Year: 2009

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Batman: The Black Casebook


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-312-4

Despite having his name writ large on the cover the only thing Grant Morrison produced for this weird and wonderful collection is the introduction, so if he’s the reason you buy Batman you’re in for a little disappointment. However if you feel like seeing the incredible stories that inspired him, then you’re in for a bizarre and baroque treat as this collection features a coterie of tales considered far too outlandish and fanciful to be canonical for the last few decades but now reintroduced to the mythology of the Dark Knight as a casebook of the “strangest cases ever told!”.

Tales from the anodyne 1950s (with just a little overlapping touch of the 1960s) always favoured plot over drama – indeed a strong argument could be made that all DC’s post-war costumed crusaders actually shared the same character (and yes I’m including Wonder Woman) – so the narrative drive focuses on comfortably familiar situations and outlandish themes and paraphernalia: but as a kid they simply blew me away. They still do.

Starting things off is a ‘A Partner for Batman’ (Batman #65 June/July 1951) by Bill Finger, Lew Sayre Schwartz and Charles Paris, wherein Batman’s training of a foreign hero is misconstrued as a way of retiring Robin, whilst a trip out west introduces the Dynamic Duo to their Native American analogues in ‘Batman… Indian Chief!’ (issue #86, September 1954, by France Herron, Sheldon Moldoff and Stan Kaye), and ‘The Batmen of All Nations!’ (Detective Comics #215, January 1955 by Edmond Hamilton, Moldoff and Paris) took the sincere flattery a step further by introducing nationally-themed imitations from Italy, England, France, South America and Australia, all attending a convention that’s doomed to disaster…

A key story of this period introduced a strong psychological component to Batman’s origins in ‘The First Batman’ (Detective Comics #235, September 1955) courtesy of Finger, Moldoff and Kaye, and the international knock-offs returned to meet Superman and a new shocking mystery hero in ‘The Club of Heroes’ (Worlds Finest Comics #89, July/August 1957 by Hamilton and the magnificent Dick Sprang and Stan Kaye).

‘The Man who Ended Batman’s Career’ introduced the malevolent Professor Milo (Detective Comics #247, September 1957, Finger, Moldoff & Paris) who used psychological warfare and scientific mind-control to attack our heroes. The same creative team brought him back for an encore in Batman #112, in ‘Am I Really Batman?’

France Herron scripted one of Sprang and Paris’ best ever art collaborations in the incredible, spectacular ‘Batman… Superman of Planet X!’ (Batman #113, February 1958) and Finger, Moldoff & Paris introduced the Gotham Guardian’s most controversial “partner” in ‘Batman Meets Bat-Mite’(Detective Comics #267, May 1959), but ‘The Rainbow Creature’ (Batman #134, September 1960) is a rather tame monster-mash from Finger and Moldoff which only serves to make the next tale more impressive.

‘Robin Dies at Dawn’ is an eerie epic which first appeared in Batman #156, June 1963 by Finger, Moldoff & Paris (supplemented by, but not dependent upon, a Robin solo adventure sadly omitted from this collection). In it Batman experiences truly hideous travails on an alien world culminating in the death of his young partner. I’m stopping there as it’s a great story and plays a crucial part in the latter day sagas Batman: R.I.P., and The Black Glove. Buy this book and read it yourself…

But wait: There’s more! From the very end times of the old-style tales comes the inexplicably daft but brilliant ‘The Batman Creature!’ (Batman #162, March 1964) by an unknown writer, Moldoff and Paris, wherein Robin and Batwoman must cope with a Caped Crusader transformed into a rampaging giant monster. Shades of King Kong, Bat-fans!

Even though clearly collected to cash in on the success of the modern Morrison vehicle these stories have an intrinsic worth and power of their own, and these angst-free exploits from a different age still have a magic to captivate and enthrall. Do not dismiss them and don’t miss this book!

