Author: NowReadThis

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Robin Archives volume 1


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Win Mortimer, Jim Mooney & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0415-0

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson and introduced a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day.

In the comics continuity Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student and eventually leader of a team of fellow sidekicks and young justice seeker – the Teen Titans.

He graduated to his own featured solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s, which he alternated and shared with Batgirl, and held a similar spot throughout the 1970s in Batman and won a starring feature in the anthology comic Batman Family and the run of Giant Detective Comics Dollar Comics. During the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans, first in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvented guise of Nightwing, re-establishing a turbulent working relationship with his mentor Batman.

His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with has inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed kid crusaders, and Grayson continues in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership ofAmerica’s increasingly rebellious contemporary youth culture… but his star potential was first realised much earlier in his halcyon career…

From 1947 to 1952, (issues #65-130) Robin the Boy Wonder had his own solo series and regular cover spot in Star Spangled Comics at a time when the first superhero boom was fading to be replaced by more traditional genres such as crime, westerns and boys’ adventure stories. The stories blended in-continuity action capers with more youth-oriented fare with adults Batman and Alfred reduced to minor roles or entirely absent, allowing the kid crusader to display not just his physical skills but also his brains, ingenuity and guts.

This stellar deluxe hardback Archive compilation gathers together the first 21 tales from Star Spangled #65-85 covering February 1947 to October 1948, recapturing the bold, verve and universal appeal of one of fantasy literature’s greatest youth icons, opening with a fascinating Foreword by Roy Thomas, who discusses the origins and merits of boy heroes and the history of the venerable anthology title before offering some insightful guesses as to the identity of the generally un-named writers of the Robin strip.

Although almost universally unrecorded, most historians consider Batman co-creator Bill Finger to be the author of most if not all of the stories in this volume and I’m going to happily concur here with that assessment until informed otherwise…

Star Spangled Comics #65 started the ball rolling with ‘The Teen-Age Terrors’ illustrated by regular artist Win Mortimer (with the inking misattributed to Charles Paris) in which the Caped Crusaders’ faithful butler happens across an unknown trophy and is regaled with Dick’s tale of the time he infiltrated a Reform School to discover who inside was releasing the incarcerated kids to commit crimes on the outside…

That tale segues seamlessly into ‘The No-Face Crimes’ wherein the Boy Wonder acted as stand-in to a timid young movie star targeted by a ruthless killer, whilst #67 revealed ‘The Case of the Boy Wonders’ which saw our hero as part of a trio of boy geniuses kidnapped for the craziest of reasons…

An outrageously flamboyant killing in #68 resulted in the pre-teen titan shipping out on a schooner as a cabin and spending ‘Four Days Before the Mast’ to catch the murderer, after which modern terror took hold when Robin was the only one capable of tracking down ‘The Stolen Atom Bomb’ in a bombastically explosive contemporary spy thriller.

Star Spangled Comics #70 introduced an arch-villain all his own as ‘Clocks of Doom’ saw the debut of an anonymous criminal time-and-motion expert forced into the limelight once his face was caught on film. The Clock‘s desperate attempts to sabotage the movie Robin was consulting on inevitably led to hard time in this delightful romp (this one might possibly be scripted by Don Cameron)…

Chronal explorer Professor Carter Nichols succumbed to persistent pressure and sent Dick Grayson back to the dawn of history in #71’s ‘Perils of the Stone Age’ – a deliciously anachronistic cavemen and dinosaurs epic which saw Robin kick-start freedom and democracy, after which the Boy Wonder crashed the Batplane on a desert island and encountered a boatload of escaped Nazi submariners in ‘Robin Crusoe’ in a full-on thriller illustrated by Curt Swan & John Fischetti.

