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The Phantom – The Complete Series: The Charlton Years Volume Three


By Pat Boyette with Joe Gill & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-049-9 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the 17th century a British sailor survived an attack by pirates. Washed ashore on the African coast, he swore on the skull of his murdered father to dedicate his life and that of all his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom still fights crime and injustice from a base deep in the jungles of Bengali, and throughout the continents is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”. His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice led to his being considered an immortal avenger by the desperate, the credulous and especially the wicked. Down the decades one hero after another has fought and died in an unbroken family line, and the latest wearer of the mask, indistinguishable from the first, continues the never-ending battle.

Lee Falk created the Jungle Justice dealer at the request of his syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his initial action strip sensation Mandrake the Magician, and although technically not the first ever costumed hero in comics, The Phantom’s astounding popularity wearing later demi-compulsory skintight bodystocking and mask with opaque eye-slits made him the prototype costumed comics paladin. He debuted on February 17th 1936 (Yep! Ninety nonstop years!!) in an extended sequence pitting him against global pirate confederation the Singh Brotherhood. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over illustration to artist Ray Moore. A hugely successful Sunday feature began in May 1939. However, for such a long-lived and influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom has been very poorly served by the English language market – except in Australia where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god.

Numerous companies had begun releasing books of the strips – one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history – but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success. However, even if only of historical value (or just printed for Australians), surely mysterious Mr. Kit Walker is worthy of a definitive chronological compendium series? Happily, and perhaps because of the tights and mask, his comic book adventures have fared slightly better – especially in recent times. From November 1962 through July 1966, all new adventures were published by West Coast giant Gold Key Comics after which King Features Syndicate dabbled with a comic book line of their biggest stars (including Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Mandrake and The Phantom) between 1966 and 1967. When they gave up the ghost (Tee. Hee.), plucky dependable, cheap ‘n’ cheerful Charlton Comics were there to pick up the slack…

The Phantom was no stranger to funnybooks, commanding his own title all over the world. Even in the US he had appeared since the Golden Age in titles like Feature Book and Harvey Hits, albeit only as reformatted newspaper strip reprints. Gold Key’s efforts were tailored to a big page and a young readership, a model King Features maintained for their own run, but which was tweaked when Charlton acquired the license. This third full-colour compilation gathers the contents of The Phantom #48-56 (originally released between February 1972 to June 1973) and opens with an historical interview conducted by Spike Barkins and modified here as Introduction ‘Lee Falk: Thoughts About the Ghost Who Walks’, offering insights and a wealth of original art pages by in situ comic book creator Pat Boyette.

San Antonio born on 27th July 1923, Aaron P. Boyette was pure mythical Texan: self-taught in everything that mattered and unstoppably confident. A truly tireless entrepreneur, he was a key component of the development of commercial radio in Texas and a journalist who researched, wrote, broadcast, managed, and presented shows. If you’ve read any Golden Age Green Lantern, it’s everyman hero Alan Scott (who did all the jobs) could have been patterned on Pat…

Boyette forsook burgeoning stardom to become a cryptographer during WWII. Coming out, he performed the same do-it-all trick with early television and later moved into making movies. After anchoring TV news, he abruptly moved sideways again, and took to comics: writing, editing, lettering, painting and illustrating as Pat Boyette, Sam Swell, Alexander Barnes & Bruce Lovelace. Working for Charlton, DC, Warren, Archie, Acclaim; a host of eighties indie outfits and as a self-publisher, Boyette produced newspaper strip Captain Flame; drew prestigious DC title Blackhawk; and found a lasting home at Charlton Comics. He co-created (with Joe Gill) The Peacemaker and assumed creative duties on Pete (“PAM”) Morisi’s Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. As the superhero boom faded, he increasingly contributed to their anthological lines, crafting hundreds of genre short stories for romance, war, western horror, science fiction, fantasy and others. Boyette also handled Charlton’s biggest and most high-profile licensed features including The Six Million Dollar Man; Space: 1999; Korg: 70,000 B.C; Flash Gordon; Jungle Jim and the company’s runaway top seller – The Phantom. Boyette’s work was continually published at Charlton until at least 1986 when the outfit was being wrapped up. He readily adapted to the indie market, with his last work appearing in DC/Paradox Press’s The Big Book of the Weird Wild West in 1998.

Pat Boyette died of oesophageal cancer on January 14th, 2000 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The majority of the bi-monthly yarns here are scripted by Boyette, backed up by Joe Gill in #49, 52 & 54: utterly workmanlike and hitting every expected base. Most issues still offered a pictorial Contents Page teaser, heralding terse, spartan, stripped-back action; mystery yarns with themes and plots readers of newspapers and dyed-in-the-wool superhero fans alike could appreciate equally. There are of mad scientists, aliens, monsters, war criminals, brutal beasts, sadistic potentates, thieves & pirates, misunderstood loners and fringe types aplenty… and so many admiring women… but no costumed villains.

Moreover, with Africa in the contemporary news and “emerging nations” grabbing headlines everywhere, politics was paramount and old standbys of rawhide and grass-kilted natives were vanishing on the pages of the world’s most popular strips jungle strips (Tarzan too!) and as we open with The Phantom #48 and a rare full-length saga, ‘The Man of Destiny!’ follows Bandari prodigy Hokana, sponsored by the Ghost Who Walks to study at western schools and universities. Of course, with learning and independence comes selfish personal desires, decadent ways and lurking Soviet enemies ready to disrupt the Phantom’s Peace but after many struggles, adult Hokana understands the true nature of his greedy fair-weather friends before redeeming himself through right choices and valiant actions…

The anthological format returns with #49 and Joe Gill scripting opening exploit ‘The Hostage!’ Here archaeologist Diana Palmer is kidnapped by vicious ideological guerillas before her masked true love expends herculean effort to rescue her, after which Bandari boy Jelrami is also sent for schooling abroad. His path is just as temptation-tainted, but this time not even the Phantom can save the corrupted child or find ‘A Better Way!’ to save the Bandar people from crime, death and western civilisation…

It’s back in time and into space next as ‘The Intruders!’ reveals how two centuries past an earlier Ghost Who Walked faced and fought off extraterrestrial incursion, whilst #50 opens with a contemporary twist as crash-landed human astronauts are mistaken by barbaric Ashnu tribesmen for ‘The Fire Gods’ of legend. Emboldened by profitable hostages whose safety is by no means assured, they are ready to resist even Phantom force and reputation…

More mundane but no less miraculous, ‘No Gratitude’ sees the masked hero ambushed for his horse and almost murdered by a fleeing felon, before performing a most remarkable act of forgiveness that provokes a life-changing change of heart in his enemy. The issue ends with The Phantom piercing uncharted mountain ranges to face a lost Roman outpost and lead ‘The Lost Legion’ against one last tyrannical Caesar…

With the intro pages sacrificed to increased costs and dwindling page counts, #51 leaps right into ‘A Broken Vow!’ wherein ward-&-heir Rex and his Bandar companion Tomm are targeted by vengeful witchdoctor Leklu. Naturally, his kidnap plot and trained crocodiles prove useless against The Phantom’s way, after which the boys take centre-stage to save an elephant trapped by savage hunters in ‘Captive King’ whilst Diana returns to explore the lost city of Lak and becomes hostage to greedy hunters raiding ‘The Treasure Room’. Of course, they have completely different ideas of what constitutes wealth, but can all agree that the Phantom’s justice is swift, fierce and indisputable…

For #52 Gill scripted opening shot ‘Lost in the Land of the Lost!’ as both Diana and Rex are (briefly) held hostage by fugitive murderer Victor Walsk in the lost temple they have just discovered, after which Boyette places her ‘A World Away!’. Her self-sacrificing gambit to save the Phantom and his Bandar from an insidious poison plot by avaricious billionaire collector finds her dragged all over the world, but not beyond the reach of the Ghost Who Walks. Closing the issue is another Gill-penned piece as new leader Captain Ahmed enacts his ‘Revenge of the Singh Pirates!’ to end four centuries of conflict with cunning plans and the most modern of weapons only to learn his efforts will never be enough…

The next issue starts with ‘The Looters!’ as super-thieves Marcel and Jeanne ambush The hero is his own skull cave and leaving him for dead ferry his greatest treasure back to Paris. They really should have checked his body…

Back in Africa ‘The Phantom meets the… Do Gooders!’ as smug government sociologist Dr. Harrison Pugh attempts to introduce morally-improving consumer capitalism to “poverty-ridden tribes” only to – eventually – learn a painful lesson in practical politicking, after which The Phantom confronts primal force when a rogue bull-elephant ravages the region in ‘The Outlaw’s Herd!’ and sees, as usual, that it’s not the beasts to blame for all the carnage…

In #54 the lead features another plundering of Phantom treasures, setting the Jungle Judge on the trail of British bandit Lord Percy and his lethal assistant Miss Chang. They think they have home advantage thanks to London fogs, but are not the only ‘Killers in the Mist’ (Gill script). With the loot returned Boyette alone handles a magic-tinged war against ‘The Angry Gods!’ after fanatical film director Chico Fitzroy and his apparently-possessed leading lady Regina Shaw despoil ancient temples to make their latest masterpiece, leaving the battered, beguiled Phantom just enough time to ponder the exploits of an ancestor who battled Wazuli an obsessed ‘Master of Evil’ in a war for control of Bandar two centuries past…

Contemporary issues inform the first yarn in The Phantom #55 as our hero discovers illegal oil drilling near Bengali and must take extreme action to prevent ‘The Black Blight!’ destroying every oasis and water source in the area, before notions of romantic mysticism are introduced in ‘A Far-Off Drum!’ Given a hand-drum by the hero that will eternally connect them, Diana soon sees its power when she is abducted in London and the Ghost Who Walks comes running to her side from ten thousand miles away as soon as she taps it…

Closing the penultimate inclusion here is a human interest fable as a trusted member of the Phantom’s inner circle is coerced into raiding Bandar possessions like ‘A Thief in the Night’. Thankfully, the wise hero looks beyond the apparent to track down the true villain behind the betrayals… Gill is back for a dose of ‘Jungle Madness’ in #56 as friendly docile creatures – including wonder horse Hero – become deranged berserkers, much like the Ghost himself once he tracks down the polluters who poisoned the water table for quick profit…

Boyette and his associates often sagely left their time period vague and unconfirmed, allowing creative anachronism to play out in tales that could often be starring earlier Phantoms of the undying dynasty. Here however, the timeframe is solidly identified as 1942 as the incumbent Enforcer of the Jungle Peace deceives a German U-Boat crew on a scouting mission that Hitler had already conquered the primitives through one example of perfect white superiority:‘The Nazi Phantom’. The deception did not last long, but it didn’t have to…

The comic and this classic safari of strip saga closes with another bang of the drum as ‘The Chief Who Went Astray!’ finds Diana and “Kit Walker” enjoying a brief respite in London when the Ghost who Relaxes hears a spectral tympani and dashes back to Bengali and the Bandar. The new impossible task is to shut down illegal mining operations plundering the tribes mineral resources… specifically uranium. It seems that vile Mr Grimek has the full consent of local bigwig Lolomu, but all is not as it seems until the Phantom takes a hand and raises his fists…

Packed throughout with pages of Boyette original art, this is another riotous rip-roaring, nostalgia-drenched delight: stripped down, nonstop rollicking action-adventure which has always been the staple of comics fiction and the Ghost Who Walks. If that sounds like a good time to you, this is a traditional action-fest you must not miss…
The Phantom® © 1972-1973 and 2014 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

In 1916, today saw the birth of Canadian veteran Jack Sparling (Claire Voyant, Six Million Dollar Man, Neutro, Turok, Son of Stone, The Outer Limits, Mission Impossible, Space Man, Challengers of the Unknown, countless genre tales for most US publishers), with New Zealand cartoonist John Kent (Varoomshka) sharing the cake and candles from 1937 onwards.