© 1951, 1954-1960, 1963, 1964, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Squirrel Machine


By Hans Rickheit (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN:  978-1-60699-301-9

¡Perfect Present Alert!  For him or her – if they’re “Of Age”

Hans Rickheit was born in 1973 and has been producing skilfully crafted art in many different arenas since the early 1990s, beginning with self-published mini-comics and graduating to full-sized, full-length epics as well as dabbling in film, music, gallery works and even performance art. A Xeric award beneficiary, he came to broader attention in 2001 with the controversial graphic novel Chloe, and has since spread himself wide contributing to numerous anthologies and periodicals.

He has been called obscurantist, and indeed in all his beautifully rendered and realised concoctions meaning is layered and open to wide interpretation. His preferred oeuvre is the imagery and milieu of Victorian/Edwardian Americana which provided such rich fantasist pickings for Poe, Lovecraft and Derleth, and his meticulously clear line is a perfect counterpoint to the cloud of mystery and cosmic confusion engendered by the protagonists of his latest book The Squirrel Machine.

The brothers Edmund and William Torpor live in a secluded 19th century New England town but have never been part of the community. Raised alone by their artist mother they are quite different from other kids, and Edmund especially is obsessed with arcane engineering and assembling musical instruments from utterly inappropriate components.  Fantastic dream-like journeys and progressions mark their isolated existence, which is far more in tune with a greater metaphysical cosmos, but as puberty gradually moves them to an awareness of base human sexuality they find the outside world impacting theirs in ways that can only end in tragedy and horror…

Moreover, just where did the plans for the Squirrel Machine come from…?

Visually reminiscent of the works of Rick Geary, this is also a uniquely surreal and mannered design, a highly charged and subtly disturbing delusion that will chill and upset and possibly even outrage many readers but it is also compelling, seductive and hard to forget. As long as you’re an adult and braced for the unexpected, expect this to be one of the best books you’ll read this decade.

© 2009 Fantagraphics Books. Contents © 2009 Hans Rickheit. All Rights Reserved.

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Plunder Woman Must Go! Socialist Cartoons from Militant


By Alan Hardman with commentary by Lynn Walsh (Miltant/Mentorn)
No ISBN:

I thought I’d combine controversy and nostalgia by reviewing this now just in case the titular subject of the brilliantly bitter satire and vitriolic graphic commentary within finally pops her clogs and whatever meagre pretension to good taste I possess subsequently scuppers me from ever doing it.

Along with sex, religion and fighting, politics has always been the grist that feeds the cartoonist’s mill, and like many other creative people I often bemoan the fall of the Thatcher regime (it’s still hard to call it a government as those are systems of management purportedly run for people and society) because – and only because – it deprived us all of spectacularly worthy targets.

The best political cartooning comes from outrage and the Tory administrations of the 1980’s provided one bloated, bile-filled easy mark after another. Just look at TV’s Spitting Image which grew fat and healthy off that government’s peccadilloes, indignities and iniquities (as well as Reagan’s America and the Royal Family) in just the way that millions of unemployed and disenfranchised workers, students and pensioners didn’t.

From 1980 comes this starkly powerful collection of incisive images by justifiably vitriolic socialist cartoonist Alan Hardman (still fighting the good fight to this day) which originally appeared in Militant, the periodical of the Marxist-leaning portion of the Labour party, just before the internal crisis in the mid-80’s led to expulsions of the hard Left and the creation in 1997 of the Socialist Party. The infamous and demonized faction Militant tendency was named after the newspaper.

Militant began after the successful 1964 election of Labour as a four page monthly publication, growing into a 16 page weekly by the late 1970s, outlining policies of the Militant tendency and publicising its activities and campaigns.

Content in the newspaper usually carried a by-line stating, author, his or her Party branch, and/or the trade union branch. Militant never employed professional journalists. There was even a quarterly sister publication: the journal, Militant International Review, dedicated to more substantial analysis of global economic and political events. It became Socialism Today in 1995. Militant was renamed The Socialist when the Militant tendency changed its name.

