Author: Now Read This

DC ARCHIVE EDITION VOLUME 1

By Bob Haney, Nick Cardy & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0071-0

The concept of kid hero teams was not a new one when the 1960s Batman TV show finally prompted DC to trust their big heroes’ assorted sidekicks with their own regular comic in a fab, hip and groovy ensemble as dedicated to helping kids as they were to stamping out insidious evil. The biggest difference between such wartime groups as The Young Allies, Boy Commandos and Newsboy Legion or such 1950s holdovers as The Little Wise Guys or Boys Ranch and the creation of the Titans was quite simply the burgeoning phenomena of “The Teenager” as a discrete social and commercial force. These were kids who could be allowed to do things themselves without constant adult help or supervision.

As early as the June-July 1964 issue of The Brave and the Bold (#54), the powers that be had tested the waters with a gripping tale by writer Bob Haney superbly illustrated by unsung genius Bruno Premiani. ‘The Thousand-and-One Dooms of Mr. Twister’ united Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin, the Boy Wonder in a desperate battle against a modern wizard-cum-Pied Piper who had stolen the teen-agers of Hatton Corners. The young heroes had met in the town by chance when students invited them to mediate in a long-running dispute with the town adults.

This element of a teen “court-of-appeal” was often the motivating factor in many of the group’s cases. One year later the team reformed for a second adventure (The Brave and the Bold #60, and by the same creative team) and introduced two new elements. ‘The Astounding Separated Man’ featured more misunderstood kids – this time in the coastal hamlet of Midville – threatened by an outlandish monster whose giant body parts could move independently. The young heroes added Wonder Girl (not actually a sidekick, or even a person, but rather an incarnation of Wonder Woman as a child – a fact the writers of the series seemed blissfully unaware of) and they finally had a team name: ‘Teen Titans’.

Their final try-out appearance was in Showcase (issue #59, November-December 1965), birthplace of so many hit comic concepts, and was the first to be drawn by the brilliant Nick Cardy (who became synonymous with the series). ‘The Return of the Teen Titans’ pitted the team against teen pop trio ‘The Flips’ who were apparently also a gang of super-crooks, but as was so often the case the grown-ups had got it all wrong…

The very next month their own comic debuted (#1 was dated January-February 1966 – released mere weeks before the Batman TV show aired on January 12th) with Robin the point of focus on the cover – and most succeeding ones. Haney and Cardy produced an exotic thriller entitled ‘The Beast-God of Xochatan!’ which saw the team act as Peace Corps representatives involved in a South American drama of sabotage, giant robots and magical monsters. The next issue held a fantastic mystery of revenge and young love involving ‘The Million-Year-Old Teen-Ager’.

‘The Revolt at Harrison High’ cashed in on the teen craze for drag-racing in a tale of bizarre criminality. Produced during a historically iconic era, many readers now can’t help but cringe when reminded of such daft foes as ‘Ding-Dong Daddy’ and his evil biker gang, and of course the hip, trendy dialogue (it wasn’t even that accurate then, let alone now) is pitifully dated, but the plot is a strong one and the art magnificent.

‘The Secret Olympic Heroes’ guest-starred the Green Arrow’s teen partner Speedy in a very human tale of parental pressure at the Olympics, although there’s also skulduggery aplenty from a terrorist organisation intent on disrupting the games.

This volume concludes with ‘The Perilous Capers of the Terrible Teen’ as the Titans face the dual task of helping a troubled young man and capturing a super-villain called the Ant, despite all the evidence indicating that they’re the same person…

Although perhaps dated in delivery, these tales were a liberating experience for kids when first released. They truly betokened a new empathy with independent youth and tried to address problems that were more relevant to that specific audience. That they are so captivating in execution is a wonderful bonus. This is absolute escapism and absolutely delightful.

© 1964, 1965, 1966, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved

By John Carnell & Andy Lanning (Marvel UK)
ISBN: 1-85400-242-2

I first reviewed this as a mini-series for the excellent Slings & Arrows Comic Guide a few years back and I didn’t have a awful lot of good things to say about it then, but it came up in conversation recently and someone whose opinion I respect (not a full-on comics fan) reckoned it a “not bad read” so I thought I’d give it another look in the context of a broader audience.

In the future, El Ape and Deadbeat Sleeze are doing their very best – which is very bad – to make a living as private detectives. But this useless pair of futuristic gumshoes are in trouble with Police Sergeant Pigheadski as often as from such scurrilous rogues as The Reverend Smiler While, Orsum Wurlds, J. Edgar Hairdryer, Marilyn Blondeclone and the truly repugnant Bwokenpotee and Andrexia of the subterranean Aarsouls faith.

Aimed at a mature audience (and I’m saying a big nothing here) this pastiche blends sci-fi sagas and the seminal movie The Blues Brothers to capture the very worst of British humour but at least manages to recycle many of the universe’s oldest jokes one last time – hopefully.

Originally released as six issue miniseries from Marvel’s Epic imprint this volume contains extra story material although I can’t imagine why, since my now reconsidered opinion is that it’s ‘Still Rubbish – But Some People Might Like It’.

It takes all sorts I suppose…

© 1990 John Carnell & Andy Lanning. All Rights Reserved.

By Roy Thomas, P. Craig Russell & Michael T. Gilbert
ISBN: 0-915419-05-X (First Comics) ISBN: 0-936211-01-6 (Graphitti Designs)

Although chronologically the first tale of the doomed king, this adventure was one of the last written by Moorcock (in the initial cycle of stories at least – he returned to the character years later). Adaptors Roy Thomas and P. Craig Russell had also worked on other tales of the last Emperor of Melniboné, specifically The Dreaming City as a Marvel Graphic Novel in 1982 and ‘While the Gods Laugh’ which featured in the fantasy anthology magazine Epic Illustrated #14 (1984).

Elric is an absolute classic of the Sword and Sorcery genre: Ruler of the pre-human civilisation of the Melnibonéans, a race of cruel, arrogant Sorcerers: Dissolute creatures in a slow, decadent decline after millennia of dominance over the Earth. An albino, he is physically weak and of a brooding philosophical temperament, caring for nothing save his beautiful cousin Cymoril, even though her brother Prince Yrrkoon openly lusts for his throne. He doesn’t even really want to rule, but it is his duty, and he is the only one of his race to see the newly evolved race of Man as a threat to the Empire.

When these Young Kingdoms attack the Dreaming City of Imrryr, capital of Empire for ten thousand years, the Fleet, bolstered by dragons and magic easily dispatches them, but wily Yrrkoon seizes his chance and throws the enfeebled Emperor overboard to drown. The deeply conflicted hero believes himself happy to die but some part of his mind calls to the sea-elementals who are bound allies of the Empire to save him. When he returns to confront the usurper, Yrrkoon unleashes a demonic doomsday weapon and flees with Cymoril as his hostage.

All Elric’s magic cannot find them, and in obsessive desperation he pledges allegiance to Arioch, a Lord of Chaos in opposition to the Lords of Order. The eternal see-saw war of these supernal forces is the fundamental principle of the universe or “Multiverse”. For providing the etiolated Elric with the means to find and defeat his cousin, Arioch will demand his devils due, but the Albino does not care… yet in his dark and foredoomed future lurks the black blade ‘Stormbringer’, the Rune-sword, the malevolent Stealer of Souls, and so very soon, he will…

The novel is an iconic and groundbreaking landmark of fantasy fiction and a must-read-item for any fan. This spectacular, baroque adaptation is an elegant and savagely beautiful masterpiece (collected from comics originally published by Pacific and First Comics) of the genre and effortlessly blends blistering action and gleaming adventure with the deep, darkly melancholic tone of the cynical, nihilistic, Cold-War mentality and era that spawned the original stories. You must read the book and you should own this graphic novel.

© 1983-1984, Roy Thomas, P. Craig Russell & Michael T. Gilbert. Adapted from the original short story by Michael Moorcock, © 1972. All Rights Reserved.

Wondering, “WHAT SHALL I GET HIM FOR CHRISTMAS?”

