Author: NowReadThis

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Black Jesus volume 1


By Jimmy Blondell & David Krintzman, Nicholas Da Silva & Bigjack Studios (Brazil)  (Arcana)
ISBN: 978-1-897548-55-4 (TPB)

I’m always keen to spark a little controversy, so here’s an intriguing parable you probably missed when it launched in 2009 or the last time we plugged it. Moreover, remember as you proceed that even worse than being oppressed, deliberately deprived or “othered” is being denied your own existence…

Superheroes are often cited as a new mythology and occasionally comic books dabble with the idea that there’s not much difference between gods and metahumans. In a world where unnatural powers are common currency – at least in our fictions and entertainments and certain religions – what happens when a genuinely different being appears and acts in ways neither the guardians of society nor the laws of physics will tolerate?

Conceived and written by Jimmy Blondell & David Krintzman with art from Nicholas Da Silva (assisted by Brazil’s Bigjack Studios) this gripping thriller presents all the facets of an urban/horror/conspiracy thriller but don’t be fooled. There’s more going on here than first appears…

Chris is a young black man in New York City. He’s a bit weird, and not just because of the recurrent nasty visions of cruel hunters slaughtering animals in the Serengeti. Chris lives a peaceful life in a city where criminality, intolerance and hostility are everywhere, harming no one and caring for his pigeons in their rooftop roost.

He’s got friends, a part-time job and plenty of questions about the strange things that keep happening around him. Case in point: despite never practising, he can score a basket from anywhere on the court without even trying. It’s a trick that’s earned the respect of violent angry young men throughout the neighbourhood. When he’s not anywhere else the loner spends time breaking into Central Park Zoo to feed animals, or studying with scholarly Rabbi Goldberg, a man who knows more about the boy’s past than he’s letting on…

An already complex existence takes a frantic turn the day Chris pulls some kids out of a car sinking into the Park Lake. He had to walk across the water to get to them and footage of the rescue made the news everywhere. Thankfully, he kept his hoodie up and most viewers don’t know who he is. That’s not a problem for the devout leader of the Black Christian Gang whose agenda is to reclaim the Messiah for people of colour and destroy forever the myth of a blond, blue-eyed white Christ. He sets his many brothers in the BCG to finding the miracle worker at all costs…

So does black televangelist Reverend Carnivean, whose millions of worshippers, billions of dollars and soaring political ambitions can’t afford such obvious competition. Rather than true believers, he sets his moneymen, whores and assassins to finding the mystery man the media have dubbed Black Jesus…

That becomes even more urgent after a second tragedy strikes and witnesses at a charity gala all report seeing an anonymous young black waiter heal a woman mauled by a lion…

So begins the frantic race to control a potentially divine force or the next stage in human evolution: a trail peppered with bodies and shocking outrages. Of course, it doesn’t help that Chris himself has no idea what he truly is…

Understated and thoughtful, Black Jesus is a thriller about being born different (and yes, I do think that’s a metaphor for being black in America today, and as much so here too and France and…) and exploring dangerous ideas about the nature of divinity, poverty, status and belonging. It also has a strong shot at attempting to debunk the biggest and most divisive lie in politico-religious history.

The series was delving into some truly interesting corners before slumping into a hiatus triggered by the project being optioned as movie. Maybe when the film is finished, we can finally see how the comic would have progressed from the conclusion – but not ending – it reached…

Certainly not for everyone, but smart and compelling enough for you perhaps?

I mention just as an interesting aside here that I googled this book and their fancy-schmancy AI butted in on my digging to say it didn’t exist.

It does.

Check Good Reads, for example, and then buy a copy and read it
© 2009 by Black Jesus LLC. All rights reserved.

Today in 1904 pulps legend and Silver Age Superman, Batman & Legion of Super-Heroes writer Edmond was born. Thirty years later France and most of Europe welcomed the first issue of Disney vehicle Le Journal de Mickey.

In 1995 we grieved the loss of maestro Jesús Blasco whose The Steel Claw: The Cold Trail made devotees of many when we reviewed it.

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Leo Baxendale’s Sweeny Toddler


By Leo Baxendale & others (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-726-8 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Utterly Bonkers, Inspired Lunacy… 10/10

If you know British Comics, you know Leo Baxendale.

Long ago and still right now, Baxendale (27th October 1930 – 23rd April 2017) was the epitome of rebellious, youth-oriented artistic prodigies who, largely unsung but definitely much noticed, went about seditiously transforming British Comics: entertaining millions and inspiring uncounted numbers of those readers to become cartoonists too.

Joseph Leo Baxendale was educated at Preston Catholic College, served in the RAF and was born on 27th, October 1930, in Whittle-le-Woods, Lancashire – but not necessarily in that order. Like Spike Milligan and so many brilliant others, his response to privation, injustice, war and the post war era was being funny in an absurd way. If you’re quick, you can track down some of his stuff – of which far too little has been archivally published – and celebrate his 95th anniversary in an appropriate manner.

Baxendale’s first paid artistic efforts were drawing ads and cartoons for The Lancashire Evening Post but his life – and the entire British comics scene – changed in 1952 when he began freelancing for DC Thomson’s top weekly The Beano. He assumed creative control of moribund Lord Snooty and his Pals and originated anarchically surreal strips Little Plum, Minnie the Minx, The Three Bears and When the Bell Rings. That last strip then rapidly metamorphosed into legendary, lurgy-packed anarchic icon The Bash Street Kids, thereby altering the daily realities and lifetime sensibilities of millions of readers and generations of kids.

Baxendale also contributed heavily to the creation of comics tabloid The Beezer in 1956 but, following editorial and financial disputes with his editors, migrated in 1962 to London-based, Harmsworth-owned conglomerate Odhams/Fleetway/IPC. South of the border, his initial humorous creations included Grimly Feendish, General Nitt and his Barmy Army, Bad Penny and a horrid horde of similarly revoltingly, uncannily engaging oiks, yobs and weirdoes who cumulatively made the company’s “Power Comics” experiment such a joy to behold.

During the 1970s he devised more remarkable cartoon star turns which, whilst not perhaps as seditiously groundbreaking as Plum, Minnie, or The Bash Street Kids, nor as subversively enticing as Wham, Smash and Pow creations such as Eagle Eye, Junior Spy, The Swots and the Blots and The Tiddlers (or indeed, as garishly outlandish as George’s Germs or Sam’s Spook), remained part of the nation’s junior landscape for decades after.

The main body of his later creations appeared in mighty anthology Buster: features such as The Cave Kids, Big Chief Pow Wow, Clever Dick and Snooper. Baxendale latterly foisted Willy the Kid upon the world before creating his own publishing imprint Reaper Books.

He also sued DCT for rights to his innovative inky inventions: a 7-year struggle that was eventually settled out of court. Other notable graphic landmarks include pantomimic vision THRRP!, his biography A Very Funny Business: 40 Years of Comics and the strip I Love You, Baby Basil which ran in The Guardian during the early 1990s.

Signature stinker Sweeny Toddler debuted in Shiver and Shake in 1973, unsurprisingly surviving repeated mergers – with Whoopee! and Whizzer and Chips – before settling in at the seemingly unsinkable Buster.

This stunning hardback (and eBook) celebration – hopefully the first of many gathering the entire run and Baxendale’s IPC/Fleetway oeuvre – is another crucial addition to Rebellion’s ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics. It gathers the episodes from Shiver and Shake spanning March 10th 1973 to 5th October 1974, plus the first nappy-load from Whoopee!, from 23rd November 1974 until 7th June 1975.