None of which really matters now, but these cartoons have stood the test of time and surely deserve another look, not just because of their power and passion but also because a really great villain can always stand another good kicking.
© 1980 Alan Hardman.

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Dungeon: The Early Years volume 2: Innocence Lost


By Joann Sfar & Lewis Trondheim, art by Christophe Blain, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-564-1

This slim tome is another part of the eccentric, raucous and addictively wacky franchise that adds a starkly adult whimsy to the fantastic worlds of fantasy fiction. This second volume of Early Years fills in some historical gaps that might have puzzled readers of Dungeon Parade, Zenith, Monstres and Twilight. There’s this magic castle, in a fantastic land of miracles, see, and it’s got a dungeon…

But before that Castle was built there was the debauched, bureaucratised and grimly frenetic urban hellhole of Antipolis. In it Dungeon Keeper-to-be Hyacinthe prowls the night as masked vigilante The Night Shirt but his midnight adventures are being seriously curtailed by his unrequited love for the fair Gabrielle, not to mention the unpleasant and lingering aftereffects of some prior requiting with the serpentine lady-assassin Alexandra…

When Gabrielle is falsely arrested by over-officious rabbits Hyacinthe must engineer her release, which involves leaving the relative comfort zone of the City for the wilds of rabbit-infested frontier town Zedotamaxim and the charnel hamlet of Necroville…

A second story After the Rain is set many years later when the now dissolute Hyacinthe is a middle-aged, unhappily married roué. Set in his ways and unhappy the former Night Shirt is enticed into making a comeback by the clever Doctor Cormor who must battle greed and the establishment itself to stop a subway being dug through the unstable pile of detritus that forms the very bedrock of the city. Perhaps it is less the noble quest than the return of slinky Alexandra that fires up the weary hero, but when inevitable disaster strikes will Hyacinthe be ready or able to cope?

The inhabitants of this weirdly surreal universe include every kind of anthropomorphic beast and bug as well as monsters, demons, mean bunnies, sexy vamps and highly capable women-folk who know the true (lack of) worth of a man. This is an epic saga played as an eternal and highly amusing battle of the sexes, with tongues planted firmly in cheeks – and no, I won’t clarify…

Comprising two translated French albums ‘Une Jeunesse Qui S’Enuit’ and ‘Apres La Pluie’ this is a delightfully surreal, earthy, sharp, poignant and brilliantly outlandish contemporary comedy that’s a joy to read with vibrant, wildly eccentric art moody as Dark Knight and jolly as Rupert Bear.

Definitely for grown-ups with young hearts, Dungeon is a near-the-knuckle, illicit experience which addicts at first sight, but for a fuller comprehension – and added enjoyment – I’d advise buying all the various incarnations.
© 2001-2006 Delcourt Productions-Tronfheim-Sfar-Blain. English translation © 2009 NBM. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: Past and Future


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-074-1

In the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DCU, time travel became a really big deal. So when the Metropolis Marvel did break the fourth dimension, as in the superb Superman: Time and Time Again the gimmick became as big a deal as the plot. But there was a period when all history and the implausible future was just a short spin away…

Superman is the comicbook crusader who started the whole genre and in the decades since his debut in 1938 has probably undertaken every kind of adventure imaginable. With this in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his inventory and periodically re-present them in specific themed collections, such as this delightful confection of time-busting escapades from the many superb writers and artists who have contributed to his canon over the years.

