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Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – the graphic novel


Adapted by Alan Grant & Cam Kennedy (Waverley Books)
ISBN: 978-1-902407-44-9 (TPB)

Way back in 2004 as part of the celebrations for Edinburgh’s selection as the first UNESCO City of Literature, Scots comics veterans Alan Grant & Cam Kennedy were invited to convert a brace of classic tales by Robert Louis Stevenson to publishing’s hottest medium…

The second appeared in 2008 with a bare minimum of abridgement or adulteration by Grant and galvanically brought to life through the stunning art of the inimitable Kennedy with colours and letters provided by Jamie Grant: all seamlessly collaborating to perfectly picture one of the most infamous and groundbreaking tales of terror in the annals of storytelling.

The timeless tale opens as lawyer Mr. Utterson becomes intrigued by the ‘Story of the Door’ as related by walking companion Richard Enfield. That worthy describes how, after remonstrating with a bestial, shrivelled homunculus of a man who was thrashing a street child, he discovered a possible – although unlikely and unwelcome – connection to a mutual friend of superlative honour and worthiness. However, what connection a depraved creature such as Edward Hyde might have with benevolent and brilliant Dr. Henry Jekyll was beyond either man’s conception. Blackmail, perhaps…

A multi-layered and convoluted chain of events unfolds at a beguiling pace as the pair undertake a systematic ‘Search for Mr. Hyde’, even consulting the scientist’s great mentor Dr. Lanyon before unexpectedly encountering the despicable decadent himself, sneaking into Jekyll’s home through the means of his own key. Eventually, Utterson is compelled to ask the suspected extortion victim himself but ‘Dr. Jekyll was Quite at Ease’ and even extracted a promise that the concerned lawyer would ensure that Hyde got his legal due should untoward circumstances warrant…

Events overtake everyone involved once details of ‘The Carew Murder Case’ become a public sensation and Hyde is actively pursued for killing a prominent politician in fit of unprovoked fury. Long-shrouded secrets begin to emerge after the ‘Incident of the Letter’ as Jekyll assures his distraught. apprehensive friends that Hyde will be seen no more, but this forces Utterson to conclude that Henry is completely under the thumb of the desperate fugitive…

‘The Remarkable Incident of Dr. Lanyon’ precipitates further speculation as the failing sage gives the inquisitors a letter to be opened upon his (apparently imminent) demise, prompting Enfield and Utterson to immediate action and reluctant intervention on ‘The Last Night’ an incident which reveals the shocking truth of the entire affair. With the tragedy complete, all that remains is to discover the reasons and causes which are provided by the aforementioned letter containing ‘Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case’…

Chances are high that nobody reading this is unaware of the general events of this much retold tale but the moody, evocative, dynamic and suspenseful reiteration here is a sheer pictorial triumph, adding freshness to familiarity, and emerging as not simply a distillation, adjunct or accommodation but actually a classic of the form that works as well in comics terms as the original literary ones.

Still readily available so don’t miss the chance to revel in the power of transformation…
Adapted text © 2008 Alan Grant. Illustrations © 2008 Cam Kennedy. All rights reserved.

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Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow


By James Sturm & Rich Tommaso (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children/House of Anansi/Little Brown Young Readers US)

ISBN: 978-0-88899-753-1 (TPB), 978-0-78683-901-8 (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children TPB), 978-1-36802-232-3 (Little Brown, HB), 978-1-36804-289-5 (Little Brown, TPB, 2019)

This book includes Discriminatory Content employed for dramatic effect.

I’m on record as not being a big fan of American Sports, favouring the ease and simple complexity of our own gentle pastimes like rugby and cricket. I am however a complete sucker for history and graphic biographies – especially when they are as innovative and imaginative as this sublimely low key, passionate, evocative and imaginative synthesis of cruel fact and uplifting fiction.

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow masterfully samples the life and achievements of a groundbreaking, pioneering and historically significant sportsman and role-model whose efforts greatly advanced the lives of all Americans of colour. His gifts and long, long career eventually helped change the way a divided nation thought and worked, and here that triumph is compellingly balanced by a tantalising supposition that should have happened; even if it never did…

This tale comes courtesy of writer James Sturm (The Golem’s Mighty Swing, Adventures in Cartooning, Off Season, Unstable Molecules, James Sturm’s America) and illustrator Rich Tommaso (Clover Honey, Black Phoenix, In the Garden of Earthly Delights, She-Wolf, The Corten Steel Phoenix) under the auspices of Sturm’s Center for Cartoon Studies, and happily supplies context for the uninitiated via a biographical appreciation/introduction from essayist, author, educator and cultural commentator Gerald Early at the start, and a fulsome and informative appendix ‘Striking Out Jim Crow Panel Discussions’ at the close.

All you need do is to read this stunningly engaging historical drama, but – just for the sake of clarity – Leroy “Satchel” Paige (1906 – 1982) was a American whose skin colour and ethnicity prevented him from playing “whites-only” professional baseball in the Major Leagues. He thus spent most of his 50-year career performing sporting miracles playing in “the Negro Leagues”v(usually for as many as three teams at a time!) and making more money than any other player of any hue in exhibition matches where all colours played – and even spectated – without incident.

Like later legend Mohamad Ali, Paige was a brilliant self-promoter fully in charge of his own career and press, and was probably the most famous black man in America for half a century. Eventually, long after his prime days were done, he (and other excluded sportsmen like Jackie Robinson) smashed the “colour-line” and were invited to play on white teams… and pulled in crowds of all races.

Here, however, the focus is on a narrator cruelly denied the same experiences. Starting in 1929, we follow an 18-year old, already married sharecropper who has the potential to be far better-off… maybe even another Satchel Paige. The dream ends early when Emmet sustains a career-ending injury playing in the Negro Leagues. The fact that he had just scored a run off Paige himself is no consolation…

Crippled and returned to the cotton fields of Tuckwilla, Alabama, embittered Emmet endures a far more traditional life, abused, terrorised and exploited by the wealthy, baseball-loving Jennings brothers. They own all the fields in the county and believe that includes the croppers living and toiling on them…

Emmett keeps his head down, his mouth shut and no one talks baseball around him – especially wife Frances and their son Emmet, Jr. It’s hard enough just keeping the boy in school especially since the overbearing, brutal Jennings boys think the kid is long past the age when he should be picking their cotton by now…

And then in 1944, Paige’s barnstorming war-bond-raising, morale-boosting tour across the USA brings him and his negro All-Star to Tuckwilla to play against the Jenning’s private (all-white) team. At an eventful match Emmet meets his idol/nemesis once again and nothing is ever the same for these Alabama “coloreds” ever again…

Contrasting the extraordinary triumphs of the frankly unique Paige with actual experience of most persons of colour in that severe and segregated South – and to be honest most of the rest of America at that juncture – is a potent device for showing how far we have come. Sadly it’s also a reminder of what we now risk losing again, not only there but all over the world. Let this no-so-simple sports story be your ticket to a greater awareness and better days.

No rainchecks here. Read This Now!
© 2007, 2019 The Center for Cartoon Studies. All rights reserved.

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Captain Marvel: The Saga of Monica Rambeau


By Roger Stern, David Michelinie, Dwayne McDuffie, Dwight Coye, Glenn Herdling, Dennis Mallonee, Bill Mantlo, John Romita Jr., Sal Buscema, Greg LaRocque, John Buscema, Kieron Dwyer, Mark D. Bright, Bob Hall, George Freeman, M.C. Wyman, John Romita Sr., Brett Breeding, Mike Esposito, Tom Palmer, Frank Bolle, Bob McLeod, Bill Sienkiewicz, Stan Drake, Al Milgrom, Dennis Jensen, Barb Kaalberg, Mark McKenna, Sandu Florea, Ramona Fradon, Norm Breyfogle, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales, Justin Ponsor, Michael Allred, Veronica Gandini & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1302950996 (TBP) 978-1302525569 (Digital)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In comic book terms, the soubriquet “Marvel” carries a lot of clout, and equal amounts of baggage. It has been attached to a wide number of vastly differing characters over many decades and in 2014, was successfully attached to comics’ first mainstream top flight Muslim superhero, becoming the third iteration of Ms. Marvel – or fourth if you count the villainous Moonstone’s stint impersonating Carol Danvers during Norman Osborn’s “Dark Reign”. Isn’t the amount of comics you still have to read daunting sometimes?