The potent package is suitably accompanied by an appreciative, informative and responsible Introduction by his son Martin (who drew the Bad Boy’s adventures after Baxendale senior moved into publishing) and offers a magnificent exercise in manic misrule starring the absolute worst baby in the world… outside of a democratically elected government.

In a simple terrace house with the legend “Tremble wiv fear, Sweeny livs here” scrawled all over it, lives a spotty (occasionally be-stubbled) mono-fanged tyke who is disturbingly fast and strong with a physiognomy that can sour milk. He is precociously able to read – after a fashion – and that, coupled with a lethally low tolerance for boredom and obedience, means the nasty nipper always finds new and distressing ways to amuse himself at someone else’s expense…

With or without faithful dog and eager abettor Hairy Henry, Sweeny turns every pram ride into a pulse-pounding rollercoaster adventure for his poor benighted mum and grandad; every visit to park, shop or museum into a heart-stopping chase and every cuddlesome interlude with ill-advised adults into an exhausting episode in psychological and physical torture.

At least six strips re-presented here are not by Baxendale, but record-keeping is sadly incomplete. Chances are they’re drawn by Tom Paterson, who eventually took over the feature (or possibly Roy Nixon?) but they are all deliciously weird and wonderful: a blend of unbeatable whacky wordplay, explosive slapstick and bizarre situations, garnished by Baxendale’s unique and evocative sound effects: once read, never forgotten…

Briefly retitled Help! It’s Sweeny Toddler in experimental pages that feature second stories starring monstrous beasts living in the borders and margins of the panel dividers, later episodes never lost the eccentric impetus of the first, with the baby from hell, as ever, mugging old ladies, postmen, schoolboys and other unwary visitors; creating his own zoo, attempting to sneak into X films (maybe get granddad to explain those?) and totally tormenting anyone who treats him like a child…

As well as straight strips, this collection also offers ‘Sweeny Toddler’s Beat the Bully Guide’ and graphic game ‘Sweeny Toddler’s Fifty Frightful Faces!’, proving the vile versatility of the manky mite.

Leo Baxendale was one-of-a-kind: a hugely influential, much-imitated master of pictorial comedy and noxious gross-out escapades whose work deeply affected (some would say warped) generations of British and Commonwealth kids. We’ll not see his like again, but these astoundingly engrossing comedy classics are a perfect example of his resolutely British humorous sensibilities – absurdly anarchic, explosively whimsical, outrageously aggressive, crazily confrontational and gleefully grotesque – starring an unremittingly rebellious force of nature with no impulse control.

Sweeny Toddler says and does whatever he wants as soon as he thinks of it, albeit usually to his own detriment and great regret: a rare gift, usually only employed by madmen and foreign Presidents.

These cartoon capers are amongst the most memorable and re-readable exploits in all UK comics history: smart, eternal, existentially funny and immaculately rendered. This a treasure-trove of laughs that spans generations and must be in every family bookcase.
© 1973, 1974, 1975 & 2019 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. Sweeny Toddler is ™ & © Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1920 artistic icon Nicholas Vicardi AKA Nick Cardy was born. We last admired his mastery in DC Finest: Aquaman – The King of Atlantis.

In 1935 today, cartoon pioneer Sidney Smith died way too soon. You would already know that if you’d listened and looked up Sidney Smith’s The Gumps like we told you to last week.

In 1993 unsung legend Gaylord Dubois died. He wrote and edited dozens of key features, supplying thousands of stories to comics legends. We are particularly partial to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: The Jesse Marsh Years Omnibus volume two.

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Misty featuring Moonchild & The Four Faces of Eve (volume 1)


By Pat Mills, Malcolm Shaw, John Armstrong, Brian Delaney, Shirley Bellwood & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-452-6 (album TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Spooky Treats for Every Stocking… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Like most of my comics contemporaries I harbour a secret shame. Growing up, I was well aware of the weeklies produced for girls but would never admit to reading them.

My loss: I now know that they were packed with some great strips by astounding artists and writers, many of them personal favourites when they were drawing stalwart soldiers, evil aliens, marauding monsters or strange superheroes (all British superheroes were weird and off-kilter…).

I believe – in terms of quality and respect for the readership’s intelligence, experience and development – “girls’ periodicals” were far more in tune with the sensibilities of the target audience. I absolutely wish I’d paid more attention to Misty back then…

Thus, I’m overjoyed to re-recommend this superb first collection from what originating editor Pat Mills reveals in his Foreword was intended to be as iconoclastic and groundbreaking a publication as his previous creation.

You know the one: 2000 AD…

Despite never living up to his expectations – for all the traditional self-sabotaging editorial reasons that have scuppered bold visions since the days of Caxton – Misty was nothing like any other comic in the British marketplace: a Girls’ Juvenile periodical addressing modern issues through a lens of urban horror, science fictional and historical mysteries couched in terms of tense suspenseful dramas. It was also one of the best drawn comics ever seen and featured stunningly beguiling covers by unsung legend Shirley Bellwood: a veteran illustrator who ought to be a household name because we’ve all admired her work in comics and books since the 1950s even if we’ve never been privileged to see her by-line…

Unlike most weeklies, Misty was created with specific themes in mind – fantasy, horror and mystery – and over its too-short existence introduced numerous self-contained features serialised like today’s graphic novels, rather than continuing adventures of star characters.

Although adulterated from Mill’s original design, the comic launched on February 4th 1978 and ran until January 1980 whereupon it merged with the division’s lead title Tammy, thus extending its lifeline until 1984. As was often the case, the brand also continued through Annuals and Specials, running from 1979 until 1986.

The first of a series working under the umbrella of The Treasury of British Comics, this compact monochrome softcover compilation offers two complete part-work novellas from the comic’s canon of nearly 70 strip sagas, starting with the gripping history of the Moonchild.

Written by Mills and illustrated by John Armstrong (Bella in Tammy; The Secret Gymnast in Bunty; Grange Hill), the eerie adventure was based on Stephen King’s Carrie, and ran as lead feature in issues #1-13. It traced the turbulent coming-of-age of abused and confused schoolgirl Rosemary Black: born into a family afflicted with an apparent curse. All women who bore a hereditary crescent birthmark on their foreheads were eventually consumed by psychokinetic powers…

Rosemary’s mother brutally and zealously tries to suppress her daughter’s burgeoning abilities but with sociopathic mean girls Norma, Dawn & Freda making her their constant target for bullying and humiliation, the force inside Rosemary keeps expressing itself in ever more violent manner. Moreover, when school physician Doctor Armstrong realises the truth about the girl so often sent to see him, he sees nothing but an opportunity to be exploited…

When Norma’s bullies embark on their most ambitious scheme to torture Rosemary, sheer disaster is barely averted after the Moonchild’s long missing grandmother suddenly appears with a shocking secret to share…

Following a handy hints feature – how to make a Witch’s Hat – The Four Faces of Eve carries on the chilling bewilderment.

Created by Malcolm Shaw (Misty’s editor and writer of dozens of strips in Britain and Europe) & Brian Delaney (Hart to Hart; Grange Hill; The Professionals) this marvel of malign medical malpractice ran in #20-31, tracing the seemingly paranoid path of Eve Marshall, recently discharged from hospital but still suffering partial amnesia. Despite returning to her home and high-powered scientist parents, Eve remains troubled, especially by horrifically vivid dreams of other girls who died painful, violent deaths…

Inconsolable and increasingly suspicious, Eve snoops around a house she doesn’t remember and discovers mounting evidence that the Marshalls are not her real parents. When the house is later burgled, the police forensics team uncover another impossible anomaly: Eve’s fingerprints match a thief who died months ago…

Scared and haunted by traumatic dreams, Eve runs away and hides in a circus, only to be tracked down and dragged back home by her faux parents. However, pieces are inexorably falling into place and she soon must face the appalling truth she has deduced about herself and the monsters she lives with…

Also including a fulsome tribute to ‘Shirley Bellwood – An Unsung Heroine of British Comics’, creator biographies and one final activity page (‘Misty Says… Be a Devil – and Here’s How’) this supremely engaging tome is a glorious celebration of a uniquely compelling phenomenon of British comics and one that has stood the test of time. Don’t miss this second chance to get in on something truly special and splendidly entertaining
Misty © Egmont UK Limited 1978. All rights reserved.

Today in 1955 René Goscinny & André Franquin debuted humour strip Modeste et Pompom in Le Journal de Tintin – a fact and feature that has still singularly not impressed any English-language comics publishers.

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You Are Maggie Thatcher: A Dole-Playing Game


By Pat Mills & Hunt Emerson (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-85286-011-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times, and for comedic and satirical effect.

With the recent anniversary hagiographic whitewashing of “the Greatest Prime Minister we’ve ever had”, fond reminiscences of those truly grim times and policies by the still-privileged and renewed assaults on the poor and unwelcome in Britain, why don’t we proles also indulge in bit of comforting nostalgia for the good old days?

The most successful comic strips depend more on the right villain than any hero or combination of protagonists, so this quirky oddment was better placed than most for success. Created by British comics legends Pat Mills & Hunt Emerson at a time when our industry was at its most politically active, this strident, polemical satire put the proletarian boot in on the appalling tactics and philosophies of the third term Thatcher government with savagely hilarious art and stunningly biting writing.

Illo 1 here please


The concept is simple now but groundbreaking in 1987. The reader is to be Prime Minister Maggie who, by reading sections of the book and selecting a choice of action at the end of each chapter is directed to another page to experience the ramifications of that decision. The objective is to win another election (ah the wonderful irony!) and the method is to make only vote-winning decisions – hence the multiple-choice page-endings. The intention is not to win the game, obviously. What kind of monster are you?!

This powerful piece of graphic propaganda may have dated on some levels but the home truths are still as pertinent. Even as Maggie and her demented pack of lap-dogs wriggled and squirmed on Mills & Emerson’s pen-points, their legacy of personal gain was supplanting both personal and communal responsibility to become the new norm. More than ever, today’s Britain is their fault and this still readily available book reminds us of a struggle too few joined and a fight we should have won, but didn’t.

It’s still really, really funny too.
Text and concept © 1987 Pat Mills. Illustrations © 1987 Hunt Emerson. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1969 anarchic weekly British treasure trove Whizzer and Chips began its three-decade rampage of fun. You could get a flavour of it all (mostly toffees, liniment, perished rubber and sweaty feet) by seeing Whizzer and Chips Annual 1979.

In 1973 cartoonist Walt Kelly finally had enough of our petulant crap and passed over. You can pay your respects at Pogo – The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips volume 3: Evidence to the Contrary. 

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Steve Ditko Archives volume 2: Unexplored Worlds


By Steve Ditko, Joe Gill & various, edited by Blake Bell (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-289-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Immaculate Yarn-Spinning… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. It also has Discriminatory Content included for comedic and satirical effect.

Once upon a time the anthological title of short stand-alone stories was the sole staple of the comicbook profession, where the plan was to deliver as much variety as possible to the reader. Sadly, that particular vehicle of expression seems all but lost to us today…

Despite his death Steve Ditko remains one of our industry’s greatest talents and one of America’s least lauded. His fervent desire to just get on with his job and to tell stories the best way he can – whilst the noblest of aspirations – had always been a minor consideration or even stumbling block for the commercial interests which for so long controlled all comics production and still exert an overwhelming influence upon the mainstream bulk of comic book output. Before his time at Marvel, young Ditko perfected his craft creating short sharp yarns for a variety of companies and it’s an undeniable joy today to be able to look at this work from such an innocent time when he was just breaking into the industry: tirelessly honing his craft with genre tales for whichever publisher would have him, utterly free from the interference of intrusive editors.

A superb full-colour series of hardback collections reprinted those early efforts (all of them here are from 1956-1957) with material produced after the draconian, self-inflicted Comics Code Authority sanitised the industry following Senate Hearings and a public witch-hunt.

Most are wonderfully baroque bizarre supernatural or science fantasy stories, but there are also examples of Westerns, Crime and Humour: cunningly presented in the order he completed and sold them rather than the more logical but far-less-revealing chronological release dates. Moreover, they’re all helpfully annotated with a purchase number to indicate approximately when they were actually drawn – even the brace of tales done for Stan Lee’s pre-Marvel Atlas company.

Sadly, there’s no indication of how many (if any) were actually written by the moody master…

This second sublime selection reprints more heaping helpings of his increasingly impressive works: most courtesy of the surprisingly liberal (at least in its trust of its employees’ creative instincts) sweat-shop publisher Charlton Comics.

And whilst we’re being technically accurate, it’s also important to reiterate that those cited publication dates have very little to do with when Ditko crafted them: as Charlton paid so little, the cheap, anthologically astute outfit had no problem in buying material it could leave on a shelf for months – occasionally years! – until the right moment arrived to print. The work is assembled and runs here in the order Ditko submitted it, rather than when it reached our grubby sweaty paws…

Following an historically informative Introduction and passionate advocacy by Blake Bell, concentrating on Ditko’s near-death experience in 1954 (when the artist contracted tuberculosis) and subsequent recovery, the evocatively eccentric excursions open with a monochrome meander into the realms of satire with the faux fable – now we’d call it a mockumentary – ‘Starlight Starbright’ as first seen in From Here to Insanity (volume 3 #1 April 1956) before “normal” service resumes with financial fable ‘They’ll Be Some Changes Made’ (scripted by Carl Wessler from Atlas’ Journey Into Mystery #33, April 1956).

Here a petty-minded pauper builds a time machine to steal the fortune his ancestors squandered, after which a crook seeking to exploit a mystic pool finds himself the victim of fate’s justice in ‘Those Who Vanish’ (Journey Into Mystery #38, September 1956) again scripted by Wessler.

Almost – if not all – the Charlton material was scripted by astoundingly prolific Joe Gill at this time, and records are spotty at best, so let’s assume his collaboration on all the material here begins with ‘The Man Who Could Never Be Killed’ (Strange Suspense Stories #31, published in February 1957). This yarn of a circus performer with an incredible ethereal secret segues into ‘Adrift in Space’ (Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #8 June 1958) as a veteran starship captain pushes his weary crew over the edge, whereas ‘The King of Planetoid X’ from the previous MoUW (February) details a crisis of conscience for a benevolent and ultimately wise potentate…

The cover of Strange Suspense Stories #31 (February 1957) leads into ‘The Gloomy One’ as a misery-loving alien intruder is destroyed by simple human joy, before the cover to Out of This World #5 (September 1957) heralds that issue’s ‘The Man Who Stepped Out of a Cloud’ and an alien whose abduction plans only seem sinister in intent. MoUW #5 (October 1957) tells the story of a young ‘Stowaway’ who finds fulfilment aboard a harshly-run space ship after which Out of This World #3’s cover (March 1957) ushers us to an apparent alien paradise for weary star-men in ‘What Happened?’

Next up is a tale from one of Charlton’s earliest star characters. The title came from a radio show that Charlton licensed the rights to, with the lead/host/narrator acting more as voyeur than active participant. The Mysterious Traveler spoke directly to camera, asking readers for opinion and judgement as he shared a selection of funny, sad, scary and miraculous human-interest yarns, all tinged with a hint of the weird or supernatural. Whenever rendered by Ditko, whose storytelling mastery, page design and full, lavish brushwork were just beginning to come into its mature full range, the contents of Tales of the Mysterious Traveler were always exotic and esoteric and utterly beguiling.