The fun begins with a tale from Superboy #85 (1960) which reiterated an iron-clad cosmic law of the Silver Age: “History Cannot Be Changed”: as the Smallville Sensation tragically discovered in ‘The Impossible Mission!’ (by Jerry Siegel and George Papp) when he traveled to 1865 to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, fate will always conspire to make events unfold along a predestined course…

A different theory was in play in 1947 when the Man of Steel broke the time barrier for the first time to collect famous signatures for an ailing boy in ‘Autograph, Please!’ (Superman #48, by Siegel and John Sikela), whilst in ‘Rip Van Superman’ (Superman #107, 1956 by Bill Finger Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye Siegel) an accident placed the hero in a coma, trapping him in a future where he was redundant…

The 1960s were the heyday of time travel tales with the Man of Tomorrow and his friends nipping forward and back the way you or I (well me, anyway) would pop to the pub. In the brilliantly ingenious ‘Superman Under the Red Sun!’ (Action Comics #300, 1963 by Edmond Hamilton and Al Plastino) our hero is dispatched to the far, far future where the sun has cooled, and undergoes incredible hardship before figuring out a way home.

In ‘Jimmy’s D-Day Adventure!’ the boy reporter travelled to World War II to solve a bizarre mystery only to end up a trusted member of Hitler’s inner circle, (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #86, (1964, Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan and George Klein) whilst his Daily Planet colleague almost ripped apart the fabric of reality by nearly becoming Superman’s mum in ‘Lois Lane’s Romance with Jor-El!’ (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #59, 1965, by Hamilton and Kurt Schaffenberger)

One of the boldest experiments of the decade occurred when Hamilton, Swan and Klein introduced us to ‘The Superman of 2965!’ (Superman #181, November 1965) for a series of adventures starring the Man of Steel’s distant descendent. A two-part sequel appeared the following summer in Action Comics #338-339, ‘Muto… Monarch of Menace!’ and ‘Muto Versus the Man of Tomorrow!’ and a postscript tale appeared in World’s Finest Comics #166 entitled ‘The Danger of the Deadly Duo!’ teaming that era’s Batman and Superman against Muto and the last in a long line of Jokers.

For Superman #295, Elliot Maggin, Curt Swan and Bob Oksner produced ‘Costume, Costume – Who’s got the Costume?’ (1976) a neat piece of cross-continuity clean-up that featured DC parallel worlds including those of Kamandi and the Legion of Super-Heroes. From that same year ‘Superman, 2001!’, by Maggin, Cary Bates Swan and Oksner is an imaginary Story (a tale removed from regular continuity) featured in the anniversary issue Superman #300, and posited what would have happened if baby Kal-El’s rocket had landed in the Cold War era of 1976 – an intriguing premise then which looks uncomfortably like the TV series Smallville to my jaded 21st century eyes.

This fascinating collection concludes with ‘The Last Secret Identity’ (from 1983’s DC Comics Presents Annual #2, by Maggin, Keith Pollard, Mike DeCarlo and Tod Smith, which introduced the first incarnation of Superwoman, when a time-travelling historian landed in Metropolis only to become the subject of her own research.

These tales are clever, plot driven romps far removed from today’s angst-heavy psycho-dramas and unrelentingly oppressive epics. If you’re after some clean-cut, wittily gentle adventure there’s no better place to go – or time…

© 1947, 1956, 1960, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1976, 1983, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Vlad the Impaler: the Man who was Dracula


By Sid Jacobson & Ernie Colón (Hudson Street Press/ Penguin Group USA)
ISBN: 978-1-59463-058-3

Sid Jacobson was a hard man to write about, preferring to let his work speak for him. As writer and editor he masterminded the Harvey Comics monopoly of strips for younger American readers in the 1960s and 1970s, co-creating Richie Rich and Wendy, the Good Little Witch among others, and then worked the same magic for Marvel’s Star Comics imprint, where as managing editor he oversaw a vast amount of family-friendly material; both self created – such as Royal Roy or the superb Planet Terry – and a huge basket of licensed properties,

In latter years he has worked closely with fellow Harvey alumnus Ernie Colón on such thought-provoking graphic enterprises as The 9/11 Report: a Graphic Adaptation (2006) and its 2008 sequel, After 9/11: America’s War on Terror. This year they released Che: a Graphic Biography of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, the now-mythic icon of rebellion.