Cartoonist and author Berkely Breathed (Bloom County, Outland, A Wish For Wings That Work, Flawed Dogs, Mars Needs Moms!) was born today in 1957, as was editor/publisher Gary Carlson (Big Bang Comics, Megaton), with mangaka Gosho Aoyama (Case Closed) arriving in 1963. Horrorists Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre: A Cal McDonald Mystery, Batman: Gotham County Line, Kick-Ass) and Mike Dringenberg (Kelvin Mace, Adolescent Radioactive Blackbelt Hamsters, The Sandman) were both born today in 1965, just like artist Wilfredo Torres (Superman ‘78, The Shadow: Year One Doc Savage: The Spider’s Web) in 1972 and Christopher Hastings (Dr McNinja, Gwenpool) in 1983.

On this date in 1985 Golden Age great Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski (Blue Beetle, Sub-Mariner, Blonde Phantom, The Iron Corporal, All-Winners Squad, Nyoka the Jungle Girl, hundreds of genre shorts) died.

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Spirou and Fantasio: The Marsupilami Thieves


By André Franquin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-167-9 (Album PB/Digital edition)

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

André Franquin was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3rd 1924 and died on January 5th 1997. In between there were good times and bad, which he handled by creating the most incredible characters and stories, and by making people laugh and think… but mostly laugh. This is one of the very best you can find translated into English.

Adventure-seeking brave lad Spirou headlined the magazine he was named for from the first issue (dated April 21st 1938). He was devised and realised by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter using his pen-name Rob-Vel for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis in direct response to the success of Hergé’s Tintin over at rival outfit Casterman. Originally a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (a sly reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique), his improbable exploits with pet squirrel Spip gradually but steadily evolved into highflying, far reaching, surreal comedy dramas. That evolution was mainly thanks to Velter’s wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939 and Belgian artist/assistant Luc Lafnet… at least until 1943 when Dupuis purchased all rights to the property, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (Jijé) took over.

When Jijé handed his own trainee/assistant total responsibility for the flagship feature part-way through serial Spirou et la maison préfabriqué (Le Journal de Spirou #427, June 20th 1946), André Franquin ran with it for the next 20 years, enlarging the scope and expanding its horizons until the feature was purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters such as comrade/rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics The Count of Champignac. Spirou and Fantasio became globetrotting journalists, travelling to exotic places, uncovering crimes, exploring the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Fantasio’s unsavoury cousin Zantafio.

Gradually sidelining short, done-in-one gag vignettes in favour of longer epic adventure serials, Franquin’s growing cast of engaging regulars soon included one of the first strong female characters in European comics (rival journalist Seccotine, renamed Cellophine in the current English translation) and ultimately led to the debut of a scene-stealing, phenomenally popular apparently-magic animal. Marsupilami arrived during 1952’s serial Spirou et les héritiers and never left…

Franquin, plagued in later life by bouts of depression, died in 1997 but his legacy remains and still grows; a vast body of work which reshaped the landscape of European comics inspiring many others to carry on in his name and manner.

The Marsupilami Thieves was originally serialised in LJdS #729-761 (collected into an album in 1954); a direct sequel to Spirou et les héritiers, in which the valiant inseparable companions encountered an incredible elastic-tailed anthropoid in the rain forests of Palombia before bringing the fabulous, affable creature back to civilisation. Franquin’s follow-up, fleshed out from an idea by fellow cartoonist Jo Almo (Geo Salmon), sees the triumphant journalists visit the vast City Zoo where their latest headline ended up, only to be stricken with guilt and remorse at the poor creature’s sorry state of incarceration.

Resolved to free the poor thing and return him to his jungle home, their plan is foiled when the critter suddenly dies in its cage. Distraught and suspicious, they muscle their way in to see the vet and discover the corpse has gone missing…

Acting quickly, Spirou & Fantasio rouse the authorities. The commotion prevents the body thief escaping and all through the night Keepers and our heroes scour the institution. Thus, in the deadly dark they finally spook the mystery malefactor from his cosy hiding place…

There follows a spectacular and hilarious midnight chase through the zoo, with the lads harrying a dark figure – who must be some kind of athlete – past a panoply of angry animals, hindered more than helped by inept animal custodians. Nevertheless, they almost catch the intruder, but a last burst of furious energy propels the bandit over a back wall, although not before Spirou snatches a paper clue from him…

The precious scrap takes our resolute investigators to the flat of Victor Shanks, where his wife Clementine provides further information. Her man is flying off to the city of Magnana for his new job… and to deliver a package! The lads’ frantic chase to the airport is plagued by manic misfortune and they miss Victor by moments. Undeterred, they borrow a neighbour’s car and attempt to follow overland, leading to a fractious episode of fisticuffs with striking Customs Officers (they’re withholding their labour, not exceptionally attractive…). After a night in jail, the undeterred duo and kvetching Spip eventually fetch up in Magnana and the search begins…

One month later, they are fully frustrated and ready to throw in the towel when Spirou literally runs into Clementine Shanks and trails her to a football stadium where formerly unemployed, desperate Victor is now a star of the local soccer team. Confronting the essentially good-hearted rogue, Fantasio & Spirou force the truth from him. In return for his new job, Victor drugged and swiped the Marsupilami for ruthless showman The Great Zabaglione who sees an irresistible star attraction for his circus and travelling menagerie…

Determined to see the little creature free, the boys try to infiltrate the show but are quickly discovered and forcefully expelled. Then, following a chance meeting with weird science savant the Count of Champignac, they try once more, perfectly disguised as miraculous magic act Cam and Leon…

This time the ruse succeeds, but after a phenomenally outrageous opening performance, brutal but sharp Zabaglione rumbles the reporters. Things look bleak for the lads and the Marsupilami until guilt-wracked Victor steps in to save the day. Once the dust settles, the wondrous beast is freed, but gleefully opts to stay with the lads and share their fun-filled, exciting exploits…

Soaked in superb slapstick comedy and with gallons of gags throughout, this exuberant yarn is packed with angst-free action, thrills and spills and also offers an early ecological message and an always-timely moral regarding the humane treatment of animals. There’s even a fascinating history and creative overview of the timeless wandering heroes in back-up text feature ‘Spirou & Fantasio’s Stories Last Through Generations’.

The Marsupilami Thieves is the kind of lightly-barbed, comedy romp to delight readers fed up with a marketplace far too full of adults-only carnage, testosterone-fuelled breast-beating, teen-romance monsters or sickly-sweet fantasy. Easily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the beguiling style and seductive yet wholesome verve and panache which make Asterix, Lucky Luke, and Yakari so compelling, this is a truly enduring landmark tale from a long line of superb exploits, and deserves to be a household name as much as those series… and even that other kid with the white dog…
Original edition © Dupuis, 1954 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation 2013 © Cinebook Ltd.

Born today in 1934, Mexican artist, cartoonist and political thinker Eduardo Humberto del Río García AKA Ruis (the …for Beginners series) shared the occasion with master of all comics trades John E. Workman (Thor, Star*Reach, Heavy Metal, Eros Comics, Sonic the Hedgehog) from 1950 onwards. So do writer Marc Andreyko (Jinx: Torso, Manhunter) from 1970 and, in 1974, Canadian art ace Karl Kerschl (Adventures of Superman, Majestic, All-Flash, Teen Titans: Year One, Gotham Academy).

The date also saw André Franquin debut as Spirou’s new controlling creator in 1946 (halfway through ongoing serial Spirou et la maison préfabriquée) and, in 1964 the launch of pivotal UK weekly Wham!, as well as the death of Belgian superstar Jijé in 1980.

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Adam Strange Archives volumes 1 – 3


By Gardner F. Fox, Carmine Infantino, Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson, Gil Kane & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0148-7 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For many of us the Silver Age of comics is the ideal era. Varnished by nostalgia (because that’s when most of us caught this crazy childhood bug) the clear, clean-cut, uncomplicated optimism of the late 1950s and early 1960s produced captivating heroes and villains who were still far less terrifying than the Cold War baddies who troubled our parental units. The sheer talent and professionalism of the creators working in that temporarily revitalised comics world resulted in triumph after triumph to brighten our young lives and which – remarkably – still shine today with quality and achievement.

One of the most compelling stars of those days was an ordinary Earthman who regularly commuted to another world for spectacular adventures, armed with nothing more than a ray-gun, a jetpack and his own ingenuity. He was Adam Strange, and like so many of that era’s comics triumphs, he was the brainchild of Julius Schwartz and his close team of creative stars.

Showcase was a try-out comic conceived to launch new series and concepts with minimal commitment of publishing resources. If the new character sold well initially, a regular series would follow. The process had already worked with phenomenal success. The revised Flash, new concept Challengers of the Unknown and at-last-promoted-to-solo-status (Superman’s Girlfriend) Lois Lane had all won their own titles and Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld now wanted his two Showcase editors to create science fiction themed stars to capitalise on the twin zeitgeists of the “Space Race” and the popular fascination with movie monsters and aliens.

Jack Schiff came up with the futuristic crime fighter Space Ranger (who debuted in issues #15-16) and Schwartz went to reliable cohort Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs to craft the saga of a modern-day explorer in the most uncharted territory yet imagined.

Showcase #17 (cover-dated November/December 1958 and on sale from September 18th) launched as Adventures on Other Worlds, and told of American archaeologist Strange who, whilst fleeing from enraged natives in Peru, jumps a 25 ft chasm only to be hit by a stray teleport beam from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. He materialises in another world, filled with giant plants and monsters and is rescued by a beautiful woman named Alanna who teaches him her language through uncanny science!

Premier yarn ‘Secret of the Eternal City!’ reveals that Rann is a planet recovering from atomic war, and the beam was in fact a simple flare, one of many sent in an attempt to communicate with other races. In the four years (speed of light, right? As we all knew, Alpha Centauri is about 4.3 light-years from Sol) that Zeta-Flare travelled through space, cosmic radiation converted it into a teleportation beam. Until the radiation drained from his body, Strange would be a very willing prisoner on a fantastic new world.

… And an incredibly unlucky one apparently, as no sooner has Adam started acclimatising than an alien race named The Eternals invade, seeking a mineral that can grant them immortality. The Terran tourist’s courage and sharp wits enable him to defeat the invaders, only to have the radiation finally fade, drawing him home before the adoring Alanna can administer a hero’s reward. Thus were established the narrative principles of this beguiling series. Adam would intercept one of the many follow-up Zeta-beams sent by Rann over the years, hoping for some joyful times with his alien sweetheart, only to be confronted with a planet-menacing crisis. The very next of these came in the same debut issue. ‘The Planet and the Pendulum’ saw him obtain the crimson spacesuit and weaponry that became distinctive trademarks in a tale of alien invaders which also introduced the subplot of Rann’s warring city-states, each desperate to progress and all at different stages of recovery and development. Rann was a world of constant danger both domestic and from the skies above: non-stop peril for which brains, not brawn, were the best solution. Sadly, Strange was only able to stay on the atom-war scarred planet for as long as it took teleporting Zeta Beam radiation to dissipate, whence he would fade away to reappear on Earth until the next beam hit him – a procedure just as fraught and risky. Adam found true love with Alanna and unparalleled adventure, but the universe seemed determined to keep them apart.

The next issue featured the self-explanatory ‘Invaders from the Atom Universe’ and ‘The Dozen Dooms of Adam Strange’ wherein our reluctant hero must outwit the dictator of Dys who plans to invade Alanna’s city of Rannagar. With this tale Sachs was replaced as inker by Joe Giella, although he would return as soon as #19’s Gil Kane cover, the first to feature the title Adam Strange over the unwieldy logo “Adventures on Other Worlds”. ‘Challenge of the Star-Hunter’ and ‘Mystery of the Mental Menace’ are classic puzzle tales wherein the Earthman must outwit a shape-changing alien and an all-powerful energy-being. These were the last in Showcase (cover-dated March/April 1959). With the August issue (on sale from Jue 4th) Adam Strange took over the pole position and cover spot of venerable anthology title Mystery in Space.

