is distracted by a trio of young flying squirrels whizzing through the branches. Fascinated – and far too stuffed for sensible thoughts – he needs very little encouragement before attempting to spread his own “side-flaps” and glide through the air…

Hitting the forest sward with a mighty thump the determined scavenger (possibly concussed now) wants to fly more than ever, and with the kits “helping” goes on a days-long starvation diet to achieve a flight-worthy weight. Despite leader Swift Spark carefully monitoring the diet, at the end the result is just as painful, with the added problem of the humiliated wolverine being furious and extremely hangry too. He swears dire retribution on the squirrels who wisely flee for their lives…

Meanwhile downriver, Yakari is inspecting a new dam built by his beaver chums. Gregarious Linden is suddenly distracted when the squirrels land as Swift Spark is his cousin. Yakari advises caution as he’s dealt with a wolverine before but the flighty squirrels don’t really grasp the potential treat.

That all changes when the aggrieved stalker kidnaps Swift Spark and holds him captive in a submerged den. Flying squirrels don’t swim but wolverines do, and instead of eating the annoying aviator-y squirt, the captor plans on watching his former tormentor starve to death, before devouring the paltry remains!

Alerted by his animal friends, Yakari takes action immediately, and is soon scouring the countryside for the missing squirrel. Happily Swift Spark has found a way to fool Smooch and covertly consume calories until a tip-off by two raccoons sends the searcher towards a desperate confrontation. Once they rescue the prisoner, they all decide to teach the bad-tempered Smooch a life changing lesson and join together in a most unique engineering enterprise…

Illo Yakari is one of the most unfailingly absorbing and entertaining all-ages comics strips ever conceived. It should be in every home, right next to Tintin, Uncle Scrooge, Asterix, Calvin and Hobbes and The Moomins. It’s never too late to start reading something wonderful, so why not get back to nature as soon as you can?
Original edition © Derib + Job – Editions du Lombard (Dargaud-Lombard s. a.) – 2000. All rights reserved. English translation © 2026.

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The Cursed Ranch – A Lucky Luke Adventure (volume 62)


By Morris with M. Janvier, scripted by Xavier Fauche & Jean Léturgie & C. Guylouis; coloured by Studio Leonardo and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-320-8 (Album PB), 978-1-84918-693-3 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also contains Discriminatory Content added for comedic effect.

Time for another Anniversary shindig, non?

Lucky Luke is a rangy, good-natured, “lonesome cowboy” able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. Doughty, dashing, dependable Lucky is an implacably placid do-gooder roaming the mythical Old West, having light-hearted adventures with his wonder horse Jolly Jumper whilst interacting with a host of historical and/or fictionally famous figures of the genre.

It’s Jolly & Lucky’s 80th birthday this year and their continued exploits have made the gentle gunslinger one of the bestselling comic characters in Europe, encompassing 84 albums, with numerous spin-off books and series comprising more than 300 million albums in at least 31 languages thus far. That has all generated a mega-mesa of merchandise: posters, toys, games, apparel, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies.

Lucky was dreamed up by western-loving Belgian-born animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de Bévère AKA “Morris”. His sagebrush star debuted in the summer of 1946, initially in mid-summer issues of Le Journal de Spirou sans title or banner logo, and only in French-language editions of the multinational kids comic. The Lone Rider’s official launch was the autumn of that year in Christmas Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947, before opening his first official serial in the pan-regional, multilingual weekly edition cover-dated December 7th 1946.

After a relatively slow start for such a fast gun, Lucky’s global dominance came via Morris’ decades-long collaboration with superstar scripter René Goscinny. The official partnership spanned Rails on the Prairie (August 25th 1955) to The Ballad Of The Daltons And Other Stories in 1986, during which time the sixgun straight-shooter switched teams, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with The Stagecoach in 1967, augmented by many guest appearances all over the European publishing scene after that.

Goscinny co-crafted 45 albums before his death in 1977, after which Morris continued singly and with new literary pardners, ultimately founding a posse of legacy creators including Lo Hartog van Banda, Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Benacquista & Pennac, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shots at the venerable vigilante. Morris continued in declining degrees until his own death in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar and spin-off whimsical western tales.