In #73 the so-very tractable Professor Nichols dispatched Dick to revolutionary France where Robin battled Count Cagliostro, ‘The Black Magician’, in a stirring saga drawn by Jack Burnley & Jim Mooney, after which the Timepiece Terror busted out of jail determined to have his revenge in ‘The Clock Strikes’, illustrated in full by Mooney who would soon become the series’ sole artist.

However Bob Kane & Charles Paris stepped in for the tense courtroom drama in #75 as ‘Dick Grayson for the Defense’ found the millionaire’s ward fighting for the rights of a schoolboy unjustly accused of theft, after which cunning career criminal The Fence came a cropper when he tried to steal 25 free bikes given as prizes to Gotham’s city’s best students in ‘A Bicycle Built for Loot’ (Finger & Mooney).

Prodigy and richest kid on Earth, Bert Beem was sheer hell to buy gifts for, but since the lad dreamed of being a detective, the offer of a large charitable donation secured the Boy Wonder’s cooperation in a little harmless role play. However when real bandits replaced the actors and Santa, ‘The Boy Who Wanted Robin for Christmas’ enjoyed the impromptu adventure of a lifetime…

Another rich kid was equally inspired in #78 and became the Boy Wonder of India, but soon needed the aid of the original when a Thuggee murder-cult tried to destroy ‘Rajah Robin’, whilst in ‘Zero Hour’ (illustrated by Mooney & John Giunta) The Clock struck one more with a spate of regularly-scheduled time crimes before Star Spangled #80 saw Dick Grayson become ‘The Boy Disc Jockey’, only to discover that the station was broadcasting clever instructions to commit robberies in its cryptically cunning commercials…

Robin was temporarily blinded in #81 whilst investigating the bizarre theft of guide dogs, but quickly adapted to his own canine companion and solved the mystery of ‘The Seeing-Eye Dog Crimes’, but had a far tougher time as a camp counsellor for ghetto kids after meeting ‘The Boy Who Hated Robin’. It took grit, determination and a couple of escaped convicts before the kids learned to adapt and accept…

A radio contest led to danger and death before one smart lad earned the prize for discovering who ‘Who is Mr. Mystery?’ in #83, after which Robin tried to discover the causes of juvenile delinquency by going undercover as a notorious new recruit to ‘The Third Street Gang’, and this initial outing ends on a spectacular high as the Boy Wonder sacrifices himself to save Batman and ends up marooned in the Arctic. Even whilst the distraught Caped Crusader is searching for his partner’s body, Robin has responded to the Call of the Wild, joined an Inuit tribe and captured a fugitive from American justice in #85’s ‘Peril at the Pole’…

Beautifully illustrated, wittily scripted and captivatingly addictive, these stirring all-ages traditional superhero hi-jinks are a perfect antidote to teen-angst and the strident, overblown, self-absorbed whining of contemporary comicbook kids. Fast, furious and ferociously fun, these are superb tales no Fights ‘n’ Tights fan will want to miss…
© 1947, 1948, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Origin


By Joss Whedon, Christopher Golden, Daniel Brereton, Joe Bennett & various (Dark Horse/Titan Books Edition)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-105-2

Blood-drenched doomed love is still something of a hot topic these days so let’s take another look at one of the ancient antecedents responsible for this state of affairs – in the shape of Dark Horse Comics’ sequential reinterpretation of the cult B-movie which launched the global mega-hit TV franchise Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Starring Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Luke Perry and Rutger Hauer, the film was released in 1992 with a modicum of success and to the lasting dissatisfaction of writer/creator Joss Whedon.

Five years later he got to do the thing right and in the manner he’d originally intended. The ensemble action horror comedy series became something of a phenomenon and inspired a whole new generation of gothy gore-lovers and many, many “homages” in assorted media – including comics.

Dark Horse won the licensing rights in the USA, subsequently producing an engaging regular comicbook series and a welter of impressive miniseries and specials. In 1999 the company – knowing how powerfully the inclusivity/continuity/completism gene dominates comics fan physiology – revisited the troublesome movie debut. