Author: Now Read This

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Hellblazer: Stations of the Cross

Hellblazer: Stations of the Cross

By Mike Carey, Marcelo Frusin & Leonardo Manco (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84576-329-7

After the apocalyptic conclusion of the previous collected volume (Staring at the Wall – ISBN 1-84576-233-9) the unbeatable trickster magician Constantine is reduced to a drooling amnesiac. Helpless, he is a target for all the various evil monstrosities that he’s outwitted and pissed off in a truly startling career, but by this volumes close he’ll have undergone a transformation into something he’s never been before…

Even though helpless, without knowledge or power, one talent never leaves the dissolute anti-hero: His ability to attract the wrong sort of attention. ‘Out of Season’ (originally printed in issues #194-196 of the monthly comic-book) finds the magician as the target of a psychic serial killer, and his next adventure (from issues #197-199) takes him to a diabolical Homeless shelter run by an old, forgotten foe.

This is the set-up for the big anniversary epic (issue #200) as the magician succumbs to demonic temptation and finds himself the father of three hellish children in parallel world “might have been” tales that will have actual repercussions in days to come.

With art by past luminaries Leonardo Manco, Chris Brunner, Steve Dillon and Marcelo Frusin this pitilessly British horror thriller, is packed with dark tension, brutal, bloody confrontations and the chilling certainty that no good deed will ever go unpunished. This is superb mature entertainment and a self-evident confirmation of why Hellblazer has lasted so long, and won so many fans.

© 2005, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Question: Zen and Violence

The Question: Zen and Violence

By Dennis O’Neil, Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-690-0

One of DC’s best comics series of the 1980’s finally makes it into the trade paperback format, due no doubt to the hero’s major role in the ambitious weekly comic maxi-series 52.

The Question, created by Steve Ditko, was Vic Sage, a driven, justice-obsessed journalist who sought out crime and corruption irrespective of the consequences. This Charlton ‘Action-Hero’ was purchased by DC when Charlton folded and was the template for the compulsive Rorschach when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons first drafted the miniseries that would become the groundbreaking Watchmen. The contemporary rumour-mill had it that since the creators couldn’t be persuaded to produce a spin-off Rorschach comic the company went with a reworking of the Ditko original.

An ordinary man pushed to the edge by his obsessions, Vic Sage used his fists and a mask that made him look utterly faceless to get answers (and justice) whenever normal journalistic methods failed. After a few successes around the DC universe Sage got a job in the town where he grew up.

Hub City was a hell-hole, the most corrupt and morally bankrupt municipality in America. Mayor Wesley Fermin was a degenerate drunken sot and the real power was insane cleric Reverend Jeremiah Hatch, whose hand-picked gang of “heavies” are supplemented by the world’s deadliest assassin, Lady Shiva.

Reuniting with Aristotle Rodor, the philosopher-scientist who created his faceless mask and other gimmicks, Sage determines to clean up The Hub, but despite early victories against thugs and grafters, he is easily defeated by Shiva, and left to the mercies of Hatch and his gang. A brutal beating by the gangsters breaks every bone in his body, and after shooting him in the head they throw his body in the freezing waters of the river.

Obviously, he doesn’t die. Rescued by the inscrutable Shiva, but crippled, he is sent into the wilderness to be healed and trained by O’Neil’s other legendary martial arts creation, Richard Dragon. A year passes…

It’s a new type of hero who returns to a Hub City which has degenerated even further. Sage’s girlfriend is now the Mayor’s wife, Reverend Hatch has graduated from thugs to terrorist employees, and his madness has driven him to actually seek the destruction of Humanity. Will the new Question be sufficient answer to the problems of a society so utterly debased that the apocalypse seems like an improvement?

Combating Western dystopia with Eastern Thought and martial arts action is not a new concept but the author’s spotlight on cultural problems rather than super-heroics make this series O’Neil’s most philosophical work, and the quirky, edgy art imbues this darkly adult, powerfully sophisticated thriller with a maturity that is simply breathtaking.

This is a story about dysfunction: Social, societal, political, emotional, familial and even methodological. The normal masked avenger tactics don’t work in a “real”-er world, and some solutions require better Questions…

© 1986, 1987, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings

Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings

By Craig Yoe (Last Gasp)
ISBN 13: 978-0-86719-653-5

Despite the somewhat prurient and sensationalistic – not to say salacious – title, this compilation of cartoons and illustrations, culled from the private files and bins of a number of our industry’s greatest stars (and also many from the drawing boards of those infamous scallywags of the animation industry) is a charming insight into the capabilities and accomplishments of a talented crowd of individualists.

To European eyes there is very little amiss here, but one needs to remember just how prudish and censorious (I personally prefer the terms “daft” and “ridiculous”) the American “family values” lobby is and always has been. Two brilliantly telling examples would be the covering of Flossie the Cow’s udders first by a skirt (1932) and eventually (1939) by a full dress (she also had to stop walking on all-fours because it was unladylike) and Mort Walker’s navel collection (apparently a syndicate editor had a problem with belly buttons and always returned Beetle Bailey strips that featured one. Walker would scalpel them off the artwork and collect them in a pot on his desk).

Collected and compiled by fan, historian, Renaissance man and cool bloke Craig Yoe (among his many accomplishments he counts being Creative Director of the Muppets – bet you want to Google him now, don’t you?) and with an introduction by a proper “Dirty” cartoonist Robert Crumb, this is a frothy book of rather chaste naked lady pictures (and often not even that) in colour and monochrome, from some of the best artists and cartoonists in modern history – although you might want to check the oddly incongruous contributions of Gustave Doré and Thomas Rowlandson before giving a copy to your eight-year old.

So if you’re unflappable, incorruptible or just not from Kansas or Georgia, you might want to sneak a peak at this stellar cast of incorrigibles which includes Jack Kirby, James Montgomery Flagg, George Herriman, Joe Shuster, Steve Ditko, Charles Schulz, Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Chuck Jones, Dr, Seuss, Carl Barks, Bob Kane, Rube Goldberg, Bruce Timm, Alex Toth, Fred Moore, Dan DeCarlo, Dave Berg, Ernie Bushmiller, Sergio Aragones, Jack Davis, Billy DeBeck, Hal Foster, Harry G. Peter, Paul Murray, Neal Adams, Al Jaffee, Wally Wood, Nick Cardy, Hank Ketcham, Johnny Hart, Walt Kelly , Adam Hughes, Alex Schomburg, Al Williamson, Henry Boltinoff, Stan Drake, Dik Browne, Matt Baker, Otto Soglow, Al Capp, John Severin, Jim Steranko, Jack Cole, Bill Everett, Grim Natwick, Will Eisner and many others.

© 2007 Gussani-Yoe Studio, Inc.
All illustrations are © 2007 their respective artist and/or © holders.

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Top 10: The Forty-Niners

Top 10: The Forty-Niners

By Alan Moore, Gene Ha, Todd Klein & Art Lyon (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-1491-6

Diverging from the more of less contemporary adventures of a pan-dimensional police force getting the job done in a city populated entirely of super-beings, gods and monsters: Alan Moore and Gene Ha here take us back to the beginning and incorporate the origin of Neopolis into a memorable tale of political and social upheaval that blends crime-drama, horror movie and period thriller into a seamless love story, an evocation of the very history of the comic book itself.

In 1949 a fresh political philosophy is creating a new America, and all the superheroes, villains, robots, aliens, super-naturals and just plain do-gooders that won the war and kept the home front safe are being compulsorily relocated to a brand new city, far away from normal citizens.

Into this bold new experiment comes a huge variety of extra-special beings: Everything from Nazi mad scientists, vampires, costumed heroes, and especially war heroes. Skywitch was a German aviator who fought with the Allies, and on her first day she meets 16 year old Jetlad, who shot down his first Nazi plane before his tenth birthday.

