NowReadThis

September 2, 2015September 1, 2015

Hip Hop Family Tree Book 3: 1983-1984

By Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-848-9

Another year gone and at long last another spectacularly barnstorming, award-winning comicstrip history lesson from proudly self-confessed Hip Hop Nerd and cyber-geek Ed Piskor is here, detailing more secrets about the world’s most explosive musical discipline.

In astounding detail and with a positively chillin’ attention to the art styles of the period, Piskor resumes his astoundingly engaging exploration of the rise of the rhyme-&-rhythm musical art form – all whilst paying equal attention to the symbiotic and parallel growth of graffiti and street art – with wit, charm and astonishing clarity.

Kicking off with a crucial ‘Rogues Gallery’ of the 80 movers and shakers involved, this latest blockbuster-sized volume begins in 1983 after Hip Hop at last makes the leap from local parks and parties to the club scene and onto vinyl. It also sees the street wisdom that Rap doesn’t work on albums finally disproved foreverâ€¦

Of course now that the strange noise and weirdly evocative dance moves are a proven commodity, the establishment business sharks begin to circle the pioneering proponents and all their hundreds of hungry wannabe, would-be starsâ€¦

‘The Freaks Come Out at Night of the Living Bassheads’ closely studies that inexorable rise, following a few key behind-the scenes-personalities like in-at-the-start devotee Russell â€œRushâ€ Simmons, fanatical white-boy Rick Rubin and miracle-working Swiss opportunist Charlie Stettler whose tireless efforts are slowly eclipsed as the movement goes global, tracking the tenuous migration to television via shows such as Graffiti Rock and documentaries Style Wars and Breakin’ and Enterin’ until even whites Rock-only MTV finally capitulates â€¦

Filled with feuds, mash-ups and team-ups of the new talents, highlighting Rubin and Simmons unification as Def Jam and focussing closely on British support from landmark books such as Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant’s Street Art, this titanic tome covers the start of the careers of Whodini, The Fat Boys, Slick Rick, LL Cool J and Doug E Fresh, sees The Beastie Boys adopt rap as their metier and follows Run DMC‘s unstoppable rise.

As always the technical and stylistic innovations, musical struggles and physical battles, management shenanigans and recording landmarks are all encyclopaedically yet engaging revealed as Piskor connects a bewildering number of strands and weaves them into the coolest of tapestries â€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Produced in the tone and style of those halcyon, grimily urban times and manufactured to look just like an old Marvel Treasury Edition (a tabloid sized 334 x 234 mm -reprint format from the 1970s which offered classic tales on huge and mouth-wateringly enticing pulp-paper pages), this compelling confection also includes a copious and erudite ‘Bibliography’, ‘Reference’ and ‘Funky Index’, a fun-filled Author Bio and another blazing collection of ‘Pin Ups’ with spectacular images from guest illustrators including TLC by Natalie Andrewson, Biz Markie by Miss Lasko Gross, Kool Moe Dee by Jonny Negron, Kool DJ Red Alert by Toby Cypress, Blowfly by Johnny Ryan, Jay Z by Jim Rugg, Wu Tang Clan by Benjamin Marra, Mantronix by Dean Haspiel, Dr. Dre by Jenny Goldstick, MC Hammer by Robert Crumb and Digital Underground by Skottie Young to get your pulses racing, if not your toes tappingâ€¦

Informative and irresistible, Hip Hop Family Tree is wild fun and deliciously addictive – and only a year until the next oneâ€¦
This edition Â© 2015 Fantagraphics Books. All Hip Hop comic strips by Ed Piskor Â© 2015 Ed Piskor. Pin ups and other material Â© 2015 their respective artists. All rights reserved.

August 31, 2015August 30, 2015

Barefoot Gen volume 9: Breaking Down Borders

By Keiji Nakazawa (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-600-9

I first found the Educomics magazine I Saw It! in 1982; initially seduced by a garish cover and the Chester Gould-like illustrations. There was precious little translated manga around then and the magazine was lumped in with the wild, wacky and often salaciously outrageous â€œUnderground Comixâ€ on the racks of my regular comics shop, across the road from Goldsmith’s College from where I had just graduated before starting as tea-boy on iconic Warrior magazine.

I was cocky, big-headed and, I thought, extremely well versed in all aspects of comics but still utterly gobsmacked after I read itâ€¦

In England we’ve had educational comics for decades, but this was something completely new to me. There was no tasteful distancing here; just an outraged scream of defiance and a direct plea to make things right. This was history and politics and it was deadly serious, not played for laughs or to make points as British cartooning traditionally did.

Constantly revised and refined by its creator and publishers around the world, I Saw It! became Barefoot Gen, and now the entire epic semi-autobiographical saga has being remastered as an unabridged and uncompromising 10-volume English-language translation by Last Gasp under the auspices of Project Gen, a multinational organisation dedicated to peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Hadashi no Gen was first seen in Japan began in 1973, serialised in ShÅ«kan ShÅnen Jampu (Weekly Boys Jump) following an occasional 1972 series of stand-alone stories in various magazines which included Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (Struck by Black Rain) and Aru Hi Totsuzen, (One Day, Suddenly).

These eventually led Shonen’s editor Tadasu Nagano to commission the 45-page Ore wa Mita (I Saw It) for a Monthly Jump special devoted to autobiographical works. Nagano clearly recognised that the author – an actual survivor of the word’s first atomic atrocity – had much more to say which readers needed to see and commissioned the serial which has grown into this stunning landmark epic.

The tale was always controversial in a country which still often prefers to ignore rather than confront its mistakes and indiscretions and, after 18 months, Hadashi no Gen was removed from Jump, transferred first to Shimin (Citizen), then Bunka HyÅron (Cultural Criticism), and KyÅiku HyÅron (Educational Criticism).

Like his indomitable hero, Keiji Nakazawa never gave up and his persistence led to a first Japanese book collection in 1975, translated by the original Project Gen team into Russian, English and then other languages including Norwegian, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Indonesian, Tagalog and Esperanto.

The author at long last completed his story in 1985 and his telling testament of survival has since been adapted into live-action and anime films, operas, musicals and live-action television dramas.

Undoubtedly mirroring Nakazawa’s own creative journey, this penultimate volume shares the moment it all changed for a hardy, forward-looking and indomitable idealist and individualist who finally found a way to express his anger and effectively fight back against the idiocies and injustices of a world which had let Atom bombs fall, and at last challenge those pedagogues and self-seekers who chose to keep the bad old ways alive even after their people suffered the most hideous of consequencesâ€¦

Possibly the most inspirational volume of Keiji Nakazawa’s graphic masterpiece, Barefoot Gen: Breaking Down Barriers begins following ‘Some Thoughts About Keiji Nakazawa’ by Project Gen Editor Alan Gleason, who has been with the grand design since 1977 – practically from inception – and offers here telling insights and historical perspective. The other end of this monochrome paperback balances the essay with a biography of the author and invaluable data ‘About Project Gen’â€¦

This stunning graphic manifesto resumes with an ancient history lesson as fearful peasants are told their precious rice paddies are to be destroyed by the local military in order to make a road for troop movements. As one bold serf dares to protest and suffers grievously for it, Gen awakes in the communal shack he and his friends cobbled together out of rubble and scavenged debris of Hiroshima. He shares it with other â€œbomb-orphansâ€ and, until this morning, his last surviving family member.

Now however older brother Koji Nakaoka is moving out to get married, but at least rambunctious Ryuta and quietly stolid Musubi are staying put. The former reform school kids have become super-salesmen, selling dresses made by radiation-scarred outcasts Natsue and Katsuko on Hiroshima’s gradually restored and rebuilt street corners. The long-term goal is typically ambitious: the girls will sew and the boys will sell until they have saved enough money to open their own shop.

Today however Ryuta is in an excitable state. He’s the most devoted follower of the city’s woefully sub-par baseball team the Hiroshima Carp and is sharing his hopes and fears for the new season with any highly amused passer-by he can corralâ€¦

By the time the hapless sports fan returns to uncharacteristically gloomy Gen at the shack another crisis has arisen: a horde of military types are besieging the hovel intent on tearing it down to make way for a proposed â€œPeace Memorial Cityâ€ and they don’t care that the kids have lived there for years and have nowhere else to go.

Gen and Ryuta’s vigorous, violent and initially successful â€œDirty Protestâ€ defence of their home is savage and disgusting but ultimately doomed to failureâ€¦

When the little war is finally lost Gen is painfully marked for life and carries another burden of stored anger, but at least ailing Natsue is not present to see the loss of their home. She is in the mountains, completing a ceramic urn to contain her ashes after she diesâ€¦

Gen has known her since the earliest aftermath of the bomb: a young dance student he twice saved from her own fatalistic intent, but recently she has been physically failing. Never quite recovering from appendix surgery, she is now convinced her remaining days are few and is preparing for the endâ€¦

Forcibly relocated to a tiny riverside shack, the disparate band gather to celebrate surviving another day, but when exhausted Natsue finally joins them and proudly shows off her beautiful funerary urn Gen â€œaccidentallyâ€ shatters it. Next morning, increasingly furious Ryuta attacks his best friend for his clumsiness and apparent lack of remorse in upsetting Natsue and learns the true depth of Gen’s compassion. As their brutal clash accidentally envelopes and infuriates a haughty street fortune teller, Gen reveals he acted deliberately to shock Natsue out of her pervasive death-spiral, believing he can keep her alive by sheer anger. Eying the enraged seer screaming at them, he then concocts an even bolder plan to reinvigorate her vanished will to liveâ€¦

When Ryuta later leads the entire gang past a heavily-bearded prognosticator-for-hire, the oracle predicts long life and a fabulous future for the fatally-depressed girl but can’t resist also having a hilarious pop at her mouthy Carp-loving companion. The session works splendidly however and Natsue agrees to return to hospital for doctors to treat her still unhealed surgical wounds. Sadly not even unflagging optimism and Gen’s guile can fix everythingâ€¦

In the tragic aftermath fresh horror emerges as two pious gentlemen intrude upon the youngsters’ grief, offering to arrange a splendid funeral for Natsue. Gen however is not fooled and realises they are simply clever â€œVulturesâ€ working for the Americansâ€¦

In occupied Japan news media was absolutely forbidden from discussing or reporting the effects of atom bombs and the populace had no knowledge of exactly what had happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Indeed, amidst the rubble of the destroyed cities, most of the 300,000 terrified, bewildered survivors had no idea what was happening to their bodies – or that they were not unique or even isolated cases – but were consoled by the seemingly-benign and tireless humanitarian efforts of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

These were officials employed by the US Occupation forces, tasked with acquiring – even often buying – bodies of recently deceased bomb survivors for scientists to examine. The bomb-makers were hungry for information on the after-effects of their hell-weapons and apparently did not see victims as human. They simply dissected bodies, harvested organs and collated facts: always hungry for more data. Gen had dealt with them before, when they stole the fresh corpse of his little sister Kimieâ€¦

The ABCC even pay for teams to go into schools to regularly examine the health of children, working to a hidden agenda aided by local Japanese doctors bribed to send everyone they could to the Americans. For each referral they were rewarded with fancy drugs, many sold for profit to the black market. No one with bomb-related symptoms was treated or cured; just tested and catalogued.

Now with the knowledge enflaming him, Gen responds with brutal violence, beating and driving off the Vultures before he and his friends steal Natsue’s bodyâ€¦

She had died on the 6-month anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War just as General Douglas MacArthur (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers and de facto Emperor of Japan) convinced US President Truman to announce the deployment of atomic weapons for that conflict too. Thankfully, concerted global outcry convinced them to withdraw the threatâ€¦

In January 1951, Gen, Ryuta, Musubi and Katsuko are on a pilgrimage to inter their lost friend’s ashes above the city on Mount Hiji, but are thwarted by the discovery that the ABCC have built a vast complex on the once-beautiful site. After displaying their disdain in the approved scatological manner, the weary mourners decide to place the urn Gen worked so long and hard to reconstruct within the Nakaoka family grave, but as they trudge to the cemetery their precious cargo is stolen by a street urchin.

Giving ferocious chase they corner the little thief and administer the customary beating, leading to a confrontation with an old man who would change Gen’s life foreverâ€¦

At first artist Seiga Amano cannot believe his grandson Tatsuro would stoop so low, but when he realises why the boy has turned to thievery, his proud heart almost breaksâ€¦

Eventually everybody calms down and Gen gives the old painter art materials he has stored ever since an old, dying man briefly stayed at their shack, sharing with the grateful painter the knowledge that his own father was also an artist before the bomb. Their riverside conversation inspires a life-changing aspiration within the lad that turns his life to a new path. Gen begs the elder to teach him everything he knows so that he can prove his new, all-consuming mantra â€œArt Has No Bordersâ€â€¦

The next lucky happenstance occurs when Gen stumbles onto a sign painter producing a cinema poster for a Kurosawa Double Feature. Toro Otsuki boasts he is the greatest exponent of his craft in Hiroshima, a claim brutally backed up by his thuggish assistant Kurosaki who foolishly attacks the loud-mouthed young gawker only to be soundly trounced for his temerity.

Sadly in the melee the painting is wrecked and honourable, guilt-struck Gen swears to make amends to the artist and his sadistic boss Nakao; an unrepentant former-soldier now bullying his way into civilian lifeâ€¦

When Seiga Amano and grandson Tatsuro pass by and see Gen enduring savage abuse in his attempts to atone, another fight begins and Otsuki breaks an arm, compelling Amano to step in and complete the poster. The rapidly-completed masterpiece instantly mollifies the militant Nakao who sees another business opportunityâ€¦

The constant stream the Boss provides is the making of Gen who serves as assistant and willing, eager student to Seiga, rapidly learning the basics of a discipline which will change his life.

As spring arrives more change is in the air. General MacArthur is summoned home and older conservative citizens begin to panic as their surrogate Emperor deserts them. Ryuta is typically scathing of the nervous old farts and isn’t there when a band of thugs target Gen, seeking to chop off his arm. The plucky little scrapper quickly ends their threat and knows jealous Kurosaki is behind the scheme, but after taking a measure of vengeance Gen surprises himself by getting to know his enemy and learning the horrific story of the abuse his fellow bomb orphan suffered at the hands of priests who were supposed to be protecting the lost children of Hiroshimaâ€¦

With a deeper understanding but no real resolution to their stalled conflict, Gen returns to his diligent studies but his peace of mind will soon be shaken by the return of an old enemyâ€¦

Militaristic elements of Japan were deftly re-establishing themselves as the city grew again: attempting to whitewash their pasts for the New Japan. When ardent – and genuine – anti-war protestor Gen sees a poster announcing Denjiro Samejima, running for political office, claiming he opposed the war and was a â€œsoldier for Peaceâ€, Gen boils over at the villain’s hypocrisy and reacts with his usual earthy passionâ€¦

During the war that wily demagogue was a secret Black Marketeer who denounced Gen’s father – a genuine anti-war dissident – and led a hate-campaign that tormented the entire Nakaoka family. Now the rogue is profiting by stealing and feigning his beloved father’s ideals and dreams, just like so many other criminals who would deny history and the truth in search of self-advancementâ€¦

The scathing insights into the sordid character of political opportunists are potent reminders of why society never changes, reminiscent of George Orwell’s polemics, and by seemingly moving slightly off-message Nakazawa actually drives home his points with far greater force. Barefoot Gen is positively Reithian in its ability to Educate, Inform and Entertain and its legacy will be as pervasive and long-lastingâ€¦

And yet even at its most bleak and traumatic Keiji Nakazawa’s magnum opus never forgets to be funny, compelling and enjoyably Human. The broad cartoon style of Keiji Nakazawa’s art has often been the subject of heated discussion; the Disney-esque, simplified rendering felt by some to be at odds with the subject matter, and perhaps diluting the impact of the message. I’d like to categorically refute that.

Mister Nakazawa’s style springs from his earliest influence, Osamu Tezuka, Father of AnimÃ© and God of Manga who began his career in 1946 and whose works – Shin Takarajima (New Treasure Island), Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) and so many more – eased some of the grim realities of being a bomb survivor, providing escape, hope and even a career path to the young boy.

As such the clear line, solid black forms and abstracted visual motifs act as tolerable symbols for much of the horror in this parable. The art defuses, but never dilutes, the terrible facts and scenes of the tragedy and its aftermath. The reader has to be brought through the tale to receive the message and for that purpose the drawings are accurate, simplified and effective. The intent is not to repel (and to be honest, even as they are they’re still pretty hard to take) but to inform, to warn.

So now you’ve been warned, buy this series. Better yet, agitate your local library to get a few sets in as well. Barefoot Gen is a world classic and should be available to absolutely everyoneâ€¦
Â© 2009 Keiji Nakazawa. All rights reserved.

August 28, 2015August 25, 2015

The Mythology of S. Clay Wilson volume 2: Demons and Angels

By S. Clay Wilson, edited by Patrick Rosenkranz (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-844-1

This book is filled with dark, violent sexual imagery and outrageous situations intended to make adults laugh and think. Please be aware that means nudity, images of extreme violence, sexual intimacy, excess of every kind and language commonly used in the privacy of the bedroom, drunken street brawls and – I suspect – school playgrounds whenever supervising adults aren’t present.

If the thought of it all offends you, read no further and don’t buy the book. The rest of us will enjoy some of the most groundbreaking cartoon experiences ever created without you.

Steve Clay Wilson was a pioneering trailblazer within America’s transformative Underground Commix movement: an uncompromising, controversial, in-your-face architect of the counterculture, constantly challenging attitudes and sensitivities whilst telling the kind of cartoon tales he wanted (or perhaps had) to. Something of a contradiction to those who knew him, charming, charismatic Wilson lived life to the full and took his art seriously.

And what art! Stark, complex, shocking, incredibly detailed tableaux jumping with modern Rabelaisian content: mesmerising scenes packed with intense multi-layered busyness, crammed with outrageous, iconic characters in constant surging motion – mostly combative, lewdly licentious and hilariously violent.

The manly hedonistic exuberance of frantic fighters rejoicing in the wild freedom as exemplified by bikers, cowboys, pirates, bull dykes and devils, augmented by other violent ne’er-do-wells, grotesques, human-scaled beasts and things which could be drawn but never describedâ€¦

His work seethed and abounded with excess: monsters, mutilations, booze- and drug-fuelled romps populated with priapic plunderers and ravening beasts, dangerous and disturbed women and always, always unsettling scenes of society’s biggest taboos – sex and personal freedom.

Americans already worshipped violence; Wilson simply pushed the optics for that sacrament as far as he could, straight into surreal parody. Everybody who knew Wilson adored him, but around him they were usually a little nervous and stepped lightlyâ€¦

The contemporary successor to Peter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch moved on to other artistic arenas when the Underground movement foundered but he never toned down or curbed his visions. In 2008 he suffered massive brain damage in mysterious circumstances and has been undergoing full-time palliative care ever since.

This second intimate, informative oversized (286 x 202 mm) hardback biography/graphic overview is compiled from previous writings and extensive interviews with the people he grew up with and who shared his eventful life.

Moreover each telling anecdote and reminiscence is augmented with photos, paintings, illustrated letters and private or previously unpublished artworks, with each chapter offering a wealth of strips, comprising most of his output from the decline of the counterculture in the mid 1970s to the graphic renaissance of the 1980s.

Before our hagiography of horrors resumes, fellow cartoonist, bosom buddy and contemporary fun-seeker Joe Schenkman paints a torrid word-picture in his Introduction: Where Eagles Soar, after which ‘From Underground to Alternative’ describes the slow painful end of Underground Commix and subsequent downturn in the massive sales its iconoclastic cartoonists enjoyed during the 1960s, whilst relating how the true survivors moved into other areas of expression and more legitimate publishing arenas.

The cultural pendulum swing actually benefited the most dedicated and talented artistic visionaries like R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez and Wilson, and this section looks at our wayward rebel’s easy shuffle into commissioned art, gallery-shows, covers and commercial illustration as well as his return to comicbook notoriety in the 1980s after being sought out by Steve Bissette and John Totleben for their horror anthology Taboo. â€œWil-sinâ€ more than lived up to his reputationâ€¦

Jam-packed with illustrations, this history is rounded off with more astounding strips and his manic, hyper-complex tableaux-spreads (he called them â€œDeep Scenesâ€) including ‘Angels & Devils’ and ‘Wanda and Tillie featuring Jesus’ from Zap Comix #6, (1973), as well as ‘Rough Trade Lib’, the apocalyptic ‘Futuristic Glimpses’ and convoluted shock-spreads ‘Dyke Pirates Rescue Their Captain from the Diabolic Doctors of Dover’, ‘Maarooouufffaaolloo’ from the following year’s Zap #7, whilst 1975’s 2 (Two), originally housed ‘Brutal Youths Trounce Lawful Citizens for Ticket Money’, ‘Suds Smut’, ‘Un Acte’, ‘The Possessed, Exorcists, Demons and Gurus in a Free-for-All’ and ‘The Captain Died Twice’ before the same productive year’s 2Â² (Two Squared) delivers the epic examination of social atrocity ‘Lester Gass – the Midnight Xenophobe’â€¦

The next essay concentrates on the legendary artistic collaborations of Wilson, Spain, Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Victor Moscoso, Robert Williams and Rick Griffin who periodically and competitively reunited through the 1970s and 1980s to release new material in an occasional anthology like no other.

‘Zap Forever!’ offers history and insight supplemented by a wealth of Wilson’s stunning and controversial material beginning with ‘Riot in Cell Block Number Nine’ assorted short tales of ‘The Checkered Demon’, ‘Travelin’ Assassin’ and ‘The Sawbones Sews on the Captain’s Ear Following the Fray’ from Zap Comix #9 (1978), ‘The Swap’ and ‘Star-Eyed Stella’ from #8 in 1975, whilst issue #10 (1982) featured the haunting ‘Bums and the Bird-Spirit’ and ‘Captain Pissgums and his Pervert Pirates Sail Again!’

Also rousing ire and poking gorges are vivid Deep Scenes ‘Vampires with Their Dates and Victims Peruse Count von Sangre’s Basement Exhibition of Satanic Icons’, ‘The Checkered Demon and a Couple of Friends Relax in a Rustic Pub’, ‘Rotting Zombies Take Vengeance Upon the Pirates Who Had Shang-Haid Them’ from Zap Comix #11, (1985) offering the artist’s latest obsession and newest entries to his repertoire of grisly characters: zombies!

Back in educational mode ‘Wilson Abroad’ covers the artist’s life in beloved San Francisco bars and forays into book illustration – most notably covers and interiors for archival German editions of writers like William Burroughs – as well as the maverick’s European tours and booze-soaked trips to England and Scotland, augmented by a plethora of fascinating photos and commercial images.

This section includes a barrage of brilliant comics pieces which begin with the infamous Checkered Demon adventure-strip originally serialised in The Berkeley Barb newspaper from 1976-77 and later collected as The Checkered Demon #1 from Last Gasp.

These sordid sorties are followed by ‘The Checkered Demon Meats the Rotting Zombies Countess!’ (Weird Smut 1985), ‘The Checkered Demon Searches for the Perfect Pint!’, (Knockabout #2, 1981), ‘Captain Rosy Namrooth and her Crew Attempt to Prevent the Checkered Demon from Rescuing Star-Eyed-Stella and her Witch Sister through a Hole in the Hull’ (Boiled Owl #3 1981), ‘Give Me Them Pills’ (Jump Start #1, 1983), ‘A Gluetette and her Rotting Zombie Beau Discover the Little Syringe that Nobody Wanted’ (Jump Start #2, 1987), ‘The Checkered Demon and Deke the Blade Find the Dealer Dead in his Dank Little Room’ (Blatch #13. 1986), ‘Last Call!’ (Heck 1989), ‘Gems and Junk’ (Jump Start #2, 1987) and ‘Psycho Fat Boys’ from Too Fun Too Huge #2 1988.