From issue #2 (February 1957), ‘What Wilbur Saw’ reveals the reward bestowed on a poverty-stricken country bumpkin who witnessed a modern-day miracle, after which Out of This World #3 covers a cautionary tale of atomic mutation in ‘The Supermen’ before the eerie cover to OoTW #4 (June 1957) signals a chilling encounter for two stranded sailors who briefly board the ‘Flying Dutchman’ whilst SSS #32’s cover (May 1957) dabbles in magic art when a collector is victimised by a thief who foolishly stumbles into ‘A World of His Own’.

From the same issue comes a salutary parable concerning a rich practical joker who goes too far before succumbing to ‘The Last Laugh’, after which ‘Mystery Planet’ (SSS #36, March 1958) offers a dash of interplanetary derring-do as valiant agent Bryan Bodine and comely associate Nedra confound intergalactic pirates piloting a planet-eating weapon against Earth!

A similarly bold defender liberates ‘The Conquered Earth’ from alien subjugation (OoTW #4, June 1957) whilst in ‘Assignment Treason’ (Outer Space #18. August 1958) the clean-cut hero goes undercover to save Earth from the predatory Master of Space as OoTW #8 (May 1958) and ‘The Secret of Capt. X’ reveals the inimical alien tyrant threatening humanity is not what he seems…

The cover to Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #3 (April 1957) makes way for three fantastic thrillers, beginning with ‘The Strange Guests of Tsaurus’ as an alien paradise proves to be anything but, then ‘A World Where I Was King’ sees a clumsy janitor catapulted into a wondrous realm to win a kingdom he doesn’t want. Diverting slightly, Fightin’ Army #20 (May 1957) provides a comedic interlude as a civil war soldier finds himself constantly indebted to ‘Gavin’s Stupid Mule’ before ‘A Forgotten World’ wraps up MoUW #3’s contributions with a scary tale of invasion from the Earth’s core. ‘The Cheapest Steak in Nome’ turns out to be defrosted from something that died millions of years ago in a light-hearted yarn from MoUW #7 (February 1958)…

The cover to MoUW #4 (July 1957) precedes more icy antediluvian preservations found in the ‘Valley in the Mist’ whilst the one for Strange Suspense Stories #33 (August 1957) leads into a bizarre corporate outreach project as the ‘Director of the Board’ attempts to go where no other exploitative capitalist has gone before. Next, it’s back to MoUW #3 for a brush with the mythological in ‘They Didn’t Believe Him’ after which ‘Forever and Ever’ (SSS #33) reveals an unforeseen downside to immortality and Out of This World #3 sees a stranger share ‘My Secret’ with ordinary folk despite – or because of – a scurrilous blackmailer…

‘A Dreamer’s World’ from Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #5 (October 1957) follows the chilling cover thereof as a test pilot hits his aerial limit and discovers a whole new existence, whilst Unusual Tales #7 (May 1957) traces the tragic path of ‘The Man Who Could See Tomorrow’ before the cover of Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #4 (August 1957) opens a mini-feast of voyeur’s voyages beginning with that issue’s ‘The Desert’: a saga of polar privation and survival.

TotMT #3 (May 1957) shows the appropriate cover and a ‘Secret Mission’ for a spy parachuted into Prague, whilst #4 offers ‘Escape’ for an unemployed pilot dragged into a gun-running scam in a south American lost world; ‘Test of a Man’ sees a cruel animal trainer receive his just deserts and ‘Operation Blacksnake’ grittily exposes American venality in the ever-expanding Arabian oil trade. Returning to Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #5, ‘The Mirage’ torments an escaped convict who thinks he’s escaped his fate, whilst Texas Rangers in Action #8 (July 1957) sees a ruthless rancher crushed by the weight of his own wicked actions as ‘The Only One’, after which stunning covers to Unusual Tales #6 and 7 (February and May 1957) lead into our final vignette – ‘The Man Who Painted on Air’: exposing and thwarting a unique talent to preserve humanity and make a few bucks on the side…

This sturdily capacious volume has episodes that terrify, amaze, amuse and enthral: utter delights of fantasy fiction with lean, plots and stripped-down dialogue that let the art set the tone, push the emotions and tell the tale, from times when a story could end sadly as well as happily and only wonderment was on the agenda, hidden or otherwise.

These stories display the sharp wit and contained comedic energy which made so many Spider-Man/J. Jonah Jameson confrontations an unforgettable treat half a decade later, and this is another cracking collection not only superb in its own right but as a telling tribute to the genius of one of the art-form’s greatest stylists. This is something every serious comics fan would happily kill or die or be lost in time for…
Unexplored Worlds: The Steve Ditko Archive Vol. 2. This edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books. Introduction © 2010 Blake Bell. All rights reserved.

Today in 1914, Jerry Siegel was born. Don’t make me have to finish this heads-up…

In 1937 Huey, Dewey & Louie Duck debuted. Ditto.

In 1959 The last issue of UK icon Comet was published and a decade later across the Pond Sidney Smith’s The Gumps ended. It had begun in 1917 as you’d know if read Sidney Smith’s The Gumps.

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Bunny vs Monkey Book 11: Intergalactic Monkey Business!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras, Paul Duffield & Armin Roshdi (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-327-1 (Digest HB) 978-1-78845-387-5 (Waterstones Exclusive Team Bunny Edition) 978-1-78845-388-2 (Waterstones Exclusive Team Monkey Edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Because… Just Because… 10/10

Bunny vs Monkey has been the inspirationally bonkers breakout star of The Phoenix since the first issue in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal archenemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia, masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully gusto – but increasingly with cerebral cosmic crescendo in mind – by cartoonist/comics artist/novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember, Find Chaffy), these trendsetting, mind-bending yarns have been wisely retooled as best-selling graphic albums available in remastered, double-length digest softcover and hardback editions such as this one. All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in after a disastrous British space shot. OR DID IT?

Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite every effort of genteel, contemplative, reasonably sensible forest resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and good breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this moment remains a rude, troublemaking, chaos-creating, noise-loving lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” and/or being a robot, with or without the aid of evil supergenius Skunky or tagalong useless “henches” Metal Steve and Action Beaver…

Daily wonders and catastrophes were exacerbated by a broad band of unconventional Crinkle creatures, none more so than monochrome mad scientist Skunky, whose intellect and cavalier attitude to life presents as a propensity for building dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons. He is, at his core, a dangerously inquisitive thinker and tinkerer…

Here – with artistic fiddling about from design deputy Sammy Borras – the war of nerves and mega-ordnances resumes as if nothing cosmic or multiverse-changing had ever happened or any hint of a restart after a cosmic culmination. See, that’s what happens if you let books pile up and don’t read them immediately! Go check out Bunny vs Monkey: The Great Big Glitch! and then come back and we’ll talk some more…

Okay then, new day, new start, same old mega mecha meta nonsense as ‘Clouding Over’ sees a suspiciously low-lying cirrus formation starts dumping rain and then increasing more noisome and noxious substances on the woodsfolk in what appear to be targeted strikes. Could there possibly be some kind of intelligence behind the atmospheric attacks?

With propriety and good taste in full retreat, the sensorial assaults resume in ‘Guts n’ Butts!’ as Monkey and Skunky debate the appalling assets and proposed “improvements” to the weaponised flatulence engine dubbed Bungamungus with no consideration of those in its path prior to the simian unleashing his own worst nightmare. The giant ‘MonkeyBot 5000’ is supposed to make life hell for his fluffy white foe, but it appears Bunny can find plenty of uses for a mechanised personal organiser that can bench press trucks, topple buildings, file and colour co-ordinate…

Reality trembles all over again when Monkey’s ‘Mum and Dad’ pop by for a visit and nice bit of tea, but nature’s innocents Weenie and Pig Piggerton are too busy having adventures with ‘Frogs!’ and their mystical king to really notice, whereas ‘Lucky… The Unluckiest Red Panda in the World!!’ stumbles into unbridled chaos (as always) when Skunky & Monkey decide to go through the forgotten inventions bin…

Worried about declining productivity, the sinister science sinner uses his 3D printer to unleash a horde of ‘Fun-Size Skunkies’ who are anything but, before Bunny learns where all the wreckage, rubbish and remains go when the latest catastrophe has finished unfolding. Sadly, there are good reasons nobody wants to see ‘Binbag Sam’ carry out his nasty but necessary job…

Always seeking peace and serene contemplation, mysterious Le Fox has found a wilderness to dig in, but when Monkey comes by and discovers gold in ‘Them Thar Hills’ that’s another dead dream, and only a prelude to planet-shaking events when Skunky’s new signal array test coincides with Monkey’s latest eating challenge. ‘Message in a Butthole’ reveals how – after, inevitably – a monumental foofie erupts across the universe, the consequences will be appalling but not at all unexpected…

In a fabulous tribute to Chuck Jones cartoons ‘Monkey vs Ai’ sees the annoying ape test a bunch of inventions that should work “in theory”, before going back to stinky basics with a cheese cannon. Sadly, the anticipated Cheesepocalyse is derailed by ‘The Turning of the Pig’ as pacifistic Piggerton reaches a limit and shows the monkey miscreant just what it all feels like…

‘Buzzing Off’ finds Skunky testing ways to end the really annoying fly suit he built for his partner in chaos and then hiding along with everyone else in ‘Who’s Afraid of the Monkey’ when the simian simpleton gets really, really hungry. Eventually sated, the little sod resumes pranks and pestiferations with a giant robot in ‘Close Encounters of the Bird Kind’. Remember that olfactory beacon blasted across infinity? This is the moment something answers that unique call…

Suddenly, in ‘You Looking at Me?’ Crinkle Woods are alive with alien weirdoes, but it’s just Skunky messing about with quantum physics and nothing to do with Monkey, because he’s currently hurtling to the other side of the Universe, testing to destruction the super-high-tech toilets of the extraterrestrials who abducted him…

He can’t be blamed for the astonishing void discovered by Pig and Weenie prompting the chilling question ‘What Lies Inside… the Hole?!’ or sensible but naïve robot Metal E.V.E.’s attempts to balance out Lucky’s cosmic misfortunes in ‘What Luck Befalls’ or even Metal Steve’s crisis of confidence and inexplicable desire to ‘Destroy’ because Monkey is currently spreading his brand of chaos while ‘Hitching a Ride’ on the ship of judgemental civilisation eradicating superior being Grand Master Nexus…

Meanwhile on Earth, Skunky discovers the missing co-miscreant has left his life unfulfilled and dissatisfied and switches to a copy to serve his unsuspected emotional needs. ‘Little Monkey’ is wild, bitey, uncommunicative, un-potty-trainable and disgusting… such an improvement on the original! Enjoying his fresh start the evil inventor unleashes ‘A Clever Endeavour’ in the compulsive form of a malign puzzle box that baffles and bamboozles everyone – except the mini monkey who might just be the smartest thing in the woods now…

Pig’s penchant for peculiar pets sees the adoption of Blue-bummed Bimblebug ‘Parpy’  but the critter’s 24-hour lifespan brings near-instant woe, This leads to the advent of colossal hermit savant Capybara 5000 whose answers to all the ‘Big Questions’ are surprisingly violent. That search for truths culminates in sage advice ‘Run!’ before calm returns with Pig exploring wild water rafting and Le Fox confronting increasingly sinister Little Monkey in ‘The Happiness of the Kitsune’…

In another beleaguered solar system Monkey is slowly wearing down Nexus and his minions, before accidentally warping them all back to Earth to enjoy a spontaneous battle of ‘Rather Big Lasers’ with Skunky. When that eradicates the mastermind’s secret underground lair all Skunky can think of is ‘Revenge’. With Little Monkey in tow the genius goes ‘On the Hunt’ in a unique battleship, pursuing ‘Space Wars’ even as his hirsute former best-buddy seizes control of the Nexus craft and drives it into ‘A Hella Interstellar Yeller’…

Marooned on a muddy morass world, Monkey establishes his dream of a dictatorship. Sadly, ‘Chutneyopia’ is right next to the equally barren planet Skunky crashed on and war is declared as the newcomer demands an apology that just won’t be forthcoming…

Moreover, when Skunky took off after Monkey, most of Crinkle Wood went with him and as Bunny ruminates on ‘The Intergalactic Adventures of Weenie and Cinnamon Bun Pig!’ plans are underway to terraform the barren planetoid into ‘A New Home’ unfortunately undertaken by ‘Even More Skunkies’…

With the enemy busy converting Chutneyopia into his other, better dream of Monkeyopia, ‘A New Plan’ is needed, but the still active Grand Master finally concedes that its superior mentality and firepower are no match for the annoying Earth ape. With its minions in revolt and resolved to blow up Earth, there nothing left for Monkey to worry about ‘Apart from the Bomb’ that’s going to end his grotty mucky dream world…

What better time for a reconciliation with Skunky?

Back on Earth, other Crinkle Wood critters have briefly enjoyed their time of growth and limelight in ‘Not Bunny vs Monkey’ but the likes of Stan Stoat and Randolph Raccoon are helpless when the minions start blasting. As Monkeyopia becomes a vast spaceship, Skunky begins his ‘Race to Save the World’ with his secret weapon Little Monkey but the outcome is never certain and our heroes all decide they’re ‘Best Off Out of It’, leaving a monumental deus ex machina to sort everything out…

Wrapping up these sidereal shenanigans and cosmic bum gags are related activities offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and you to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by Jamie Smart & Armin Roshdi detailing ‘How to draw King Frog!’, ‘A Bungamungous!’, ‘Capybara 5000!’ and ‘An Alien!’ before closing with an extensive plug for the aforementioned Phoenix Comics Club website complete with instant access via a QR code, plus previews of other treats and wonders available in The Phoenix to wind down from all that cosmic furore…

Another book for your kids to explain to you, the zany zenith of absurdist adventure, Bunny vs Monkey is weird wit, brilliant invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning all crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Is that you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.

Today in 1926 Joe Sinnott was born. His inking made Fantastic Four impeccable and unmissable, but if you fancy seeing his pencilling mastery you should see Mighty Thor Omnibus volume 1.

Back in 1954 UK preschool comic milestone Playhour began its 1700+ issue run.

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Galveston


By Johanna Stokes, Ross Richie, Todd Herman & various (Boom! Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-93450-668-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic effect.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Jean Baptiste Lafitte was a French privateer and slave trader based in New Orleans – and later Barataria Bay – who famously turned down a huge bribe from the British and instead stood beside the Americans during the War of 1812. His alliance with General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans is the stuff of American mythology.

When the victorious Americans then started cracking down on piracy, Jean and his older brother Pierre became spies for the Spaniards during the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821). Relocating to Galveston Island, Texas they continued their trade as freebooting privateers targeting Central American ports. After they established a pirate colony called Campeche to facilitate their maritime activities, Jean died – or at least dropped from sight – sometime around 1823.