They strike up an unlikely friendship as they attempt to forge new “normal” lives in the burgeoning social experiment of Neopolis. But even if the World is new, nature is not and soon many inhabitants are returning to their old habits. Perhaps the newly minted police force isn’t such a lousy career path after all…

Although a tight and gripping thriller and a sterling origin tale for an award winning comic series, this is actually a compelling and elegiac expression of reality ending a Golden Age, with beautiful characterisations of extraordinary people rendered real by Gene Ha’s faded documentary-style illustration. Here is a lovely book that any mature reader will enjoy and cherish.

© 2005 America’s Best Comics LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Star Trek: Debt of Honor

Star Trek: Debt of Honor

By Christopher S. Claremont, Adam T. Hughes & Karl C. Story (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-421-0

Nominally set after the fourth movie (the one with the Whales) it all starts with Kirk and time-displaced marine biologist Gillian Taylor waiting for the birth of the first baby cetacean when a mysterious message begins a long-planned covert mission involving practically everybody who ever appeared in an episode or film.

Early in his career Kirk and a Vulcan woman named T’Cel were the only survivors of an extra-galactic attack that destroyed the Starship Farragut in the borders between Federation, Klingon and Romulan space. Years later, (just after the “Doomsday Machine” TV episode – the one that looked like a giant cream horn) the same aliens attack docked Klingon and Romulan ships. When Enterprise answers the distress calls Kirk discovers that T’Cel is now a Romulan Commander and our galaxy is under threat from the evolving and increasingly unstoppable extra-galactic invaders. The monsters’ assault once again defeated at great cost, the survivors make a pact…

The odd confederates meet once more (just after Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and a plan is hatched to stop the periodic bloody incursions irrespective of the political dictates of their leaders. When the aliens return, these Federation, Romulan and Klingon survivors will secretly unite to save their galaxy at all costs…

This is a Star Trek tale told in the classic manner, beautifully illustrated by the wonderful Adam Hughes and winningly over-written in approved Chris Claremont style. Romance and melodrama, action and sacrifice all combine to create a “Trekkie’s” dream come true. It’s also a pretty good comic-book adventure too.

©1992 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Flash Gordon Volume 4

Flash Gordon Volume 4

By Alex Raymond (Checker BPG)
ISBN: 1-933160-26-8

The fourth collection of the legendary Sunday comic strip – covering the period from June 12th 1938 to January 21st 1940 – continues the astonishing parade of wonders that bedazzled and captivated the world, with each sabbath instalment somehow topping the last in a seemingly endless progression of drama, excitement and fantasy. Raymond’s faultless blend of classicism and feudal futurism electrified the reading public, and his sagas captured the imagination of generations.

The previous volume ended with Flash and his fellow rebels hidden beneath Ming’s city when the monstrous despot floods the subterranean tunnels to destroy them, resulting in a massive collapse throughout the metropolis. This book opens with ‘The Tyrant of Mongo’ (which originally ran until March 5th 1939) and sees the surviving rebels strike back and even capture the merciless villain only to lose him due to the traitorous schemes of an ambitious woman.

Betrayed and sore pressed, the rebels escape as Ming gloats, thinking Flash dead at last. The fugitives return to Arboria where Prince Barin hides them once more, but evil never rests and Ming replaces one of the surviving rebels with his best spy. Once again the hero turns the tables, but must leave his sanctuary before Ming destroys it…

On March 12th 1938 ‘Ice Kingdom of Mongo’ began, and proved to be a visual high-point even by the monumentally impressive standards of this feature. Flash, Dale, Zarkov and faithful man-at-arms Ronal fly northwards to the pole but are forced to crash-land when the fierce cold freezes their rocket tubes. At the mercy of hideous snow beasts, they are rescued by Queen Fria of the polar kingdom of Frigia, but the fugitives are no safer in the sumptuous halls of her fabulous home than they were on the icy wastes. A spiteful courtier, Count Malo, attempts to murder Flash, and Dale and Ronal are taken as slaves by ice giants whilst on a hunting trip, with only Flash and the Queen left to rescue them.