 

By Bill Watterson
ISBN13: 978-0751512748 Paperback (Time Warner) ISBN: 0-8362-1809-4 Hardback (Andrews and McMeel)

Christmas is best experienced through the eyes of a child — and better yet if he’s a fictional child controlled by the whimsical sensibilities of a comic strip genius like Bill Watterson. Unlike most of his fellows, Watterson shunned the spotlight and the merchandising Babylon that follows a comic strip mega-hit and dedicated all his spirit and energies into producing one of the greatest treatments on childhood and the twin and inevitably converging worlds of fantasy and reality anywhere in fiction.

Calvin is a hyper-active little boy growing up in suburban middle-American Everytown. There’s a city nearby, with Museums and such, and a little bit of wooded wilderness at the bottom of the garden. The kid’s smart, academically uninspired and happy in his own world. He’s you and me. His best friend and companion is a stuffed tiger named Hobbes, who may or may not be alive…

And that’s all the help you’re getting. If you know the strip you already love it, and if you don’t you won’t appreciate my destroying the joys of discovery for you. This is beautiful, charming, clever, intoxicating and addictive tale-telling, blending wonder and laughter, socially responsible and wildly funny. After ten years, at the top of his game Watterson retired the strip and himself, and though I bitterly resent it, and miss it still, I suppose it’s best to go out on a peak rather than fade way by degrees.

This sumptuous volume is a compendium of the first two collections, Calvin and Hobbes and Something Under the Bed Is Drooling, and shows the magic of the strip in tales that will make you laugh and isn’t afraid to make you cry. Truly this is a masterpiece and landmark of American cartooning. This year why not get yourself a present that will keep on giving?

© 1988 Universal Press Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.

By Hunt Emerson (Knockabout)
ISBN: 0-86166-050-1

Calculus Cat is a bitter creature trapped in a loveless relationship with no way out. All day he goes out, slaving at his dire job of scooting about with a broad and painful smile whilst people throw stuff at him, and when he gets home instead of Tender Loving Care he gets more grief; relentless grief.

For in the Cat’s world the television set loves him, needs him and exploits him.

Cryptic, surreal, weirdly symbolic and brilliantly funny in a uniquely British way these collected strips detail the war of nerves and will between a TV set that is compelled and driven to bombard the cat with advertising, offering teasing little snippets of seductive entertainment like Supercar or westerns every time the hapless feline musters enough self-respect to attempt a break-up. As an allegory of marriage it is wonderful, as a description of our relationship with the Media it’s actually a little scary… but I did mention that it was very funny, right?

Produced occasionally, and with the unspecified help of the enigmatic “Pokkettz”, this is an art-lover’s delight – as always – but has hidden depths and echoes. Yet another prime candidate for the clarion battle-cry, “Back in Print, Now!” “Back in Print, Now!”

© 1987 Hunt Emerson. All Rights Reserved.

By James A. Owen (Coppervale Press)
No ISBN: ASIN: B0006QCPRO

This fantasy epic collects (although with such drastic reworking it might best be considered a “Director’s Cut”) the self-published tales by graphic artisan and novelist James A. Owen who began his opus with 13 issues from Taliesin Press. He eventually retrenched as Coppervale Press with the miniseries Crossroads, Mythopolis and Tales from the TwoPenny Inn.

Starchild is an expansive, if sometimes ponderous, generational saga that explores the nature of the creative act using a rustic and classical fairytale as the narrative engine. Rather than précis the collection, it’s in the interests of potential readers to take away a flavour and experience the tales (some of which might be considered rather slight and derivative) in context rather than with my blather creating too many preconceptions.

Ezekiel Higgins was once a momentary dalliance of Titania, the Queen of Faerie, and the text follows the lives of the children and grandchildren of that union. At first the tales are over-complex and uncomfortably familiar but as the author grows into his craft and exhibits some narrative discipline the development of his characters and world eventually consolidates into a strong and solid base to build myths on and in.

Dark, atmospheric artwork and a strong design flair add to the traditional fantasy flavour, and in a time when the core conceits are considered Big Box Office, this is a book that might find favour with a broader audience if revived.

© 1995 James A. Owen. All Rights Reserved.