Ernie Colón was born in Puerto Rico in 1931: a creator whose work has been seen by generations of readers. Whether as artist, writer, colourist or editor his contributions have benefited the entire industry from the youngest (Monster in My Pocket, Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost for Harvey Comics, and many similar projects for Marvel’s Star Comics), to the traditional comicbook fans with Battlestar Galactica, Damage Control and Doom 2099 for Marvel, Arak, Son of Thunder and Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld, the Airboy revival for Eclipse, Magnus: Robot Fighter for Valiant and so very many others.

There are also his sophisticated experimental works such as indie thriller Manimal, and his seminal graphic novels Ax and the Medusa Chain. Even now he’s still hard at work on the strip SpyCat which has appeared in Weekly World News since 2005.

Jacobson and Colón together are a comics maven’s dream come true and their bold choice of biography and reportage as well as their unique take on characters and events always pays great dividends. Vlad the Impaler is by far their most fun project to date: a fictionalised account of the Wallachian prince who was raised by his enemies as a literal hostage to fortune, only to reconquer and lose his country not once, but many times.

The roistering, bloody, brutal life of this Romanian national hero, and tenuous basis of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, is a fascinating, baroque, darkly funny yarn, capturing a troubled soul’s battle with himself as much as the Muslim and Christian superpowers that treated his tiny principality as their plaything.

With startling amounts of sex and violence this book makes no excuses for a patriot and freedom fighter who was driven by his horrific bloodlust and (justifiable?) paranoia to become a complete beast: clearly the very worst of all possible monsters – a human one.

Sharp, witty, robust and engaging, with a quirky twist in the tale, this is a good old-fashioned shocker that any history-loving gore-fiend will adore.

Text © 2009 Sid Jacobson. Art © 2009 Ernie Colón. All rights reserved.

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Grifter/Shi: Final Rites


By Jim Lee, Billy Tucci and various (Image/WildStorm)
ISBN: 1-887-279-24-5

The 1990s were a time of startling changes in the American comicbook industry. Young upstarts broke away from the big companies to do all the job themselves, with admittedly mixed results, but as they lived or died on their own merits and ingenuity, it signalled a way that the other creative arenas (and of course I’m thinking the music biz here) could learn from even after all this time.

There had always been independent titles, but where the new guys differed from past do-it-yourself attempts was in the slick production values. These guys knew the product had to look and feel as sharp and cutting edge as the best of DC or Marvel – it’s just a shame so much of the new independents concentrated only on the style and so often ignored the actual creative content.

After a while however the very best of those independents, such as Jim Lee’s WildStorm titles from the Image Comics co-operative and Billy Tucci’s gradually unfolding martial arts epic Shi rose in sheer Darwinian majesty from the shiny, colour-saturated mire and carved a lasting place for themselves.

One of the biggest advantages of being an independent creator was how few people stood in the way if you wanted to do a team-up tale. The respective owners could just talk to each other…

This pretty and engaging tale is an unchallenging but generally satisfying conspiracy quest very much in the traditional manner starring the charismatic soldier-of-fortune Cole Cash (better known as Grifter) and the startlingly compelling and unconventional dancer/samurai masterminded by Jack-of-all-trades Billy Tucci.

Shi is Ana Ishikawa, whose father was a Japanese Warrior Monk and her mother an American Catholic missionary. Her father and brother were murdered by Yakuza boss Masahiro Arashi, setting her on a path of brutal, unrelenting vengeance using the Sohei Warrior skills taught by her grandfather, a master of the Yambushi Monks’ ancient secrets. She chose the mythical guise of Tora no Shi (Tiger of Death) to mask her when she began her crusade, but as she continued her battles her Catholic upbringing increasingly conflicted with her Sohei methodology…

Grifter is a veteran of many years of combat, covert and otherwise, who began his troubled life on the other side of the law. After years of black Ops he eventually went rogue, joining the WildC.A.T,’s super-team and was trained in alien combat techniques by the super-amazon Zealot. He has a unique no-nonsense approach to getting the job done, and has psionic powers he doesn’t like to use.

