Author: Now Read This

UK EDITION

By various (Panini Publishing UK)
ISBN: 978-1-905239-62-7

Comics are a truly international enterprise and these days creators from other lands are commonplace. This volume collects three one-shots by artists and writers who usually work in the more mainstream environs of European comics publishing.

Kicking off is ‘Wolverine: Saudade’ written by Jean-David Morvan and illustrated by Philippe Bouchet. Morvan has written more than 80 graphic novels and is the current writer of Spirou & Fantasio. He has previously worked with Bouchet on Nomad and Sillage. Their interpretation of Wolverine is, regrettably, not in the same league as that latter incredible Sci-fi epic. On “vacation” in Brazil, the invincible hero falls foul of a scurrilous faith-healer while rescuing some mutant street-orphans in a stylish but vacuous tale that could have benefited from a more dutiful editor catching some of the more glaring syntax and mistranslation glitches.

A much better proposition is ‘Dead on Arrival’ a team-up of Daredevil and Captain America from the Italian duo Tito Faraci and Claudio Villa. Both work for the Italian Disney company as well as for such icons as Diabolik, Dylan Dog, Martin Mystére and Nick Raider. As well as illustrating some stories for the magazine, Villa is also the cover artist of the legendary spaghetti western series Tex.

In a dark and brooding race against time, the Man Without Fear has to track down a murderous foe that he thought long dead, unaware that Captain America is also hunting the killer, armed with the knowledge that the slightest misstep could lead to the destruction of all time and space… Stunningly illustrated and brilliantly plotted the only flaw in an otherwise perfect adventure thriller is the painfully verbose and overwritten dialogue, a tendency mercifully curbed for the last – and best – tale collected here.

‘Spider-Man in Venice: The Secret of the Glass’ is also written by Tito Faraci, and gleefully, gloriously drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano. This artist also works for Italian Disney as well as Sergio Bonelli Editore, in a sort of cartoony, universally acceptable light style that blends powerfully subtle expressionism with a strong naturalistic line, for a beautiful, subversive mesmerising effect.

On assignment in Venice, Daily Bugle photographer Peter Parker stumbles across an ancient blood-hungry menace that has escaped a fiery glass tomb. A delightful crossing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Scooby-Doo, this is a rare gem in anybody’s language.

This intriguing collection of one-off adventures features popular Marvel properties in tales crafted by foreign creators. I’m not sure if that isn’t patronising or even racist – it’s certainly an unnecessary distinction in an industry with a huge history of using creators because of their ability (or perhaps affordability), rather than something as irrelevant as nationality, but the stories themselves are an intriguing mix of perspectives, and I’m forced to admit, there are cultural differences to be seen… All in all, an experiment worth repeating and a book worth having.

© 2003, 2006, 2007 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Adapted by Scott Rockwell, illustrated by Steven Ross (Corgi)
ISBN: 0-552-13945-9

This oddity is a regrettably mediocre adaptation of the very first Discworld novel which originally appeared as a four issue miniseries from Innovation Comics, a publisher that cornered the market on novel-to-strip adaptations as well as other licensed properties in the early 1990s.

In an infinite cosmos how unlikely is it that there’s a world which is flat, held up by four giant elephants standing on the shell of humongous Turtle swimming through the cold depths of space? Well there is, and on it magic works, Gods exist and meddle in the affairs of men, and humans themselves are the annoying lead-footed clods and tossers they are here.

Rincewind is a failed Wizard with a terrible secret and a costermonger’s soul who inadvertently links up with the Discworld’s first tourist for a series of sword-and-sorcery pastiches very much in the manner of Douglas Adams’s comedy masterpiece The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Much of the dry wit and acerbic slapstick of Pratchett’s original novel is lost in this slavish and leaden adaptation and the art is frankly substandard and stylistically inappropriate, but even that can’t stifle the intrinsic charm of the concept. If you’re a fantasy fan with a sense of humour, there’s entertainment to be had here, but I’d still advise the book over the graphic novel. What would be best, of course, is an all-new adaptation by a British artist better suited to dry comedy and English nuances. Steve Parkhouse, Terry Wiley, where are you?

Although not even Pratchett’s best work by a long chalk, The Colour of Magic (ISBN 13: 978-0-055212-475-1 if you’re tempted) eventually sparked a world phenomenon. His later Discworld books (36 now and still counting) are some of the funniest fantasies or most fantastic comedies and satires – depending on your stance – in the English language. They’re equally successful in many other media, including animation, musicals, film and even cartography! A second graphic novel adaptation Mort, infinitely superior in all respects to this was also completed, and I’ll get to that another time…

© 1983 Terry Pratchett. This edition © 1991 Terry & Lyn Pratchett Inc. Art and adaptation © 1991 by Innovation Corporation.

By Russ Manning (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN13: 978-1-56971-151-4

I first came across this little gem as a British hardcover annual published by Treasure Hour Books, produced by the American licensee for the European market – a common practice back then for the relatively few truly international brands like Tarzan or Mickey Mouse.

Russ Manning was an absolute master of his art, most popularly remembered for the Star Wars newspaper strip, Magnus, Robot Fighter and both the comic-book and newspaper strip incarnations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s immortal Lord of the Jungle. Like many of his predecessors his Tarzan work never strayed far from the canonical texts and in this particular case he combined the fabulous Lord Greystoke with another of Burroughs’ fantastic creations. ‘Caspak’ was an island where creatures from all eras of time existed simultaneously, and which were featured in the novels The Land that Time Forgot, The People that Time Forgot and Out of Time’s Abyss as well as a couple of incomprehensibly successful movies.

In this beautifully illustrated volume Tarzan accompanies his friend Van Clenard on a voyage to Peru. The heartsick young man is following his troubled fiancé Lya Billings who has gone missing whilst hunting for Caspak and the hidden secret of her own birth.

When the pair finally find her it is in a fabulous and terrible land where cave-men live alongside dinosaurs and where bloody danger waits at every turn. To rescue Lya and escape the Island they have first to solve the mystery of how evolution ran wild, in a world where human aggression and cupidity seem to be the only constant…

Manning was not only a master draughtsman of the classical school but also a storyteller of unparalleled brilliance. This old fashioned adventure is joy to behold and a delight to read. Pure magic for action-fans of all ages…

© 1974, 1996 Edgar Rice Burroughs Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.