A peek at the frequently controversial coterie of ‘Wilson’s Characters’ grants access to many unseen private works and unpublished material, neatly segueing into a mostly full-colour selection of works including ‘Babbs Crabb and Her Friend Bernice Meet the Male Chauvinist Peg!’ (Barbarian Women #2, 1977), the cover to Barbarian Women #2, front and back covers for The Checkered Demon #1, II (1978) and III (1979), Britain’s Knockabout #2 cover, The Ugly Head 1981 cover plus The Ugly Head from Yama Yama/The Ugly Head, the cover of Zap Comix #9 and front & back covers for both 2 (Two) and 2Â² (Two Squared) before this eclectic collection concludes with an invitation to view the artist’s middle years of ‘Domestic Tranquility’.

These social interactions are all accompanied by fascinating, rare illustrations such as fliers for ‘St. Pat’s Bash at Dick’s Bar’ (1984) and ‘Dicknic!’ (1987), plus 17 stunning Private Commissions, the cover to crime novel Blind Pig, and an album cover for ‘More Fun Than an Open Casket Funeral’ by The AccÃ¼sed from 1989, before the lesson endeth with a copious listing of Selected Works by S. Clay Wilsonâ€¦

Erudite, intimately informative yet utterly engaging, this superb collation, contrived and shepherded by the informationally insatiable Patrick Rosenkranz, offers unmissable insights into of one of the most important cartoonists in American history. Just like its precursor, this is a book no serious lover of the art form or devotee of grown-up comics can afford to miss.
The Mythology of S. Clay Wilson Volume Two: Demons and Angels Â© 2015 Fantagraphics Books. All comics and images by S. Clay Wilson Â© 2015 S. Clay Wilson. All biographical text Â© 2015 Patrick Rosenkranz. All other material Â© 2015 its respective creators and owners. All rights reserved.

August 27, 2015August 25, 2015

Lucky Luke volume 6: Ma Dalton

By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Frederick W. Nolan (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-14-4

It’s hard to think of one of Europe’s most beloved and evergreen comics characters being in any way controversial, but when changing times caught up with the fastest gun in the West (â€œso fast he can outdraw his own shadowâ€) and the planet’s most laconic cowboy moved with them, the news made headlines all over the world.

Lucky Luke is a rangy, good-natured, lightning-fast cowboy who roams the fabulously mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures with his sarcastic horse Jolly Jumper and interacting with a host of historical and legendary figures. His continued exploits over nearly seventy years have made him one of the best-selling comic characters in Europe (over 80 collected books and more than 300 million albums in 30 languages thus far), with the usual spin-off toys, computer games, animated cartoons and a plethora of TV shows and live-action movies.

He was created in 1946 by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de BÃ©vÃ¨re (â€œMorrisâ€) and was first seen the 1947 Annual (L’Almanach Spirou 1947) of Le Journal de Spirou, before launching into his first weekly adventure ‘Arizona 1880’ on December 7^th 1946.

Prior to that, while working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d’ActualitiÃ©s) cartoon studio, Morris met future comics superstars Franquin and Peyo, and joined weekly magazine Le Moustique as a caricaturist – which is probably why (to my eyes at least) his lone star hero looks uncannily like the young Robert Mitchum who graced so many memorable mid-1940s B-movie Westerns.

Morris quickly became one of la Bande des quatre or â€œThe Gang of Fourâ€ comprising JijÃ©, Will and his old comrade Franquin: the leading proponents of the loose, free-wheeling artistic style known as the â€œMarcinelle Schoolâ€ which predominated in Spirou in aesthetic contention with the â€œLigne Claireâ€ style used by HergÃ©, EP Jacobs and other artists on Tintin Magazine.

In 1948 said Gang (all but Will) visited the USA, meeting American comics creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, linking up with fellow traveller RenÃ© Goscinny, scoring some work from the newly-formed EC sensation Mad and making copious notes and sketches of the swiftly vanishing Old West.

That research would resonate on every page of his life’s work.

Working solo until 1955, Morris produced another nine albums worth of affectionate sagebrush spoofery before reuniting with Goscinny, who became the regular wordsmith as Luke attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with ‘Des rails sur la Prairie’ (Rails on the Prairie), which began in Spirou on August 25^th 1955.

In 1967 the six-gun straight-shooter switched sides, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with ‘La Diligence’ (The Stagecoach). Goscinny eventually produced 45 albums with Morris before his untimely death, from whence Morris continued both singly and with fresh collaborators.

Morris himself died in 2001 having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus some spin-off sagas crafted with AchdÃ©, Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean LÃ©turgie, Jacques Pessis and others all taking a crack at the venerable franchiseâ€¦

Moreover, apart from that very first adventure, Lucky (to appropriate a quote applied to the thematically simpatico TV classic Alias Smith and Jones) â€œin all that timeâ€¦ never shot or killed anyoneâ€â€¦

Lucky Luke first appeared in Britain syndicated to weekly comic Film Fun during the late 1950s and once again in 1967 in Giggle where he was renamed Buck Bingo. In all these venues – as well as the numerous attempts to follow the English-language successes of Tintin and Asterix albums – Luke had a trademark cigarette hanging insouciantly from his lip. However in 1983 Morris, no doubt amidst both pained howls and muted mutterings of â€œpolitical correctness gone madâ€, deftly substituted a piece of straw for the much-travelled dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization.

The most recent and successful attempt to bring Lucky Luke to our shores and shelves comes from Cinebook (who have rightly restored the foul weed to his lips on the interior pages, if not the coversâ€¦) and Ma Dalton was the sixth of their 54 (and counting) albums, now available both on paper and as e-books.

Chronologically it was the cowboy’s 38^th chronicle and Goscinny’s 29th collaboration with Morris, offering an engagingly riotous romp and a stupendously shocking showdown situation wherein all the laconic lawman’s legendary speed proved as nothing when facing a foe he could not draw againstâ€¦

It all begins after another suitably heroic escapade with our hero is relaxing in boisterous Cactus Junction when he stumbles upon the strangest hold-up he’s ever seen, as a little old lady holds up the local butcher at gunpoint and gets away with a steak and some scraps for her cat. Baffled, he tracks her to the store next door where a similar scenario occurs.

On questioning the shopkeepers Luke is informed that proud old Ma Dalton has fallen on hard times and the sympathetic merchants have all agreed – even though her creaky old six-gun doesn’t work – to let her â€œrobâ€ them whenever she runs out of the necessities of life such as tea, soap, food and scraps for her horrible cat â€œSweetieâ€â€¦

And yes, the engaging old biddy is indeed the mother of Luke’s intolerable arch-enemies: those vile owlhoot miscreants Averell, Jack, William and their devious, slyly psychotic, overly-bossy shorter brother Joeâ€¦

Sadly, Ma isn’t as sweet as everybody thinks. She knows full well what the infamous Dalton Gang are all about. Her lads are still in jail after the last time the tall busybody put them there, but as she writes them a letter they are again making a break for it. It’s easier than usual this time since the prison is a multi-story affair made mostly from woodâ€¦

As it burns to the ground the warden thinks he’s pretty smart chaining Joe to faithful prison hound Rin Tin Can but has forgotten that the vain, friendly and exceedingly dim pooch is utterly loyal to absolutely everybody.

The outraged authoritarian only realises his mistake when the boys abscond, taking the deliriously unresisting mutt with themâ€¦

After his introduction in 1962’s Sur la piste des Dalton, (On the Daltons’ Trail) Rantanplan – â€œdumbest dog in the Westâ€ and a wicked parody of cinema canine Rin-Tin-Tin – became an irregular feature in Luke’s adventures before eventually landing his own spin-off series title. The moronic mutt earns his spurs here, being a literal drag on the villains’ progress until he tries chasing Sweetie after the boys sneak home. Ma however is a stern and commanding pet owner who paralyses the pooch with one curt commandâ€¦

As they lay low, old family pressures build again at the Dalton shack. Dim, sneaky Averell was always Ma’s favourite and as he again sops up all her attention Joe, Jack and William settle upon a scheme to make some cash whilst they’re hiding out. It revolves around the fact that Daltons all look remarkably similar and, once the moustaches are off and they’re wearing her old dresses, the boys can pass for their mum in any shop or bank in the region with Lucky Luke none the wiserâ€¦

However when Averell starts joining in and queering the guileful gig, the â€œold dearâ€ is seen in stores miles apart in Alfalfa City and Tumbleweed Town, swiping cash and guns rather than vegetables and soap, and the canny cowboy quickly puts two and two togetherâ€¦

Soon the infamous family are on the run with Lucky and Jolly Jumper hard on their heels. But it’s guile and not gunplay that will win the day since nobody expects the gangling gunfighter to draw down on a little old lady. She just might end up as â€œthe one who got awayâ€â€¦

Fast-paced, seductive slapstick and wry cynical humour colour this splendidly mad ride: another grand old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides Again and Cat Ballou, superbly executed by master storytellers and providing a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for today’s kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of an all-pervasive Wild West that never wasâ€¦
Â© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Goscinny & Morris. Â© Lucky Comics.