In this visually appetising collaboration Grifter returns to Japan hunting terrorists who killed one of his comrades, as the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima approaches. Meanwhile a highly placed Japanese government official has stolen a North Korean nuclear weapon, embroiling Ana Ishikawa and her sensei grandfather in a plot to steal a priceless artefact known as the “Final Rite of Kusunoki”, a 150 year old artwork that can exert an undeniable influence on the real ruler of Japan. This mastermind’s scheme includes long-delayed vengeance on the Americans, political power and even settling a centuries old feud with his clan’s greatest enemies, the Sohei…

With a nuclear clock counting down Grifter must first work out who he can trust, especially the enigmatic Shi, before the convoluted machinations and seemingly endless string of opponents standing between him and his own particular brand of payback drags him down to dusty death.

Sometimes a little too complex for its own good, this is nevertheless a solid piece of entertainment from an incredible cast of creators (clearly doing it yourself includes a large amount of sub-contracting) including Brandon Choi, Peter, Gutierrez, Travis Charest, Ryan Benjamin, Jamal Igle, Troy Hubbs, Richard Bennett and John Nyberg. If you need a little more style than substance occasionally, then this is certainly the fashion to follow…
© 1996 Aegis Entertainment Inc., dba WildStorm Productions and William Elliott Tucci. All rights reserved.

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The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker


By Otto Binder (Bantam Books)
ISBN: F3569

One thing you could never accuse Stan Lee of was reticence, especially in promoting his burgeoning line of superstars. In the 1960s most adults, including the people who worked there, considered comic-books a ghetto. Some disguised their identities whilst others were “just there until they caught a break.” Stan and Jack had another idea – change the perception.

Whilst Jack passionately pursued his imagination waiting for the quality of the work to be noticed, Stan sought every opportunity to break down the ghetto walls: college lecture tours, animated TV shows (of frankly dubious quality at the start, but always improving), and of course getting their product onto “real” bookshelves in real book shops.

In the 1960s on the back of the “Batmania” craze, many comics publishers repackaged their old comics stories in cheap and cheerful paperbacks, but to my knowledge only monolithic DC and brash upstart Marvel went to the next level and commissioned all-new prose novels starring their costumed superstars. The publisher Bantam Books had been specialising in superhero fiction since 1964 when they began reprinting the 1930s pulp novels of Doc Savage, so they must have seemed the ideal partner in this frankly risky enterprise.

The first of these novels was an unlikely choice, considering the swelling appeal of both Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four, but I imagine that the colourful team of adventurers selected was one that Lee was happy to let another writer work on, and perhaps it was even a way of defending their trademark in all arenas (after all the British TV series The Avengers was screening in America to great success (necessitating Gold Key’s comic book tie-in being titled John Steed and Emma Peel).

Whatever the reason, The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker launched with little fanfare (I don’t even recall an ad in the comic-books themselves, at a time when company policy dictated that changing one’s socks got a full write-up on the “Marvel Bullpen Bulletins Page”) and it didn’t garner a lot of praise…

Which is actually a real shame, as it’s a pretty good yarn extremely well told by pulp and comics veteran Otto Binder, whose Adam Link prose stories inspired Isaac Asimov’s ‘I, Robot’ tales whilst his Captain Marvel, Superman, Captain America and uncounted other comics scripts inspired just about everybody.

The heroic team, consisting of Goliath, the Wasp, Hawkeye, Iron Man and Captain America (but not Quicksilver or the Scarlet Witch who both look so good on that spiffy painted cover) are called upon to battle Karzz, a monstrous alien mastermind from the future who has travelled back in time to eradicate the entire Earth, in a fast-paced thriller that barrels along in fine old style, and doesn’t suffer at all from the lack of pulse-pounding pictures.

This is, of course, only really a treat for the most devout fan, either of the Marvel Universe or the vastly underrated work of one of the true pioneers of two genres. At least it’s not that hard to track down if you’re intrigued and hungry for something a little bit old-school and a little bit different…
© 1967 Marvel Comics Group. All rights reserved.

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The All-New Atom: My Life in Miniature


By Gail Simone, John Byrne, Eddy Barrows & Trevor Scott (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1325-1

Gail Simone is probably the best writer of straight superhero stories currently working in the business. Big concepts might garner out-industry publicity but I’ll take solid plotting, believable characterization, bravura whimsy and the sharpest, funniest dialogue money can buy any day.

Here she takes a crack at the freshest incarnation of one of my very favourite super-doers and makes me love it. In the post Identity Crisis/Infinite Crisis DC universe, the size-changing physics Professor Ray Palmer had deliberately disappeared, leaving his world behind him. But life goes on, and his teaching chair at Ivy University is offered to young Ryan Choi, a prodigy from Hong Kong who just happens to be a pen-friend and confidante of Palmer’s: privy to his predecessor’s secrets ever since he was a little boy.

Ivy Town is not the sedate place Palmer made it sound however, as this collection (reprinting the first six issues of The All-New Atom and the teaser prequel from the one-shot Brave New World) clearly displays. The city is plagued by temporal anomalies, the new Dean is an unctuous toad, and his fellow professors are a bizarre band of brilliant loons. There’s also a weird cab-driver turning up, leaving the new kid crazy palindromic clues… but to what?

‘Indivisible’ and ‘Atomic Shell’ barrel right along setting up the new premise, which of course leads to young Ryan discovering hidden size and weight equipment and learning the rules of sub-atomic transmigration as well as discovering the strangest race of alien invaders I’ve ever seen, lurking in the very last place you’d ever look for them (Really. The absolute and utter last place) whilst ‘Binding Energies’ introduces some impressive sub-plots including a secret war between science and magic in Ivy town, an immortal cancer god, a personal arch enemy and a fifty foot tall naked chick rampaging through campus and city.

These gems were all illustrated by venerable veteran John Byrne, but Eddy Barrows takes over for ‘Aggressive Ideologies’ as all those plotlines coalesce and the new Atom is forced to escape from the grossest death-trap ever, in the funniest manner permitted by (borderline) good taste…

‘Redline Shift’ sees the young hero’s career almost ended by a parental curfew, whilst the time-bent ‘Handle of the Teacup’ (from Brave New World, with art by Byrne) neatly slots in here with the belated and action-packed introduction of those invading aliens I mentioned before. This first book ends with ‘Charged Particles’ as Ivy town becomes ground zero for the science/magic war, and the psychotic serial killer Dwarfstar goes on killing spree.

Suddenly the hero-game isn’t all fun anymore and, more importantly, the brilliant young man realises something isn’t right with Palmer’s size-changing gear and indeed the entire set-up of his new career…

And thus begins the superb run of a new “legacy hero” (comicbook-ese for a new guy using an established name) that’s funny, charming stirring and incredibly addictive: moreover this is a completely planned book, there are clues and hints here that will only make sense when the final book is completed – and the creative team even have the nerve and confidence to treat the entire venture as a fair-play mystery.

Stick with the All-New Atom, match wits with the writers and have a huge amount of fun along the way…
© 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Casey Ruggles: the Whisperer – Selected Daily Strips 1949-1950


By Warren Tufts (Western Winds Productions)
No ISBN

Warren Tufts was an incredibly gifted artist and storyteller cursed by simply being born too late. He is best remembered now – if at all – for creating two of the most beautiful western comics strips of all time, but at a time when the heyday of newspaper syndicated entertainment was gradually giving way to the television age. Had he been working in Adventure’s Golden Age he would undoubtedly be a household name… at least in comics fans’ houses…

Born in Fresno, California on 12th December 1925 Tufts was a superb and meticulous craftsman with a canny grasp of character and a great ear for dialogue whose art was stately in a representational manner and favourably compared to both Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant and the best of Alex Raymond. On May 22nd 1949 he began the seminal Casey Ruggles – A Saga of the West as a colour Sunday page, following with a daily black and white strip beginning on September 19th of that year, working for the United Features Syndicate, purveyors of such landmark strips as Fritzi Ritz and L’il Abner.