As well as a new home, the series also found a new artist. Carmine Infantino, who had worked magic with The Flash, applied his clean, classical line and superb design sense to create a stark, pristine, sleekly beautiful universe that was spellbinding in its cool but deeply humanistic manner, and genuinely thrilling in its imaginative wonders. MIS #53 began an immaculate run of exotic high adventures with ‘Menace of the Robot Raiders!’ by Fox, Infantino & Sachs, followed in glorious succession by ‘Invaders of the Underground World’ and ‘The Beast from the Runaway World!’

With #56 Murphy Anderson became lead/semi-regular inker, and his precision brush and pen made the art a thing of unparalleled beauty. ‘The Menace of the Super-Atom’ and ‘Mystery of the Giant Footprints’ are sheer visual poetry, but even ‘Chariot in the Sky’, ‘The Duel of the Two Adam Stranges’ (MIS #58 & #59, inked by Giella) and ‘The Attack of the Tentacle World’, ‘Threat of the Tornado Tyrant’ and ‘Beast with the Sizzling Blue Eyes’ (MIS #60-62, inked by Sachs) were – and remain – streets ahead of the competition in terms of thrills, plot complexity, spectacle and imagination.

Anderson returned with #63, marking the introduction of some much-needed recurring villains (the Vacuumizers of Vantor) who employed ‘The Weapon That Swallowed Men!’, #64’s chilling ‘The Radio-active Menace!’ and, ending this initial volume, ‘The Mechanical Masters of Rann’; all superb short-story marvels that appealed to their young readers’ every sense – especially that burgeoning sense of wonder.

The deluxe Archive format made a fitting home for these extraordinary exploits that are still some of the best written and drawn science fiction comics ever produced. Whether for nostalgia’s sake, for your own entertainment or even to get your own impressionable ones properly indoctrinated, you really need this book in your home.
© 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Adam Strange Archive volume 2

By Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-0780-9 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The Silver Age “thinking man’s hero” returned for more alluring Love & Jetpacks action in this second compilation of adventures on other worlds, reprinting tales from Mystery in Space #66-80 (cover-dated March 1961 to December 1962).

Adam Strange, more than any other character, epitomises the Silver Age of Comics. A calm clearheaded Earth archaeologist and scientist who coolly conquered all adversity through rational effort. It was witty, sophisticated, gloriously illustrated and fantastically imaginative, and there was always Alanna: beautiful, capable but somehow unattainable. The happy-ever-after was always just in reach, but only after one last triumphant exploit…

After the bravura boldness of the first Adventures on Other Worlds the far-flung fantasy continued with ‘Space Island of Peril’ by Fox, Infantino & Giella, a duel with an alien super-being who planned to throw Rann into one of its suns, followed in #67 by the deceptively eerie ‘Challenge of the Giant Fireflies!’, as Adam’s adopted home was menaced by thrill-seeking creatures who live on the surface of Earth’s sun.

Next, Anderson returned as inker-in-residence for ‘The Fadeaway Doom!’ wherein Rannian General Kaskor (another menace who would constantly vex Adam and many planets) made a unique attempt to seize power by co-opting the Zeta Beam itself. Then ‘Menace of the Aqua-ray Weapon!’ saw the Kirri – a primordial species from Rann’s primeval past – return to take possession of their old world, whilst #70 revealed how ‘The Vengeance of the Dust Devil!’ threatened not just Rann but also Earth itself!

Inked by Giella, ‘The Challenge of the Crystal Conquerors!’ was a sharp game of bluff and double-bluff with Adam’s other home planet at stake, whereas MIS #72 delivered a radical departure from the tried-&-true formula. ‘The Multiple Menace Weapon!’ found Adam deliberately diverted to Rann of the year 101,961AD to save his own distant descendants before being dumped back to deal with a threat to his own time and place. This was followed by action-packed mystery thriller ‘The Invisible Raiders of Rann!’ after which the puzzles continued with #74’s complex conundrum ‘The Spaceman who Fought Himself!’, inked by back-for-good Murphy Anderson, and leading into Mystery in Space #75 and a legendary team-up with the freshly-minted Justice League of America. Here Adam & Alanna save two worlds threatened by despicable slaver and star pirate Kanjar Ro in ‘Planet That Came to a Standstill!’ – indisputably one of the best tales of DC’s Silver Age and a key moment in the development of cross-series continuity.

After that 25 page extravaganza it was back to 14 pages for #76’s ‘Challenge of the Rival Starman!’ as Adam becomes involuntary tutor and stalking-horse for an alien Champion, prior to ‘Ray-Gun in the Sky!’– an invasion mystery that invited readers to solve the puzzle before our hero did. ‘Shadow People of the Eclipse!’ then pitted the Earthman against a bored alien thrill seeker. MIS #79’s ‘The Metal Conqueror of Rann!’ found him fighting a much more personal battle to bring Alanna back from the brink of death. This second deluxe tome closes with ‘The Deadly Shadows of Adam Strange!’ wherein nemesis in waiting Mortan wreaks a bizarre personal revenge on the Champion of two Worlds…

Don’t dawdle now. Catch that next Zeta beam for more amazing adventures…
©1961, 1962, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Adam Strange Archive volume 3

By Gardner F. Fox, Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, John Giunta, Sid Greene, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1661-0 (HB)

For us remaining Baby-Boomer brats, Adam Strange, more than any other character, epitomises the Silver Age of Comics. An Earthman visiting other worlds, filled with monsters, fabulous marvels and non-stop peril for which brains, not brawn, were the only solution. Strange was an interplanetary ambassador very much of his era. However, as his elegant genre-adventures gave way to a superhero avalanche, the creative dream team of Fox, Infantino & Anderson, (latterly aided and abetted by Sid Greene & Giella) were called away to shepherd more urgent and new-fangled costumed creations…

From Mystery in Space #92 (June 1964 and on sale from April 30th) incoming editor Jack Schiff supervised Strange’s exploits until his final appearance in #102 (September 1965). Space Ranger had joined the book’s line-up and immediately taken over the cover-spot, with Adam & Allana’s forays (not included here) crafted by Fox, Dave Wood, Jerry Siegel, Lee Elias & Dick Dillin, until they were ousted by incoming experiment Ultra, the Multi-Alien…

This third and final hardback outing gathers the last vestiges of that Silver Age excellence – comprising Mystery in Space #81-91, and includes a team-up from Hawkman #18 and a pertinent short story from Strange Adventures #157.

Jim Starlin’s introduction ‘Adam Strange: The Coolest Dude Around’ precedes a deluge of daring delights from Fox, Infantino & Anderson, beginning with MIS #81 and testing our hero to his limits as Alva Xar – the dictator who caused Rann’s nuclear armageddon – returns after 1000 years to threaten both Adam’s home planets in ‘The Cloud-Creature that Menaced Two Worlds!’…

Then a terrestrial criminal’s scheme to conquer Earth is thwarted as a result of Adam ending a ‘World War on Earth – and Rann!’ before #83 pits the sagacious star man against a desperate ‘Emotion Master of Space!’ whilst relentless Rhyntharian Dust-Devil Jakarta returns, shrugging off ‘The Powerless Weapons of Adam Strange!’ (Giella inks). Triumphing anyway, Strange & Alanna are almost annihilated by the ‘Riddle of the Runaway Rockets!’ – which sees a revived primordial robot rampage under the vivid veridian skies – before ‘Attack of the Underworld Giants!’ (inked by John Giunta) foreshadows big changes to come via a fantastic vision…

An intriguing diversion from sci fi sister anthology Strange Adventures #157 (October 1963) follows. ‘Rescue by Moonlight!’ (Fox, Infantino, Giunta & Anderson) is a Space Museum yarn (anthological done-in-one tales centred around Earth’s official interstellar knowledge repository) wherein 25th century descendent Alan Strange foils the theft of exotic mineral “parastil”.

Mystery in Space had headlined Strange since #53, but with #87 (November 1963) Schwartz capitulated to and capitalized on the growing superhero boom: adding Hawkman (and Hawkgirl!) in a back-up slot that included full cover-privileges. Not included here, initial yarn ‘The Amazing Thefts of the I.Q. Gang!’ subtly impacted our hero’s lead tale as ‘The Super-Brain of Adam Strange!’ (with Sid Greene as final regular inker) sees the Earthman hyper-evolved by Zeta-radiation and an unlikely menace to all…

An ethereal do-gooder went well astray in ‘The Robot-Wraith of Rann!’ and Adam subsequently proved irresistible to the ‘Siren of the Space Ark!’ before Infantino & Anderson reunited for Fox’s extra-length length End-of the-World(s) epic ‘Planets in Peril!’ in #90. However, after teaming Adam and the Hawks to save two worlds, the glory days concluded quietly with ‘Puzzle of the Perilous Prisons!’ (MIS #91, May 1964), offering a return engagement with archfoe Mortan and a nasty case of evil duplicate girlfriend…

Strange’s later divergent direction was ignored by Fox & Anderson in early 1967 when they crafted Hawkman #18 wherein the Winged Wonder joined Strange against malevolent Manhawks to locate the ‘World That Vanished!’ The planet in question was Thanagar and when it went, it took Hawkman’s beloved wife Shayera with it…

This volume concludes with biographies of the creators, but not sadly the conclusion of that fable as Adam wasn’t in it. If you hate to be kept hanging you’ll need to find a different reprint edition carrying that one.

Also available in a monumental omnibus edition, but not in any format ordinary earthlings can lift or afford, these tales are desperately in need of a digital age refit and restoration.
© 1963, 1964, 1967, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1915 literary agent, writer, editor and architect of the Silver Age of comic books Julius Schwartz was born. He shares his birthday with British cartoonist Jack Edward Oliver (Fresco-Le-Ray, The Champ, Master Mind, Vid Kid, Cliff Hanger) in 1942 and in 1976 Brazilian illustrator Adriana Melo (Star Wars, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Rose & Thorn, Birds of Prey, Sinestro, Witchblade).

The date also marks the launch of Frank Willard’s pioneering Moon Mullins strip in 1923 and Jim Davis’ Garfield in 1978.

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Ordinary Victories volume 1 and 2


By Manu Larcenet, colours by Patrice Larcenet translated by Joe Johnson (NBM/ ComicsLit)
ISBNs: Vol. 1: 978-1-56163-423-1 (TPB) Vol. 2: 978-1-56163-533-7 (TPB)

Complete Set pack ISBN: 978-1-56163-600-6

Ordinary Victories examines the introspective and incidental life of neurotic, left-leaning, change-dreading Marco Louis in the years before France’s conservative-centrist Sarkozy government came to power. In mesmerising, eulogistic and winningly comedic narrative and via alternating modes of illustration ranging from brashly big-foot Marcinelle stylism to sensitively realistic reportage, the soul-searching isolationist examines himself, his past, his art and his family and consequently finds a future he can at least settle for…

The four albums released in France translate to two solidly satisfying tomes here and open with Marco – who has been subject to devastating panic attacks for years – not getting through to his therapist before giving up the idea of visiting his happy, married and well-adjusted brother to get high, chill out and reminisce.

Marco is just the kind of guy who lets life get to him. Seeing his over-protective mum and frail dad only heightens his general tension, but the loner does get a hint of parts of his father’s life he never before knew…

Returning to his isolated rural cottage and his maniacal cat Adolf, Marco tries to get back to his photojournalism job, but the despair and hatred he feels for the whole rat-race just won’t go away. Wracked by anxiety and nightmares, Marco takes the cat for walks in the woods where he encounters an abusive, trespass-obsessed farmer and a wise old gentleman. When Adolf is then savaged by a dog, Marco meets a charming vet who inexplicably likes him, but Life compensates for the nice event by getting Marco fired…

Unemployed, aimless but obsessed with his art, Marco still resists change: Emily is making noises about moving in together but the potential commitment terrifies him. He certainly can’t handle her outright demands for a baby…

The country seems to be heading for outright fascism, his neighbour is a maniac and when he visits the old gentleman, Marco discovers an unsettling connection to his dad’s mysterious war service. His journalist’s paranoia goes into overdrive when Marco finds out what kind of a soldier old man Mesrin was, and with his world spinning the angst-wracked artist is compelled to change or die…

The second part of this initial tome is ‘Negligible Amounts’, which sees the now officially-paired couple Emily & Marco visiting his parents. Here the son learns some unpleasant truths about his father’s health and that the once vigorous and sharp-witted proud shipworker is fading…

Marco’s shots of the gutted and dying Shipyard win him a Paris gallery show prize, but meeting his artistic and creative heroes proves a painful experience. Still, the promise of a book might boost his reputation and save his dad’s old work comrades from redundancy, even if some of them are already talking of closures, unemployment and actually changing their political allegiances…

With Right-wing radicalism in the streets and racism in the air, Marco and his brother are pretty glum and soon after pretty drunk. When another panic attack hits hard the besieged photographer only narrowly avoids an extended stay in a psychiatric unit… and then he gets the phone call about his dad…

 

Ordinary Victories Volume 2: What is Precious

The second potent reminiscence opens with eponymous episode ‘What is Precious’ as Marco slowly adjusts to his father’s death, and gets even closer to Emily… at least when her incessant demands for a baby aren’t freaking him out. With a book deal and a new analyst, things seem to be favourably progressing, but the contents of his dad’s diary provide fresh material for passive hysteria, as does his previously indomitable mother’s new attitude. Unable to stand the strain any longer, Marco confronts Mesrin and demands to know just what ghastly atrocities the old man and the deceased shipbuilder actually committed…

Final chapter ‘Hammering Nails’ opens with new mum Emily and their delightful daughter Maude providing fresh and very different anxieties for Marco, especially since he finally agreed to move the family into a bigger house…

The Shipyard is in its final days and as Marco captures the images of resigned but still striking workers, his own thoughts are more confused than ever. Everybody else either accepts or fights life’s vicissitudes: why can’t he do either?

There’s yet another election coming and everybody thinks a great change is coming – but for Marco, that has never been a comforting notion…

This is a subtle, funny and deeply contemplative tale, deftly understated and compellingly seductive. A commonplace guy handles nothing we blokes haven’t all faced and reacts pretty much as any guy would: amazed to make it safely through another day, always astonished that our partner seems to love us, claims to know us and yet stays anyway. Ordinary Victories is about frustration, loss, disappointment, and yes, occasional triumphs. These books are wonderful, sublime, magical comics and you really should track them down…
© Dargaud 2005, 2007, 2008 by Larcenet. Translation © 2005, 2008 NBM.

Today in 1906 artist extraordinaire and DC inker supreme Sid Greene (Target and the Targeteers, Batman, Elongated Man, Green Lantern, Justice League of America, The Atom) was born, sharing the day with Bob Kanigher (Metal Men, Sgt Rock, Viking Prince, Flash, Hawkman) in 1915 and Underground cartoonist Rick Griffin (Zap Comix) in 1944. Later creative stars debuts of the date include writer/editor/artist and continuity all-star Mark Gruenwald (Captain America, Hawkeye, Squadron Supreme) in 1953; editor, publisher and historian Dean Mullaney (Eclipse Comics) in 1954 and Britain’s international superstar creator Alan Davis (Captain Britain, Marvelman, Harry Twenty on the High Rock, Batman, Excalibur, Clan Destine, Hulk, X-Men, Thor) in 1956.

Today in 1966, the UK’s groundbreaking but short-lived Ranger folded after 40 weekly issues, having left the world The Rise and Fall of The Trigan Empire, Jason January Space Cadet, Rob Riley and the first English language translation of Asterix the Gaul.

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T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Classics volume 6


By Wallace Wood, Steve Ditko, Steve Skeates, Gil Kane, Ralph Reese, Dan Adkins, George Tuska, Reed Crandall, John Giunta, Ogden Whitney, Chic Stone, Paul Reinman, Jack Abel & various (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-182-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-62302-879-4

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The meteoric lifespan and output of Tower Comics is one of the key creative moments in US comic book history. Bombastic, brilliant but brief, the era of The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves was a benchmark of quality and sheer unadulterated fun for fans of both the then-still-reawakening superhero genre and the global spy-chic obsession of those distant times. Throughout the early 1960s, the Bond movie franchise was going from strength to strength, with blazing action and heady glamour totally transforming the formerly low-key, seedy and darkly patriotic espionage genre. The buzz was infectious: soon a Man Like Flint and Matt Helm were carving out their own piece of the action as TV shanghaied the entire bandwagon with the irresistible Man from U.N.C.L.E. (premiering September 1964), bringing the whole shtick into living rooms around the world.

Thus veteran Archie Comics editor Harry Shorten was commissioned to create a line of characters for a new distribution-chain funded publishing outfit: Tower Comics. He brought in creative maverick Wallace (he hated the contraction “Wally”) Wood, who called on many of the biggest names in the industry to craft material for the broad cross-section of genres the new company demanded; as well as T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and spin-offs Undersea Agent, Dynamo and NoMan, there was a magnificent anthology war-comic Fight the Enemy and wholesome youth-comedy Tippy Teen.

Samm Schwartz & Dan DeCarlo handled the funny stuff – which outlasted everything else – whilst Wood, Larry Ivie, Len Brown, Bill Pearson, Steve Skeates, Dan Adkins, Russ Jones, Gil Kane, Ditko & Ralph Reese contributed scripts for themselves and the industry’s other top talents to illustrate on the adventure line. With a ravenous appetite for superspies and costumed heroes growing in comic book popularity and amongst the general public, the idea of blending the two concepts seemed inescapable…

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 appeared with no fanfare or pre-publicity on newsstands in August 1965. Beguilingly, all Tower titles were in the beloved-but-rarely-seen 80-Page Giant format, offering a huge amount of material in every issue. All that being said, these tales would not be so revered if they hadn’t also been so superbly crafted. As well as Wood, the art accompanying compelling, subtly more mature stories was by some of the greatest talents in comics: Reed Crandall, Gil Kane, George Tuska, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Ayers, Joe Orlando, Frank Giacoia, John Giunta, Ogden Whitney, Steve Ditko and more, as well as budding stars including Ralph Reese, Steve Skeates and Dan Adkins…

For those who came in late: When philanthropic benevolent super-genius Professor Emil Jennings perished in an assault by forces of the mysterious Warlord, late-arriving UN troops salvaged some of his greatest inventions. These included a belt that increased the density of the wearer’s body until it became as hard as steel; a cloak of invisibility and a brain-amplifier helmet. These uncopiable prototypes were divided between several agents: the basis of a unit of super-operatives to counter the increasingly bold attacks of multiple global terror threats such as the aforementioned Warlord. First chosen was affable, honest, but far from brilliant file clerk Len Brown. To the astonishment of everyone who knew him, he was assigned the belt and codename Dynamo.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent NoMan was previously decrepit Dr. Anthony Dunn who chose to have his mind transferred into an unaging android body and then gifted with the invisibility cape. If his artificial body was destroyed, Dunn’s consciousness could transfer to another android body. As long as he had a spare ready, he could never die. The helmet went to John Janus: a seemingly perfect UN employee and mental and physical marvel. He easily passed all tests necessary to wear the Jennings helmet. Sadly, he was also a double agent, the Warlord’s mole poised to betray T.H.U.N.D.E.R. at the earliest opportunity. All diabolical plans went awry once he donned the helmet and became Menthor since the device awakened his brain’s full potential, granting him telepathy, telekinesis and mindreading powers, but it also drove all evil from his mind. Such was the redemptive effect that Janus actually gave his life to save his comrades: an event which astounded readers at the time. In the wake of that tragedy, the Helmet vanished, passing through many hands but always escaping T.H.U.N.D.E.R.’s attempts to retrieve it.

Guy Gilbert was leader of crack Mission: Impossible-styled special forces commando unit T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad until asked to beta-test an experimental super-speed suit. As gung-ho, duty-obsessed Lightning, he proudly did so, even if every use of the hyper-acceleration gimmick shortened his life-span. As the concept and the niche universe expanded, other augmented agents appeared – like human jet Raven or subsea spin-off U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. Agent (AKA Davy Jones of the United Nations Department of Experiment and Research Systems Established at Atlantis…

This concluding compilation of classic costumed-spycraft re-presents the compelling contents of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents#15-20 (cover-dates July 1967 to November 1969) – with the incomparably cool concept and characters going from strength to strength as a spirit of eccentric experimentation and raucous low comedy increasingly manifested in the wake of the defeat of the Warlord (actually exposed as only one of a subterranean race intent on world conquest) and rise of independent, lone wolf supervillains, sinister crime cabals such as SPIDER or international/political foes like China’s Red Star…

As always the action opens with a Dynamo solo tale. ‘Collision Course!’ – by an unknown author and depicted by Wood – sees superhuman Andor resurface. A misunderstood modern Prometheus, he was abducted by the Warlords as a baby and spent decades being turned into a biological superman devoid of sentiment or compassion. However, they lost control of their living weapon once he met fellow mortals. Since their shattering defeat, the pitiful outsider’s attempts to rejoin mankind had been constantly thwarted and derailed. Here, following a clash with Dynamo and SPIDER, Andor is a blind (but still immensely powerful) Samson living as a hobo with a cunning grifter. Sadly. he’s again exploited by the underworld – in the form of ruthless criminal freelancer Iron Maiden – and precipitates another shattering duel with the super strong G-man as well as SPIDER’s own hyper-strong, enhanced operative Brutus Kanassus.

When the dust and rubble settles, Andor is gone again, but is now again a slave of Uru, the last surviving subterranean warlord…

Steve Skeates & Chic Stone then detail the next step in Lightning’s life. Dying because of the speed suit he volunteered to wear, Agent Gilbert is placed into cryostasis, but ‘While Our Hero Sleeps…!’ archfoe Warp Wizard wickedly swipes the body. He, however, utterly underestimates the skills and determination of Guy’s former T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad colleagues Dynamite AKA Daniel John Adkins, Katheryn “Kitten” Kane & William “Weed” Wylie to save him, before Bill Pearson & Ogden Whitney despatch NoMan’s scattershot free-floating consciousness on a ‘Starflight to the Assassin Planet!’ Here the invisible agent faces uncanny extraterrestrial terrors and saves earth from impending invasion…

Dynamo’s best efforts are not enough in ‘Hail to the Chief!’ (by an unknown author, Giunta, Wood & Adkins) wherein his commanding officer Sam Short mistakenly believes he’s being pensioned off. Obsessed with proving himself, “the Old Man” is captured by SPIDER and almost kills both of them before this day is saved. T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent Weed (a character Wood regarded as his “spirit animal”) closes the show with a delicious comedy thriller by author unknown and George Tuska.

When a big dumb thug is bitten by a radioactive mole and gains regulation theme-based excavation powers, his small, cunning pal decides ‘Dig We Must’ and has them become costumed crooks robbing from below ground. Their exploits utterly outfox the super-augmented T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents but wily Weed has the perfect plan to trap The Mole and Dapper Dan…

Cover-dated October 1967, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #16 opens with a Dynamo mini-epic illustrated and possibly written by Steve Ditko at the peak of his creative powers and political paranoia. Here the mighty hero and missing frenemy Andor are both beset with a ‘Dream of Doom!’ sent by the last subterranean.

Emboldened by recapturing the Warlord’s living weapon, Uru modifies and heals Andor before unleashing him against humanity, but has again underestimated his tool’s strength of will, affinity for his own kind and all too human feeling for Agent Kitten…

Fast paced and furiously violent, this is a classic example of astounding Ditko’s gift for combat staging as well as his signature graphic psychedelia in action. The era was intensely fruitful for artists as seen in a follow-up by Gil Kane & Jack Abel who limn another uncredited yarn as NoMan learns ‘One of Our Androids is Missing!’ Plunged into a frantic and convoluted global chase whilst again succumbing to psychological traumas triggered by being an undying ancient in a mobile plastic coffin, he soon recovers his emotionless equilibrium after fellow agent Linda Rogers uncovers a plot by the Red Chinese to steal one of his artificial carcases. They intend on turning it into a bomb with the sole purpose of tricking the Soviet Union into leaving the United Nations and blaming T.H.U.N.D.E.R. for the crime. It doesn’t work…

With Lightning notionally cured and declared fit for duty, Skeates & Stone amp up the superpower arms race as old enemy Professor Forkliff uses SPIDER resources to dope the speedster with super hallucinogens before unleashing his own enhanced speed freak – ‘The Whirligig!’ – to crush T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Sadly for them, Gilbert does everything – even recover from a bad trip – at top speed…

The entire Agents roster assembles for anonymously scripted Tuska tale ‘The End of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents?’ after SPIDER finds a way to negate all their advanced technology and entombs them all… until Weed, Kitten & Dynamite prove that a great plan and deathwish determination is all that’s really needed to send evil packing…

Dynamo closes the issue with a psychologically harrowing tale revealing how constant missions have burned him out. Enduring random descents into mindless fugue states, he is a hero lost to reality. Mature, disturbing, chilling and decades ahead of its time, ‘A Slight Case of Combat Fatigue’ comes courtesy of old soldier Wood and reset the tone as superheroes and spies began to pall in the public’s attention…

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #17 (December 1967) began with Dynamo in lighter mode as ‘Return of the Hyena!’ (by that mystery scribe, Wood & Reese) saw the husky but not highbrow hero repeatedly made a jackass by a cunning costumed criminal who indulged himself in a battle of wits with an enemy he deemed completely unarmed. Happily. Brawn and determination… and sneaky rogue Agent Weed… balanced the scales of justice enough to cage the beastly bandit, after which Whitney renders an uncredited modern monster mash wherein NoMan learns ‘The Locusts are Coming!!’ before saving embattled missile bases from marauding robotic raiders led by ambitious but unruly King Locust.

With readers tastes changing, Tuska took the weakest but wily-est Agent deep into genre territory for ‘Weed Out West!’ Scouting out SPIDER sightings in Antelope Haunch, Oklahoma, he finds shady doings at the local cowboy film shoot and soon embroils butch back-up Dynamo in uranium smuggling rings, murder plots and wedding plans before the entire T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents cadre unites the arch enemy foe in show-stopping closer ‘Put Them All Together, They Spell S.P.I.D.E.R.!’ (by anonymous & Stone). Here Dynamo leads the charge after an ordinary undercover mission exposes the cabal’s secret leaders (“The Council”) as a coalition comprising old enemies Demo, Dr. Sparta, Mastermind, Mayven and The Tarantula, led by the utterly unknown Spider Secretary General, just as the group turn on each other.

That debacle began when SPIDER recovered the all-powerful Menthor Helmet but could not peacefully decide on who should wear it and ended when the good guys explosively arrived to mop up the remains of the heated debate…

Nearly a year passed before #18 was published (cover-dated September 1968), but the contents were worth the wait. It began with another Ditko classic as ‘Dynamo and the Amazing Mr. Mek!’ saw the super-agent clash with a little nebbish suddenly granted uncanny power over machines and mechanisms. Sadly, he had no problem robbing banks but baulked when SPIDER abducted him to inflict massive global terror and death. Those unshakeable, ironclad scruples cost Mek his life and baffled his foes, but not as much as ‘The Sinister Schemes of Professor Reverse!’ (illustrated by Whitney) baffled and bamboozled NoMan when the bonkers boffin began regressing animals, humans and top military personnel into ancient ancestor iterations such as cavemen and tyrannosaurs…

Next, thanks to an unknown writer and the astounding Reed Crandall, classical fantasy rendered in the classical manner finds Dynamo trapped in an Italian volcanic eruption to somehow awaken in ancient Rome. Experiencing firsthand the grandeur, glory and petty injustices, only a miracle saves him from ‘The Arena!’ and sees him returned to his proper place and station in time to solve ‘The Secret of the Abominable Snowman!’ Crafted by unknown & Stone, here hapless Len Bown must uncover how satellite and space-race launches are being sabotaged from Tibet. Close investigation beside saucy British spy Carnaby Mod soon uncovers a plot by “commie” robotics genius The Red Lama, but there are still mysteries of the upper slopes to unravel even when all the shooting and thumping stops…

The big spy bubble had burst by this point and the spin-off titles had all folded by the time T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #19 (November 1968) was released. All art with no ads, it felt like a rapid using up and closing down exercise which began with the Wood pencilled, Ralph Reese written & inked ‘Half an Hour of Power!’ as SPIDER scientist Dr. Orgo unleashes an army of super androids – including perfect duplicates of all T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and personnel – and poor Len goes on a rampage uncertain who to hit and who to save…

Feeling suspiciously like Dynamo inventory material, it’s followed by another rowdy riot as ‘Dynamo vs. The Ghost!’ (art by Paul Reinman) sees a traitor abscond with T.H.U.N.D.E.R.’s latest breakthrough: a belt enabling the wearer to phase molecules and pass through walls. So can Dynamo – in his own way – but it’s equipment misuse that ends the blockbusting chase that follows in horrific tragedy…

Reese scripts Dynamo’s clash with the ‘All-Girl Gang!’ for Tuska to illustrate, as sinister spymaster Satana operates a squad of female agents no ordinary man can handle. Of course, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent Kitten Kane is an expert in disguise, infiltration and close combat too…

NoMan then confronts ‘A Matter of Transmitters’ (anonymous & Reinman) as SPIDER’s captive scientist Dr. Einzwei subverts T.H.U.N.D.E.R.’s teleport systems and captures all the super-agents as they innocently travel to work. Of course, NoMan has more than one body to report in with and the web soon untangles…

One year later, a final issue appeared. Cover-dated November 1969, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #20 pretty much signalled the end of spy fever and a dialling back of superheroic shenanigans. The issue was filled with reprint masterpieces but did offer an editorial in ‘Dear T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Fan’ by Wood & Adkins and new 4-page recap of the way it all began in ‘The Origin of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent Dynamo’, drawn by Chic Stone, both of which are included here to sign off the first era of spies in spandex.

With covers by Wood, Kane, Ditko, Reese, Crandall & Stone, these stories all favour fast pace, wry wit, sparse dialogue, explosive action and breathtaking visuals. T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was decades ahead of its time and informed everything in Fights ‘n’ Tights comics that came after it. These are truly timeless superhero comic classics which improve with every reading, so do yourself a favour and add these landmark super-sagas to your collection.
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Classics volume 6 © 2015 Radiant Assets, LLC. All rights reserved.

Today in 1927 master craftsman and inveterate storyteller Wallace Wood (EC Comics, Mad Magazine, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Daredevil, Power Girl, Cannon, Sally Forth, The Wizard King, Witzend, Mars Attacks) was born, sharing the natal anniversary with Hi and Lois artist Chance Browne in 1948, scripter/artist Hilary Barta (Starslayer, Plastic Man) in 1957, artist Pat Olliffe (Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, Captain Britain and MI:13) in 1965 and Italian illustrator Mirka Andolfo (Hex Wives, Wonder Woman, The Amazing World of Gumball, Ms. Marvel) in 1989.

This date in 1919 Billy DeBeck’s Barney Google and Snuffy Smith strip premiered, as did Sgt. George Baker’s Sad Sack in 1942 in the first issue of service magazine Yank – the Army Weekly.

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Dogs on Dates


By Luke Healy (Faber & Faber)

ISBN: 978-0-571-39672-6 (HB)

Irish multi-award winning, low-impact iconoclast Luke Healy studied journalism at Dublin University and earned an MFA in Cartooning from the Center for Cartoon Studies (Vermont, USA). An occasional stand-up comedian, his previous cartoon tomes – like Americana, Permanent Press, How to Survive in the North, The Con Artists and Self Esteem and the End of the World – have won prizes and acclaim, and he’s also held gallery shows in places like Manhattan’s Museum of Comics & Cartoon Art.

Healy’s earlier comics for VICE, The Nib, A24, Medium, Nobrow and Avery Hill are also exceptionally good and, as already stated, he exposes himself to ridicule on stage, but not so much, these days. That’s what his recent funny books are for  – and as Bob Monkhouse used to say “nobody’s laughing now”… except that they are and in exactly the right places, just where Luke wants them to. We also all cry on command too, because that’s what dating in the modern world is like, okay?

Previously Healey addressed and ingested and passed baffled judgement upon all the trauma, weltschmerz and naff experiences of existence, diligently informed by exploration of basic Big Stuff like life, love, friends, and how to keep your head above emotional water. It kept us readers wonderfully entertained for a decade but here and now, that self-excoriating journey of discovery resolves into a fully realised, quirkily significant tale of anthropomorphic romance and the quest for lifelong contentment via a venture into dating, advice (wanted and otherwise) and comradely life support…

In Dog City – a mostly socially evolved metropolis equal parts London and the best bits of the East and West coasts of America – Brad is still looking for love and a steady life on a viable planet when he finally finds the dog of his dreams. However (and as always), renegade art student Bernie comes with baggage… and so very many of Brad’s dreams were always nightmares in waiting…

They first meet by hitting at speed – albeit a few precious moments apart – the same glass wall of Dog City Community College. Bernie had just comfortably removed himself from obnoxious academia by quitting his Abstract Art Class – a career move that will gravely affect his relationship with Brad once that poor mutt meets his ostensible true love’s unbelievable family! – whilst Brad is despondently there on behalf of an environmental charity. The crushed idealistic optimist was readying himself for one last go at turning self-obsessed students into eco-warriors motivated enough to save our deeply imperilled planet…

After bonding in the ambulance they subsequently share, bruised and battered Bernie & Brad agree to attempt the impossible task of gradually and cautiously getting to know each through a series of carefully planned dates. However, these guys are the kind thoughtful souls Nature creates just to beta-test cosmically cruel jokes for meaner people to capture on their phones…

The First Date is an absolute disaster, but Brad and Bernie persevere…

It’s worth it in the end…

Utterly beguiling and drenched in cute meets, charmed disasters, bondable moments, the best hopes of enthralled onlookers everywhere and the sheer determination to find, survive and enjoy love and companionship, Dogs on Dates is a passionate yet reserved pick-me-up for the emotionally exhausted, connection-wary, socially drained lonely hearts still hopefully looking for a shared life. Wry, witty, hopeful and encouraging, it’s what every Good Boi of any gender description wants, whether they admit it or not.

Fetch!
© Luke Healy, 2026. All rights reserved.

Dogs on Dates will be published on June 18th 2026 and is available for pre-order now.

On this date in 1977 US born Australian cartoonist Stan Cross (Wally and the Major, The Potts) died. We also lost Italian Andrea Pazienza (Zanardi) in 1988 and irreplaceable Man of Steel Curt Swan in 1996.