August 26, 2015August 25, 2015

Fante Bukowski

By Noah Van Sciver (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-851-9

Here’s a grand little digest-sized poke at in the snoot of authorial pomposity and the Eternal Dreams of Idiots deliciously delivered by seemingly tireless and provably incisive cartoonist Noah Van Sciver, one of the most intriguing and unpredictable creators around.

Sciver has walked the walk since 2006; self-publishing stories in his stripzine Blammo (9Â½ issues so far) before finding a publisher (Kilgore Books & Comics) to handle the drudgework of production, generated a weekly newspaper strip (4 Questions in Denver’s Westword), won an Ignatz Award and gradually work in publications such as Mome, The Comics Journal, Best American Comics and Mad Magazine.

In 2012 his excellent first graphic novel The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln made plenty of critical waves, as did his surprising follow-up Saint Cole, a gruelling exploration of life on the minimum wage.

Now he’s turned his sharp eye and fascination with the Human Condition to a punishing comedy of delusional manners featuring â€œThat Guyâ€ whom we’ve all met: the desperate, delusory â€œArtisteâ€ who’s a legend in his own mind and grows increasingly impatient with how long it’s taking the world to discover himâ€¦

Before he legally changed his name, Fante Bukowski had read all those life-changing books by John Fante & Charles Bukowski and knew he was going to write the next Great American Novel. That would show everybody they were wrong about him – especially his dadâ€¦

Now, living on secret handouts from Mom, he infests a dingy hotel room, clad either in dirty underwear or the traditional writer’s uniform of unruly beard, elbow-patched tweed jacket, baggy trousers and suppressed desperation; drinking too much and creating nothingâ€¦

He haunts bars and stalks agents, seeking â€œthe Big Ideaâ€ that will start him writing his magnificent gift to the world, completely oblivious to the characters around him who could so easily populate and enrich the book he dreams of, but which is just not in himâ€¦

Constructed through a series of painfully illustrative vignettes such as ‘Struggling Writer’, ‘Fante Bukowski Stays Up’, ‘Fante Walks Home’, ‘Fante Needs Money’ and ‘Fante Has No Car’, with each illustrative moment haunted and mocked by aspirational quotes from all his literary forebears who actually could put word to paper, he shambles through life bemoaning the unfairness of it all.

He almost thinks he’s at last on the way when he scores with a conflicted young author struggling with writer’s block, but all her valuable contacts have seen his sort beforeâ€¦

He even tries to emulate Kerouac but doesn’t get far before realising how unpleasant The Great Outdoors is and just how scary are people who pick up hitch-hikers, but Fante does at least, at last, learn one unforgettable lessonâ€¦

Trenchant, brittle and mercilessly funny, this full-colour paperback novella also includes a selection of cruelly authorial pin-ups by guest-artists Zak Sally, John Porcellino, Jesse Jacobs, Joseph Remnant, Leslie Stein and Eric Reynolds.
Fante Bukowski Â© 2015, Noah Van Sciver. This edition Â© 2015 Fantagraphics Books, Inc.

August 24, 2015August 23, 2015

Leaf

By Daishu Ma (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-853-3

Sequential Art – or â€œcomicsâ€ as I stubbornly prefer to think of it – is generally typified as a marriage of text with a series of illustrations designed to tell a story and impart a mood, but it’s always been a nebulously open-ended venture with little time for hard and fast rules and happy to avoid definition.

For instance if a story has an overabundance of words in too few pictures, the result is little more than illustrated prose, but if you go the other way and minimise, or even complete exclude words, what you have is the absolute zenith in comics communication. And more often than not, it’s the best writers who use the least verbiage, whether they illustrate the story or notâ€¦

Daishu Ma is a Chinese cartoonist, artist and designer working in Barcelona who, with her first graphic novel Leaf, has joined a rarefied band of international illustrative icons (Jim Woodring, Jason and our own Raymond Briggs being regularly amongst the most prominent) who have frequently eschewed and transcended the printed word and strictures of graphic narrative, allowing methodically crafted imagery to establish scenes, define characters, create nuance and carry a tale.

â€¦Or rather here, a politically-edged, industrially-condemning eco-parable, since her sublime, meticulous and astonishingly beguiling pencil-tone art – enhanced by smartly applied splashes of mood-enhancing pastel colour – exposes a blandly bleak industrial environment on the brink of eradicating the last vestiges of the natural worldâ€¦

This is a story you must experience for yourself so let’s content ourselves with the basic facts: when a young man on an excursion finds a fallen leaf which pulses with an uncanny, comforting radiance he covertly takes it back to the ever-sprawling city.

His teeming conurbation, bustling office of employment and even extremely basic, always empty apartment are all drab and dolorous despite the plentiful supply of monopolistic artificial lights and he realises that what he’s found is something special, even inspirational.

Increasingly obsessed, he roams the bustling city, seeking someone who can explain what he hides in his home. The revelatory journey takes him to unsuspected, people-packed enclaves of joy, wonder and despondency and into many folks’ lost memories of better times, when he encounters a young woman who has dedicated her life to understanding the rapidly vanishing flora of the world and a strangely timid old man who seems to know all the secrets of light-makingâ€¦

And once the finder obsessively follows a convoluted trail to a hidden truth, how can he not risk everything in a bold act to change his overcrowded, oppressive, unhappy world?

Entrancing, subtle and seductive in a purely primal manner, Leaf offers a vision of hope for all lovers of beautiful simplicity and natural wonder.

August 22, 2015August 21, 2015

Zombillenium: Volume 1: Human Resources

By Arthur de Pins (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-850-5

Arthur de Pins is a British-born French filmmaker, commercial artist and Bande DessinÃ©es creator whose strips – like adult comedy Peccadilloes (AKA Cute Sins) and On the Crab – have appeared in Fluide Glacial and Max. His beautifully illustrated ZombillÃ©nium began serialisation in Spirou #3698 (2009) and has filled three albums to date which are being released in English thanks to Canadian publisher NBM.

Rendered in a beguiling animated cartoon style, the saga features stories set in a theme park, run by the revived dead and operated for unspecified reasons by nebulous demonic powers.

Zombillenium is a truly magical entertainment experience celebrating all aspects of horror and the supernatural, where families can enjoy a happy day out rubbing shoulders with werewolves and witches and all manner of bogeymen. Of course, the customers might not laugh so much if they knew all those monsters were real, usually hungry and didn’t much like humans â€¦ except in a culinary fashionâ€¦

The first volume introduced Director Francis Von Bloodt, newly-created monster Aurelian Zahner (a former human and pathetically inept thief) and oddly secretive young British Witch Gretchen – who is â€œonlyâ€ an intern at the park – all toiling away at a place which reeks of inhospitable working conditions.

The employees are literally little more than slaves and conditions continually threaten to get worse: Zombillenium is one of the least-profitable holiday destinations on Earth and â€œthe Boardâ€ are always threatening to make draconian changesâ€¦

Despite the incredible power of the Zombie Trade Union, the only way out of a Zombillenium contract is the True Death and for some reason the shop-stewards blame Aurelian for all their woes and are determined to drive him out.

As Zahner adapted to his new indentured (un)life, Gretchen once shared a strict confidence with him, relating her life-story, revealing what he has actually become and explaining what she is really doing at the Park. The big boob has no idea what and how much she left outâ€¦

Human Resources begins amidst seething and escalating local troubles even as an obnoxious family find their day-trip to the park plagued by minor mishaps, missed turns and lost opportunities until they come across Aurelian out jogging. He graciously offers to guide them through the ever-shifting roads to their destinationâ€¦

Little Tim’s â€œpresentâ€ has already driven mum and dad back into their old, well-practised arguments but the lad is too busy being fabulously spooked and enthralled by the ever-so-convincing â€œperformerâ€ sitting beside him in the back. They’re all equally unaware of the tensions mounting in the human town just beyond the attraction.

In this region unemployment is 25% but the only even-remotely thriving concern refuses to hire anyone local. Animosity and suspicion has led to vandalism and worse, but would the ill-informed protestors even apply for jobs if they were offered? After all, the primary qualification for employment at the park is a total lack of all medically-recognised life-functionsâ€¦

As Aurelian gives Tim the VIP tour, Gretchen passes by and is shocked to realise that the kid’s mum is not all she seems to be. When the surly and abrasive visitor then attacks one of the smaller employees and is taken into custody, Von Bloodt too is taken aback: he knows the bullying, bossy virago from somewhere long agoâ€¦

There’s not really time however to solve her baffling mystery though, since a fresh crisis is brewing. A few hours earlier animated skeleton Sirius Jefferson went for a bike ride and was abducted by disgruntled, unemployed skinheads. Using portions of his dismantled anatomy they have since surreptitiously invaded the complex workings under Zombillenium carrying explosives and determined to wreak havoc.

Most critical of all is that little Tim has gone missing. Despite a big search by all the staff not engaged in tracking down the saboteurs, the kid just can’t be found. Then, in a moment of aghast clarity, the Vampire-In-Charge realises exactly who his mother is and why the boy must never, ever meet radical young demon Astaroth: the prime advocate and most strident supporter the sport of human hunting, who bears an uncanny but horrifyingly explicable resemblance to the missing childâ€¦

From this point on things can only go badly, and not all Gretchen, Aurelian and Von Bloodt’s efforts might be enough to prevent chaos turning into bloody Pandemoniumâ€¦

One of the most engaging candidates in a burgeoning category of seditiously mature and subversively ironic horror-comedies, this superb and deliciously arch tale will appeal to fans of such films as Hotel Transylvania and Igor and such graphic narrative classics as Boneyard, Rip M.D. and especially Melusine or The Littlest Pirate King, all of which combine pop-cultural archetypes with smart and sassy contemporary insouciance.

Sly, smart, sexy and scarily hilarious, Zombillenium achieves that spectacular trick of marrying slapstick with satire in a manner reminiscent of Asterix and Cerebus the Aardvark, whilst easily treading its own path. You’ll curse yourself for missing out and if you don’t there are things out there which will.
Â© Dupuis 2011. Â© NBM, 2014 for the English translation.

August 20, 2015August 19, 2015

Marvel Platinum: the Definitive Ant-Man

By Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Roy Thomas, David Michelinie, Kurt Busiek, Robert Kirkman, Tim Seeley, Nick Spencer, Jack Kirby, John Buscema, John Byrne, Jerry Bingham, Ivan Reis, Phil Hester, Ramon Rosanas & various (Marvel/Panini UK)

ISBN: 978-1-84653-658-8

With another Marvel filmic franchise setting records around the world, here’s a timely tie-in trade paperback collection designed to perfectly augment the cinematic exposure and cater to movie fans wanting to follow up with a comics experience.

Part of the always-enticing Marvel Platinum/Definitive Edition series, this treasury of tales reprints intriguing landmarks and key moments from Tales to Astonish #27, 35, Avengers #59-60, Marvel Premiere #47-48, Marvel Team-Up #103, Avengers Annual 2001, #1, Irredeemable Ant-Man #1-2, Ant-Man and Wasp #1-3 and Ant-Man #1, convolutedly spanning January 1962 to March 2015, and hopefully answering any questions the silver screen saga might throw up whilst providing an immense amount of spectacularly bombastic fighting fun.

One thing to recall at all times however is that there are numerous distinct and separate iterations of the tiny terror and whilst the film concentrates on the first and second there are a few more here to tantalise and tempt you, so pay close attentionâ€¦

Moreover, in addition to the sparkling Brady Webb Foreword, this compendium contains text features detailing the secret history and statistics of three of those Ant Men: Hank Pym, Scott Lang and the infamous Eric O’Grady, plus Mike Conroy’s scholarly trawl through comicbook history in ‘The True Origin of the Ant-Man’.

The unlikeliest of heroic titans debuted in Tales to Astonish #27, released at the end of 1961, one month after Fantastic Four #1 hit the newsstands: a 7-page short which introduced maverick scientist Dr Henry Pym, who discovered a shrinking potion and became ‘The Man in the Anthill!’

Overwhelmed and imperilled by his startling discovering, the lonely researcher found wonder and even a kind of companionship amongst the lowliest creatures on Earthâ€¦ and under itâ€¦

This engaging piece of fluff, which owed much to classic Sci Fi movie The Incredible Shrinking Man was plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber and stunningly illustrated by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers: intended as nothing more than another here-today, gone-tomorrow filler in one of the company’s madly engaging pre-superhero â€œmonster-magsâ€.

However the character struck a chord with someone since, as the DC Comics-inspired superhero boom flourished and Lee sprung the Hulk, Thor and Spider-Man on the unsuspecting kids of America, Pym was economically retooled as a fully-fledged costumed do-gooder for TtA #35 (September 1962).

The anthology title began featuring a new costumed champion as ‘The Return of the Ant-Man’ by Lee, Lieber, Kirby & Ayers found Soviet agents (this was at the height of Marvel’s ‘Commie-Buster’ period when every other villain was a Red somebody or other and rampaging socialism was a cultural bÃªte noir) capturing Pym and holding him prisoner in his own laboratory.

Forced to use his long-abandoned shrinking gases and the cybernetic devices he’d built to communicate with ants, the scientist soundly trounced the spies and resolved to use his new-found powers for the good of Mankind.

Pym’s costumed exploits – shared with girlfriend Janet Van Dyne after his brilliance gave her powers as the Wasp from #44 onwards and expanded once he became Giant Man in #49 – ran until issue #69 (July 1965) whereupon he was impudently and unceremoniously ousted in favour of the Sub-Mariner. Thereafter he gradually migrated to the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, changing his battle-nomenclature to Goliath.

That changed again in Avengers volume 1, #59 and 60 (December 1968 and January 1969) where, thanks to increasing mental instability and overwork, his team-mates were astounded to discover ‘The Name is Yellowjacket!’

Scripted by Roy Thomas and illustrated by John Buscema & George Klein, the tale saw Goliath and the Wasp finally marry under the most dubious of circumstances after heroic Dr. Pym was seemingly murdered and replaced by a new insect-themed hero with an edgy ruthlessly brutal character and far fewer moralsâ€¦

Packed with heroic guest-stars and the deadly Circus of Evil in attendance, the nuptial tale concluded in ‘â€¦Till Death Do Us Part!’ (inked by Mike Esposito moonlighting as Mickey DeMeo) with some semblance of sanity and normality at last restored.

Next up here is the introduction of reformed thief Scott Lang who debuted in Marvel Premiere #47 (April 1979, David Michelinie, John Byrne & Bob Layton) with ‘To Steal an Ant-Man!’ revealing how a former electronics engineer had turned to crime, more out of boredom than necessity, and after being caught and serving his time joined Stark Industries as a determinedly reformed characterâ€¦ until his daughter Cassie developed a heart condition which wiped out his savings forcing Scott to revert to old ways to save her.