Jim Bowie is more myth than man. Born in Kentucky around 1796, he was a pioneer, frontiersman, law officer, land speculator and quintessential warrior. After accruing wealth and a certain reputation in New Orleans, he eventually relocated to Texas (whilst it was still part of Mexico), married and settled down. Of all the legends surrounding him the two truest are his proficiency with the lethal “Bowie knife” (created from the fearless fighter’s design by bladesmith James Black) and that he died in Texas at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.

With such a historic pedigree and so little verifiable fact, it’s perfectly natural somebody should place these two bellicose American icons together, and that’s exactly what scripter Johanna Stokes (with input from Ross Richie, Tom Peyer & Mark Rahner) and illustrator Todd Herman – ably assisted by colourists Digikore Studios & Andres Lozano and letterer Marshall Dillon – did in this light-hearted action-romp which is as much buddy/road movie as pirate yarn or western…

Originally released as a 4-issue miniseries in 2009, Galveston begins in the Gulf of Mexico in 1817, where the infamous Jean Lafitte’s crew are trying to kill him. It’s not personal: they simply heard that he’s hidden a huge stash of gold donated by the Emperor Napoleon for helping him escape from France. Lafitte’s only ally is a wiry American he’d recently befriended: a man named Bowie. The greed-inciting gold story was circulated by Cyrus Wesley, an old acquaintance from New Orleans and no friend of the pirate captain…

After escaping certain doom through quick-wittedness and a certain amount of chicanery, Lafitte brings Bowie to the pirate colony he’s built in Galveston, introducing him to the glories of the Maison Rouge and the light of his life: a fiery tongued and ferociously independent woman named Madeline Ragaud…

She seems welcoming enough, but also brings news of a ship full of spies masquerading as traders. All too soon Bowie is experiencing first-hand how his pirate pal deals with real threats to his people…

A bigger worry is Wesley. Acting on behalf of vengeful Louisiana Governor Claiborne, the old enemy has brought a small army of bought-&-paid-for lawmen into the shady new town, ready to deal with Lafitte on the slightest pretext. A man of absolutely no principles, Cyrus is, however, quite prepared to let the mission slide if Lafitte gives him Napoleon’s gold…

It would be a sound bargain if there actually was any bullion, but Lafitte swears all he got for his services was a brace of ornamental cannon. They don’t even work…

Temporarily escaping his problems, the wily pirate accompanies Bowie on his own mission to set up trading ties with the Comanches, but Cyrus’ threat to harm Madeline lingers, prompting Jean to bicker with his buddy and storm off in a fury. By the time Jean gets back to Galveston the settlement is in flames and Wesley is ensconced aboard a warship in the bay.

It’s time for old war-hero Lafitte to rally his piratical troops for a showdown, but he might be less fired up if he knew that his aggravating paramour has despatched a message to even the odds. Hopefully, Madeline’s young courier can find Bowie and his Indian friends before it’s too late…

With it all culminating in a classic and epic underdog vs. bad guys showdown whilst delivering a marvellously traditional twist in the tale, this rowdy, raucous riot of fun is a sheer delight for all lovers of straightforward, no-nonsense matinee thrills.
© 2009 Boom Entertainment Inc. and Johanna Stokes. All rights reserved.

Today was big for comics and strips. in 1905 Winsor McCay’s sublime landmark Little Nemo first appeared. I must do that again. In the meantime why not look up Daydreams and Nightmares – The Fantastic Visions of Winsor McCay?

In 1938 the UK greeted anthology weekly Radio Fun for the first time, and three years later Americans met Archie Andrews in his first out in Pep Comics #22.

In 2004, the marvellous Irv Novick laid down his tools for the last time. Examples of his work span the length of the artform and can be found all over this blog. Go look, you’ll be impressed…

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Hellboy: Weird Tales


By Mike Mignola, Fabian Nicieza, John Cassaday, Eric Powell, Tom Sniegoski, Tommy Lee Edwards, Randy Stradley, Joe Casey, Sara Ryan, Ron Marz, J. H. Williams III, Jim Pascoe & Tom Fassbender, Will Pfeifer, John Arcudi, Matt Hollingsworth, Jill Thompson, Alex Maleev, Jason Pearson, Scott Morse, Akira Yoshida & Kia Asamiya, Doug Petrie, Bob Fingerman, Evan Dorkin, Andi Watson, Mark Ricketts, Kev Walker, Craig Thompson, Guy Davis, Stefano Raffaele, Ovi Nedelcu, Seung Kim, Steve Parkhouse, Steve Lieber, Jim Starlin, P. Craig Russell, Simeon Wilkins, Gene Colan, Roger Langridge, Eric Wright, Dave Stewart, Clem Robins & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-510-8 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-63008-121-8 (digital) 978-1506733845 (2022 Omnibus TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. It also has Discriminatory Content included for comedic and satirical effect.

After the establishment of the comic book direct market system, there was a huge outburst of independent publishers in America and, as with all booms, a lot of them went bust. Some few, however, were more than flash-in-the-pans and grew to become major players in the new world order.

Arguably, the most successful was Dark Horse Comics who fully embraced the shocking new concept of creator ownership (amongst other radical ideas). This concept – and professional outlook and attitude – drew many big-name creators to the new company and in 1994 Frank Miller & John Byrne formally instituted sub-imprint Legend for those projects major creators wanted to produce their own way and at their own pace. Over the next four years the brand counted Mike Mignola, Art Adams, Mike Allred, Paul Chadwick, Dave Gibbons and Geof Darrow amongst its ranks; generating superbly entertaining and groundbreaking series and concepts. Unquestionably the most impressive, popular and long-lived was Mignola’s supernatural thriller Hellboy.

The hulking monster-hunter debuted in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993) before formally launching in 4-issue miniseries Seed of Destruction (with Byrne scripting Mignola’s plot & art). Colourist Mark Chiarello added layers of mood with his understated hues. Once the fans saw what was on offer there was no going back…

What You Need to Know: on December 23rd 1944 American Patriotic Superhero Torch of Liberty and a squad of US Rangers intercepted and – almost – foiled a satanic ceremony predicted by Allied parapsychologist Professors Trevor Bruttenholm and Malcolm Frost. They were working in conjunction with influential medium Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones. Those stalwarts were waiting at a ruined church in East Bromwich, England when a demon baby with a huge stone right hand appeared in a fireball. The startled soldiers took the infernal yet seemingly innocent waif into custody.

Far, far further north, off the Scottish Coast on Tarmagant Island, a cabal of Nazi Sorcerers roundly berated ancient wizard Grigori Rasputin whose Project Ragna Rok ritual seemed to have failed. The Russian was unfazed. Events were unfolding as he wished…

Five decades later, the baby had grown into a mighty warrior engaging in a never-ending secret war: the world’s most successful paranormal investigator. Bruttenholm spent years lovingly raising the weird foundling whilst forming an organisation to destroy unnatural threats and supernatural monsters – The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. “Hellboy” quickly became its lead agent.

As the decades of his career unfolded, Hellboy gleaned tantalising snatches of his origins, hints that he was an infernal creature of dark portent: born a demonic messiah, somehow destined to destroy the world and bring back ancient powers of evil. It is a fate he despises and utterly rejects, even though the universe keeps inexorably and relentlessly moving him towards it.

Hellboy earned the status of ‘actual legend’ in the comics world, starting as the particular vision of a single creator and, by judicious selection of assistants and deputies, cementing a solid take on the character in the hearts of the public. That’s just how it worked for Superman, Batman and Spider-Man (except for the whole “owning the fruits of your own labours” thing) and a big part of the same phenomenon was the eagerness of fellow creators to play in the same universe. Just how that and this collection came about is detailed in Editor Scott Allie’s Introduction preceding a blazing welter of strange and bizarre entertainment…

Originally an 8-part comics series wherein a star-studded cast of creators tell their own stories in their own varied styles under the watchful supervision of the big cheese himself in his unique infernal playground, Hellboy’s Weird Tales was gathered into a 2-volume set in 2004. This luxurious hardback and digital reissue originated in 2014, supplementing the original miniseries with back-up stories from Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #2-4.

