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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.

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Virginia Woolf’s Orlando – Adapted by Jules Scheele (Orlando: A Graphic Novel Biography)


By Virginia Woolf, adapted by Jules Scheele with Garry Mac (Avery Hill)
ISBN: 978-1-917355-24-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Some stories don’t translate well from prose to other narrative media, whilst others are simply made for it. In October 1928, author Virginia Woolf published a heavily-satirical appraisal of English literature down the ages. However, her fantasy epic was simultaneously a not-even-barely-veiled dramatised account of her ongoing, uproarious relationship with an equally notorious member of the British aristocracy…

Everyone in the know knew Orlando: A Biography detailed Woolf’s affair with British High Society’s supreme scandal-instigator… Vita Sackville-West. You can look all that history stuff up elsewhere or read the concise contextual precis that comes with this glorious, striking adaptation in the Foreword by Musician, Diarist and Modern Dandy Dickon Edwards…

The original novel is smart, wry and a fabulous historical whimsy that has become a rallying point and clarion call for all matters Queer, Trans, and Proud, and here is even further enhanced by the fitting tactic of adding seductive pictures to form a sequential narrative…

The tale is simple yet compelling: a beautiful, young and so-innocent poet who is a contemporary (and eventually favourite) of Queen Elizabeth I does not age or die.

Enduring and surviving perilous royal favour, great wealth and privilege, personal beauty and vast creative gifts, the poet has many adventures – most of them amorous, but also involving espionage intrigues, great disasters and shady services to The Crown undertaken abroad – before settling in the beloved old family seat to spend the majority of time and effort writing a magnificent novel: The Oak Tree.

Over decades and centuries Orlando adapts and is transformed by love affairs, courtly adventures, travel and writing. At one point, possibly thanks to the ministrations of a Romani witch (the lore and reputation of “Gypsies” fascinated Vita and Virginia cheekily indulged her in these pages) or simply through benevolent evolution, Orlando becomes an equally enchanting and beguiling woman. She too is left largely untouched by the world – except for its arts and fashions – and continues a life of creative and romantic abundance peppered with affairs and dalliances spiked with memorable personal encounters into an unguessable, primarily creative future…

Preceded by a Dedication culled from Derek Jarman, director of the 1992 film adaptation, Jules Scheele’s necessarily arcanely abbreviated Orlando sidelines the book’s formal presentation for a free-flowing cascade of multi-level images and key incidents broken down into ‘Chapter One: Part One: Orlando as a Boy’ & ‘Part Two: Two Years Later…’; ‘Chapter Two: Part Three: Afflicted with a love of literature’ & ‘Part Four: Vanity Rebuked’; ‘Chapter Three Part Five: Some Kind of Miracle’ & ‘Part Six: Orlando Remained Precisely As He Had Been’; ‘Chapter Four, Part Seven: Life, and a lover’ & ‘Part Eight: The clothes that wear us’ with scenes including days at Court and elsewhere subdivided into ‘Whitehall’, ‘The Court of King James at Greenwich’, ‘The Poet’, ‘The Great Frost’, and ‘Time Passed…’ before the settled days and nights of ‘Life, a lover’ presage a reduction in betrayals and forced exiles as constant war with conformity gives way to creative fruition, personal power and security and the ponderous march of time via ‘Chapter Five, Part Nine: Beyond the shadow of a doubt, Female’ and ‘Chapter Six Part Ten: What, Then, is Life?’ prior to the pausing of passing years in ‘Part Eleven: A Single Self, A Real Self’…

Glasgow-based illustrator Jules Scheele’s previous works have been for the educational and voluntary sectors, including the NHS, Scottish Government, UCL, University of Glasgow, LGBT Youth Scotland, Refugee Sanctuary Scotland, Edinburgh Arts Festival and others. His passion projects are fuelled by and stem from queer media, popular culture, and grass roots politics, and were previously seen via and expressed through DIY zine culture. With Dr. Meg-John Barker, Scheele has created numerous non-fiction graphic novels such as Queer: A Graphic History; Gender: A Graphic Guide and Sexuality: A Graphic Guide.
© Jules Scheele, 2026. All rights reserved.

Orlando – A Graphic Novel Biography will be published on June 18th 2026 and is available for pre-order now.

Today in 1934 Lee Falk’s magnificent epitome of wonder and superheroics Mandrake the Magician first appeared.

Today in 1949 British writer and oriental scholar Steve Moore (Rick Random, Laser Eraser & Pressbutton, Hulk, Doctor Who, Absalom Daak, Tales of Telguuth, Warrior, 2000 AD, Fortean Times) was born.

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Taproot: A Story About a Gardener and a Ghost


By Keezy Young & various (The Lion Forge/Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-941302-46-0 (Lion Forge PB/Digital edition), 978-1-63715-073-3 (Oni Press PB/Digital edition)

I’m joining in Pride Month with a timely reminder of a superbly upbeat love story in the sincere hope that one day we won’t need a specially appointed time and space for queer people, or women, or black and Asian ones or in fact any person not white and “naturally” hetero-male. It’s all just stories, folks. Why can’t we just share them out fairly?

Back in 2017, queer, non-binary artist, author/storyteller Keezy Young (Never Heroes, Hello Sunshine) created a supernatural romance that garnered lots of critical attention, accolades and awards. Seattle-based, Young has used art to tell tales since able to hold a crayon in a fist, so it’s no surprise how good they are at it now. They specialise in creating YA comics and stories about being young, adventurous and LGBTQIA.

Rendered in beguiling pastel colours and big, welcoming images, Taproot tells the story of Hamal; a gentle young man who loves plants and growing things. He always has time to chat and offer advice on plant care, even though his boss at the flower store is a bit of a tartar about unnecessary customer service. Mr Takashi would be even more surly if he realised that many of the people Hamal talks to are dead.

Unable to understand or explain his gift, Hamal is not afraid: moving at the centre of a small band of ghostly regulars who spend much of their time with him. There’s moody teen April, effervescent grade schooler Joey and Blue: a good looking older teen who spends too much time trying to fix up Hamal’s love-life. If Blue knows who Hamal really pines for, he’s good at covering it up…

They’ve been close for a year now. The aimless revenant just followed Hamal one day and was astounded when the living doll stared into his invisible face and asked him why. No longer isolated and cut off from existence, Blue stuck around, and other wandering spirits gradually tagged along. It’s not all sunshine and roses though. Recently, something dark and strange has begun slowly unfolding. The plants aren’t thriving, and increasingly spooks are being sucked into a ghastly spectral forest realm of doom and decay. It would be really frightening if they weren’t already dead…

It all comes to a head after Blue is drawn to the forest and confronts a monster who knows what’s really going on in creation. Terrifying and predatory, it recognises what Hamal really is and has plans for both the living and the dead. Worst of all, it has a way to fulfil Blue’s most heartfelt desire… if the ghost boy will play along…

Thankfully, that’s just the beginning of a whole new life for the would-be lovers and a novel existence for Hamal, as the story takes on fresh life via some captivating plot twists that every romantic who loves happy endings can see just by tapping this…
© 2017 Keezy Young. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2007 NetComics.

Born today in 1922, Angela Giussani co-created Italian comics mega-franchise Diabolik with her sister Luciana, whereas Belgian Spirou mainstay Mitacq AKA Michel Tacq (La Patrouille des Castors, Stany Derval) didn’t arrive until 1927. Sublime fantasist Charles Vess (Sandman, Stardust, Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth, The Book of Ballads and Sagas) only arrived in 1951, and amazing comics author (Zot!, Destroy!!) and explainer Scott McCloud came along in 1960. In 1962 mangaka Masahi Tanaka (Gon) came along in 1962.

This date in 1960 we lost veteran strip cartoonist Al Posen (Ella and Her Fella, Rhymin’ Time, Sweeney & Son) and in 2017 Filipino artist and cartoonist “Malang” AKA Mauro Malang Santos (Kosme the Cop, Chain Gang Charlie, Beelzebub).

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Black Widow Epic Collection volume 1: Beware the Black Widow (1964-1971)


By Stan Lee, Don Rico & Don Heck, Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Mimi Gold, Gerry Conway, Jack Kirby, John Buscema, John Romita, Gene Colan, Bill Everett, Chic Stone, Dick Ayers, George Roussos, Vince Colletta, Jim Mooney, John Verpoorten, Sal Buscema, Jack Abel & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2126-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Natasha Romanoff (sometimes Natalia Romanova) is a Soviet Russian spy who came in from the cold and stuck around to become one of Marvel’s earliest female stars. The Black Widow started life as a svelte, sultry honeytrap during Marvel’s early “Commie-busting” days, targeting Tony Stark and battling Iron Man in her debut (Tales of Suspense #52, cover-dated April, 1964 and on sale from January 10th). She was subsequently redesigned as a torrid, tights-&-tech supervillain before defecting to the USA, and romantically entwining with an assortment of Yankee superheroes – including Hawkeye and Daredevil – before finally enlisting as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., setting up as a freelance do-gooder and joining and ultimately leading The Avengers.

Throughout her career she has always been considered ultra-efficient, coldly competent, deadly dangerous and somehow cursed to bring doom and disaster to her paramours. As her backstory evolved, it was revealed that Natasha had undergone experimental processes which enhanced her physical capabilities and lengthened her lifespan, as well as enduring assorted psychological procedures which had messed up her mind and memories.

Traditionally a minor fan favourite, the Widow only really hit the big time after Marvel’s Movie franchise was established, but for us unregenerate comics-addicts her print escapades have always offered a cool, sinister frisson of delight. This expansive l compilation gathers the contents of Tales of Suspense #52-53, 57, 60, 64; Avengers #29-30, 36-37, 43-44; Amazing Spider-Man #86; Amazing Adventures 1-8 and Daredevil #81, plus pertinent excerpts from Avengers #16, 32-33, 38-39, 41-42, 45-47, 57, 63-63 & 76, cumulatively spanning April 1964 through November 1971.

The action opens as a sexy Soviet operative Natasha and her hulking sidekick Boris (yes, I know: simpler times) are despatched to destroy recent defector and top-ranking electronics boffin Anton Vanko and his new Yankee protectors Tony Stark and Iron Man. ‘The Crimson Dynamo Strikes Again!’ (drawn by Don Heck and scripted, like the next issue, by “N. Kurok” – actually veteran creator Don Rico) sees the hero quickly dispose of the armoured Russian heavy while underestimating the far greater threat of the insidious Femme Fatale.

With Tales of Suspense #53, she became a headliner. In ‘The Black Widow Strikes Again!’ Natasha steals Stark’s anti-gravity ray yet ultimately fails in her sabotage mission, fleeing Russian retribution until resurfacing in ToS #57.

Black Widow returned to beguile disgruntled budding superhero ‘Hawkeye, The Marksman!’ (Stan Lee & Heck) into attacking the Golden Avenger in #57, with no appreciable effect. Tales of Suspense #60 featured an extended plotline with Stark’s “disappearance” leading to Iron Man being ‘Suspected of Murder!’. Capitalizing on the chaos, lovestruck Hawkeye and the Widow strike again, but another failure leads to her being recaptured by Russian agents and sentenced to re-education…

Abruptly transformed from fur-draped seductress into a gadget-laden costumed villain, she returned in #64’s ‘Hawkeye and the New Black Widow Strike Again!’ (Lee, Heck & Chic Stone). Her failure led to big changes, as pages from Avengers #16 here depict her punishment and Hawkeye’s reformation and induction into the superteam. Jump forward more than a year and Avengers #29 as Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch prepare to retire: returning to Europe to reinvigorate their fading powers even as ‘This Power Unleashed!’ brings back Hawkeye’s lost love as a brainwashed nemesis resolved to destroy the team.