On the upside, the day welcomed French Canadian cartoonist Albert Chartier (Onésime) in 1912; illustrator Kack Keller (Kid Colt, Outlaw, Charlton’s entire “Hot Rod “comics division) in 1922; mega-stylist Frank Thorne (Mighty Samson, Son of Tomahawk, Red Sonja, Lann, Moonshine McJuggs) in 1930 and the Arnold half of the Pander Brothers (Grendel: Devil’s Legacy, Accelerate) in 1967.

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DC Finest: Deadman – How Many Times Can a Guy Die?


By Arnold Drake, Neal Adams, Jack Miller, Bob Haney, Robert Kanigher, Dennis O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Jack Kirby, Paul Levitz, Cary Bates, Carmine Infantino, Dick Dillin, George Tuska, Jim Aparo, Mike Grell, Fred Carillo, Kurt Schaffenberger, George Roussos, Joe Giella, Mike Royer, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-771-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As the 1960s ended, a massive superhero boom became a slow, inescapable bust, with (formerly) major draws no longer able to find enough readers to keep them alive. The appetite for superheroes was diminishing in favour of more traditional genres, and rational editorial response was to reshape costumed characters to fit evolving contemporary tastes.

Publishers swiftly changed gears and even staid, cautious DC reacted rapidly to make masked adventurers fit the new reality. Newly revised and revived costumed features included roving mystic troubleshooter Phantom Stranger and golden age titan The Spectre, whilst resurgent traditional genres spawned atrocity-faced WWII spy Unknown Soldier and cowboy bounty hunter Jonah Hex, spectral western avenger El Diablo and game changing monster hero Swamp Thing, all spearheading a torrent of new formats, anthologies and concepts.

Crucially, supernatural themes and horror-tinged plots were shoehorned into those superhero titles that weathered the trend-storm. Arguably, the moment of surrender and change had already arrived in 1967 with the creation of Boston Brand in the autumn of “The Summer of Love”, as venerable sci fi anthology Strange Adventures was abruptly reconditioned as the haunted home of an angry ghost…

Without fanfare or warning, Deadman debuted in #205 with this collection re-presenting that origin event and thereafter, pertinent contents from #206-216 and crossovers and guest shots from Aquaman #50-52; The Brave and the Bold #79, 86, 104, 133, Justice League of America #94; The Phantom Stranger #33, 39-41; World’s Finest Comics #223 & 227, Challengers of the Unknown #74; Forever People #9-10 and Superman Family #183, all cumulatively spanning cover-dates October 1967 to May/June 1977.

Crafted by Arnold Drake, Carmine Infantino & George Roussos, SA #205’s ‘Who Has Been Lying in My Grave?’ opens at the funeral of high wire acrobat Boston Brand: a rough, tough, jaded performer who had seen everything and masked his decent human heart behind an obnoxious exterior and cynical demeanour. As “Deadman”, Brand had been the star attraction of Hills Circus and lover of its reluctant owner Lorna Carling. He also acted as a secret guardian for the misfits it employed and sheltered. That makeshift “family” includes simple-minded strongman Tiny and Asian mystic Vashnu, but also had some bad eggs too, like alcoholic animal trainer Heldrich and chiselling carnival Barker Leary. The aerialist kept them in line… with his fists, whenever necessary…

One fateful night, Brand almost missed his cue because of Leary and Heldrich’ antics, but also because he had to stop local cop Ramsey harassing Vashnu. It would have better if Brand had been late, because as soon as he started his act – 40 feet up and without a net – someone put a rifle slug into his heart. Despite being dead before he hit the ground, Brand was scared and furious. Nobody could see or hear him screaming, although Vashnu kept babbling on that he was the chosen of Rama Kushna – “the spirit of the universe”. The hokum all came horribly true when that entity astonishingly made contact, telling Boston that he would walk among men until he found his killer.

The gig came with some advantages. He was invisible, untouchable, immune to the laws of physics and able to take possession of the living and drive them like a meat car. His only clue was witnesses in the audience who claimed that a man with a hook had shot him…

Outraged, still disbelieving and seemingly stuck forever in the ghastly make-up and outfit of his performing persona, Deadman’s first posthumous act is to possess Tiny and check out key suspects. Soon the dormant Hercules finds that the cop Ramsey and Heydrich are involved in a criminal conspiracy, but they definitely are not Brand’s murderers. Eventually, the ghost learns a shocking fact: his desperation is not worth the life of anyone else and he must not let his anger put his “vessels” in harm’s way…

Scripted by Drake and inked by Roussos, second episode ‘An Eye for An Eye!’ was Neal Adams’ illustrative debut. He was born on June 15th 1941 at Governors Island, New York City. The family were career military and Neal grew up on bases across the world. In the late 1950s, he studied at the High School of Industrial Art in Manhattan, and graduated in 1959.

As the turbulent Sixties began, he was a budding illustrator working in advertising, ghosting newspaper strips and seeking to break into comics. Whilst pursuing a career in “real” and “commercial” art, Adams did pages for Joe Simon at Archie Comics (The Fly and that red-headed kid, too) before becoming one of the youngest artists to co-create/illustrate a major licensed newspaper strip (Ben Casey, based on a popular TV medical drama). The neophyte’s attempts to break in at DC were not so successful…

Comic book fascination never faded, and as the decade progressed, Adams drifted back to National/DC, creating covers as inker or penciller. His chance came via anthological war comics and he eventually found himself at the vanguard of a revolution in pictorial storytelling. He made such a mark that decades later, DC celebrated his contributions by reprinting every piece of work Adams ever did for them in commemorative collections. Sadly, we’re still awaiting a definitive book of his horror comics and covers, and will probably never see his sterling efforts on licensed titles like Hot Wheels, The Adventures of Bob Hope and The Adventures of Jerry Lewis. That’s a real shame: they all display his wry facility for gag staging and personal drama…

Most importantly, Adams was a tireless campaigner for creators’ rights, whose efforts finally secured some long-ignored liberties and rewards for the formerly invisible stars of comic books.

Back with Deadman, however, the tale is a strong one and indicates a sea change in narrative style as Deadman expedites his hunt for justice. The stories henceforth focus on those who are temporarily occupied by Brand: a string of episodic encounters mirroring the protagonist of contemporary hit TV show The Fugitive (and by extension, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables), with an unfairly accused victim searching for personal justice across America, to the benefit of many people in crisis.

Here, that’s young Jeff  Carling, who’s fallen in with a dangerous biker gang and is set up to pay for their crimes. He’s also Lorna’s brother, which is how Deadman gets involved in the mess, after learning the cash-strapped kid had taken out a life insurance policy on circus star Deadman just before the Hook struck…

Having saved the kid from a perfect frame, Brand resumes his search and, as Jack Miller took over scripting in #207, is forced to ask ‘What Makes a Corpse Cry? The hunt leads him to revisit the night he saved bar girl Liz Martin from a drunken assault by her boss Rocky Manzel, but when the spook checks in, he finds Liz and boyfriend Paul being terrorised by Rocky, who coldly implies he caused the death of her last protector…

Even after using his ghost gifts to disqualify Manzel, Deadman is compelled to help the young lovers, and exposes the club owner’s criminal secret, but once again almost causes the death of his human host.

Miller & Adams were providing a very different reading experience with mature tales delivered via innovative, staggeringly powerful art, but they struggled with deadlines, and ‘How Many Ways Can a Guy Die?’ was delivered in 4 parts across Strange Adventures #208 and 209. The revelatory tale introduces Brand’s trapeze artist rival Eagle, who had tried to kill him years before, and now seeks to replace him in the big top and Lorna’s bed… whether she wants him or not. When Deadman again borrows Tiny to dissuade the thug, Eagle threatens the gentle strongman with the “same thing Brand got” and the ghost is convinced his quest is almost over.

However, the truth is far crueller, and when Deadman uncovers his rival’s actual scheme, the cost to Tiny and alternate vessel Pete is far too high…

His hunt stalled again, Brand finally thinks to check the official police investigation in #210’s ‘Hide and Seek’ (cover-dated March 1968). To his disgust, he finds the case is cold, with assigned detective Michael Riley dishonourably discharged from the force due to the testimony of a man with a hook. Sensing a breakthrough, Deadman possesses Riley and, visiting the other “witness” to the former cop’s reported use of excessive force, uncovers a devious plot. Sadly, despite clearing Riley’s name, Brand misses The Hook who flees to Mexico but not before coldly disposing of the only man who could describe him…

Hot on the trail, Deadman arrives in El Campo in #211, and endures a shocking surprise in ‘How Close to Me My Killer?’ as Miller’s last story introduces wayward twin brother Cleveland Brand. Flashbacks show the lost sibling had plenty of motive to murder his showbiz brother, but as the tale unfolds, Boston learns he has an unsuspected niece and his people-trafficking but repentant brother needs haunted help to save smuggled “wetback” labourers from a Texan businessman looking to whitewash his criminal endeavours…

Adams took over scripting with #212 and ‘The Fatal Call of Vengeance’ sees another change of direction, adding more conventional fantasy elements to the mix as Cleveland and his daughter Lita head north to the Hills Circus. Wearing his brother’s costume, Cleve revives the Deadman act and, in Mexico, a man with a hook sees a headline and rushes back to the USA. Faster than any jet, Boston is already there and watches helplessly as his brother makes himself a target of the unknown killer. The phantom is also completely spooked by new lion tamer Kleigman who is rude, unfriendly and missing his right hand…

With everyone at odds, both Boston’s returned killer and the circus family set traps with disastrous results, but in the end the Hook escapes again and it’s Tiny who’s left bleeding out from a gunshot…

‘The Call from Beyond!’ then tests Deadman’s abilities to the limit as he enters Tiny’s consciousness to expedite his recovery and break an assumed-fatal coma. Following that miracle, the restless revenant repays his debt by saving the reputation and life of Tiny’s surgeon Dr. Shasti after the medical savant is duped by murderous con artist/medium Madam Pegeen…

The afterlife of a reluctant and selfish spectral stalwart then continues in The Brave & Bold #79 (August/September 1968): heralding Adams’ assumption of interior art duties on that title and launching a groundbreaking run rewriting the rulebook for strip illustration. Penned by Bob Haney, ‘The Track of the Hook’ paired the Gotham Guardian with the justice-obsessed ghost as a false trail led Boston to Gotham. After clearing up the confusions and dethroning millionaire crime-lord Carleton “Kubla” Kaine, Deadman returned to finding own killer. However his earthy human tragedy elevated Batman’s costume theatrics into deeper, more mature realms of drama and action. It was probably mainstream superhero fandom’s first glimpse of the ghost. During this period, Adams was writing and illustrating Brand’s solo stories in Strange Adventures and although his consultation of the World’s Greatest Detective bore little useful progress, it had provided the lonely ghost with a first genuine point of human contact…

Back in Strange Adventures # 214 (cover-dated September/October 1968), Robert Kanigher scripted To Haunt a Killer’ as Brand is seduced by loneliness into sharing the romantic experiences of Phil and his girlfriend Ruth. That salacious intrusion sours once Brand discovers his new meat suit is a hitman and his overreaction almost costs innocent Ruth everything…

When Adams returns to full control in #215, the narrative arc takes a huge leap forward as ‘A New Lease on Death’ accidentally drops his killer right in his lap. Witnessing a murder, Deadman trails the shooter all the way to Hong Kong where he finds an ancient, super-advanced League of Assassins and discovers the truly trivial reason for his own extinction…

Furiously questioning ‘Can Vengeance Be So Hollow?’, Brand meets for the first time killer mystic The Sensei – a master murderer who has dealt with ghosts before – and helplessly, frustratingly, experiences the end of the Hook. When the sinister sage executes Boston’s death-long quarry, Rama Kushna asks if a balance has been struck and capitalises on Brand’s furious negative response. Brand demands true justice for everyone and inadvertently elects himself the agent of its enactment in ‘But I Still Exist’…

The drama abruptly concluded in Strange Adventures #216 (January/February 1969), as the grim ghost seeks to disrupt the Sensei’s next scheme: the violent erasure of a Tibetan spiritual paradise. Nanda Parbat is a sanctuary for the wicked where the ancient villain’s murderous recruits and other fallen folk live in inexplicable peace, harmony and safety. Such a benevolent Shangri La is bad for the business of murder, but Deadman’s efforts to save the city from invasion initially falter when he flies in and suddenly becomes a living, breathing person again.

… And that’s where the story ended as his Strange Adventures run ended without warning. The next issue began reprints of Adam Strange and The Atomic Knights as the title reverted to its space opera roots. Although his own series had stalled, Deadman stuck around as a perennial walk-on (float-on?) star in many titles, beginning with a return engagement with Batman as the year ended. The Brave & the Bold #86 (October/November 1969) found Brand back in Gotham City, where a string of civilian strangers inexplicably targeted the Caped Crimebuster. The “World’s Greatest Detective” deduced that they were possessed by his former ally and that ‘You Can’t Hide from a Deadman!’

Scripted by Haney, the captivating epic of death, redemption and resurrection pulled together all the floating strands from Deadman’s anticlimactic last issue in a classic clash that became a cornerstone of Bat-mythology forever after. Here, Adams’ concepts and art revealed how Nanda Parbat was under attack by the Sensei’s forces, and how Brand had been briefly brainwashed to attack the Gotham Guardian, in advance of a last-ditch defence of the holy city by the Dark Knight and Deadman’s possessed twin brother Cleveland.

Deadman rematerialised mere months later in a triptych of back-up tales interwoven into a larger but no-less-revolutionary Aquaman storyline (for the full story see Aquaman: Deadly Waters Deluxe edition wherein the Sea King is despatched to a Microverse by aliens working with super villain Ocean Master: a plot accidentally uncovered by Brand, when guilt drags him from a life of solid recuperation back to the intangible quest for cosmic justice…

Here, from Aquaman #50-52 (March/April to July/August 1970), ‘Deadman Rides Again!’ in supplemental tales written and illustrated by Adams: a complex braided crossover as the Sea King endures bizarre threats and incomprehensible rituals in a subatomic realm, whilst Brand acts invisibly and intangibly to save the hero and prevent an alien invasion.

‘The World Cannot Wait for a Deadman’ sees the spirit flitting between dimensions with shapeshifting enigma Tatsinda, before parallel plots converge and complete when ‘Never Underestimate a Deadman’ exhibits the extraterrestrials beaten by the ghost and his pal…

Deadman’s haunting wandering dramas lead to another non-team-up in Challengers of the Unknown #74 (June/July 1970): a far eerier affair tailored to the rise in supernatural terror tales. ‘To Call a Deadman’ is written by Dennis O’Neil, with George Tuska limning scenes featuring the still-breathing “Death-Cheaters”, whilst Adams illustrated those portions focussed on Brand as he imperceptibly aids them in thwarting an ethereal psychic kidnapper seeking to steal a little girl’s soul. The chilling thriller also guest-stars hardboiled private eye Jonny Double and every one of them is needed to defeat the ghastly menace behind the astral abduction.

The same separate artist trick worked supremely well in his next manifestation as Justice League of America #94’s ‘Where Strikes Demonfang?’ by Mike Friedrich, Dick Dillin, Adams & Joe Giella, as the ghostly guardian helps Batman, Aquaman & Green Arrow foil a murder mission by The Sensei’s previously infallible archer Merlyn and the League of Assassins.

The period was one of constant desperate experimentation. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World was a huge risk and massive gamble for an industry and company that was a watchword for conservatism and it was probably incredibly tough for editors and publishers to stop themselves interfering… and they often didn’t.

With sales low, spooky stories proliferating everywhere and popular wisdom saying character crossovers boosted sales, Kirby eventually caved to pressure and agreed to guest another creator’s star in his stand-apart unfolding epic. Thus Forever People #9 hosted homeless horror hero Deadman who was made marginally manifest by a seance and a New Genesis Cosmic Cartridge. The vengeance hunter then accepted an artificial body to pursue the man who killed him (already dead remember?) in an intriguing, action-packed but ultimately ridiculous aside that began by introducing a ‘Monster in the Morgue!’ It rampaged through town before tech bandits ‘The Scavengers’ sought to steal Brand’s new “mobile home”, and drew the wrath of ghost and teen godlings. The yarn actually ended with a plug for Kirby’s forthcoming series The Demon and we don’t talk about the divergent yarn at all around here…

A far more coherent crossover came in Brave and the Bold #104 as Haney & Jim Aparo detailed a poignant story of love from beyond the grave in the enigmatically entitled ‘Second Chance for a Deadman?’ wherein the ghost helps Batman take down murderous mobster Lilly Lang, wrongly assuming he can redeem her only to learn that even a corpse can be crushed by heartbreak…

In World’s Finest Comics #223, while hunting a serial killer, Superman & Batman recruit Brand to help. Shocks abound when evidence points to the culprit being the brain-damaged, secretly institutionalised, unsuspected older brother of Bruce Wayne but when the total truth emerges in ‘Wipe the Blood off My Name’ (Haney, Dillin & Vince Colletta), the lonely, isolated ghost goes off the rails and decides to keep possession of Thomas Wayne Jr.

Batman has other ideas though…

Ignoring these events, Deadman then clashes with The Phantom Stranger (#33, November 1974 by Drake & Mike Grell) during the Man with No Name’s war against spiritual mad scientist Dr Zorn. In ‘Deadman’s Bluff!’, the ghost’s protracted, apparently obsessively pointless hunt for his own murderer is exploited by the villain and, as ever, the chase ends in frustration and fury, even though Zorn fails to spark war between the ethereal avengers, and instead causes an antagonistic partnership to be established for the future…

After months of manhunting, Batman’s search for Thomas Wayne culminates in ‘Death Flaunts its Golden Grin’ (World’s Finest Comics #227, February 1975 by Haney, Dillin & Tex Blaisdell), as the caped crusaders find the fugitives whilst tracking global smugglers. The moment of triumph is brief and ends in tragedy for all concerned, after which the guy in the hat gets reacquainted with the spectre in skin-tights for Phantom Stranger #39’s ‘Death Calls Twice for a Deadman’: a last-ditch effort to revive dwindling sales as horror stories faced their own decline. Guest-starring The Sensei, it signalled a belated return to the company’s over-arching continuity, but was too little, too late. Deadman also co-starred in PS #40’s ‘In the Kingdom of the Blind’ and #41’s concluding chapter (February-March 1976 and both by Levitz & Carillo) ‘A Time for Endings’ as modern mage Dr Nathan Seine sought to bring Elder Gods to Earth using blind psychic Cassandra Craft as a medium. With that tale’s finish the series ended and the Stranger all-but-vanished until the winter of 1978 and a giant-sized Deadman team-up tale from DC Super-Stars #18 that is regrettably omitted here…

Instead Deadman – and Haney & Aparo – remanifested in B&B #133 to deliver ‘Another Kind of Justice!’ to rum-runner Turk Bannion when his heir and murderer turn to a more modern form of smuggling and Dark Knight and Wandering Wraith object…

The uncanny explorations end on a lighter note as Cary Bates, Kurt Schaffenberger & Colletta explore uncanny excursions on ‘The Day Lois Lane Walked All Over Superman!’ (Superman Family #183, May June 1977) with Brand invisibly aiding all concerned when a deadly. monomaniacal psychic begins messing with mind-control and body-borrowing…

With stunning covers by Infantino, Sekowsky, Roussos, Adams, Nick Cardy, Aparo, Tatjana Wood, Kirby & Royer, this graphic grimoire perfectly captures the tone of an era in transition through a delirious run of comics masterpieces no ardent art lover or fanatical fear aficionado can do without.
© 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Born today in 1927, both Hugo (Sergeant Kirk, Ernie Pike, Corto Maltese) Pratt and Ross (Metal Men, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, The Punisher) Andru made major contributions to comics, as did animation historian, author, critic, and founding editor of Funnyworld Michael Barrier who arrived in 1940.

Today in 1941 Neal Adams (Batman, Superman, Deadman, X-Men, Avengers, Inhumans, Ms. Mystic) was born, followed four years later by iconoclastic author Don Macgregor (Sabre, Black Panther, Killraven, Morbius, Detectives Inc., Ragamuffins, Nathaniel Dusk, James Bond, Zorro); in 1955 by artist Brent Anderson (Ka-Zar the Savage, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, Astro City) and in 1976 Dustin Nguyen (Ascender, Descender, The Authority, Batman: Streets of Gotham, Batman: Lil Gotham).

In 1958 today Cliff Sterrett’s Polly and her Pals appeared for the last time, and in 1999 Scottish cartoonist and playwright John Glashan (Genius, Lilliput, The Spectator, Punch, Private Eye, The New Yorker) died this day.

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A Thousand Coloured Castles


By Gareth Brookes (Myriad Editions)
ISBN: 978-0-993563-30-0 (HB)

The world is filled with amazing women passing largely unnoticed by the loud, shouty males with their hands on the tillers of history and chokehold on the media, but seldom a kettle or shopping bag. This amazing tale is broadly based on one of them…

It comes to us from an equally intriguing source. Gareth Brookes is a “capital-A” Artist, printmaker, textile creator and educator who began literally crafting comics in 2015 with his astounding and disturbing epic The Black Project. With A Thousand Coloured Castles, RCA graduate Brookes confirmed a growing reputation for challenging and rewarding graphic narratives of the artisanal kind. Brookes is a deep and slyly humorous thinker with his roots in the Littlest of Englands, and a skewed eye to storytelling. This captivating hardback tome was created solely from dark wit and wax crayons, resulting in a truly tactile and absurdly otherworldly viewing experience…

Myriam is in her declining years: married to a set-in-his-ways old know-it-all curmudgeon, as seen in most traditionally happy families and captured on paper by Raymond Briggs and TV sitcoms starring Richard Wilson.

Fred spends most of his time complaining about everything, which is why it takes a very long time for him to notice that Myriam’s eyesight is fading. It takes even longer for him to grasp that she’s increasingly subject to wild, abstract and absolutely convincing hallucinations: vivid visions and shapes that baffle and bewilder even as they light up her drab, interminable existence.

Of much more concern to Fred is “The Wife’s” increasing fascination with the overgrown, unkempt back garden next door. He’s happy to moan about it in private but doesn’t want to engage in potential suburban hostilities with the woman living there. Myriam, however, keeps seeing a strange bedraggled little boy trapped in there, even though everybody knows that’s not possible.

… All except her toddler grandson Jack, who’s always happy to see things her way…

And thus unfolds a multi-layered observation of social norms and aberrant behaviours, supposition and expectation, declining faculties and domestic evil that is truly magical to behold and impossible to predict.

Despite her condition, Myriam proves that she knows what’s what and what’s right, as events spiral to an inevitable conclusion and all the answers are shockingly forthcoming…

Gentle, genteel and utterly beguiling, this is a masterpiece of British fantasy understatement with a potent underpinning of quietly desperate lives truly lived. Track it down and take a long hard look. You will believe your eyes.
© Gareth Brookes 2017. All rights reserved.

Today in 1912 Finnish comics pioneer Ami Hauhio (Maan mies Marsissa) was born, with master inker George Klein (The Whizzer, Miss America, Superman, Daredevil, The Avengers,) arriving in 1915 (or possibly 1920!) and troubled Golden Age comic book veteran Bob Wood (Target, Silver Streak Comics, Daredevil Comics, Boy Comics, Crime Does Not Pay) born in 1917.