His grande idée draws less on western history than movie mythology, but our hero regularly met actual historical figures as well as famous fictional folk in tales culled from classic cowboy lore and lensed through uniquely European notions and interpretations. Our star is never averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire, as well as spoofing his own antecedents whilst wallowing in movie schtick to trigger delicious drives down memory lane in the eternal game of cowberks and imbeciles…

In 1986 Le Ranch Maudit was the 56h European Lucky album: a pleasant assemblage of short sharp silly yarns, that collectively – as The Cursed Ranch – became Cinebook’s 62nd English-language outing of hijacked history, scattershot satire and horselaugh hijinks. Morris always drew from a deep, shared well of cinematic motifs, gilded with authenticity and tempered with veracity as required. Here, with assistant Michel Janvier (Rantanplan, Lucky Luke, François Cevert, Michel Vaillant) lightening his artistic load, gags and scenarios are supplied by prolific scripters Xavier Fauche & Jean Léturgie as well as occasional contributor C. Guylouis, but the wide-eyed wry western wonderment is in no way diminished…

It opens with a fond film tribute to genres other than “shoot-‘em-ups” as eponymous lead ‘The Cursed Ranch’ blends horror tropes with sagebrush standards and slapstick silliness. Scripted by Claude Guylouis – a writing team pseudonymously composed of Claude Klotz (AKA Patrick Cauvin), Guy Vidal & Jean-Louis Robert – it details how, in January 1861, the horrific stench of unwanted oil deposits (!) drive folks from their homes in Whitney before permeating the entire region. One of the many to flee the toxic stink is elderly spinster Miss Pasiphaë Bluemarket who swiftly departs for fresher climes for the sake of her “boys”. The town matriarch is quite a character, and easily circumvents all obstacles to take with her three exceedingly well-mannered and well-bred full grown plains buffalo she has adopted…

The rail journey is largely without incident and when they all alight at Smithville, local land agent Chris Lee has just the property she needs. Oddly though, whenever she introduces herself as the new resident of The Bates Ranch townsfolk scream and faint. Miss Bluemarket is not worried. She’s far more concerned about the way local hunting addict Mad Bison Bob is eying her precious boys…

On meeting exceedingly polite fellow newcomer Lucky Luke, Miss Bluemarket accepts his offer to investigate her new home and soon both experience a sustained assault on her refined senses, with uncanny phenomena and walking spectres stalking the corridors. Thankfully, Lucky is no stranger to bizarre happenings or crooked set-ups and swiftly solves the spooky enigma…

Stuffed with cinema cameos (Hitchcock, Christopher Lee, John Alexander and more) and sly references to film classics from Psycho to Arsenic and Old Lace, this rollicking romp is offset by a more traditional tale of crime & punishment. Written by Xavier Fauche (Lucky Luke, Rantanplan, Marsupilami, Percevan) & Jean Léturgie (Lucky Luke, Rantanplan, Kid Lucky, Percevan, Gastoon, Space Cake) ‘The Fortune-Teller’ observes our hero amazed at how “wandering gypsy” Madame Irma has beguiled and bamboozled a town apparently filled with fools and idiots, before setting out to free them from cunning conmen fleecing everyone from the banker to the sheriff…

Claude Guylouis pens savage satire next as ‘The Statue’ finds Lucky & Jolly in the Dakota badlands where bland, blank Mount Rushmore is simply crying out for some sort of statue to be carved into it. After Lucky cleans up nearby Hitch City, grateful locals want avaricious travelling sculptor Michaelangelo Jr. to immortalise their new hero in stone, but arrogant overbearing landowner MCallister thinks it should be him on the side of a mountain…

Via his vile servant Sadiquito he hires the infamous Daltons to stop the process and takes many more malign steps to subvert and suborn the artist. Lucky doesn’t want a statue at all, and isn’t disappointed when fate takes a hand and makes fools of everybody…

The frantic fun closes with a wild ride as Léturgie scripts ‘The Log Flume’ wherein Luke & Jolly meet forward-thinking lumberjack Clement Ellsworth. He has devised a way to speed up the laborious, costly process of transporting felled trees to carpenters and manufacturers… Typically, his efforts are being sabotaged by greedy land baron and monopoly capitalist Mr. Butterfield who wants to shut the experiment down and seize Ellsworth’s patent. However, all his acts of sabotage are no match for Lucky’s wits and Jolly Jumper’s agility…

Topped off with an anonymous contemporary print of the era depicting “Unusual use of a log flume near Carson City Nevada” these done-in-one exploits of an indomitable hero offer grand joys in the traditional western way, superbly executed by master storytellers, and form a brilliant introduction to a unique genre for moderns and kids who might have missed out on the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was…
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1986 by Morris, Guylouis, Fauche & Léturgie. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2016 Cinebook Ltd.