On sale from late December 1939, Whiz Comics (#2 – there was no #1) debuted Superman-analogue Captain Marvel who proved – sales-wise at least – to be far mightier and more popular than the Man of Steel. After a notorious decade-long DC vs Fawcett court case, that began in 1940, the name and title Captain Marvel disappeared from newsstands. In 1967, during the second superhero boom – and “camp” craze generated by the Batman TV show – publisher MLF seemingly secured rights to the name and produced a number of giant-sized comics. Their star was a sapient alien robot who could fly, divide his body into segments and shoot lasers from his eyes. Despite a certain quirky charm, and being devised by Timely veteran Carl (Human Torch) Burgos, he failed to attract a following. Its demise saw the name snapped up by the expanding Marvel Comics Group, who used it for their next new creation – a Kree spy/super-warrior called Mar-Vell who went native, rejected his colonising people and died as the Protector of the Universe.

The name lay fallow barely long enough to be respectful before it transferred to a new hero. This was an African American cop in New Orleans, who soldiered on mostly as team player until some editorial bright spark decided to use it on another character, who might generate better sales. The process was repeated and unless I’ve missed someone has been attributed to Mar-Vell’s son Genis-Vell, daughter Phyla-Vell, Skrull infiltrator Khn’nr, and alternate reality Kree agent Noh-Var, before former Ms. Marvel Carol Danvers took on the rank and duties. You can read all about them elsewhere… and you should.

Here, however, we’re looking at that black cop. Her name is Monica Rambeau, and thanks to her recurring role in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, her peripatetic career and many revisions that cry out for a proper appraisal at least warranted this compilation of formative tales….

Captain Marvel: The Saga of Monica Rambeau gathers – in whole or in part – pertinent stories from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16; Avengers #227 &279; Marvel Team-Up #142-143; Solo Avengers #2; Captain Marvel (vol 2) #1 & 2; Marvel Fanfare #42 & 57; Avengers Unplugged #5 and assorted bonus material. It is an almost identical reissue of 2019’s Captain Marvel: Monica Rambeau and we’ll cover the differences at the end for all us completists…

New Orleans Police Lieutenant Monica Rambeau debuted in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16, cover-dated October 1982; courtesy of Roger Stern with penciller John Romita Jr. inked by dad John Romita Sr. ‘Who’s That Lady?’ finds the underappreciated officer actively stifled by professional misogyny and held back in her career with the Harbor Patrol. Maybe that’s why she goes off-book when Professor Andre LeClare comes to the police with a story that his former employer – South American dictator Generalissimo Ernesto Ramirez – is turning LeClare’s energy conversion experiments to build a weapon…

Hiring LeClare’s greedy assistant Dr. Felipe Picaro, the tyrant is testing a prototype that taps extra-dimensional forces on an isolated oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. It actually belongs to evil energy corporation Roxxon, and Rambeau decides to go undercover to investigate…

In traditional manner, her interference leads to an accident bombarding her with extra-dimensional energy which grants Rambeau the ability to become any form of energy from light to x-rays to lightning. She can also project mirages; pass through solid objects; travel at lightspeed and manipulate energy.

Having foiled the villains – and been christened Captain Marvel by one shellshocked mercenary in the process – Rambeau quits her job and heads to New York City. She immediately clashes with Spider-Man whose danger-sense goes berserk in her vicinity. He thinks she’s a potential foe but in fact her powers are out of control and she’s about to explode and eradicate two interlinked realities…

During a frantic chase, Monica meets the Fantastic Four and Avengers before tech bros Iron Man and the webspinner unite to fix her escalating meltdown. In the aftermath the novice – painfully aware that she might be one of the most powerful beings on Earth – takes an apprenticeship position with the World’s Mightiest Heroes. It officially starts in The Avengers #227’s ‘Testing… 1… 2…3!’ (January 1983 by Stern, Sal Buscema & Brett Breeding). Soon she’s settling in and learning all about her predecessor and namesake and more than she cares to about the rest of the team. Her willing position as one of the crowd eventually led to her becoming team leader (for which you should see specific Avengers compilations) whereas here another adventure with the wallcrawler follows. Crafted by David Michelinie, Greg LaRocque & Mike Esposito Marvel Team-Up #142 finds her ‘Foiled!’ (June 1984) as she and Spider-Man separately face teleporting bandits stealing cutting edge tech and a mysterious crystal. When Captain Marvel’s powers start glitching, she and the arachnid discover well-meaning loon Dr Paulson intends to save humanity and radically reduce Earth’s excess population by exiling its biggest cities to another realm. Although Spidey stops the bandits, their boss and the plot, in the aftermath Rambeau is permanently trapped in a disembodied state…

Cover-dated July 1984, MTU #143’s ‘Shifts and Planes’ sees the webspinner and Monica’s fellow Avenger apprentice Starfox (AKA Thanos’ brother Eros) travel to a distant dimension in search of a quick fix, only to become entangled in a war between genders prior to saving Captain Marvel and returning to the relative calm of Manhattan…

By May 1987 Rambeau is a seasoned superhero veteran and in Avengers #279, Stern, John Buscema & Tom Palmer reveal her ‘Command Decision’ after Captain America nominates her to be next team leader. Throughout this time aged professor LeClare has been her mentor and go-to science guy and after reviewing her origins, consulting him and saving trapped kids beside the legend of Liberty, Marvel accepts the role and responsibility.

Cover-date January 1988, Solo Avengers #2’s ‘Out of Control’ by Stern, Kieron Dwyer & Bob McLeod offered Rambaeu’s first lone adventure as Dr. Picaro returns to steal her powers for himself and spectacularly fail, after which Dennis Mallonee, Bob Hall & Bill Sienkiewicz detail Captain Marvel’s meeting with New Orleans legend Marie Laveau and subsequent time travel quest back to 18th century Paris and Marvel Fanfare #42 (February 1989). ‘Once More in the City of Light’ exposes a short but momentous alliance with sorcerer Cagliostro and near-fatal clash with Count Dracula that lays the groundwork for countless future battles…

By this time her powerset had changed a few times and ways, and on July 11th 1989 (and cover-dated November) Rambeau was given her own title at last. Captain Marvel (vol 2) #1 delivered one extra-long tale by Dwayne McDuffie, Mark D. “Doc” Bright, Stan Drake & Frank Bolle wherein a now-powerless and human Monica starts her own shipping business. It ends before it began as super-thugs Powderkeg and Moonstone and their Brazilian crime boss Kristina Ramos murder her crew in search of missing Stark Tech. Thankfully, in ‘The Dream is the Truth’, the trauma reignites her energy-abilities – but in a reduced, more physical manner – and after beating the bad guys, Captain Marvel resumes her destined path.

In Marvel Fanfare #57 (June 1991) that path is perfectly described by Bill Mantlo, George Freeman & Al Milgrom as a single night’s work protecting the ordinary people of the Big Easy in ‘Power & Duty’.

Released on December 7th 1993, Captain Marvel (vol 2) #2, and cover-dated February 1994, ‘Speaking Without Concern’ sees CM on campus to confront hate crimes and targeted racism instigated by shapeshifting demagogue Skinhead and enforced by recruiters from the vile supremacist Sons of the Serpent. Written by McDuffie & Dwight D. Coye and limned by Bright, Dennis Jensen, Barb Kaalberg & Mark McKenna, the hard-hitting tale says all the right things but ultimately failed to follow up, before this compilation closes its story section with a big reunion and major change…

In Avengers Unplugged #5 (June 1996) Glenn Herdling, M.C. Wyman & Sandu Florea reduce Rambeau to a mind-thrall of psychic slaver The Controller. In recent months the son of Mar-Vell had begun using the title Captain Marvel. After the Kree/Eternal hybrid inheritor thrashed The Controller, the cyborg monster set Rambeau to seduce and destroy immature, impetuous Genis-Vell. However, ‘Legacies’ reveals that her old Avenging allies (at least Starfox, Vision & Deathcry) have not forgotten or abandoned her and after savage battles against each other the heroes, Genis-Vell and newly-liberated Monica deal with the true threat. In the aftermath Rambeau gifts Genis with the Captain Marvel title and rebrands herself Photon; a gesture she will repeat a few more times as she works with later Avengers sub-groups, Next Wave, The Ultimates and other teams under noms de guerre including Spectrum, Pulsar and Monica Rambeau…

Besides covers by the Romitas, Breeding, Hannigan, Bob Wiacek, Hall, Lee Weeks, Josef Rubinstein, John Buscema, Tom Palmer, Freeman, Bright, Wyman, Florea, & various, the book’s bonus material includes a Norm Breyfogle pinup from Marvel Fanfare #57; original art from AS-M Annual #16 & the LaRoque & Rubinstein cover art for MTU #143; the Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Omnibus cover by Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales & Justin Ponsor, plus a variant cover by Ramona Fradon, Michael Allred & Veronica Gandini, before closing with exhaustive prose dossier ‘Monica Rambeau’ offering context and life-history augmented by illustrations from The Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

As previously mentioned, Saga of Monica Rambeau is an almost exact reissue of 2019’s Captain Marvel: Monica Rambeau except the earlier tome has a modified version of the cover in the bonus section and a shorter prose appreciation of the Second Marvel Comics Captain Marvel’s exploits.

Too often regarded as a second-stringer but never second-rate, the extensive adventures of Monica Rambeau are bread-&-butter Superhero fare to delight any Fights ‘n’ Tights fan. Why not check them out now?
© 2023 MARVEL.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Enduring Light in the Darkness & Wandering Star in Marvel’s Firmament …8/10

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March Book One


By John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions)
ISBN: 978-1-60309-383-5 (HB), 978-1-60309-300-2 (PB), 978-1-60309-302-6 (Digital edition)

It’s a lazy cop-out we reviewer always fall back on, but honestly, some books just need to be read. March is one of them. It’s the story in his own words of legendary civil rights pioneer and properly-evolved human being John Lewis: the first of three describing his path from oppressed and sidelined southern child to non-violent activist to the halls of America’s Congress.

Adapted by his assistant Andrew Aydin and multi award-winning cartoonist Nate Powell (Two Dead, Come Again, About Face, Any Empire, Swallow Me Whole, The Silence of Our Friends) it charts, with astonishing intimacy and warmth, a story of the good guys winning in the end…

The illustrator’s sensitive monochrome washes and tones painstakingly capture the dignity, determination, humour and pervasive quiet tension of the South during those fraught times and the growing groundswell of peaceful resistance that culminated in a very public confrontation on a bridge, a long walk to Washington and the start of a process still sadly underway every day.

March proudly celebrates everything the 45th/47th PotUS seems determined to roll back, and thus far has failed to accomplish, too so that’s a big Yar, Boo Sucks! to him too while we’re on the subject. Lots of luck on November third Donnie…

March Book One was first released in 2013 as a paperback, again as a lavish oversized (210 by 305mm) hardback three years later. One of the most lauded and awarded biographies of recent times, it’s available in digital formats and is immensely enjoyable and uplifting. You need to see it and the concluding volumes, too.
March Book One © 2013, 2016 John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. This edition © 2017 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

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Martin Luther King and The Montgomery Story


By Alfred Hassler, Benton Resnik & Sy Barry (Fellowship of Reconciliation/Top Shelf Productions)
ISBN: N/A

When you actually read the book cited in the previous review, you’ll hopefully notice an inspirational comic book enjoyed by many at the time. A potted history and primer on non-violent resistance, Martin Luther King and The Montgomery Story was published in 1957 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and widely disseminated and shared by Civil Rights organisations, churches, schools – and young John Lewis. When Top Shelf released The March they also revived this historical treasure, and it too can be yours.

All proceeds still go to fund the Fellowship’s ongoing work.

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Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin


By Émilie Plateau with Tania de Montaigne, translated by Montana Kane (Europe Comics)
ISBN: 979-1-032807-89-7 digital only edition

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

On December 1st 1955, Rosa Parks rode the bus home. She had taken said public transport vehicle many times before and, until that moment on that day had always followed the rules. This was in Montgomery, Alabama, where “Jim Crow” laws had been continually clawing back from black citizens every vestige of freedom and precious personal liberty won with shot and shell during the War Between the States. The process had begun almost from the moment the uniformed shooting stopped. Thus in 1955, on those bus commuter routes – as everywhere else – white people had priority, and if a black person was seated, they had to get up and literally move to the back of the bus to let “their betters” sit. On that evening, weary Rosa refused to give up her seat, even when told to by the white bus driver. She knew there would be consequences, anticipated them and was ready for them. Perhaps she wasn’t quite as sure where that act of passive defiance would take her and the entire country.

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

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

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

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

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

Claudette Austin was born black in 1939. Her wandering dad only stayed around long enough to father her little sister Delphine, before vanishing forever. Their mother Mary Jane sent them to live with great aunt Mary Ann and her husband Q.P. Colvin in King Hill, one of the most deprived parts of Montgomery. Despite hardship and early tragedy, Claudette was a good student and hoped to become a lawyer, but those dreams ended on March 2nd 1955. After school, the 15-year old boarded the bus home in the approved manner, but that day, as it filled up, she refused to surrender her seat to a white woman and drew down upon herself the full force and brutality of the law. Beaten, abused and sent to adult jail, Claudette’s case came to the attention of crusading groups. Black lawyer Fred Gray, Jo An Gibson Robinson of The Women’s Political Council and NAACP representative Rosa Parks considered pleading her cause at the federal level to challenge Segregation laws.

However, crucial local support necessary to carry the program of resistance – which included a bus boycott – faded away as local residents questioned her age, experience, resilience and especially reputation. Eventually a council of concerned elders including E.D. Nixon of the NAACP and activist reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met with police and the civic authorities, bargaining over her upcoming trial. On her day in court, Claudette was convicted of Disorderly Contact, Violation of the Segregation Laws and Assaulting Police Officers.

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

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

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

Claudette tried to join them but was quietly excluded from events and activities. Nevertheless she continued to endure daily threats and actual retaliation from thugs belonging to the racist opposition of The White Citizens Council. And then, the cautious strategists had another idea, and Claudette and those other possible martyrs all became a crucial tool in their next tactic. They won their day in federal court and there Claudette seized her moment and shone…

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

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

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

Devastatingly powerful thanks to its primal and cunningly devised simplicity of execution, Colored offers a hard second look at the defining events and formational legends of an oppressed minority, but does so through the eyes of the other downtrodden underclass dominated by both white and black men. Forthright, disturbing and necessary, it shows that even the most noble of causes needs to police itself and beware its own bias and intolerance, if we truly want everybody to be free and equal.

© 2019 – DARGAUD – Émilie Plateau. All rights reserved. This graphic novel is based on the book Noire, by Tania de Montaigne. © Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, 2015.

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Incredible Hulk Epic Collection volume 9 (1978-1980): Kill or be Killed


By Roger Stern, John Byrne, Peter B. Gillis, Elliot S! Maggin, Roger McKenzie, Steven Grant, David Michelinie, Doug Moench, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko, Jim Mooney, Josef Rubinstein, Joe Sinnott, Klaus Janson, Bob McLeod, Mike Esposito, Bob Layton, Bruce Patterson, Chic Stone, Don Perlin, Jack Abel, Alfredo Alcala, Al Milgrom, Jack Kirby & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5536-6 (TPB), 978-1-3025-2915-4 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Thumping Good Read… 8/10

Halloween’s a-comin’ and it wouldn’t be the same without the actual king of comic book monsters…

Bruce Banner was a military scientist accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of his own devising. As a result, stress and other factors caused him to transform into a giant green monster of unstoppable strength and fury. He was one of Marvel’s earliest innovations and first epic fail, but after an initially troubled few years finally found his size-700 feet and a format that worked, to become one of the company’s premiere antiheroes and most popular features.

The Gamma Goliath was always graced with artists who understood the allure of shattering action, the sheer cathartic reader-release rush of mighty “Hulk Smash!” moments, and here, in the debris-strewn wake of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Marie Severin & Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema (plus friends and a few returnees) was showing the world what he could do when inspired and unleashed…

Spanning cover-dates September 1978 -February 1980, this chronologically complete monster monolith re-presents Incredible Hulk #227-244 and Hulk Annuals #7-9, plus a key crossover from Captain America #230. Previously, new writer Roger Stern had begun an ambitious storyline to solve the Hulk’s problems through psychoanalysis, and the dream initially worked! Sadly, when archfoe The Leader took over anti-Hulk citadel Gamma Base, and defeated and enslaved S.H.I.E.L.D., superhero psychologist Leonard “Doc” Samson and elderly career soldier General Thaddeus Ross through mind control, Banner had to again sacrifice his humanity for the sake of mankind.

With both the Leader gone and Banner apparently dead, his compatriots jumpstarted his ravaged system with another overwhelming dose of gamma rays which brought the beast back from the brink, only to trigger another ordnance-obliterating clash with the military after the man-monster invades his old college and suffers a psychological trauma that might end his rampages forever…

We begin here with IH #227 in the throes of an emotional breakthrough that renders the Jade Juggernaut pliable and reasonable. Thus, under extraordinary conditions, Samson becomes ‘The Monster’s Analyst’ (#227, by Roger Stern, Peter B. Gillis, Sal B & Klaus Janson). Aided by Hulk’s recently arrived former sidekick Jim Wilson, Samson probes the psyche of Banner and the beast within, gaining insight into the troubled physicist’s childhood, college days, nuclear accident and turbulent time with the original Avengers. He also inadvertently sparks a clash of personalities that seems to eliminate Banner utterly…

On that cliffhanger note we switch attention to Incredible Hulk Annual #7 wherein Stern, John Byrne & Bob Layton revisit two semi-retired X-Men as they are targeted by the madly-mutated, mutant-hunting Sentinel Master Mold. The resurrected horror then merges with another manic former X-foe in ‘The Evil That is Cast…’ which happily finds our peripatetic pistachio powerhouse on hand to balance the odds after the amalgamated monster attacks Angel & Iceman, hauling them into space to die…

Returning to Samson at Gamma Base, the Green Goliath is targeted by a new mind menace in Incredible Hulk #228’s ‘Bad Moon on the Rise!’ (Stern, Gillis, Buscema & Bob McLeod) as psychologist Dr. Karla Sofen offers her therapeutic services, planning to subvert the Gamma Goliath to her current employers’ needs. Within hours of her arrival, Sofen (and her evil alter ego Moonstone) have undone weeks of progress and triggered another deadly rampage. She goes further in #229’s ‘The Moonstone is a Harsh Mistress!’ (inked by Mike Esposito) whilst revealing how she gained her first taste of true power after treating an empowered patient. The upshot was to deprive its original inept owner of a power-bestowing lunar rock that made the first Moonstone a match for Captain America. Now she seeks to isolate the Hulk from all human help and contact – and succeeds…

On the run again, Hulk encounters ‘The Harvester From Beyond!’ (#230 by Elliot S! Maggin, Jim Mooney, Layton & Bruce Patterson), unwillingly surrendering biological samples to an extremely determined extraterrestrial before returning to Earth for #231, for Stern, Buscema & Esposito to introduce another human outcast who befriends the monster. Then in ‘Prelude!’ hippie student Fred Sloan escapes a redneck beating thanks to the Hulk’s intervention, even as, at Gamma Base, Sofen makes contact with her employers to find ruthless plutocratic organisation The Corporation counts US Senator Eugene Stivak amongst its ruling elite.

As leaders of a group that has manipulated heroes including Machine Man, Torpedo, The Falcon, Marvel Man/Quasar, Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. for months, they are now actively pursuing an endgame which means capturing Jim Wilson and bending the Hulk to their agenda.

Stivak – AKA “Kligger” – makes his move when the Jade Juggernaut & Fred spark a riot in California, neatly dovetailing into a congruent storyline unfolding in the Sentinel of Liberty’s own title. There, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Super-Agent program was infiltrated, Cap was ambushed by The Constrictor and other Corporation flunkies. When Sam Wilson/The Falcon was abducted by Kligger for reasons unknown, the hunt for him culminated in Cap exposing their rotten apples in Washington and across the USA, leading to an ‘Assault on Alcatraz!’ (Roger McKenzie, Stern, Sal B & Don Perlin). With the Star-Spangled Avenger leading former Super Agents Marvel Man and The Vamp to rescue hostage friends and end the villains’ depredations, their arrival in the abandoned prison coincides with the Hulk & Fred’s capture, exposure of Corporation West Coast CEO Curtiss Jackson and a trans-continental power-grab by Kligger/Stivak and his merciless agent Moonstone in Captain America #230. That’s when a traitor in the group is revealed and the Hulk completely loses his cool…

The clash concludes in IH #232 as ‘The Battle Below’ (Stern, David Michelinie, Buscema & Esposito) finds assorted villains thrashed, and Curtiss making a desperate attempt to flee with an utterly incensed gamma goliath in hot pursuit. The frantic chase leads to another battle ‘At the Bottom of the Bay!’ (Stern, Buscema & Chic Stone) before he calms down enough to flee with Fred Sloan, and leading to a reunion with an old valued friend at a California commune.

As this chronologically complete monster monolithic monster mash-up unfolds the world was going Hulk-wild thanks to an immensely popular TV show. Bombastic fantasy was downplayed in favour of human interactions as our Growling Green Giant utterly dominated global TV screens. Thus, with Jackson in hiding and Kligger dethroned, the aftermath saw the Emerald Titan flee with drop-out Fred an a quixotic road trip that ended on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles where the man-monster was reunited with another old pal…

Trish Starr championed an alternative, magic-adjacent lifestyle when The Defenders fought her mad scientist uncle Egghead and had since moved her peace-&-love message into a student house on campus. Now, laid-back student dudes get a taste of another world when the Hulk moves in with them. Fear and suspicion are impossible to suppress and when one “drops a dime and calls the fuzz” (or notifies authorities, if you prefer) the result is chaos. Sadly, said authorities informed are not cops but The Corporation, and frantically-rebuilding Jackson sees opportunity to re-ingratiate himself with his fearsome Board of Directors and remove two thorns in his side at the same time. By Stern, Sal Buscema & Jack Abel, IH #234 finds the Gamma Goliath angry and unleashed in ‘Battleground: Berkeley!’ after Jackson frames misunderstood and needy robotic AI Machine Man for kidnapping Trish, luring the Jade Juggernaut & Fred to Jackson’s Central City base – The Mid-State Tower – where his forces are ready to end the blockbusting brute…

Meanwhile, the real robot hero has been cleared of crimes covertly orchestrated by Kligger and is a free “man” when #235’s ‘The Monster and the Machine’ (inked by Mike Esposito) finds the incensed Hulk attacking Machine Man’s human friend/advisor Dr Peter Spaulding. The clash rapidly escalates in ‘Kill or Be Killed!’ with Hulk now nigh-mindless with rage. His mechanical foe is far more controlled and detects the villain’s radio communications. Sadly, so does the viridian berserker who heads for the Corporation’s secret skyscraper HQ to save Trish and punish Jackson…

Beyond all reason The Hulk turns his wrath on Jackson with everyone else in sight caught in the carnage. As Machine Man (who went on from this clash into his own revived solo title) valiantly strives-but-fails to stop the devastation, the earthshaking battle culminates in the fall of the tower in #237’s ‘When a City Dies!’ (Jack Abel inks). With Jackson done & dusted, Hulk emerges from the rubble of the 80-storey shambles but his appetite for destruction is not sated. Thankfully, before collapsing in the robot version of utter exhaustion, Machine Man mesmerises the monster into a coma and uses an anti-gravity push to send the sleeping beast, far, far away…

Written by Stern & Byrne, with art from Sal B & Alfredo Alcala Incredible Hulk Annual #8 follows with ‘Sasquatch!’ seeing still-surly Hulk waking up in a mostly unoccupied region of British Columbia. Befriended by understandably nervous, self-imposed hermit Maureen Mores Friesen, he gradually calms enough to revert to Banner, but only until the Canadians deploy their own gamma monster. Dr Walter Langowski of government super-squad Alpha Flight soon arrives to end the incursion at any cost…

The catastrophe that results sees Hulk still at large as US President Jimmy Carter, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Clay Quartermain and assorted researchers survey what remains of Central City in IH #238’s ‘Post Hulk …Post Holocaust!’ (Stern, Buscema & Abel). The monster’s peregrinations then bring him to the attention of a clandestine cabal who bedevilled heroes for years. Cautiously, “They-Who-Wield-Power” plan their next atrocity…

As seen primarily in Marvel Team-Up, a shadowy trio of observers with an undisclosed agenda monitored superbeing episodes and provided advanced technologies for monsters and villains like Lava Men, Stegron & The Orb to battle Spider-Man, Hercules, Nova, Ghost Rider, Black Panther, Thor and others. Now they subtly pull strings drawing Hulk ever southwards, using bullion bandit Goldbug as their latest instrument and go-between. It comes together in #239’s Esposito-inked ‘All That Glitters…’ as a brief pause in the brute’s travels sparks a military incident.

Taking a nap atop national monument Mount Rushmore, the monster is confronted by a joint military and S.H.I.E.L.D. response. However, instead of more shattering violence, the stand-off ends peacefully when Goldbug slips in, offering escape in his shiny new ship. Sadly, it’s built to siphon Hulk’s energies to fuel the vessel all the way to South America where the thief can plunder a literal city of gold in the Andes. Hulk is not happy and escapes, but not before they reach their destination where The Brotherhood of They are waiting…

Despite the Monster constantly being reintroduced and kept in touch with overarching Marvel continuity by guest shots from visiting heroes & villain, he generally carved his own path at this juncture. In #240’s‘…And Now El Dorado’ (inked by Joe Sinnott) years of scheming come to fruition as a hidden civilisation (last seen as the Forbidden Land in Avengers #31, August 1966) welcomes the awesome outcast and the cunning criminal mastermind to an idyllic paradise covertly controlled by a back-stabbing triumvirate seeking dominion of Earth. Autocrat Prince Rey and cleric Lann, Keeper of the Sacred Flame have warred with each other for decades, but the balance of power is maintained by aged enigmatic Des, who perpetrated They’s campaign to create global tectonic anomalies that fed the Flame. Des also exerts a shocking hold on the Hulk, dangling the prospect of resurrecting his lost love Jarella if the monster behaves and follows orders…

A bitter truth is revealed in Buscema-inked ‘Partners in Deception!’ when Banner becomes fuel for the Sacred Flame, with Des stealing his power to eradicate his allies and regenerate himself. Revealed as one of the Hulk’s earliest enemies and with Goldbug forced into playing hero to save his own skin, ‘Sic Temper Tyrannus!’ sees the unlikely outworlder allies saving Earth as their enemy briefly ascends to godhood before inevitably overextending himself and again underestimating the sheer bloody-mindedness of the Jade Juggernaut.

The end comes courtesy of plotter Stern, scripter Steven Grant & Sal B, in #243’s ‘Death… and Destiny!’ With the world restored, the Hulk resuming his wandering and Goldbug getting just what he deserves, in the wings, the mental collapse of General Thaddeus Ross has left a vacuum the US government fills with his protégé Glenn Talbot promoted to lead the US anti-Hulk task force…

Written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Steve Ditko & Al Milgrom, Incredible Hulk Annual #9 delivers a short diversion as the monster is stalked by chess-obsessed millionaire Charles Reigel and fellow members of the Gotham Game Club in a high-tech safari against the epitome of unreasoning brute force. Sadly, ‘A Game of Monsters and Kings’ is not what the Green Goliath wants and the Hulk does not play well with others…

This titanic tome terminates its storytelling component with a concise continuity palate-cleanser as Incredible Hulk #244 reintroduces Hollywood special effects wizard Bob O’Bryan who, thanks to alien invaders, can possess and animate a gigantic stone statue. His efforts to keep the mighty It, the Living Colossus from evil Dr. Vault was once the stuff of LA legend, but means nothing to Bruce Banner on awakening in Tinseltown after another Hulk-out.

In ‘It Lives!’ (Grant, Carmine Infantino & Esposito) sheer coincidence and concatenation conspire to bring all players together for Vault’s last pursuit of the petrified prize, only to learn that gamma beats granite every time…

To Be Hulk-inued…

With covers by Rich Buckler, Ernie Chan, Byrne, Ron Wilson, Josef Rubinstein, Trimpe, McLeod, Dave Cockrum, Layton, Dan Adkins, Milgrom and Ditko, the bonus portion of this blockbusting bonanza includes the covers (front & back) of Hulk-starring reprint tabloids Marvel Treasury Edition #20 & 24 – by Bob Budiansky & Abel and Budiansky & Bob Wiacek respectively, and a gallery of Hulk pinups by Ron Wilson, Frank Giacoia, Dave Hunt & Pablo Marcos created for Marvel UK titles. Also included are house ads and pertinent pics from Marvel Calendar 1975; The Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar 1976; Marvel Comics Memory Album Calendar 1977, by Sal B, Trimpe, Ed Hannigan & John Romita.

Inspired by TV stardom and preceded by feature pages on then-upcoming calendar taken from company fan mag F.O.O.M. #22 (Autumn 1978) next comes the all-Hulk Mighty Marvel Comics Calendar 1979, with entries by David Anthony Kraft & Jim Salicrup, and key points in the Monster’s life revisited by Jack Kirby, John Romita Sr, Joe Sinnott, Walt Simonson, Sal B & Adkins, Dave Hunt, Cockrum & Layton, George Pérez, John Buscema & Rubinstein, Wilson & Marcos, Keith Pollard & Tom Palmer, Byrne & Terry Austin, Hannigan & Janson and Trimpe (again), as well as a brief retelling of the origin by Trimpe.

Even more lost treasures include Steve Fastner & Rich Larson’s 4-plate portfolio Marvel Super-Heroes: The Incredible Hulk (1980) before closing with the plot breakdown for Annual 7; a vast selection of original art pages, cover sketches and assorted character designs by Byrne, Cockrum and Mark Gruenwald.

The Incredible Hulk is one of the most well-known comic characters on Earth, and these stories, as much as the cartoons, TV shows, games, toys, action figures and movies are the reason why. For an uncomplicated, earnestly vicarious experience of Might actually being Right, you can’t do better than these exciting episodes, so why not Go Green and embrace your inner not-so-mean?
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Creepy Presents Bernie Wrightson


By Bernie Wrightson, with Bruce Jones, Howard Chaykin, Nicola Cuti, Bill Dubay, Budd Lewis, Carmine Infantino & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-809-5 (HB), 978-1-506753-21-8 ?(TPB), 978-1-62115-596-6 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Masterfully Macabre Masterpiece… 9/10

Once upon a time the short complete story was the sole staple of the comic book profession, and the intent was to deliver to the reader as much variety and entertainment fulfilment as possible. Sadly, that particular discipline is all but lost to us today.

Towards the end of the turbulent 1960s, a lot of fresh talent was trying to break into the comics industry at a time when numerous publishers were experimenting with cheaper black & white magazines rather than four-colour comic books. Companies like Warren, Skywald and a minor host of imitators were hiring kids who then honed their craft in public – just like their forebears had to. A respectable number of those Young Turks – such as Bruce Jones, Mike Kaluta, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Al Weiss & “Berni” Wrightson (a young man who soon became a living legend even in that prestigious cabal) – grew into major talents whilst crafting pastiches of the EC Comics they had loved as kids… and paved the way when the comics market again turned to shock, mystery and black comedy to sell funnybooks.

Bernard Albert Wrightson was born a few days before Halloween (October 27th) 1948 in Dundalk. Maryland. His artist training came via TV, reading comics and a correspondence course from the Famous Artists School, and his first professional publication was fan art, printed in Creepy #9 (June 1966). Around that time, he was toiling as an illustrator for The Baltimore Sun, and after meeting his EC idol Frank Frazetta at a convention gravitated to New York City.

Hooking up with the above-cited band of newcomers, and other hopefuls (like Al Milgrom & Walter Simonson), Wrightson started crafting short horror tales for National-DC, Marvel and other eager publishers. His first rank reputation was cemented for the co-creation (with writer Len Wein) of Swamp Thing.

Wrighton’s close and productive association with DC ended in 1974, as he left to work at Warren on more adult-oriented tales which allowed him to try different techniques: a bountiful period of experimentation that culminated with his joining Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Kaluta & Barry Windsor-Smith in expressive narrative arts collective The Studio. During this period, he also produced commercial commissions, film material and humorous strips for National Lampoon, whilst creating a series of astoundingly complex plates for his signature work: an illustrated rerelease of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. After that he illustrated posters, trading cards and graphic novels such as Creepshow, Cycle of the Werewolf and Freakshow (with Bruce Jones) as well as print collectibles, before returning to mainstream comic books. Notable successes included The Weird and Batman: The Cult with Jim Starlin, and Spider-Man: Hooky and The Hulk and the Thing: The Big Change as well as a number of Punisher miniseries and OGNs.

Wrightson died in 2017. At the time he was working with Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) on a new Frankenstein miniseries, and almost finished it. The ultimate professional to the last, Bernie made provision for another artist (Kelley Jones) to complete the job before passing. You should add Frankenstein Alive, Alive – The Complete Collection please link to October 29th 2019 to your must-read list if you haven’t seen it yet…

This stellar compendium gathers Wrightson’s monochrome, two-colour & full-colour offerings, stories, illustrations and frontispieces – from Creepy #9, 62-64, 66-71, 73, 75-77, 83, 86, 87, 95, 113 & 138 and Eerie #57, 58, 60-68, 70-72, 68 spanning 1966-1982. The uncanny yarns and portentous depictions appeared in black-&-white magazine anthologies Creepy and Eerie, and those Warren stories have been gathered into a spectacular oversized (284 x 218 mm) hardback compendium – part of a series of all-star artist compilations which also includes superstars Rich Corben, Alex Toth and Steve Ditko, or track down the entire Creepy archive from Dark Horse. You won’t regret it , fear-fun fan!

The terrors begin here with Wrightson’s short shockers from Creepy – but only after fellow raconteur and horror stylist Bruce Jones shares his memories of the great man and those early days in his evocative Foreword. Then dark visions commence with Wrightson’s gripping adaptation of ‘Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat’ (Creepy #62) as a man slowly going mad enters into a deadly war of wills and nerve with his wife’s pet…

Moving from his signature linework into softly-alluring grey-marker tones for Bruce Jones’s ghastly tale of mutant madness and deviant sexual seduction, Wrightson delivers a potent shocker with the tale of ‘Jenifer’ in issue #63 before compounding the horrors of existential loneliness for his next doomed hero’s icy obsession with ‘Clarice’ (also scripted by Jones in #77). He inked Carmine Infantino on Jones’ ‘Country Pie’ in #83, a wry variation on both serial killer modernity and American Gothic sensibilities, after which Bill DuBay joins the unlikely artistic duo to expose an Edwardian-era Dime-novel hero in moving sentimental mystery ‘Dick Swift and his Electric Power Ring’ (Creepy #86).

Thematic shades of Ray Bradbury inform Nicola Cuti’s ‘A Martian Saga’ in #87, but the bleak dark humour is all Wrightson (as is the stylish pen-&-ink drawing), whereas Jones’ fable of ‘The Laughing Man’ from #95 – which sees a white hunter’s brutal deeds return to haunt him – manifests via stunning grey tones and manic shock that is pure poetic karma…

Bernie’s Eerie escapades are fewer but just as memorable and start with classic beast-hunting fervour as greedy chancer George Summers attempts to capture ‘The Pepper Lake Monster’. Written and drawn by Wrightson from Eerie #58, the stark, heroic chiaroscuro conceals a deliciously mordant and sardonic sting in the tale, after which DuBay details the terrors of children who see monsters in moodily grey-toned vignette ‘Nightfall’ (#60), and leads to Wrightson fulfilling a lifetime ambition in issue #62.

A huge fan of classical horror writers, the artist chillingly adapted H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘Cool Air’, detailing the uncanny fate of bizarre lodger Dr. Munoz who warmly befriends a young writer but cannot find a home cold enough to suit him. Budd Lewis, Wrightson & Howard Chaykin combined to craft a strange tale of ‘Reuben Youngblood: Private Eye!’ who finds himself trapped in a world of intrigue, zeppelins and Nazi vampires in a rambunctious romp entitled ‘Beware the Scarlet Combine’.

Although largely a monochrome magazine outfit, Warren occasionally sprang for full-painted colour and the all-Wrightson saga of ‘The Muck Monster’ in #68 gave the artist opportunity to flex his painterly muscles and revisit past glories in a tale of cometary catastrophe to complete the narrative section of our celebrations.

Happily, that’s not the end of the visual valuables, as a ‘Creepy and Eerie Frontispiece and Illustration Gallery’ delivers a selection of images (33 in total, including covers and back covers) designed to introduce the anthological treats of the magazines via narrators Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie. These allowed Wrightson’s sense of macabre humour full rein in panels, pages and other concoctions in assorted media and various degrees of seriousness.

This voluminous volume has episodes which terrify, amaze, amuse and enthral: utter delights of fantasy fiction with lean, stripped down plots and a dark yet always playful wit which lets the art set the tone, push the emotions and tell the tale, from times when a story could end sadly as well as happily and only wonderment was on the agenda, hidden or otherwise.

These stories display a sharp wit and dark comedic energy which seems largely lacking these days, channelled through Wrightson’s astounding versatility and storytelling acumen: another cracking collection of his works not only superb in its own right but also a telling affirmation of the gifts of one of the art-form’s greatest stylists.

This is a book serious comics fans would happily kill, die or be lost in a devil-dimension for.
Creepy, the Creepy logo and all contents © 1966, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982 2011 by New Comic Company. All rights reserved.

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Showcase Presents Challengers of the Unknown volume 2


By Arnold Drake, Ed Herron, Bob Brown, with Dave Wood, George Kashdan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1725-9 (TPB)

With a new iteration currently wowing and wooing modern audiences, let’s use the season as an excuse to examine one of the most potent comics team concepts of all time and wonder again at how the majority of their exploits can remain so cruelly out of print… and UNKNOWN…

The Challengers of the Unknown were a bridging concept between the fashionably All-American, verifiably human trouble-shooters who monopolised comic books for the majority of the 1950s and the reimagined costumed mystery men who would soon return to take over the industry. After costumed superheroes cautiously began to reappear mid-decade, in 1956 came a full-on super-team – the first of the Silver Age – with no powers, the most basic and utilitarian of uniforms and the most dubious of motives… Suicide by Mystery.

Blending contemporary Heroic mortal valour and ingenuity with the oncoming outlandish excesses of fear, sci fi and fantasy, their launch was arguably the second most important event of the Silver Age and as such they were a huge hit from the get-go, striking a chord that lasted for over a decade before they finally died… only to rise again and yet again. The very idea of them was stirring enough, but their initial execution made their success inevitable.

Jack Kirby was – and remains – the most important single influence in the history of US if not indeed global comics. There are quite rightly millions of words written about what the man has done and meant and you should read those if you are at all interested in our medium.

Here however is a rare book dealing with what other creators built upon from his always groundbreaking and influential imagination: another shining example of his gift for coining concepts before moving on, leaving highly competent but never quite as inspired talents to build upon.

When the comics industry suffered a paranoia-induced, witch-hunt-caused collapse in the mid-50’s, Kirby returned briefly to DC Comics to produce tales of suspense and science fiction for the company’s line of mystery anthologies. In a few episodes, he also revitalised Green Arrow (then simply a back-up strip in Adventure Comics) whilst creating the newspaper strip Sky Masters of the Space Force. At the same time he also re-packaged for Showcase (the try-out title that launched many Silver Age DC mainstays) an off-kilter team concept that had been kicking around in his head since he and long-time collaborator Joe Simon had closed their innovative but ill-timed Prize/Essankay/Mainline Comics ventures.

After years of working for others, Simon & Kirby finally established their own publishing company: producing comics with a much more sophisticated audience in mind. That happened mere months before an industry-wide sales downturn amidst a changing society awash with public hysteria generated by the anti-comic book pogrom spearheaded by US Senator Estes Kefauver and pop psychologist Dr. Frederic Wertham. Simon quit the business for advertising, but Kirby soldiered on, taking his skills and ideas to a number of safer, more conservative and less experimental companies.

The Challengers were four ordinary mortals; explorers and adventurers who walked away unscathed from a terrible plane crash. Already obviously what we’d now call “adrenaline junkies”, pilot Ace Morgan, diver Prof Haley, acrobat and mountaineer Red Ryan & wrestler Rocky Davis summarily decided that since they were all living on borrowed time anyway, they would dedicate what remained of their lives to testing themselves and fate. They would risk their lives for Knowledge and, naturally, Justice. The series launched in Showcase #6 (cover-dated January/February 1957 – and on spinner-racks and at newsstands in time for Christmas 1956).

Kirby, scripter Dave Wood, inkers Marvin Stein and Jack’s wife Roz crafted a spectacularly creepy epic wherein the freshly introduced doom-chasers were hired by duplicitous magician Morelian to open an ancient container holding otherworldly secrets and powers. The story and those that followed roared along with all the tension and wonder of the B-movie thrillers they channelled and emulated, and Jack’s awesome drawing resonated with power and dynamism. After 4 try-out issues the guys (plus tag-along temp Dr. June Robbins – a requisite appendage of the times in the form of a brave, capable, unofficial fifth Challenger) won their own title. Kirby stuck around for the first year (Challengers of the Unknown #1-8, May 1958 – July 1959). At that moment office politics took him away and fully back to Atlas/Timely/Marvel for the first time since 1941. For more on those masterpieces please check out Challengers of the Unknown by Jack Kirby.

The previous Showcase Presents Challengers… has them too, in spectacular black-&-white, as well as issues #9-17, by a replacement squad consisting of writers Ed Herron, Dave Wood, Arnold Drake and maybe George Kashdan, all impeccably serviced by artist Bob Brown. Kirby had developed a brilliantly feasible concept and heroically archetypical characters. He tapped into an astounding blend of genres to display their talents and courage in utterly unforgettable exploits that informed and affected every team comic that followed and primally shaped his following landmarks with Stan Lee. The Challengers followed the Kirby model until cancellation in 1970, but due to the dispute with Editor Jack Schiff the writer/artist had resigned at the height of his powers. Kirby magic was impossible to match, but as with all The King’s creations, every element was in place for the successors to run with. Challengers of the Unknown #9 (September 1959) saw an increase in those fantasy elements favoured by Schiff, and perhaps an easing of the interpersonal tensions that marked previous issues (Comics Historians take another note: the Challs were bitching, bickering and barking at each other years before Marvel’s Cosmic Quartet ever boarded their fateful rocket-ship).

But that’s meat for another book and review…

Bob Brown was born August 22nd 1915 and died in 1977 following a long illness. He had studied at Hartford Art School and Rhode Island School of Design, and worked with his showbiz folks and sister in a song-&-dance act from 1927 onwards. Brown was drafted in 1940, the year he began working as a comics artist and scripter for Fox, and Timely/Atlas. As the war intensified, he was an aircraft radio operator, an aviation cadet and served in the Pacific as bombardier and navigator in B-29 bombers, earning six air medals and a Distinguished Flying Cross.

After jobbing around the industry during the late 1940s & 1950’s Brown settled at National Comics/DC, co-created the long-running Space Ranger feature, drawing Tomahawk, the western hero Vigilante, Batman, Superboy, Doom Patrol, World’s Finest Comics and a host of other features and genre shorts. He migrated to Marvel in the 1970s, illustrating Warlock, Daredevil & The Avengers among many others. Consummate professional Brown drew every Challengers issue from #9- 63, nearly a decade of action-adventure encompassing ravaging aliens, cute-&-fuzzy space beasts, supervillains to truly scary supernatural horrors.

This volume collects Challengers of the Unknown #18-37 (cover-dated February/March 1961 through May 1964) and opens with ‘The Menace of Mystery Island’ – probably by Dave Wood, which finds the team fighting crooks on a tropical island that hides a crashed alien probe. This accident has deposited a test animal with uncanny powers that needs stopping, but in the manner of the times, the tenacious troubleshooters instead adopt the fuzzy li’l space-tyke… and name him Cosmo.

The second story (maybe by new lead scripter Arnold Drake) delivers darker fare, however, as the team are then shanghaied through time to save ‘The Doomed World of Tomorrow’. One issue later, in the ‘The Alien Who Stole a Planet’, the lads aid refugees from a doomed world, but things turn sour after one of the survivors decides Earth would be suitable replacement home, whilst in ‘The Beasts from the Fabulous Gem’, a soldier-of-fortune uses a stolen mystic jewel to liberate monsters imprisoned within it in ancient times. The squad’s very own supervillain then resurfaces as ‘Multi-Man Strikes Again’ in #20, and June Robbins shows up for a spot of beastie-bashing in Wood’s hectic riddle ‘The Cosmic-Powered Creature!’ In the next – all Herron – issue it’s apparently just the lads shanghaied to ‘The Weird World that Didn’t Exist’ but June plays a major role in the follow-up tale when Cosmo returns in ‘The Challengers’ Space-Pet Ally!’.

Drake’s ‘The Curse of the Golden God’ proffers the usual action-packed crime-drama in the South American jungles, whereas #22’s second story strikes much closer to home as the squad’s secret base is compromised by ‘The Thing in Challenger Mountain!’ (Herron) whilst next timeout the team find that ‘Death Guarded the Doom Box!’ in the form of ancient but still deadly mechanical devices, after which more aliens kidnap humans to ‘The Island in the Sky’. With Drake in charge the action never stops as, in ‘The Challengers Die at Dawn’, the hunt for a swindler leads the team to a lost tribe of oriental pirates in the South China Seas, whilst the big story in #24 is ‘Multi-Man, Master of Earth’: a grand, old-fashioned battle for justice against a seemingly unstoppable foe. Although the stories were also becoming a touch formulaic by this stage, the equation was a trusted one, and Brown’s art was constantly improving.

Challengers of the Unknown #25 (April/May 1962) was on the cusp of the moment full-blown superhero mania hit the world and, although ‘Return of the Invincible Pharaoh’ is a yarn of ancient mystery and slumbering menaces, its plot of a lost secret bestowing super powers was to be a recurring staple for “normal, human heroes” like the Challs, Blackhawk and even in Batman titles. The second saga, ‘Captives of the Alien Hunter’ features another thieving extraterrestrial up to no good and once more both June & Cosmo are required to foil the fiend. ‘Death Crowns the Challenger King’ is a bizarre variation on the Prisoner of Zenda’s plot: set in a hidden Mongol city with Prof. Haley replacing the true ruler in a series of ceremonial ordeals, with the rest of the gang running interference against scurvy villains, after which a flamboyant impresario is shown to have an out-of-this-world new act in Wood’s ‘The Secret of the Space Spectaculars’.

CotU #27 led with ‘The 1,001 Impossible Inventions’, wherein convicts dupe a wounded alien into using his advanced science for crime, whilst ‘Master of the Volcano Men’ debuts another perennial villain: rapacious marauding lava beings from the centre of the earth. It was once more rebellious robots causing a destructive fuss in ‘The Revolt of the Terrible FX-1’, but the real show-stealer of #28 is Herron’s time-travel romp despatching the Challs back to ancient Egypt to solve ‘The Riddle of the Faceless Man’ . The next issue brought ‘Four Roads to Doomsday!’ (Drake) as satellite sabotage leads the lads into a plot by alien crooks to conquer Earth, whilst the raucous, antagonistic nature of the team is highlighted in Herron’s ‘The War Between the Challenger Teams’, as Ace & Red battle Prof. & Rocky to end a war between two subsea races.

‘Multi-Man… Villain Turned Hero!’ turned out to be just another evil ploy by the shape-changing charlatan, but #30’s true treat was the introduction of Gaylord Clayburn (Don’t. Just don’t. Grow up), a spoiled multimillionaire playboy who wanted to become ‘The Fifth Challenger’ (anybody remember Dr. June Robbins?) and was prepared to go to any lengths to achieve his ambition. In #31, ‘The Man Who Saved the Challengers’ Lives!’ was the first full-length story since 1960; impressively restating their dramatic origin, by revealing the debt they possibly owed to a shady industrialist, before #32 resumed business as usual with Drake’s ‘One Challenger Must Die!’ Here the boys fiercely compete to learn who would sacrifice themselves to stop another rampaging Volcano Man, before rediscovering the power of teamwork, which was just as well as the second tale revealed how and why ‘Cosmo Turns Traitor!’ (Herron).