Artist Sam Grainger (The Sentinels, X-Men, Incredible Hulk, Avengers, Ka-Zar) was born today in 1930; Jordi Bernet (The Legend Testers, Jonah Hex, Clara del Noche, Torpedo 1936) in 1944; writer Paul Kupperberg (Supergirl, Phantom Stranger, World of Krypton, Doom Patrol) in 1955 and David Lapham (Warriors of Plasm, Stray Bullets, Batman) in 1970.

This date in 1914 William Donahey’s long-running The Teenie Weenies strip debuted, as did UK weekly Monster Fun in 1975. In 1932 we lost Seattle cartoonist John “Dok” Hager (Dok’s Dippy Duck) and in 2006 Belgian comics megastar Jean Roba (Boule et Bill/Billy and Buddy, La Ribambelle, Spirou and Fantasio).

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Jonah Hex volume 7: Lead Poisoning


By Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, Jordi Bernet, Rafa Garres, David Michael Beck, Rob Schwager, Rob Leigh & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2485-1(TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also contains Discriminatory Content produced with dramatic intent.

When Justin Grey & Jimmy Palmiotti reinvigorated comic book Western legend Jonah Hex they deftly blended a blackly ironic streak of wit with a sanguine view of morality and justice to produce some of the most accessible and enjoyable comics fiction of the period. They also had the services of extremely talented people such as colourist Rob Schwager and letterer Rob Leigh, and the pick of top artists like European maestro Jordi Bernet who illustrates fully half the gritty tales in this compilation from 2009. The contents comprise issues #37-42 of the superb and much-missed iteration.

I first recognised Jordi Bernet’s work on UK weekly strip The Legend Testers. By “recognised” I mean that very moment when I actually understood that somebody somewhere drew the stuff I was adoring, and that it was better than the stuff either side of it. This was 1966, when British comics were mostly black & white and never had signatures or credits, so it was years before I knew who had sparked my interest.

Jordi Bernet Cussó was born in Barcelona on June 14th 1944, son of a prominent and successful humour cartoonist. When his father died suddenly Jordi, aged 15, took over his father’s strip es Doña Urraca (Mrs. Magpie). A huge fan of Alex Raymond, Hal Foster and particularly expressionist genius Milton Caniff, Bernet yearned for less restrictive horizons and left Spain in the early 1960s to chance his hand at dramatic storytelling.

He worked for Belgium’s Le Journal de Spirou, and Germany’s Pip and Primo, before finding work on English weeklies. Bernet toiled for British publishers between 1964 and 1967, and as well as the Odhams/Fleetway/IPC anthologies Smash!, Tiger and War Picture Library, also produced superlative material for DC Thomson’s Victor and Hornet. He even illustrated a Gardner Fox short for Marvel’s Vampire Tales #1 in 1973, but mainstream America was generally denied his mastery (other than some translated Torpedo tomes and a Batman short story) until Jonah Hex’s 21st century reincarnation.

Bernet’s most famous strips include thrillers Dan Lacombe (written by his uncle Miguel Cussó), Paul Foran (scripted by José Larraz) the saucy Wat 69 and spectacular post-apocalyptic barbarian epic Andrax (both with Cussó again). When General Franco died Bernet returned to Spain and began working for Cimoc, Creepy and Metropol, collaborating with Antonio Segura on the sexy fantasy Sarvan and dystopian SF black comedy Kraken. His other job was collaborating with Enrique Sánchez Abulí on gangster and adult themed tales that made him one of the world’s most honoured artists, and which culminated in the incredibly successful crime saga Torpedo 1936…

Here, however, the rawhide dramas commence with Bernet in top form as Hex tangles and torridly tussles with a trio of female former circus performers who take up bounty hunting and prove that ‘Trouble Comes in Threes’, after which ‘Hell or High Water’ finds the gritty gunslinger enduring horrific tortures at the hands of a sheriff he once shamed. The brutal psychopath has no idea what real vengeance feels like until Jonah gives him a fast and final lesson…

Baroque stylist Rafa Garres supplies art and colours for a grim parable examining ‘Cowardice’ wherein a rookie sheriff gets life lessons in doing his job after Hex tracks murderous escaped convicts to a quiet country backwater. Then David Michael Beck depicts a gruesome two-part tale of savage madness.

When Hex and sometime ally/constant foil Tallulah Black track a serial-killing civil war surgeon teaching other perverts and deviants his bloody discoveries, the red-handed butcher displays enough body-shredding acumen to almost end them both. However, even his gory assaults and inclinations to devil-worship of the ‘Sawbones’ are no match for Jonah Hex in a mood to display his all-consuming displeasure and irritation…

Bernet wraps things up in inimitable blackly comedic style as ‘Shooting the Sun’ offers a shocking glimpse at the bounty hunter’s formative years with parental sadist Woodson Hex. Apparently, the abusive behaviour made Jonah the man he is: someone able to turn an inescapable death-trap into a private shooting gallery offering the added attraction of long-deferred vengeance on the bullies who garnished little Jonah’s hellish childhood with extra misery…

With captivating covers from Bernet, Garres and Beck, Lead Poisoning is an explosively grim, darkly hilarious outing for the very best Western antihero ever created: an intoxicating blend of action and social commentary no fan of the genre or cream-of-the-crop comics magic can afford to miss.
© 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

This day in 1917 was when Canadian editorial cartoonist Sid Barron joined the world, followed in 1929 by Archie artist Jon D’Agostino; premier Welsh cartoonist Grenfell “Gren” Jones, MBE in 1934 and Spanish story wizard Antonio Segura (Hombre, Bogey, Sarvan, Kraken, Jack el Destripador, Eva Medusa) in 1947. In 1956 multi-talented Frank Cirocco (Alien Legion) arrived, with inker Brett Breeding born in 1961 and Brazilian artist Marcelo “Marc” Campos (Green Lantern, Iron Man) stopping by in 1965.

The day also saw the departures of UK cartoonist Reg Smythe (Andy Capp) in 1998 and animator, cartoonist (Peter Rabbit, Krazy Krow, Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal) & Marvel/ Timely Comics editor in chief Vince Fago in 2002.

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Desolation Jones: Made in England


By Warren Ellis & JH Williams III, coloured by Jose Villarubia & lettered by Todd Klein (WildStorm/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1150-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced specifically to challenge and upset you.

Los Angeles is a dump and a dumping ground. Personal opinions aside, that’s the premise of this deep, dark, debauched espionage thriller from Warren Ellis and graphic illuminator J.H. Williams III. When used up MI6 screw-up Michael Jones is no longer capable of doing his job, he’s offered a comfy and supposedly sedentary testing role as his ticket out.

No one in their right mind should ever trust security service types, but that’s the point; the burnt out, alcoholic agent just isn’t all that or all there anymore. As sole survivor of a truly appalling enhancement project, former Agent Jones is parcelled off to an international sin bin/ dumping ground for intel ops and all those failed experiments beloved by spooks and their tech toadies to live or die well away from the great game.

After a year of unspeakable atrocities ostensibly intended to create better operatives – up to and including the bizarre and inexplicable Desolation Test – the ravaged somehow still-ambulatory remains of Michael Jones are consigned to the reservation provided by the West’s Intelligence Agencies to warehouse retired, rejected and discarded assets, as well as all the experiments that didn’t measure up but didn’t become expired… Los Angeles, USA.

Thanks to his experiences for Queen and Country, it’s not a hard call to make. Jones is a sunlight-averse, joyless living corpse, unable to feel anything physical or emotional. He can’t even suck booze; or even digest or taste. All he has is his (notional) will to survive, cold rationality, uncontrollable curiosity and hair-trigger killer instincts… and perhaps just a hint of deeply submerged humanity and staggering outrage…

The land of freaks and weirdoes is his only alternative to the grave. In LaLa land, he and all the other overused, burned out, dangerous living secrets can live out their remaining years as they see fit, but can never, EVER leave the city’s environs. There’s no pension scheme, but the rejected dregs and cast-offs can do whatever they need to make a living – just as long as it’s all done within city limits.

It cannot be said enough: Jones is a mess, physically and mentally. He can’t drink, won’t sleep and takes too many illegal drugs. He must avoid daylight, constantly hallucinates possible memories and is numb to all sensation and feeling. In “The Community” he freelances as a private eye and fixer, sorting out problems that can’t be resolved through legitimate methods or through contact with the civilian world.

Of course there are institutions and hierarchies. One such is living exception Jeronimus Corneliszoon: an ultra-shady Intel agency lawyer who manages the interface with the outer world and is the only Community member allowed outside the city, albeit always under armed guard due to his own freakish biology and murderous condition: another example of CIA-crafted improvements…

A regular go-between for Jones, his profitable and immediate problem du jour is a retired NSA spook who’s being blackmailed by three new additions to The Community. These bad boys have somehow stolen the Holy Grail of pornography and the dying super-rich pervert who possessed it wants it back at all costs. Ravaged, dissolute, dying Colonel Nigh wants Adolf Hitler’s homemade cinematic sex tape back and will do anything to get it. Now, after paying off the thieves many times over has not got him any closer to retrieving what is lost, he’s trying another solution. Sadly, so are the other filthy rich deviants populating Tinseltown, and just asking about the films nearly gets Jones and sort-of ally Robina killed within minutes of mentioning it.

However, even in this grimy hidden arena, something just isn’t right. Jones may not feel, but knows that there is more than he’s been told going on and hiding behind all the subterfuge and depravity. Something far worse than porn, abuse, victimisation and sudden casual death…

Jones doggedly pursues the thieves and learns too much about the adult film industry but also that everyone has been lying to him (no surprise there) and there is far more in play and at stake than even his jaded soul, jaundiced eye and nonfunctioning gut can stomach…

Even as he purposely endangers his last remaining tolerable human contacts, lies pile upon lies, and bodies drop. As always, the shadowy top ranks of the Intel game are trying to keep a tight lid on and themselves well hidden, but are nevertheless tenaciously, gradually exposed as still pulling all the strings, making new monsters and deciding who will live and what innocent lives aren’t really necessary…

So Jones decides to stop the rot…

Sardonic, wry, decidedly bleak and ferociously world-weary, this caustic, tension-soaked, trauma-packed action caper dwells on the nasty side of the espionage genre whilst disturbingly revealing everything you did not want to know about the porn industry and fetish culture: a thriller with plenty of twists and a solid mystery to intrigue the most jaded reader. The content is astoundingly ultra-violent and strictly adults only – and by that, I mean that the subtext of duty, love and honour are assaults on the traditions of the hero-spy in as brutal a manner as the sex and torture underscore the dark side of the American Dream-town.

This lost spy story is strictly for cynical adults, not horny kids with appropriately modified IDs: a highly charged, starkly compelling, beautifully conceived and magically limned thriller that will delight fans of shows like Slow Horses and is long overdue for a new edition if not belated continuance.
© 2005, 2006 compilation Warren Ellis & J.H. Williams III. All Rights Reserved. Desolation Jones, the distinctive likenesses thereof and all related elements are trademarks of Warren Ellis and J.H. Williams III.

Today in 1920, Mad Magazine veteran humourist Dave Berg (The Lighter Side of…) was born, sharing the date with writer/editor Len Wein (Swamp Thing, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, X-Men, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern) in 1948.

Today in 1971 the nigh-unkillable Fusspot debuted in UK weekly Knockout, surviving mergers with Whizzer and Chips and Buster to finally fade away when Buster folded in 2000. In 2002 Jen Van Meter’s Hopeless Savages began. That year we lost Carlo Boscarato artist and co-creator of influential Italian western Larry Yuma. In 2010 this date saw the passing of the astounding Al Williamson (Star Wars, Secret Agent X-9, Creepy, Eerie, Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Flash Gordon, Jann of the Jungle, Daredevil) and in 2023 the ubiquitous and irreplaceable John Romita Sr.