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Batman: Arkham – Clayface


By Bill Finger, Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson, Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris, Len Wein, Marshall Rogers & Dick Giordano, Mike W Barr & Jim Aparo, Dan Raspler, Keith Giffen, Bernie Mireault, Tom Grummett, Al Gordon, Denis Rodier & Gary Martin, Doug Moench, J.H. Williams III, John Beatty & Mick Gray, Ed Brubaker, Darwyn Cooke & Mike Allred, Steve Purcell, Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, A.J. Lieberman, Al Barrionuevo & Bit, John Layman & Cliff Richards and various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7144-2 (TPB), 978-1-4012-7975-2 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As is only sensible, when filmmakers unleash their take on a comic book character of any vintage, savvy publishers collate, curate and commercialise. In lieu of that today, here’s a bunch of formative tales focusing on the many versions of a perennial Bat-villain who is the epitome of a malign make-over to compliment the current screen transition for ever-eager new fans…

Once more practically proving that the Dark Knight’s foes are more interesting – or at least more scary – than any of his heroic clan, the movie Clayface had its premiere on October 13th 2026 at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Legion Theater and will go on general release everywhere else between 21st and 23rd October as another tile in the DCU’s cinematic mosaic masterplan as designated Chapter One: Gods and Monsters…

Gathered here are works from Detective Comics, #40, 298 & 478-479; Batman #550; Outsiders #21; Secret Origins (vol. 2) #44; Catwoman #4; Batman: Gotham Knights #68-71 and Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1 & Batman: The Dark Knight #23.3 spreading between cover dates June 1940 to November 2013. Mixed together they comprise a sparse scattering of exploits from an extremely versatile and frequently far-flung villain/victim/vigilante legion whose past appearances demand far greater support from the print crowd.

Mabe if the film is any good – or at least makes some money – we’ll see a bigger 85+ Years Celebration edition.

Clayface is at least nine separate iterations of a single character (not even counting copycat versions including obsessed actor/stalker John Carlinger, numerous assorted clones, The Clayface of Japan & Clownface) as well as twinned comic book concepts. Even this does not count the superb version seen in Batman: The Animated Adventures universe on both TV and comic books. All have in some manner oozed through greater DC Continuity, battling not just various Bat-clan heroes but also Superman, Wonder Woman and other champions.

A primal force affecting many people, assorted Clayfaces have even worked as heroes beside Batman and others.

Here and now though, let’s enjoy a basic introduction to a mess of history The obvious kick-off is that first appearance as concocted by Bill Finger, Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson in Detective Comics #40. A movie influenced (1925’s The Phantom of the Opera) mystery whodunnit, ‘The Murders of Clayface’ saw the Dynamic Duo ranging across baroque film sets to stop a string of murders which almost ended the life of Bruce Wayne’s movie starlet girlfriend Julie Madison. She was simply the latest target of a monstrous actor-turned-maniac who recreated a past screen triumph to slaughter. That culprit was aging star Basil Karlo, equally motivated by jealousy, madness and a thirst for death…

The murdering but mortal maniac returned in ‘Clayface Walks Again’ (Detective #49 March 1941) and not included here, as we jump to 26th October 1961 for a wild tale from Batman’s sci fi boy scout era. Revamped by Finger, Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris for Detective #298 (as cover dated December 1961) ‘The Challenge of Clayface’ introduced art thief Matt Hagen who discovered a pool of protoplasm that granted him the ability to change his shape. Despite being regularly outwitted by Batman and Robin, Hagen kept on stealing for decades, and despite being superseded by another iteration was active until his death during the Crisis on Infinite Earths in the mid-1980s.

Before then Len Wein, Marshall Rogers & Dick Giordano appropriated the name for anew tragic terror who debuted in DC #478 in ‘The Coming of… Clayface III!’ as deranged scientist Preson Payne seeks to cure his deformed body and instead becomes a walking, predatory disease. An Acromegalic afflicted with chronic hyperpituitarism, he used Hagen’ s blood to create a cure, but initial success turned to appalling horror as the process resulted in his periodically needing to purge and reset himself by reducing those in range to blobs of melted protoplasmic slime. Driven by crushing isolation, Payne also began a delusional romance with a store mannequin until Batman was forced to end his depredations in #479’s ‘If a Man Be Made of Clay…!’