Dramas that add to the canon nestle alongside bizarre and humorous vignettes that simply live for the moment and begin with ‘How Koschei Became Deathless’ crafted by Mignola, Guy Davis, Dave Stewart & Clem Robins. The filler from Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #2 & 3 details the valiant trials of a noble warrior and the bad bargain he made, after which a crafty man turns the tables on the world’s wickedest witch in ‘Baba Yaga’s Feast’ (H:TWH #4).

The mother of monsters returns in Fabian Nicieza & Stefano Raffaele’s ‘The Children of the Black Mound’ wherein a future soviet dictator has his own youthful, life-altering encounter with the queen of magic.

John Cassaday spoofs classic newspaper strips with rollicking pulp science hero in ‘Lobster Johnson: Action Detective Adventure’ after which Nazi-bashing nonsense, Eric Powell explores Hellboy’s childhood and early monster-mashing in ‘Midnight Cowboy’ whilst Tom Sniegoski & Ovi Nedelcu raise our spirits with an older ghostbuster failing to tackle a playful posse of spooks in ‘Haunted’…

A classical doomed East/West war romance ghost tragedy is settled by Tommy Lee Edwards & Don Cameron in ‘A Love Story’, setting a scene for more Japanese myth busting in Randy Stradley & Seung Kim’s ‘Hot’ wherein the B.P.R.D. star clashes with an unhappy Tengu (water spirit) inhabiting a mountain hot spring…

Joe Casey & Steve Parkhouse celebrate the glory days of test pilots and the right stuff in ‘Flight Risk’ when Hellboy is involved in a competition to see who’s got the best jetpack, after which ‘Family Story’ (Sara Ryan & Steve Lieber) sees him acting as counsellor to the mum and dad of a rather diabolical kid, before we slip into all-out arcane action to retrieve a time bending artefact from a Guatemalan temple in ‘Shattered’ by Ron Marz & Jim Starlin.

A stakeout with an over-amorous fellow agent leads to unanticipated consequences in J. H. Williams III’s ‘Love is Scarier than Death’, whilst Will Pfeifer & P. Craig Russell’s dalliance with an undying theatre troupe traps our hellish hero in a ‘Command Performance’ and the entertainment motif continues in John Cassaday’s ‘Big-Top-Hell-Boy’ as the B.P.R.D. try to exorcise a mass-murderous circus in Germany before Hellboy and aquatic investigator Abe Sapien battle zombies in the ‘Theatre of the Dead’ courtesy of scripters Jim Pascoe & Tom Fassbender, as illustrated by Simeon Wilkins.

Thanks to John Arcudi & Roger Langridge, the undersea avenger sort of stars in comedic daydream ‘Abe Sapien: Star of the B.P.R.D.’, after which Jill Thompson takes ‘Fifteen Minutes’ to offer us the other side’s view of the eternal struggle, whilst Matt Hollingsworth & Alex Maleev show us the struggle against evil starts before we’re even legally alive in ‘Still Born’. Indomitable psychic Firestarter Liz Sherman acknowledges personal loss and the dreadful cost of the job in Jason Pearson’s ‘The Dread Within’ before Scott Morse conjures up a calmer moment for Hellboy in ‘Cool Your Head’ and Akira Yoshida & Kia Asamiya return us to ghost-riddled Japan for an unconventional duel with childish spirits in ‘Toy Soldier’…

Bob Fingerman’s ‘Downtime’ pits the cream of the B.P.R.D. against the vexatious thing inhabiting the office vending machine, after which Doug Petrie & Gene Colan follow Liz and Abe on a typical ‘Friday’, even as artificial hero Roger the Homunculus foolishly seeks ‘Professional Help’ during a devious demonic assault (as recorded by Evan Dorkin). Andi Watson tackles Hellboy’s infernal heritage and possible future during a social function where he is – as always – the ‘Party Pooper’, after which team leader/psychologist Kate Corrigan endures an acrimonious reunion with her dead-but-still-dreadful mother in ‘Curse of the Haunted Dolly’ (Mark Ricketts & Eric Wright), whilst Kev Walker pits bodiless spirit Johann Krauss against a thing from outer space in ‘Long Distance Caller’.

The narrative portion of this stellar fear & fun fest rightly focuses on Hellboy himself as Craig Thompson takes the weird warrior on an extended tour of the underworld in ‘My Vacation in Hell’ and there’s still a wealth of wonder to enjoy with Mike Mignola’s Hellboy Weird Tales Gallery offering a selection of potent images by Cameron Stewart, Maleev, Dave Stevens with Dave Stewart, Steve Purcell, William Stout, Leinil Francis Yu, Phil Noto, Gary Fields with Michelle Madsen, J. H. Williams III, Rick Cortes with Anjin, Galen Showman with Michelle Madsen, Ben Templesmith, Frank Cho with Dave Stewart, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Lee Bermejo with Dave Stewart and Scott Morse.

Baroque, grandiose, scary, hilarious and even deeply moving, these vignettes alternate suspenseful slow-boil tension with explosive catharsis, and trenchant absurdity, proving Hellboy to be a fully rounded character who can mix apocalyptic revelation with astounding adventure to enthral horror addicts and action junkies alike or enthral jaded fun-lovers in search of a momentary chuckle. This is a classic compendium of dark delights you simply must have.

™ & © 2003, 2009, 2014 Mike Mignola. Weird Tales is ® Weird Tales, Ltd.

Today in 1932 Francis Burr Opper’s landmark strip And Her Name Was Maud ended. If only someone would release a definitive archive I certainly review it!

Also today, the amazing and astounding Otto Binder died in 1974. He wrote everything from Superman to Captain Marvel to Mighty Samson so go seek him out too for a grand old time…

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Melusine volume 5: Tales of the Full Moon


By Clarke & Gilson, coloured by Cerise; translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)

ISBN: 978-1-84918-212-6 (album TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Historically, whenever we used to feel out of sorts we’d consult the wise women to pull our fat out of the fire. Thus as we’re still sick and I’m out of pre-completed reviews here’s a sample of that and me being too clever for my own good.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings…

Witches – especially cute, sassy and/or teenaged ones – have a surprisingly long pedigree in all branches of fiction, and one of the most seductively engaging first appeared in venerable Belgian comic Le Journal de Spirou way back in 1992.

Mélusine is actually a sprightly (119 years old) neophyte sorceress diligently studying to perfect her craft at Witches’ School. To make ends meet she spends her off-duty moments working as au pair/general dogsbody to a shockingly disreputable family of haunts & horrors inhabiting and/or infesting a vast, monster-packed, ghost-afflicted chateau during some chronologically adrift, anachronistically awry time in the Middle-ish Ages…

Episodes of the much-loved feature are presented in every format from one-page gag strips to full-length comedy tales; each and all riffing wickedly on supernatural themes and detailing Melusine’s rather fraught existence. Our magical maid’s life is filled with daily indignities: skivvying, studying, catering to the appalling and outrageous domestic demands of the master and mistress of the castle and – far too occasionally – schmoozing with a large and ever-increasing circle of exceedingly peculiar family and friends.