Recruiting old foes Power Man and The Swordsman as cannon-fodder, The Widow is foiled by her own incompletely-submerged feelings for Hawkeye, after which ‘Frenzy in a Far-Off Land!’ observes dispirited colossus Henry Pym embroiled in a futuristic civil war amongst a lost South American civilisation while a temporary détente between archer and inamorata seems set to fail…

Extracts from Avengers #32-33 (with Heck providing raw, gritty inks over his own pencils in ‘The Sign of the Serpent!’ and concluding chapter ‘To Smash a Serpent!’) sees her own recovery begin as Natasha independently infiltrates a racist secret society before joining the Avengers to destroy the hatemongering snakes.

Her international credentials are exploited when long-missing Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver return, heralding an alien invasion of the Balkans in (Avengers #36-37’s) ‘The Ultroids Attack!’ and ‘To Conquer a Colossus!’. Newly cured, programming-free and reformed, Natasha is the crucial factor in repelling an extraterrestrial invasion: a sinister, merciless Black Widow whose willingness to apply lethal force ultimately saves the day and the Earth…

Extracts from Avengers #38, 39, 41 & 42 detail how she then forsakes her newfound heroic reputation to go undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D.: infiltrating a Communist Chinese super-weapon facility as a supposed Soviet agent. In #43’s complete tale ‘Color him…the Red Guardian!’ (Roy Thomas, John Buscema & George Roussos) her origins and reason for the title “widow” are exposed before – reacting to a world-threatening superweapon – the Avengers storm in for the fight of their lives as the saga climaxes in ‘The Valiant Also Die!’ (Vince Colletta inks): a blistering all-out clash to save humanity from mental conquest…

The fracturing relationship between Hawkeye and the Widow plays out in snippets from Avengers #45-47, #63 and 64 as her growing ties to Nick Fury lead to an heartbreaking split with the Amazing Archer in #76 and the prospect of a new beginning for the Russian renegade. It comes in Amazing Spider-Man #86 as ‘Beware… the Black Widow!’ affords John Romita & Jim Mooney a chance to redesign, redefine and relaunch the super-spy in an enjoyable if formulaic Lee-scripted misunderstanding/clash-of-heroes yarn with an ailing webspinner never really endangered. The entire episode was actually a promotion for the Widow’s own soon-to-debut solo series.

Black Widow’s first solo series appeared in “split-book” Amazing Adventures #1-8: mini-epics paying dues the superspy’s contemporary influences: Modesty Blaise and Emma Peel (that lass from the other Avengers). It all begins with ‘Then Came… The Black Widow’ (AA #1, August 1970, by Gary Friedrich, John Buscema & John Verpoorten) as Natasha emerges from self-imposed retirement to be a socially-aware crusader defending low-income citizens from thugs and loan sharks. One charitable act leads her to help activists ‘The Young Warriors!’ as their attempts to build a centre for underprivileged kids in Spanish Harlem are countered by crooked, drug-dealing property speculators…

Gene Colan & Bill Everett assume art duties from #3’s ‘The Widow and the Militants!’ with her actions and communist past drawing hostile media attention, more criminal attacks and ultimately precipitate an inner-city siege, before the ‘Deadlock’ (scripted by Mimi Gold) comes to a shocking end…

Roy Thomas steps in for a bleakly potent Christmas yarn as ‘…And to All a Good Night’ sees Natasha and faithful retainer/father figure Ivan meet and fail a desperate young man, only to be dragged into a horrific scheme by deranged cult leader The Astrologer who plans to hold the city’s hospitals to ransom in ‘Blood Will Tell!’ (art by Heck & Sal Buscema). Convinced she is cursed to do more harm than good, the tragic adventurer nevertheless inflicts ‘The Sting of the Widow!’ (Gerry Conway, Heck & Everett) on her ruthless prey and his child soldiers, after which the series wraps up in rushed manner with a haphazard duel against Russian-hating super-patriot Watchlord in the Thomas-scripted ‘How Shall I Kill Thee? Let Me Count the Ways!’

The formative tales conclude here with ‘And Death is a Woman Called Widow’ (Daredevil #81, by Conway, Colan & Jack Abel), which sees infamous defector Natasha Romanoff burst onto the scene to save the Man Without Fear from ubiquitous manipulator Mr. Kline and deadly predator The Owl, consequently exposing the manipulative mastermind behind most of DD and the Widow’s recent woes and tribulations…

Rounding out the comics experience here are bonus pages including a stunning Black Widow pinup by Bill Everett; house ads and a huge gallery of original art pages by John Buscema, Verpoorten, Heck, Colan & Everett – including restored artworks edited for overly-salacious content that apparently revealed a little too much of the sexy spy, before being toned down for eventual publication.

These beautifully limned yarns might still occasionally jar with their earnest stridency and dated attitudes, but the narrative energy and sheer exuberant excitement of the adventures are compelling delights no action fan will care to miss…
© 2020 MARVEL.

Today in 1928 Archie and Little Archie writer/artist Bob Bolling was born. Others birthday boys include French auteur André Juillard (Les Sept Vies de l’Épervier, Arno, Chasseurs d’or, Blake and Mortimer) in 1948 and Puerto Rican American George Pérez (everything, but especially Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman, New Teen Titans, Avengers, Justice League of America, Fantastic Four, Superman, Black Widow and more) came along in 1954.

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The Shazam! Archives volume 1


By Bill Parker, C. C. Beck & Pete Costanza with various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-053-6 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

At their most impressive, superhero comics combine the gravitas of mythology with all the sheer fun and exuberance of a child’s first rollercoaster ride. The perfect example of this is the original happy-go-lucky hero we can’t call Captain Marvel anymore.

First seen in late December 1939, Whiz Comics (#2 – there was no #1) cashed in on the comic book sales phenomenon of Superman; the big red riot eventually won his name after narrowly missing being Captain Flash or Captain Thunder. He was the brainchild of Bill Parker & Charles Clarence Beck, initially dispensing the same kind of summary rough justice as his contemporaries. However, the character soon distanced himself from the pack – Man of Steel included – by employing and enjoying an increasingly light, surreal and comedic touch, which made him the bestselling comics character in America. Ultimately, he proved that he could beat everybody but copyright lawyers; during his years of enforced inactivity the trademarked name passed to a number of other publishers before settling at Marvel Comics and they are never, never, never letting go. You can check out and compare their cinematic blockbuster version with the DC Extended Universe’s Shazam! flick too…

Publishing house Fawcett had first gained prominence through an immensely well-received magazine for WWI veterans entitled Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang, before branching out into books and general interest magazines. Their most successful publication – at least until the Good Captain hit his stride – was the ubiquitous boy’s building bible Mechanix Illustrated and, as the comic book decade unfolded, the scientific and engineering discipline and “can-do” demeanour underpinning MI suffused and informed both art and plots of the Marvel Family titles.

As previously stated, the big guy was created by writer/editor Bill Parker and brilliant young artist Charles Clarence Beck who, with his assistant Pete Costanza, handled most of the art on the series throughout its stellar run. Other writers included William Woolfolk, Rod Reed, Ed “France” Herron, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Joe Millard, Manley Wade Wellman and fabulously prolific Otto Binder.

Before eventually evolving his own amiable personality, the Captain was a serious, bluff and rather characterless powerhouse, whilst his juvenile alter ego was the true star: a Horatio Alger archetype of impoverished, boldly self-reliant, resourceful youth overcoming impossible odds through gumption, grit and sheer determination…

Homeless orphan and good kid Billy Batson is selected by an ancient wizard to be given the powers of six gods and heroes to battle injustice. He transforms from scrawny precocious kid to brawny (adult) hero Captain Marvel by speaking aloud the wizard’s name – an acronym for six legendary divine patrons: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.

This magnificent full-colour, deluxe hardback compendium re-presents Captain Marvel’s first 15 exploits from Whiz Comics #2 to 15 (February 1940 to March 1941). There was no #1, two issue #5’s and two editions in March (but I’ll try to explain all that as we go along), with joy, verve and invention paramount in this particular knock-off crusader; one of a countless number imitators and descendants to cash in on the sales phenomenon of Superman…

Author, journalist and fan Richard A. Lupoff covers in great detail the torturous beginnings of the feature in his Foreword before the magic proper starts with a priceless glimpse at the hero’s seemingly-accursed design stage. To establish copyright, publishers used to legally register truncated black-&-white facsimile editions – dubbed “Ash-can Editions” – in advance of their launch issues. For magazine publisher Fawcett, production of their first comic book proved an aggravating process as this registration twice uncovered costly snags which forced the editors to redesign both character and publication.

Contained herein are cover reproductions of Flash Comics #1 starring Captain Thunder (obliviously scheduled for release mere days after DC’s own Flash Comics title hit the stands), and Thrill Comics #1 which repeated the accident just as Standard’s Thrilling Comics launched. Also on view is monochrome art for the first half of the story of “Captain Thunder” which would eventually be re-lettered and released as the lead in anthology title Whiz Comics #2, finally safely released cover-dated February 1940. Like many Golden Age series, the stories collected here never had individual titles, and DC’s compilers have cleverly elected to use the original comics’ strap-lines or cover blurbs to differentiate the tales…

‘Gangway for Captain Marvel!’ – drawn in a style reminiscent of early Hergé – finds homeless orphan newsboy Billy Batson lured into an abandoned subway tunnel to a meeting with infinitely ancient wizard Shazam. At the end of a long life confronting evil, the white-bearded figure grants the lad the powers and signature gifts of six gods and heroes; bidding him to continue the good fight.

In 13 delightfully clean and simple pages Billy gets his powers, has his secret origin revealed (he’s actually heir to a fortune embezzled by his crooked uncle Ebenezer Batson), wins a job as a roaming radio reporter for Amalgamated Broadcasting and defeats the demonic schemes of criminal science maniac Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, who is holding the airwaves of America hostage. The mighty, taciturn and not yet invulnerable Marvel is only sparingly used to do the heavy lifting. It is sheer comic book poetry…

The March issue had no cover number but was listed as #3 in the indicia and featured ‘The Return of Sivana’ as the insane inventor unleashes a mercenary army equipped with his super-weapons upon the nation, attempting to become Emperor of America. His plan is duly thwarted by Billy acting as a war correspondent, and the mighty muscles of Marvel…

The third (April-dated) Whiz Comics had “Number 3” on the cover but was designated #4 inside and proudly proclaimed ‘Make Way for Captain Marvel!’ before boldly leaping into full science fiction mode as Billy is shanghaied to Venus in Sivana’s mighty rocketship. The boy is forced to reveal his amazing secret to the demented inventor whilst battling incredible monsters and giant frog-men dubbed “Glompers”, with the magnificently guileless and gallant Marvel seemingly helpless against the savant’s seductive new ally – Queen Beautia – as that deadly duo prepare to invade Earth.

Only seemingly though…

‘Captain Marvel Crashes Through’ (#4 on the cover, but #5 inside) details how bewitching Beautia, aided by Sivana’s technology, runs for President. However, the sinister siren has a soft heart, and when Billy is captured (and encounters the first of a multitude of diabolically clever gadgets designed to stop him saying his magic word), she frees him, thus falling foul of the gangsters who were backing her. Happily, Captain Marvel is there to save the day…

An inexplicable crime-wave shakes the country in ‘Captain Marvel Scores Again!’ (the wild numbers game finally ends here as there’s a #5 on the cover and the same inside) as a different sinister scientist uses a ray to turn children into thieves. Even Billy is not immune…

‘Captain Marvel and the Circus of Death’ (July 1940) sees Sivana return with fantastic Venusian dino-monsters which our Good Captain is hard-pressed to handle. Incidentally, this was the first issue where the Big Red Cheese is seen definitely flying as opposed to leaping – something Superman is not acknowledged as doing until late 1941. It means nothing, I’m just saying emulation goes both ways…

For ‘Captain Marvel and the Squadron of Doom’, young Billy travels to the North Pole for a radio story and discovers a secret organisation thawing out frozen cavemen to act as their army of conquest, after which he and his mature magical avatar foil a murderous spiritualist causing mass-drownings to bolster his reputation and fortune in ‘Saved by Captain Marvel!’

Whiz #9’s ‘Captain Marvel on the Job!’ finds man & boy foiling a revolution, recovering foreign crown jewels and flummoxing a madman with a shrinking ray, after which Sivana and Beautia return in ‘Captain Marvel Battles the Winged Death’: a blistering yarn involving espionage and America’s latest secret weapon. In this tale, the Empress of Venus finally reforms, becoming a solid American citizen…

‘Hurrah for Captain Marvel!’ finds Batson investigating college hazing and corrupt sporting events whilst in #12 (January 1941), the World War looms large as “Gnatzi” maritime outrages bring Billy to London where he uncovers the spy responsible for sinking refugee ships in ‘Captain Marvel Rides the Engine of Doom!’

‘Captain Marvel – World’s Most Powerful Man!’ then features Sivana’s latest atrocity as the madman disrupts hockey matches, blitzes banks and incapacitates the US army with a formula that turns men into babies. Even Billy isn’t immune, but at least Beautia is there to help him…

War was looking increasingly unavoidable and many superheroes jumped the gun to start fighting before the US officially entered the fray. ‘Captain Marvel Boomerangs the Torpedo!’ is a superb patriotic cover for Whiz #14 (March 1941) even though the actual story involves Sivana’s capture and subsequent discovery of a thought process which allows him to walk through walls – and cell bars. Luckily, the World’s Mightiest Mortal also possesses the Wisdom of Solomon and deduces a solution to the unstoppable menace…

This superb collection concludes after another stirring cover ‘With the British Plane Streaking to a Fiery Doom, Captain Marvel Dives to the Rescue!’ (#15 and also cover-dated March), fronting an unrelated adventure which reveals the astounding and tragic origin of Dr. Sivana, his unbelievable connection to Beautia, and also introduces her brother Magnificus – almost as mighty a fighter as Marvel – after Billy is kidnapped and trapped once more on Venus…

DC/National Periodical Publications had filed suit against Fawcett for copyright infringement as soon as Whiz Comics #2 was released. The companies slugged it out in court until 1953, when, with the sales of superhero comics decimated by changing tastes, Captain Marvel’s publishers decided to capitulate. The name lay unclaimed until 1967 when M.F. Enterprises released six issues of an unrelated android hero before folding. Marvel Comics finally secured rights to the name in 1968.

DC eventually acquired Fawcett’s comic book properties and characters and in 1973 revived the Good Captain for a new generation, gambling that his unique charm would work another sales miracle during one of comics’ periodic downturns. Retitled Shazam! due to the incontestable power of lawyers and copyright legislation, the revived heroic ideal enjoyed mixed success before being subsumed into the company’s vast stable of characters…

Nevertheless, the first Captain Marvel is a true icon of American comic history and a brilliantly conceived superhero for all ages. This titanic tome only scratches the surface of the canon of delights produced over the near 90 years of his tumultuous existence, and is an ideal exemplar introduction to the world of adventure comics: one that will appeal to readers of any age and temperament.
© 1940, 1941, 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1867, French artist, cartoonist, creator and designer of Bibendum (the Michelin man) O’Galop AKA Marius Rossillon was born. He shares birthday with Charles Clarence “C.C.” Beck (Captain Marvel/Billy Batson, Spy Smasher, Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer) in 1910; mega-letterer Ray Holloway in 1920; strip cartoonist/animator Paul Gringle (Rural Delivery, Out Our Way) in 1922, Charlton comics art mainstay Rocke Mastroserio in 1927 and Dutch creator Jan Kruis (Jan, Jans en de Kinderen) in 1933.

Events include Ken Reid’s final Jonah strip in The Beano this day in 1963 – although the strip was revived in The Dandy 30 years later – and last of Gus Edson & Irwin Hasen’s newspaper feature Dondi in 1986, with Tom Batiuk/Chuck Ayers’ strip Crankshaft debuting one year later.

Today in 1846 Swiss satirist and the world’s first true comics creator – Rodolphe Töpffer (Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois/The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck) – died, as did Shoe and Pluggers cartoonist Jeff MacNelly in 2000, and the mighty, massively influential cartoonist, historian and publisher Jack Edward Jackson AKA Jaxon (Rip Off Press co-founder; crafter of God Nose, Los Tejanos, Comanche Moon, The Secret of San Saba, The Alamo: An Epic Told from Both Sides and dozens more) in 2006.

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Betsy and Me


By Jack Cole & Dwight Parks, with R.C. Harvey (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-156097-878-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

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

Jack Cole was one of the most uniquely gifted talents of American comics’ Golden Age. Before moving into mature magazine and gag markets he originated landmark tales in horror, true crime, war, adventure and especially superhero comic books, where his incredible humour-hero Plastic Man remains an unsurpassed benchmark of screwball costumed hi-jinks: frequently copied but never equalled. It was a glittering career of distinction which Cole was clearly embarrassed by and unhappy with.

Without doubt – and despite his other triumphal comics innovations such as The Comet, Silver Streak, Daredevil, The Claw, Death Patrol, Midnight, Quicksilver, The Barker, and a uniquely twisted and phenomenally popular take on the crime and horror genres – Cole’s greatest contribution and lasting creation was the zany Malleable Marvel who (with indispensable sidekick/gadfly Woozy Winks) quickly grew from a minor back-up character into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the era.

In 1954 Cole quit comics for the lucrative and prestigious field of magazine cartooning, and swiftly became a household name when his brilliant watercolour gags and stunningly saucy pictures began regularly running in Playboy from its fifth issue. Cole eventually moved into the lofty realms of newspaper strips and, in 1958, achieved a life-long ambition by launching a syndicated newspaper strip, the domestic comedy Betsy and Me, which began publication on Monday May 26th.

Something about reaching the cartoonist’s Promised Land clearly did not meet with the infamously private Cole’s expectations and, on August 13th 1958, at the peak of his prowess and success, he took his own life. The reasons – although much speculated upon ever since – remain unknown.

The strip was handed to commercial cartoonist Dwight Parks who continued it until an editorial decision was made to end it. The last daily was published on Saturday, December 27th. That great loss to the future of the industry and artform has for years clouded a greater truth: whatever his demons, Cole was a master of comedy and narrative art in all its forms and Betsy and Me was, in its own niche, every bit as great as his glamour illustration and comic book endeavours.

This mostly monochrome tome collects those long-lost newspaper sorties in a welcoming package which begins with the captivating solicitation page designed to entice new papers to buy the strip. Then biography, history, context and analysis come courtesy of historian R. C. Harvey’s introductory essay ‘The Last of Jack Cole: His Life and Art and Why They Both Ended with Betsy and Me’. The heavily illustrated article also offers possible insights into Cole’s motivations, state of mind and possible reasons for suicide, before this superb collection of what should have been Cole’s greatest legacy opens…

Utilising a stripped-down minimalist style that was the astute acme of its time, this domestic comedy is recounted as a fireside tale by homely working stiff Chester B. Tibbit. He recalls and reminisces with unseen readers who daily learn of his romancing of and marriage to Betsy; his downtrodden life as a floorwalker at the Meyers department store and plodding climb up the ladder of middle class aspiration.

The move from apartment to house, the trepidatious purchase of consumer benchmarks such as white goods and even an automobile (in the most generous sense of the term), and the inevitable addition of a child are all gradually covered in a manner most wry and deliciously sardonic. All the laughs stem from an old cartoonist’s trick: the rose-tinted self-deluding narrative says one thing whilst the pictures tell the grim, sordid truth, even when Chester can’t see it himself…

His admired and adored bosses are bullying martinets, his friends are shallow, fair-weather self-servers, Betsy isn’t a quiet, obedient little woman and his son is…

Well, the truth is that infant Farley actually is a genius: rude, brusque, impatient and utterly beyond the intellectual capabilities of his terrified, long-suffering parents. Even from his earliest moments in the crib the kid is the smartest one in the house – and that includes financially and emotionally…

The strips follow the traditional developmental path of courtship, marriage, home-making and child-rearing but always Cole’s needle-sharp social observations and uncontrollable whimsy are seditiously at work. At Meyers’ the infant blackmails his father’s superiors so they stop picking on the little nebbish and when Farley starts school he organises a student revolt…

The toddler even masters judo to protect his bewildered guardians from marauding criminals and spars continually with mooching, predatory Gus, a confirmed bachelor always hanging around Betsy with attentions that are clear to everyone but Chester…

Over the summer of 1958 Betsy and Me steadily grew in quality, scope and popularity. When Cole died on August 13th he had submitted strips for a full month ahead. His last daily ran on September 7th and the final Sunday on September 21st.

Dwight Parks took over and whereas the pared-down artistic style remained, the uneasy edgy satire was lost in favour of more domestic comfortable themes – such as the new house being a broken-down money pit, interfering neighbours, kindergarten woes, dieting and “keeping up with the Joneses”- the stuff of contemporary TV sitcoms like I Love Lucy…

Critics have debated ever since Cole’s passing about whether, given time, Betsy and Me (or even a successor strip) would have cemented the brilliant raconteur as a master of all forms of graphic narrative, or whether he had finally overreached himself. We’ll never know, but at least you can read what remains and judge for yourself.

… And you really should.
© 2007 Fantagraphics Books. Text © 2007 R. C. Harvey.

Today in 1915, EC all-star “Ghastly” Graham Ingels was born, as was Polish comics star Henryk Chmielewski AKA “Papcio Chmiel” (Tytus, Romek i A’Tomek); cartoonist/editor/educator Barb Rausch (Barbie, The Desert Peach, Omaha the Cat Dancer, Disney Studios, Neil the Horse) in 1941; writer/editor/artist Larry Hama (Wolverine, G.I. Joe, Bucky O’Hare, Nth Man) in 1949: artist/animator Rick Hoberg (Tarzan, Star Wars, Eternity Smith, Green Arrow) in 1952 and Mark Schultz (Superman, Xenozoic Tales) in 1955.

In 1958 today we lost astounding illustrator Joe Maneely (Ghost Breakers, Super Magician Comics, Black Knight, Yellow Claw, Atlas genres shorts) and in 2003 French artist Georges Pichard (Blanche Épiphanie, Ténébrax, Submerman, Ceux–là).

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Golden Age Captain America Marvel Masterworks volume 2


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Charles Nicholas, Syd Shores, Al Avison, Al Gabriele, Harry Fisk, Ken Bald, Bill Ward and various (Marvel Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2228-9 (HB), 978-1-3025-0560-8 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Captain America was devised at the end of 1940 and boldly launched in his own monthly title from Timely – the company’s unofficial trading designation – with none of the customary cautious shilly-shallying. Owner Pulp publisher turned comic book empresario Martin Goodman always knew the value of striking while irons were hot…

The first issue was cover-dated March 1941 and became an instant monster, blockbuster smash-hit. Overnight Cap was the absolute and undisputed star of Timely’s “Big Three” – the other two being The Human Torch & Sub-Mariner. He was also one of the very first to plummet from popularity at the end of the Golden Age. These days – excluding, perhaps, some far-too-few Bill Everett-crafted Sub-Mariner yarns – the huge war-years popularity of the other two just doesn’t translate into a good read for modern consumers.

In comparison to their contemporary rivals and industry leaders at Quality, Fawcett, National/All American and Dell, or Will Eisner’s The Spirit newspaper insert, the standard of most Timely periodicals was woefully lacklustre in both story and, most tellingly, art. That they survived and prospered is a Marvel mystery, but a clue might lie in the sheer exuberant venom of their racial stereotypes and heady fervour of jingoism at a time when the USA was becoming involved in the greatest war in global history. Nevertheless, the first ten Captain America Comics are indisputably the most high-quality comics in the fledgling company’s history and I can’t help but wonder what might have been had National (neé DC) been wise enough to hire Simon & Kirby before they were famous, instead of after that pivotal first year?

Of course, we’ll never know and although the team supreme did jump to the majors after a year, their visual dynamic became the mandated aspirational style for super-hero comics at the company they left. Moreover, their patriotic creation became a flagship icon for them and the industry. Truth be told. however, the groundbreaking and exceptionally high-quality material from Joe Simon & Jack Kirby is not really the lure here – the real gold nuggets for us old sods and comics veterans are the rare back-up features overseen by the star duo and crafted by their small pool of talented up-&-comers.

Although unattributed assistants included at various times Reed Crandall, Syd Shores, Alex Schomburg, Mort Meskin, Chu Hing, Charles Nicholas, Gustav Schrotter, George Klein, C.A. Winter, Fred Bell and many more, working on main course and filler features such as Hurricane, the God of Speed and Tuk, Caveboy: strips barely remembered today yet still brimming with the first enthusiastic efforts of creative legends in waiting.

This lavish hardback volume (available in a digital edition) reprints original Star-Spangled blockbusters Captain America Comics #5-8 (spanning August to November 1941) and also provides a fascinating insight into the fly-by-night nature of publishing during those get-rich-quick days in an Introduction from Gerard Jones, after which the astounding action resumes…

After scrawny, enfeebled young patriot Steve Rogers is continually rejected by the US Army, he is recruited by the Secret Service. In an effort to counter a wave of Nazi-sympathizing espionage and sabotage, the passionate young man was tapped to join a clandestine experimental project to create physically perfect super-soldiers. However, when a Nazi agent infiltrated the labs and murdered its key scientist, Rogers became its only successful graduate and transitioned into America’s not-so-secret weapon and very public patriotic symbol.

Despatched undercover as a simple army private, he soon encountered headstrong, orphaned Army Brat James Buchanan Barnes who became his sidekick and costumed confidante “Bucky”. In the period when America was still officially non-combatant, Rogers and his sidekick were stationed at East Coast army base Camp Lehigh, but still manage to find plenty of crime to crush and evil to eradicate.

In Simon & Kirby’s ‘Captain America and the Ringmaster of Death’ the arrival of a circus leads to the deaths of General Blaine and Defense Commissioner Newsome in suspicious circumstances. Before long, both the masked heroes and government agent Betty Ross reach the same conclusion: all the acts and freaks are Nazi operatives sabotaging the nation’s security through murder… but not for much longer…

Japan was still neutral too, so although visually their forces – especially spies – were also unmistakeably ever-present, the eastern arm of the Axis alliance (the other two being Germany and Italy, history fans) were still being referred to as “sinister Orientals” and “Asiatic aggressor nations”. Even so, when Steve & Bucky accompany new commander General Haywood to the US Pacific base of Kunoa, readers knew who was really behind ‘The Gruesome Secret of the Dragon of Death!’ and revelled in seeing the heroes scupper the most spectacular secret weapon yet aimed at the forces of freedom…

Back in the USA, the hard-hitting Star-Spangled Stalwarts then rescue decent, law-abiding German-Americans terrorised by the ‘Killers of the Bund’ who were determined to create a deadly Fifth Column inside America’s heartland. Following a rousing ad for a newly minted Captain America’s Sentinels of Liberty society, a glorified infomercial for the club comes in the form of prose adventure ‘Captain America and the Ruby Robbers’ scripted by Stan Lee with spot art by S&K, after which our Patriotic Pair save a downed volunteer American flyer held prisoner on a former French Island now administered by the collaborating Vichy government.

‘Captain America and… The Terror That Was Devil’s Island’ offers action-drenched melodrama plucked from the contemporaneous Hollywood movie mill and referencing films like 1937’s The Life of Emile Zola, 1939’s Devil’s Island and perhaps even 1941’s I Was a Prisoner on Devil’s Island and served to show that infamy and cruelty could not long subdue any valiant American heart…

Joining the list of supporting features, the equally relevant if improbable adventures of ‘Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent’ began with this issue. Credited to Stan Lee (Goodman’s nephew and major domo Stanley Lieber) & Harry Fisk, these shorts find US journalist Jerry Hunter sent to Blitz-blighted London to report on the European war, only to become the story after uncovering a traitor in the corridors of power…

Sporting only a title page by Simon & Kirby, primeval wonder ‘Tuk, Cave Boy’ bows out in a final example of “Weird Stories from the Dark Ages” as he saves his mentor Tanir from marauding beast-men and ends forever the depredations of brutal tyrant Bongo, before seasoned pro Charles Nicholas (nee Wojtkowski) assumes art chores on ‘Hurricane, Master of Speed’. Hurricane was the earthbound son of thunder god Thor (no relation to the 1960s version): a brisk reworking and sequel to Kirby’s ‘Mercury in the 20th Century’ from Red Raven Comics #1 (cover-dated August 1940), and here intercedes in a diabolical plot to destabilise the economy by flooding US banks with counterfeit currency.

CAC #6 carried a September 1941 cover-date and opens with a classic murder spree thriller as ‘Captain America Battles the Camera Fiend and his Darts of Doom’ in a frantic bid to prevent the theft of Britain’s Crown Jewels. Timely were never subtle in terms of jingoistic (we’d say appallingly racist) depictions, and even the normally reserved Simon & Kirby let themselves go in ‘Meet the Fang, the Arch Fiend of the Orient’ as Cap & Bucky challenge the full insidious might of the Tongs of San Francisco’s China Town to save kidnapped Chinese dignitaries from a master torturer…

Another new feature followed: scripted by Lee and illustrated by Al Avison & Al Gabriele, ‘Father Time: The Grim Reaper Deals with Crime’ details how Larry Scott learned his father had been framed for murder and through heroic efforts exposed the true culprits… but was seconds too late to save his sire from the noose. Resolved that time should no longer be on the side of criminals and killers, Larry devised a ghastly outfit and – wielding a scythe – brought his dad’s persecutors to justice. They would be only the first in Father Time’s crusade…

Simon & Kirby’s art and stories were becoming increasingly bold and innovative. ‘The Strange Case of Captain America and the Hangman Who Killed Doctor Vardoff’ reveals a diabolical game of “Ten Little Indians” as suspects perish one by one whilst the superheroes attempt to catch a ruthless killer and retrieve a stolen experimental super-silk invention. Lee and an unknown artist then offer another thinly-veiled prose plug for the Sentinels of Liberty club as Cap and Bucky lay a ‘Trap for a Traitor’, after which Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent ‘Battles the Engine of Destruction’ (Lee & Fisk) and exposes an aristocratic English fascist building Nazi terror weapons in his British factories.

Following further Sentinels of Liberty club news and puzzle pages ‘Hurricane, Master of Speed’ closes the issue, crushing a murder plot in his own boarding house with art courtesy of Charles Nicholas.

CAC #7 is a stunning comic milestone that leads with iconic clash ‘Captain America in the Case of the Red Skull and the Whistling Death’. With Steve & Bucky ordered to participate in a Vaudeville-themed troop show at Camp Lehigh, the Nazi super-assassin stalks the city, slaughtering his old cronies and US military experts with a mysterious sound weapon. The fiend’s big mistake is leaving the shadows and arrogantly turning his attention to Cap…

‘The Case of the Baseball Murders: Death Loads the Bases’ seemingly offers a change of pace but Steve’s sporting relaxation turns into more work when a masked maniac starts knocking off his team’s star players before Lee’s prose novelette provides ‘A Message from Captain America’ which introduces his fellow heroes Jerry Hunter, Hurricane and Father Time before S&K strip feature ‘Horror Plays the Scales’ pits the Red, White & Blue Bravos against a murdering musician knocking off anti-Nazi politicians.

Ken Bald & Bill Ward introduce a comedy foil for Hurricane as ‘Justice Laughs Last’ sees the speedster adopt portly shopkeeper Speedy Scriggles after protection racketeers target the feisty fool. Headline Hunter (Lee & Fisk) then clears an Englishman accused of murdering an American film star and reveals a Nazi plot to disrupt Anglo-US relations, as Father Time’s ‘Race Against Doom’ (Lee, Al Avison & Al Gabriele) saves another innocent patsy from taking the fall for a crooked DA and his mob-boss paymaster. The issue closes with more puzzles and patriotic pronouncements from Cap & Bucky to all their fee-paying Sentinels…

Cover-dated November 1941, Captain America Comics #8 was released months before the Pearl Harbor atrocity catapulted the USA into official war so contents might have compiled as early as June or July. Thus it opens with another gripping crime conundrum – ‘The Strange Mystery of the Ruby of the Nile and Its Heritage of Horror’ – which sees the heroes assisting Betty Ross in safeguarding a fabulous antique jewel, but seemingly helpless to prevents its archaeologist excavators being butchered by a marauding phantasm.

The impending conflagration does inform ‘Murder Stalks the Maneuvers’ when a Nazi infiltrator attends war games and uses the opportunity to trick the soldiers into destroying each other with live ammo, whilst Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent remains in the thick of it facing ‘The Strange Riddle of the Plague of Death’ (Lee & Fisk). This time he saves London (and the Home Counties) from a strange sickness spread by bread…

After more Sentinel propaganda and absorbing puzzles, Simon & Kirby’s ‘Case of the Black Witch’ has Cap & Bucky shielding a young woman’s inheritance before clashing with a sinister sorceress and the worst horrors hell could conceive of.

Nicholas returns to Hurricane as the Master of Speed and his new pal shut down a crooked ‘Carnival of Crime’, after which Lee & an unsung illustrator promote in prose a new Timely title as ‘The Young Allies Strike a Blow for Justice’. Please be warned: the treatment here of “Negro” character Whitewash – a full partner in the heroic team – is every bit as dated, contentious and potentially offensive as that era’s representations of other races, so kudos to the editors for bravely leaving the story untouched and unedited. Closing on a bombastic high, Father Time then deals harshly with robbers who use bank strongrooms to asphyxiate witnesses in ‘Vault of Doom!’

An added and very welcome bonus for fans is the inclusion of some absolutely beguiling house-ads for other titles, contents pages, Sentinels of Liberty club bulletins and assorted ephemera…

Although lagging far behind DC and despite, in many ways having a much shallower Golden Age well to draw from, it’s commendable that Marvel has overcome understandable initial reluctance about its earliest output in these masterworks – even if they’re only potentially of interest to the likes of sad old folk like me. However, with this particular tome at least, the House of Ideas has a book that will always stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best that the Golden Age of Comics could offer.
© 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Pioneering Italian comics creator Sandro Angiolini (Isabella) was born today in 1920, sharing the date with Belgian Maurice Maréchal (Prudence Petipas) in 1922 and American cartoonist Tom K. Ryan (Tumbleweeds) in 1926, and – one year later – Le Journal de Spirou stalwart creator Peter Spier (Sophie).

We lost Katzenjammer Kids artist Joe Musial in 1977; Timely/Atlas/Marvel Comics founder Martin Goodman in 1992; Golden and Silver Age comic book everyman Manny Stallman (Young Robin Hood, Big Town, Raven) in 1997, with this century this day marking the passings of Kate Worley (Omaha the Cat Dancer) in 2004 and French creator and co-founder of Pilote Jean-René Le Moing – AKA “Bulbul” – (Le Chevalier Emerik, Peter Pat) in 2012.

In 1932 Clifford McBride’s Napoleon and Uncle Elby premiered; and in 1959 The Beano debuted Leo Baxendale’s The Three Bears, UK whilst weekly Cor!! launched today in 1970 and Steve Gerber & Gene Colan’s newspaper strip version of Howard the Duck took flight in 1977.