Each an expert in some field of human endeavour, for #33, the Challs were confronted by a superior individual in Drake’s ‘The Challengers Meet their Master’. However, as with ‘The Threat of the Trojan Robot!’, teamwork proved the solution to any problem. Herron scripted terse thriller ‘Beachhead, USA’ to open #34, wherein a U-Boat full of Nazis frozen since World War II tries to complete the last mission… blowing up the East Coast of America, with only the Chall’s in place to stop them. Multi-Man then discovers that no matter how smart you are, building the perfect mate is a very bad (and tasteless) idea in ‘Multi-Woman, Queen of Disaster!’ This was continued story that concluded in same issue with the Challengers striking back to (apparently) end the ‘Queen of A Thousand Threats’…

For #35 ‘The War Against the Moon Beast’ delivered a spectacular all-action sci-fi romp, balanced by Herron’s quirky prognostications of a carnival seer whose crystal ball predicts an adventure of the ‘Sons of the Challengers’. Then, one of the death-cheaters became a monster in #36’s ‘The Giant in Challenger Mountain’, but was recovered and restored in time to join the others as Bill Finger makes them ‘Bodyguards to a Star’ on the location of a dinosaur-infested movie-epic.

This splendidly daft tome ends with #37’s double bill as Drake scripts ‘The Triple Terror of Mr. Dimension’ (a cheap thug who lucks into a reality-altering weapon) before Herron switches to taut drama in ‘The Last Days of the Challengers!’ wherein the team struggle to destroy giant robots and thwart an execution-list with their names on it…

The original Challengers of the Unknown iteration offered sheer escapist wonderment, and no fan of the medium should be deprived of their exploits. These ideal adventurer-heroes act in the evocative settings of the Recent Now; a simpler, better world than ours. Reader-friendly to anyone who loves giants, aliens, crooks, discovery and wild thrills – or Saturday morning cartoons – these long-neglected tales would make the perfect animated kids show too, and cry out to be gathered in a DC Finest volume and digital editions…
© 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Phantom – The Complete Series: The Charlton Years volume four


By Pat Boyette, Joe Gill, Giovani Fiorentini, Mario Pedrazzi, Sante D’Amico, Frank Bolle, Jim Aparo & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-090-1 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic and literary effect.

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 unceasing war on 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. Even if only of historical value (or just printed for Australians), surely enigmatic 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 (Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Mandrake and The Phantom) between 1966 – 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. 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 fourth full-colour compilation gathers the contents of The Phantom #57-64 (cover-dated August 1973 through March 1975) and opens with another fact- & picture-packed Introduction by Daniel and Eileen Sabrina Herman. Here, in ‘The Phantom’s Charlton Years Continue’ amidst a wealth of original art pages, they detail the abrupt but brief transition to Italian pick-up tales supplied by publisher Edizioni Fratelli’s L’Uomo Mascherato and the background on contributors Joe Gill and Frank Bolle who close this book and usher us into the next era in the next collection…

Here and now, though, we resume with Pat Boyette still crafting jungle tales as cover-dated August 1973, The Phantom #57, opens with an organised mercenary assault on the Bandar villagers and theft of life & soul sustaining idol Lo-Piki. International investigation reveals murderous Gorilla & Snake are working for avaricious elitist one percenter La Contessa in ‘Part One: The Phantom Fails!’ but once the Ghost faces his foes it is psychology not force of arms that sets things right in ‘Part Two: Prisoner of Beauty!’ Closing the issue is a short cautionary tale about jumping to conclusions as The Phantom seeks to banish one more conniving witch doctor, only to be seriously schooled into ‘Taking His Medicine!’

Cover-dated October, #58 offers another 2-chapter lead saga with ‘Part One: The Swamp of Death’ finding the Jungle Judge following fugitive Mikhail Varsarfski into a miasmic bog that renders him helpless; poisoned by the toxic refinery the villain has secretly built there. Thankfully the hero’s juvenile assistants Rex & Tomm (and their monkey Jaja) devise a way to save “ Uncle Walker” in ‘Part Two: The Man Who Peddled Death!’ and the nations-extorting monster receives his just desserts…

Closing tale ‘Diana’s Ransom!’ again sees The Phantom’s intended abducted by thieves demanding the hero hand over the Bandar’s legendary treasures, and this time Rex & Tomm are allowed to help catch them, before #59 (December 1973) sees Joe Gill return to script Boyette’s last issue. In ‘Prisoner on Shark Island’, headstrong, globe-girdling archaeologist Diana is again kidnapped – and for the same motive! However, even though the tribe willingly surrenders their wealth for her return, new chancer Rozzman plans a diabolical double-cross… just like The Phantom and wily Bandar headman Guran…

Then in bustling African coastal boomtown Bangalla, white entrepreneurs orchestrate the “legal” theft of Bandar mineral rights and resources, but ‘The Despoilers’ and their ruthless agent Peel have never faced opposition like The Ghost Who Walks and are soon defeated, after which Mr Walker and Diana take a trip to the Bermuda Triangle to rescue old friend Dr. Kriss when he is ‘Caught in the Devil’s Cauldron’…

The title went on a short hiatus and #60 – cover-dated June 1974 – didn’t appear until March of that year. Sporting a Jim Aparo cover, edited by George Wildman and lettered by Frank Bravo ‘Assault on the Phantom’s Treasure’ was the first of a tranche of translated Italian reprints. Crafted by writer Giovanni Fiorentini & illustrator Mario Pedrazzi, this one originated in May 1967 in Avventure Americane-L’Uomo Mascherato #10 and again focused on the Skull Cave and Bandar wealth, whilst introducing a new archenemy for the hero…

Hook-handed, eye-patched evil scientist Strangol was descended from generations of pirates punished by previous Phantoms and his assault was as much for vengeance as profit. Strangol and his sultry accomplice Linda here united with another Phantom foe – arms dealer Steinkopf – to attack the hero’s home in a supertank, but their technology ultimately proved no match for the hero’s ingenuity and Bandar solidarity…

In #61 (August 1974) Fiorentini and artist Sante D’Amico delivered ‘A Dead Man’s Promise’ after an earthquake wrecks the regional prison and frees extremely dangerous inmates. As they maliciously prey on the local tribes, The Phantom realises that one of them bears a grudge. Tragically, it is not actually with him, but his father who sent the brute to jail twenty years previously and now events confirm that it was a huge miscarriage of justice, one that framed an innocent man and left his baby girl in the hands of the true villain all her life. How can the Ghost Who Walks possibly make amends?

Behind a Frank Bolle cover, #62 (November, by Fiorentini & Pedrazzi) sees the return of Strangol & Linda who break jail to unleash all their resources in a campaign of murder. ‘The Trap’ fails over and again and ends with their capture… but only until the next issue (#63, January 1975) wherein Fiorentini & Pedrazzi detail their attempts to kill their foe as ‘The River Pirates’. Whilst the Phantom strives to re-educate cruel, profligate potentate Gluma Rajah, he is inadvertently aided by the villains in their new submersible supertank who want his gold as much as the Phantom’s death. In the end they get neither.

On sale December 10th 1974 and cover-dated March 1975 ,the final issue here is #64, signalling a return to US originated tales. Written by Gill and illustrated by Bolle ‘Duel with Death’ sees The Phantom targeted by manic murder-merchant Colonel Death and his “close ally” Desert Flame, leaders of terrorist cell The Death Group. Sadly for them training tactics and overwhelming ordnance are no match for the determination and resources of Diana, loyal wolf Devil and the Ghost Who Walks…

With Africa all over contemporary news and “emerging nations” commanding 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!). However, action drama and mystery are never out of style and these yarns prove that the glamour and appeal of The Phantom is self-sustaining and ever-renewing.

With covers by Boyette Aparo, Mario Pedrazzi, Bolle and packed throughout with pages of Boyette and Bolle 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® © 1973-1975 and 2015 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.