He was desperate to find the wherewithal to hire experimental surgeon Dr. Erica Sondheim and began casing likely prospects, but unfortunately she had been abducted by merciless industrialist Darren Cross who was currently using all the resources of his mega-corporation Cross Technological Enterprises to keep himself aliveâ€¦

Needing cash now just to broach the CTE complex, Lang went back to Plan A and burgled the lab of retired superhero Henry Pym, where he discovered old Ant-Man gear and size-changing gases. In a moment of madness Lang decided not to sell the stolen tech but instead used the outfit to break in to Cross’ citadel and rescue Sondheimâ€¦

That plan wasn’t so great either as the dying billionaire, in a desperate attempt to stay alive, had been harvesting the hearts of homeless people to power an experimental device which had mutated him into a monstrous brute. After learning with horror ‘The Price of a Heart!‘ (June 1979), Scott eventually triumphed; unaware until the very last that Pym had allowed him to take the suit and was backstopping him every inch of the way. With Cassie saved Yellowjacket then invited Lang to continue as the new Ant-Manâ€¦

After guest shots in The Avengers and Iron Man (not included here) Lang resurfaced for a spectacular clash against villainous lifestyle coach Taskmaster in Marvel Team-Up #103 (March 1983). Crafted by Michelinie, Jerry Bingham & Esposito ‘The Assassin Academy’ saw the diminutive neophyte hero save Spider-Man from becoming an object lesson for the graduating class at a deadly school for henchmen, after which we jump to the Avengers Annual (September) 2001, where Kurt Busiek, Ivan Reis & Scott Hanna cleared up a long-running case of doppelganger confusionâ€¦

Ever since the Avengers reunited following the end of the Onslaught publishing event Pym had been acting strangely: switching between Giant-Man and Yellowjacket personas and suffering bizarre mood-swings. Now it was revealed that his powers had caused the separation and manifestation of two discrete and antagonistic entities and it took the intervention of an insidious enemy and ‘The Third Man’ to put things rightâ€¦

Clearly a character-concept with a lot of cachet and potential but no direction, the size-shifting stalwart underwent a radical revision in Irredeemable Ant-Man #1-2 (from December 2005 and January 2006) as the art team of Phil Hester & Ande Parks joined innovative scripter by Robert Kirkman in a sharp, snappy and gloriously irreverent reinterpretation.

When veteran Doctor Pym designed a new super suit, tricked up with loads of gadgets and capable of shrinking the wearer to ant-size, he did it under the auspices of super-spy organisation SHIELD. However, he didn’t expect it to be accidentally stolen by the security men guarding it – but then again nobody imagined such a prestigious, efficient organisation could employ such worthless, shiftless, useless slackers as trainee agents Eric O’Grady and Chris McCarthy.

When, after a series of improbable mishaps McCarthy put on the suit and was trapped and lost at ant size aboard the Helicarrier, Eric was too scared to admit it was a foul-up and not enemy action.

Later when a genuine crisis occurs, a horrific tragedy leaves the shrinking suit in O’Grady’s so-very unworthy hands and he resolves to try and make amends. Sadly Eric is an inveterate rat-bag and finds the temptation to use his new-found gift to spy on the women’s showers, cash in, score with chicks he rescues and generally act like a selfish ass too great to resistâ€¦.

When Janet Van Dyne fell during the Skrulls’ Secret Invasion her estranged husband rededicated himself to heroic endeavour and took her codename as his own, leading his own cadre of Mighty Avengers as Earth’s Scientist Supreme. From that period comes the 3-part Limited Series Ant-Man and Wasp #1 (January-March 2011) wherein Tim Seeley & Hector Olazaba team the po-faced Ã¼ber-technologist with well-intentioned, weak-willed costumed Frat-Boy Eric O’Grady in a guest-star stuffed, trans-dimensional battle against AIM supremo Monica Rappacini and a rogue sleepwalker from the dream-drenched Mindscape to save a stolen virtual construct of the afterlifeâ€¦

Wrapping up the eenie-weenie excitement comes Ant-Man #1 from March 2015 which reboots back-from-the-dead Scott Lang as a down on his luck, impoverished hero seeking to rebuild his life as a security officer for Stark Industries. This is a smart, engaging tale by Nick Spencer & Ramon Rosanas was released as a 5-part miniseries but as only the first chapter is included here I’m saying nothing more since I’m going to review the complete story in its own compilation in a few days timeâ€¦

With covers by Kirby, Ayers, John Buscema, Bob Layton, Dave Cockrum & Bob McLeod, Bingham, Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund, Hester, Salvador Espin and Mark Brooks, this quirky slice of up-scaled and down-sized derring-do is a non-stop feast of tense suspense, whacky fun and blockbuster action: another well-tailored, on-target tool to turn curious movie-goers into fans of the comic incarnation and another solid sampling to entice the newcomers and charm even the most jaded slice ‘n’ dice fanatic.

August 17, 2015August 16, 2015

Twin Spica volume 10

By Kou Yaginuma (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-935654-24-7

Kou Yaginuma first captured the hearts and minds with poignant short story 2015 Nen no Uchiage Hanabi (2015: Fireworks, published in Gekkan Comics Flapper, June 2000), before expanding the subject and themes into a major manga epic combining hard science and humanist fiction with lyrical mysticism and traditional tales of school-days and growing up.

2024 AD: diminutive teenager Asumi Kamogawa always dreamed of going into space. From her earliest moments the solitary child gazed up at the stars with imaginary friend Mr. Lion, especially gripped by the twinkling glow of Virgo and alluring binary star Spica.

An isolated, serious child, she lived with her father, a common labourer who had once worked for the consortium which built the rockets for Japan’s Space Program.

When Asumi was one year old, the first Japanese manned launch ended in catastrophe after rocket-ship ShishigÅ (â€œThe Lionâ€) exploded during its maiden flight: crashing to earth on the coastal city of Yuigahama. Hundreds were killed and many more injured, including Asumi’s mother.

Maimed and comatose, the matron took years to die. The shock crushed her grieving husband and utterly traumatised infant Asumi.

In response to the disaster Japan set up an astronautics and space sciences training facility where, after years of determined struggle, Asumi was accepted by the Tokyo National Space School. Slowly making friends like Shinnosuke Fuchuya (who used to bully her as a child back in Yuigahama), boisterous Kei Oumi, chilly, distant Marika Ukita and ultra-cool Shu Suzuki, Asumi inexorably moved closer to her unshakable dream of going to the stars.

Against all odds – she is small, shy, retiring, looks weak and is very poor – Asumi endures and always succeeds. She still talks with Mr. Lion, who seems to be the ghost of an astronaut from the ShishigÅâ€¦

Individual instalments in these compelling monochrome volumes are presented as â€œMissionsâ€, methodically combining into an overarching mosaic detailing the subtle interconnectedness of generations of characters, all linked by the call of the heavens.

Volume 10 comprises numbers 56-64, and includes another enchanting autobiographical vignette from the author’s own teenage years in his Another Spica occasional series.

The story resumes as the students all head out to the mountains for another gruelling series of metal and physical tortures claiming to be training exercises, which give the fated five another chance to bond as arduous underwater repair protocols take on an added dimension as they compete against robots.

The daunting subtext is simple: the mechanoids are far more appealing to the government and funding authorities. They cost less to train and there’s no public outcry if they are lost. The stars-struck kids’ only hope is that the machines cannot yet compete with the pluck and ingenuity of living astronautsâ€¦

Whilst the students fret and train, back at Space School Asauri News journalist Ichimura is getting closer to corroborating his suspicions: Ukita is not a normal human and her â€œfatherâ€ – publicity-shy life-sciences mogul Senri Ukita – has done something at once astonishing and ethically shady following the death of his first daughter years agoâ€¦

The thought triggers another flashback when, as a boy in Yuigahama, Ichimura (and his doomed friend who became an astronaut on the Lion) waited by the bed of a pale, chronically ill little girl and begged her unfeeling father not to take her awayâ€¦

Mission: 57 opens with Asumi and her companions still valiantly giving their all in a modern â€œJohn Henryâ€ battle against encroaching automation, but the stakes subtly change when she talks to the robot designers and understands the tragic passion which drives them to remove the necessity for humans in space. They too learn something from her counterarguments before 58 sees the end of the one-sided exercise and the dejected students’ glum return to school for the dog-days of summer in Mission: 59.

As Kei tries to lift everyone’s spirits Marika slips away to pick up another 90 days worth of the experimental drugs which keep her unique condition under control and time slips back again to the long-ago days when she read the diary of the other Marika: the weak one who preceded herâ€¦

Later the gang meet up and – due to a just a little chicanery – opt to spend another summer vacation in the unlikely seaside resort of Yuigahama. Later Marika confides in Asumi; suggesting that whatever happens in years to come, those who are left should always meet there in summer. Later, as they all trundle down on the scenic train their spirits rise, except perhaps star-boy Suzuki who sleeps quietly, utterly unaware that he has yet another nosebleedâ€¦

The restful recuperation begins in Mission: 60 with a visit to the shrines to the dead from the crash and gentle little bonding moments – except for grouchy Fuchuya who is once again pressed into service at the family fireworks factory. It’s the not the work he minds: it the continuing frustration that he cannot find again the specific blend of chemicals which produced just that special shade of green flaming flare that his beloved grandfather couldâ€¦

As the Annual Fireworks Festival approaches in Mission: 61, a casual gift from Shu to one of the girls (a trinket victoriously claimed at the one of the bustling game stalls) takes on special significance whilst they all pass time on the beach discussing his imminent departure for America. The mood affects Marika who finally shares the truth about her genetic disease/medical conditionâ€¦ and why it means she will probably never make it to space…

The journey back to Tokyo is subdued and as Kei incessantly takes more photos, she feels no urge to wake her sleeping comradesâ€¦

Asumi has stayed behind with her father and spends time mulling over the complexities of life with Mr. Lion in Mission: 62, as does Fuchuya, whose discussions with his big brother about the disposition of the fireworks business inevitably leads to his meeting up with annoying Asumi and pondering how and why they got to where they are.

Mission: 63 finds them back in Tokyo a little later, amidst an increasing Press scrum as Suzuki’s departure nears, before everything changes in Mission: 64 as shocking news comes that the inseparable five are now only fourâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Rounding off this volume in a wistfully autobiographical ‘Another Spica’ episode culled from author Yaginuma’s lovelorn days as a part-time server on a soft-drink stand in a theme park; focussing on his lonely journeys to distant places on the local railway line gathering images which would one day become the book you’re readingâ€¦

These magically moving marvels originally appeared in 2006-2007 as Futatsu no Supika 11 and 12 in the Seinen manga magazine Gekkan Comics Flapper, targeted at male readers aged 18-30, but this ongoing, unfolding beguiling saga is perfect for any older kid with stars in their eyesâ€¦

Twin Spica ran from September 2001-August 2009: sixteen volumes tracing the trajectories of Asumi and friends from callow students to trained astronauts, and the series has spawned both anime and live action TV series.

This delightful saga has everything: plenty of hard science to back up the informed extrapolation, an engaging cast, mystery and frustrated passion, alienation, angst and true friendships; all welded seamlessly into a joyous coming-of-age drama with supernatural overtones, raucous humour and masses of sheer sentiment.

August 13, 2015August 11, 2015

Fantastic Four by J. Michael Straczynski volume 1

By J. Michael Straczynski, Mike McKone, Andy Lanning & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-9774821-5-3

The Fantastic Four has long been rightly regarded as the most pivotal series in modern comicbook history, responsible for introducing both a new style of storytelling and a decidedly different manner of engaging the readers’ impassioned attentions.

More family than team, the line-up has changed many times over the years but always eventually returned to Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s original configuration of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing, who jointly formed the vanguard of modern four-colour heroic history.

The quartet are actually maverick genius Reed Richards, his wife Sue, their trusty college friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s obnoxious, impetuous younger brother Johnny Storm; survivors of an independent space-shot which went horribly wrong once ferociously mutative Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

When they crashed back to Earth, the foursome found that they had all been hideously changed into outlandish freaks. Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and form force-fields, Johnny could turn into self-perpetuating living flame, and poor, tormented Ben was transformed into a horrifying brute who, unlike his comrades, could not return to a semblance of normality on command.

The sheer simplicity of four archetypes – mercurial boffin, self-effacing distaff, solid everyman and hot-headed youth, uniting to triumph over accident and adversity – shone under Lee’s irreverent humanity coupled to Kirby’s rampant imagination and tirelessly emphatic sense of adventure.

Decades of erratic quality and floundering plotlines followed the original creators’ departures, but from the beginning of the 21st century Marvel’s First Family experienced a steady and sustained climb in quality which culminated in their own film franchise, currently experiencing its own radical reboot.

The return to top-quality was the result of hard work by a number of â€œBig Ideasâ€ writers and this slim hardback compilation – re-presenting Fantastic Four #527-532 (August 2005-January 2006) – celebrates the transition from one to another. When J. Michael Straczynski took over â€œThe World’s Greatest Comics Magazineâ€ – with illustrators Mike McKone & Andy Lanning providing sublime visuals – he looked back at the most fundamental moment of the long-lived franchise and found something new to play withâ€¦

It all begins with ‘Distant Music’ as an tortured ancient creature asks a devastating question which has shattered many worlds over the ages before cutting to Earth and now where a currently impoverished but still relentlessly inquisitive Reed Richards is unfortunately about to ask the same thingâ€¦

Happily he is distracted by wife Sue who drags him to dinner just as the team’s accountant is delivering a shocking piece of news to Ben Grimm. Apparently the rocky pauper has just become one of the richest men on Earthâ€¦

Another lucky distraction arrives in the form of Nick Fury, keen on mending fences whilst politely ordering his former friend to join a secret government project.

As Ben lets his newfound affluence go straight to his head, Reed reluctantly heads for Nevada and a hidden lab where scientists are trying to determine exactly why the ever-present Cosmic Rays beyond Earth have affected nobody to the extent they did the Fantastic Four so long ago.

Now Chief Researcher Dr. Stephen Crane claims to have discovered those particular mutative radiations were of a most specific configuration and that they are about to repeat for the first time in yearsâ€¦

To exploit the event he and his government backers have replicated almost all the factors in Richard’s originating space-shot and now just need Reed to fine-tune the details of his long-wrecked ship: details absolutely necessary before America can send up a platoon of ordinary patriotic grunts and bring back a legion of unstoppable super-soldiersâ€¦

The unappetising mission continues in ‘Random Factors’ with Reed’s distaste growing and his suspicions further fuelled, even as in the Big Apple Ben’s monetary excesses continue.

Sue meanwhile is keeping a secret of her own. Simone Debouvier of New York’s Division of Child Welfare has just informed her of an official investigation. State authorities are concerned that the Fantastic Four’s lifestyle pose a danger to children and are looking into taking young Franklin and Valeria Richards away from their obsessively do-gooding parentsâ€¦

When a full test goes catastrophically wrong in Nevada, Reed finds himself under suspicion of committing sabotage and with the military on his heels escapes back to New York in ‘Appointment Overdue’. He lands right in the middle of a family crisis but can’t stop to deal with it because he is carrying a terrifying piece of news: the specific Cosmic Rays which transformed amateur astronauts into superheroes might actually have been a carefully constructed message. Moreover the communication from the great unknown is due to repeat imminentlyâ€¦

After depositing the kids on the Moon with the Inhumans even as General Clement Bragg leads troops into the Baxter Building, the FF blast off in their own spaceship to intercept the cosmic communiquÃ© before once more crashing to Earth in a desolate region.

This time however an astounding entity which has been abiding within the energy message crawls out of the wreckage with them but Bragg’s rapidly responding forces are less than interested in learning ‘Truth in Flight’ and open fire on the creature. Much to their regretâ€¦

The entity is in mysterious communication with Ben and possesses bizarre space-warping abilities, so in an eye-blink it ferries the cosmic quartet back to the city where the tragic story of the ancient truth seeker – so much like Reed – is an amazing confirmation of how some traits transcend species.

Sadly, the quester also has obsessive enemies of near-divine power and they have noticed the Entity’s re-manifestation. In an instant the skies are filled with colossal vessels determined to end the searcher – and any other beings it might have infected with dangerous inquisitiveness – in ‘Many Questions, Some Answered’ and to save everything Reed must embark on the most momentous extended trip in all the annals of creation, realising at long last ‘Any Day Nowâ€¦ I Shall Be Released’â€¦

Winningly combining stellar spectacle with apocalyptic action and hilarious low comedy, this splendid romp comes supplemented with a cover gallery by McKone &Lanning plus a brief picture feature on the artist’s ‘Thing Reference Sculpture’.

Funny, warm, challenging and exhilarating, this fast-paced, tension-soaked chronicle provides all the thrills and chills a devoted Costumed Drama lover could ever want.
Â© 2005 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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