With the potential of Hagen’s discovery loose in the world for all to exploit, we jump next to Outsiders #21 (July 1987, by Mike W. Barr & Jim Aparo) and the beginning of an extended epic only relevant to us as it premieres ‘Strike Force Kobra’. Leading the terrorist villains’ infiltration of Batman’s latest prodigy squad is deeply disturbed Lady Clay who, as Sondra Fuller, begged Kobra to grant her the ability to escape the face and form nature had given her…

In September 1989’s Secret Origins (vol. 2) #44, the clay creations now dubbed The Mudpack were put under a microscope courtesy of overall scripter Dan Raspler. Illustrators Keith Giffen & Al Gordon detailed ‘The Coming of Clayface!’, revealing the secrets of Basil Karlo whilst Bernie Mireault & Denis Rodier depicted ‘The Tragic and Amusing History of Clayface II’ before Tom Grummett & Gary Martin examined Payne in ‘His Name is Clayface III!’

In the interim Karlo had returned and harvested Fuller and Payne’s body fluids (semi-solids?), thereby gaining protoplasmic shapeshifting powers and melting touch to become the Ultimate Clayface. Fuller and Payne paired up and had a metahuman son. Fifth Clayface Cassius Clay Payne was a shapeshifter who also possessed the universal solvent/melting touch of his dad but was eventually apprehended by semi-federal authorities the Department of Extranormal Operations…

In Batman #550 (January 1998, by Doug Moench, J.H. Williams III, John Beatty & Mick Gray) the Dark Night and D.E.O. agent Cameron Chase are ‘Chasing Clay’ after callous top boffin Dr Peter Malley “examines” Cassius and accidentally becomes a tragic but lethally rampaging Clay-Thing…

In Catwoman #4 (April 2002) another Clayface offshoot congeals in ‘Anodyne-Conclusion’. This story sees Ed Brubaker, Darwyn Cooke & Mike Allred end a 4-part tale rebooting the feline fury as vigilante protector of rough district the East End of Old Gotham. Reunited with former street pal Holly Robinson, Selina Kyle moves in to find renewed meaning and decides to solve a case Gotham’s corrupt authorities won’t touch.

That comes when she determines to stop a serial killer preying on street girls and other human flotsam and discovers psychotic charmer Todd Russell is only another victim of mad science and the Clayface legacy. This is a peripheral addition at best but understandable as it ticks boxes and displays the astounding work of much missed maestro Cooke, and is followed by a piece from 2005’s Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1 (2005). Crafted by Steve Purcell, Mike Mignola & Kevin Nowlan, ‘If A Man be Clay!’ re-examines the clownish antics of Matt Hagen prior to a view of the Eighth Clayface…

In an extended saga by A.J. Lieberman, Al Barrionuevo & Bit that ran in Batman: Gotham Knights #68-71 (October 2005-January 2006) ‘The Shape of Things to Come Parts One -Four’ reintroduces Johnny Williams as first seen – but not here – in Batman: Gotham Knights #60.

Williams is a firefighter accidentally infected by stray Clayface protoplasm, whose life now goes to hell when Batman nemesis Tommy Elliot AKA Hush divines his secret and coerces him into turning Bruce Wayne’s life upside down. The masterplan is for Hush to take those abilities for himself before destroying all Batman cherishes, but of course with the sheer chaos of unleashed Clayfaces in the mix, no plan can stand for long…

This pliable primer presses pause on a full reimagining sparked by the 2011 “New 52” DC reboot. Batman: The Dark Knight #23.3 (2013) by John Layman & Cliff Richards sees frustrated failing actor Basil Karlo accept an untested chemical from crime boss The Penguin in a bid to break his “bad luck” streak. However, although the DNA-altering solution gives him powers, it comes at a shocking cost, Now as supervillains run the world Karlo revels in his epic descent and ponders what he’s become in ‘Not Just Another Pretty Face’…

With covers by Kane & Robinson, Moldoff, Rogers, Terry Austin, Aparo, Nowlan, Kelly Jones, Beatty, Williams III, Gray, Cooke, Jason Fabok, Claudio Castellini and Guillem March

& Tomeu Morey, this roster of roles won’t show you the filmic Clayface, but it will certainly inform and entertain as it channels many of those assorted incarnations, reincarnations and re-castings of the miasmically malleable malefactor and their many aspects.
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