Ruggles was a dynamic ex-cavalry sergeant in 1849 making his way to California to find his fortune (the storyline of both features until 1950 where daily and Sunday strips divided into separate tales), blending history into the dramas with such personages as Millard Fillmore, William Fargo, Jean Lafitte and Kit Carson making their presences felt in various gripping two-fisted action-adventures. The lush, expansive tales were crisply told and highly engaging, but Tufts was a driven perfectionist regularly working 80-hour weeks at the drawing board and consequently often missed deadlines.

This led him to use many assistants and old comic-book fans will be gratified to discover that then rising artists Al Plastino, Rueben Moreira and Edmund Good, as well as established veterans Nick Cardy and Alex Toth, all spent time working as “ghosts” (uncredited assistants and fill-in artists) on the series.

Due to a falling-out Tufts left the strip in 1954 and Al Carré continued the feature until its demise in October 1955. The departure came when TV producers wanted to turn the strip into a weekly television show but apparently United Features baulked, suggesting the show would harm the popularity of the strip.

Tufts created his own syndicate for his next and greatest project, Lance (probably the last great full page Sunday strip and another series crying out for a high-quality collection) before moving peripherally into comic-books, working extensively for West Coast outfit Dell/Gold Key, where he drew various westerns and cowboy TV show tie-ins like Wagon Train, Korak son of Tarzan, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan and a long run on the Pink Panther comic. Eventually he quit drawing completely, working as an actor, voice-actor and eventually in animation on such shows as Challenge of the Super Friends.

Tufts had a lifelong passion for flying, even building his own aircraft. In 1982 whilst piloting one he crashed and was killed.

The Pacific Comics Club collected many “lost strip classics” at the start of the 1980s, including a number of Casey Ruggles adventures. This colossal black and white volume (approximately 15 inches x 10 inches) contains some fascinating biographical history. In the opening adventure of the daily strip from September 1949, Casey and the orphan Indian boy Kit Fox set off on the wagon trail to California accompanied by old Swiss gentleman Hans Hassesnfeffer and his adopted daughter Chris, with army deserter Bolt and Femme Fatale Lilli Lafitte racing them to the goldfields and providing sundry evil delaying tactics.

This is a highly authentic if dramatised synthesis of those real treks with Indians (hostile and not), cold, privation, disease, stampedes, greedy owlhoots and even scurvy banditos making the journey a masterpiece of endurance and determination. That first storyline ended with the January 14th 1950 instalment, and this collection picks up with the August 21st episode and the introduction of the lumber town of Big Bear Flat.

This rough and ready outpost of civilisation is living under a pall of terror. A mysterious serial killer called the Whisperer is killing lumberjacks and townspeople at will, always warning in advance before striking. Terrified survivors attest to hearing a harsh whisper at the scenes of the crimes. This is not the best time for Kit Fox and Ruggles, struggling to throw off a dose of laryngitis, to hit town…

This cracking yarn sees the misunderstood hero come to the town’s rescue and unravel a baffling whodunit in spectacular action packed style, reminiscent of the best John Ford or Raoul Walsh matinee feature.

Westerns are continually falling into and out of vogue but the beautiful clean cut mastery of Warren Tufts should never be chained to fashion. These are great tales perfectly told and desperately deserving of your time and attention. I pray some canny publisher knows a good thing when he sees it…
© 1949, 1950, 1953 United Features Syndicate, Inc. Collection  Western Winds Productions. All Rights Reserved.