The strip was devised by writer Françoise Gilson (Rebecca, Cactus Club, Garage Isidore) and cartoon humourist Frédéric Seron – AKA Clarke – whose numerous features for all-ages LJdS and acerbic adult humour Fluide Glacial include Rebecca, Les Cambrioleurs, Durant les Travaux, l’Exposition Continué… and Le Miracle de la Vie. Under the pseudonym Valda, Seron also created Les Babysitters and as “Bluttwurst” Les Enqu?tes de l’Inspecteur Archibaldo Massicotti, Mister President and P.38 et Bas Nylo.

A former fashion illustrator and nephew of comics veteran Pierre Seron, Clarke is one of those insufferable guys who just draws non-stop and is unremittingly funny. He also doubles up as a creator of historical & genre pieces like Cosa Nostra, Les Histoires de France, Luna Almaden and Nocturnes. He was obviously cursed by some sorceress and can no longer enjoy the surcease of sleep…

Collected Mélusine editions began appearing annually or better from 1995 onwards, with the 27th published in 2019. Thus far thanks to Cinebook, five of those have shape-shifted into English translations, but there have been ads for a sixth…

Continentally released in October 2002, Contes de la pleine lune was the 10th groovy grimoire of mystic mirth and is again most welcoming: primarily comprised of single or 2-page gags starring the enticing enchantress and delightfully eschewing continuity for the sake of new readers’ instant approbation. When brittle, moody, over-stressed Melusine isn’t being bullied for her inept cleaning skills by the matriarchal ghost-duchess who runs the castle; ducking cat-eating monster Winston; dodging frisky vampire The Count or avoiding unwelcome and often hostile attentions of horny peasants and over-zealous witch-hunting priests, the wily witchlette can usually be found practising spells or consoling/coaching inept, un-improvable and lethally unskilled classmate Cancrelune.

Unlike Mel, this sorry sorceress-in-training is a real basket case: her transformation spells go appallingly awry; she can’t remember incantations and her broomstick-riding makes her a menace to herself, any unfortunate observers… and even the terrain and buildings around her.

As the translated title suggests, Tales of the Full Moon dwells on demolishing fairy fables and bedevilling bedtime stories but also gives proper introduction to Mel’s best friend Krapella: a rowdy, roistering, mischievous and disruptive classmate who is the very image of what boys want in a “bad” witch…

This tantalising tome is filled with narrative nostrums featuring the traditional melange of slick sight gags and pun-ishing pranks highlighting how our legerdemainic lass finds a little heart’s ease by picturing how one day she’ll have her very own Prince Charming. Sadly, every dream ends – usually because there’s something sticky that needs cleaning up – but Melusine absolutely draws the line when Cancrelune (and even her own sweetness-&-light Fairy cousin Melisande!) start hijacking her daydreams…

This fusillade of fanciful forays concludes with eponymously titled, extended episode Tales of the Full Moon wherein Melusine is ordered to read a bedtime story to the Count’s cousin’s son: obnoxiously rambunctious junior vampire Globule, who insists on twisting her lovely lines about princesses and princes into something warped and Gothic… and even that’s before Cancrelune starts chipping in with her own weird, wild suggestions and interjections…

Wacky, wry, sly, infinitely inventive and uproariously funny, this arty arcana of arcane antics is a terrific taste of Continental comics wonderment: a beguiling delight for all lovers of the cartoonist’s art. Read well before bedtime – or you’ll be up laughing all night…
Original edition © Dupuis, 2002 by Clarke & Gilson. All rights reserved. English translation 2014 © Cinebook Ltd.

Speaking of Dark Nights, today in 1915 Bob Kane was born. Whatever happened to him?
Today in 1906 Golden Age comics scripter Joe Samachson was born. He’s all over this blog so just initiate a little search dialogue action to know more.

And in 1938 the inimitable E.C. “Elzie” Segar died. We last worshipped at his salty feet with Popeye: The E.C. Segar Popeye Sundays volume 4: Swea’Pea and Eugene the Jeep (February 1936 – October 1938); so should you as soon as possible.

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Chas Addams Happily Ever After: A Collection of Cartoons to Chill the Heart of You


By Charles Addams (Simon & Schuster)
ISBN: 978-1-43910-356-2 (PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. It also has Discriminatory Content included for comedic and satirical effect.

Cartoonist Charles Samuel Addams (1912-1988) was a distant descendant of two American Presidents (John Adams & John Quincy Adams). He compounded that hereditary infamy by perpetually making his real life as extraordinary as his dark, mordantly funny drawings.

Born into a successful family in Westfield, New Jersey, the precocious, prankish, constantly drawing child was educated at the town High School, Colgate University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York City’s Grand Central School of Art, and apparently spent the entire time producing cartoons and illustrations for a raft of institutional publications.

In 1932 he became a designer for True Detective magazine – “retouching photos of corpses” – and soon after started selling drawings to The New Yorker. In 1937, at the peak of popular fascination in cinematic and literary horror stories, he began a ghoulish if not outright macabre sequence of family portraits that ultimately became his signature creation. However, during WWII, he toned down the terror and served with the US Signal Corps Photographic Center, devising animated training films for the military.

Whether Addams artfully manufactured his biography to enhance his value to feature writers or was genuinely a warped and wickedly wacky individual is irrelevant, although it makes for great reading – especially the stuff about his wives – and, as always, the internet is eager to be your informative friend…

What is important is that in all the years he drew and painted those creepily sardonic, gruesome gags and illustrations for The New Yorker, Colliers, TV Guide and so many others, he beguiled and enthralled his audience with a devilish mind and a soft, gentle approach that made him a household name long before television turned his characters into a hit. This was a substantial part of what generated the craze for monsters and grotesques that lasts to this day. That eminence was only magnified once the big screen iterations debuted. And now we have streaming fun too. He would have loved the sheer terrifying inescapability of it all…

As he worked on unto death, Addams got even wackier: marrying his third wife in a pet cemetery, spending an absolute fortune collecting weapons and torture devices – “for reference don’cha know” – and inventing… recipes…

There will be more on that last one another time but what really matters is that older collections of his oeuvre are finally being unearthed. This one – compiled from Addams’s personal archive, with many previously unpublished gems, explores the widest gamut of emotion, from ecstatic love to disappointed affection to murderous obsession. It’s a creepy corker demonstrating that love really does hurt…

Chas Addams Happily Ever After: A Collection of Cartoons to Chill the Heart of You opens in full scholar mode with ‘Chas Addams’ a photo-essay appreciation by H. Kevin Miserocchi, backed up by an explanation of the work of the ‘Tee and Charles Addams Foundation’ – remembering of course that the Tee here is his truly kindred spirit third wife Marilyn Matthews Miller-Addams (1926–2002).

Then the cartoon carnival commences with early works as ‘In the Beginning’ sets the cultural scene with crime, terror, murder and the ever-lurking supernatural before the remainder of the perilous pictorium offers insights into what used to be called “the war of the sexes”. This socially sensitive selection judiciously deals even handedly with ‘His Side’ and ‘Her Side’ before going on to test ‘His Resolve’ and ‘Her Resolve’…

The matter is naturally settled in revelatory style with ‘The Final Score’…

For clarity and pure knowledge this hilariously judgemental tome closes with a full list of ‘Dates of First Publication’ and the happy confirmation that a goodly proportion of the gags are new/unpublished until this time.

Should you not be as familiar with his actual cartoons as with the big and small screen legacy Addams unleashed, you really owe it to yourself to see the uncensored brilliance of one of America’s greatest humourists. It’s dead funny…
© 2006 by Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. All rights reserved.

Today in 1897 English writer & cartoonist Charles Henry Ross died. He’s one of the chaps accused of inventing comics with his disreputable rogue Ally Sloper. The closest we’ve got yet to exposing that rapscallion was in Great British Comics.