After that unforgettable sequence, and with the giants defeated, the refugees settle in Frigia, but it becomes clear that many nobles see Flash as a threat to their ambitions, since the unmarried Fria is obviously smitten by the newcomer. A series of “mishaps” culminate in open assassination attempts and even a coup. Events spiral out of control with spectacular results and personal and political intrigues pale into insignificance when the entire kingdom is imperilled by a huge monster that lives in a glacier…

The never-ending adventure went from one hairsbreadth escape, fight or chase to another, but Checker’s subdivision into the two long epics here is logical and satisfying. It’s hard to grasp that when Raymond and script collaborator Don Moore first created these spellbinding sagas they were only working from the most general of plans, with no conception of their eventual perpetuation in posterity of the periodical drama in these lush and lavish volumes.

Along with Hal Foster (Prince Valiant) and Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates/Steve Canyon), Raymond’s work on Flash Gordon is pivotal to the development of comic art. This strip influenced everybody who followed. If you’ve never seen this work, your comic reading life is tragically incomplete. But it’s never too late…

© 2005 King Features Syndicate Inc. ™ Hearst Holdings, Inc

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Milton Caniff’s America

Reflections of a Drawingboard Patriot

Milton Caniff's America

By Milton Caniff, edited by Shel Dorf (Eclipse Books)
ISBN 0-913-035-25-4

This little rarity is a delightful introduction into the old-fashioned world and magical artistry of possibly the greatest strip cartoonist of all time. Released in the mid 1980s when Caniff’s brand of patriotism was slowly giving way to a much more intolerant and cruel brand of paranoid nationalism, these excerpts from his vast body of work forcefully remind the reader of a purer, more idealistic and aspirational land of Freedom and Opportunity.

Fans will delight in the chance to see some of the creator’s early reportage and portraiture, his editorial cartooning and landmark strips such as the episode of Terry and the Pirates that was read into the Congressional Record. Also collected are his public service drawings, a Steve Canyon sequence (from 1982) entitled ‘What is Patriotism?’ and his strips dedicated to departed comrades.

Of most moving consequence are the collected Armed Forces Day strips and every Steve Canyon Christmas Day episode (an unbroken string of graphic ruminations on the lot and role of the military everyman) from 1947 to 1987.

Stirring, gripping, heartfelt, these evocations from a master of his craft are the best tribute from, to and by an honest plain-dealer. Simply Wonderful.

Artwork © 1987 Milton Caniff. © 2007 Ester Parsons Caniff Estate. Text features © their respective authors. All Rights Reserved.

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Birds of Prey: Perfect Pitch

Birds of Prey: Perfect Pitch

By Gail Simone, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-423-4

One of DC’s best and most consistent action adventure series, Birds of Prey recounts the missions and lives of a rotating team of female crime-fighters led by Barbara Gordon, the computer genius known as Oracle. Daughter of the Police Commissioner of Gotham City, her own career as Batgirl was ended when the Joker destroyed her spine in a terrifying kidnap attempt. This volume comprises stories that neatly straddle either side of the Infinite Crisis/One Year Later publishing events.

The Crisis was a massive re-setting of the DC universe involving cosmic upheaval, space war, the unleashing of wild magic, a anti-metahuman conspiracy and a global uniting of the world’s super-villains as well as the assault on reality by the sole survivors of the 1980s blockbuster Crisis on Infinite Earths, whilst One Year Later restarted the continuity of the DC Universe for all characters 365 days after the conclusion of said Crisis. This narrative ploy allowed the adventures to unfold with an aura of solidity and veracity whilst creating ready-made mysteries to intrigue the readers.

This volume (collecting issues #86-90 and #92-95 of the monthly comic book) starts with a delightful triptych of vignettes from guest illustrators Adriana Melo & Will Conrad (Lady Blackhawk), Bruce Timm (Black Canary) and David Lopez & Fernando Blanco (The Huntress), which serves as a deceptive set-up for the next story-arc.

The confederation of villains called the Society has a counterpart to Oracle. The Calculator, an obsessive knowledge-broker, is going crazy trying to discover his electronic rival’s identity and so instigates a deadly Machiavellian plot to solve his problem. Squandering Society resources he kidnaps one of her operatives to force a revelation from the team, whilst simultaneously employing super-assassin Deathstroke to kill everybody before his own bosses discover his mistakes. This superb and hyper-tense thriller has guest-shots from Batman and Green Arrow but the real pay-off (as always) comes from the grit and resilience of the core team. Gail Simone continues to show why she’s one of the most popular action writers in the business and the enthralling art is divided between Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson, Eddy Barrows & Robin Riggs, Paulo Siqueira, Adam Dekraker & Riggs again.

Issue #92 was the Infinite Crisis tie-in, so this volume excludes it and resumes One Year Later with a new team cleaning up Gotham’s super-villains since Batman and Robin have been missing since the Crisis ended. Replacing Black Canary is Lady Shiva, the world’s deadliest woman, and a ruthless killer. The Canary is deep in the jungles of Indo-China, being subjected to a brutalizing retraining at a sinister Martial Arts training Camp. As she hones her skill her old team-mates are trying to save a little girl from being killed because her father betrayed The Society.

The narrative device of resuming storytelling in the middle works well in this case. Not knowing how we got here enhances the tension of this two-track drama, the art and action (from Siqueira & Riggs, and Joe Prado & Dick Giordano) are utterly engrossing and Simone’s deftness with dialogue and character, not to mention the skilful way she drops clues and references to the unseen recent past teases without confusing.

Despite all the potential bewilderment that the continuity shuffling might have caused, this is still a superb superhero thriller with as much to offer the newcomer as the dedicated fan. All action comics should be this good.

© 2005, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Black and White, Vol 1 – New Edition

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

Batman: Black and White, Vol 1 - New Edition 

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN 10: 1-84576-682-2 ISBN 13: 978-1-84576-682-5

Although I only reviewed this title a few months ago I just felt you ought to know that a lovely new paperback edition has been released in time for Christmas. If you’d like a more detailed run-down of the contents then you might want to check out our Archive section, but if you’re in a hurry you can just take it from me that this is one of the best and most satisfying Batman books ever published.

Originally a four issue miniseries, the editors invited some of the world’s greatest comics creators, whether they were new to the character or long-time Batman veterans, to tell a story of the Caped Crusader free of any continuity constraints and designed to work in stark monochrome.

The results were astounding, challenging and naturally, mega-award winning. If you are any sort of Bat-fan or aficionado of the art-form there will be something in this wonderful tome that will blow your socks off. Just don’t read it in front of your Nan – she spent hours knitting them.

© 1996, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Comic Book in America

An Illustrated History

The Comic Book in America

By Mike Benton (Taylor Publications)
ISBN13: 978-0-87833-659-3

This lavish and informative coffee-table book is also a hugely useful primer into the history and secrets of that purely American graphic invention: The Comic Book.

Beginning with a brief introduction into the birth and nature of comics, covering the years 1896-1932 , the text goes on to summarise the growth and consolidation of the industry with a year by year précis of trends, sales, personalities and significant events starting with the birth of the physical artefact in 1933 all the way through to 1989.

A second section details each and every individual publisher, their output, impact and, most usually, demise, and the text concludes with a final section which features a lively analysis of Genres in comic-books ranging from Crime to Western, by way of such milestones as Educational, Horror, Satire and even Underground Comix.

Sumptuously illustrated with hundreds of beautiful comic covers, many of them incredibly rare, all of them wonderfully attractive and compelling, this is a treat for any fan, and if there is the odd factual inaccuracy, it is more than counterbalanced by the sheer enthusiasm and joyous exuberance of the total package. This is an utter delight.

© 1989 Mike Benton. All Rights Reserved.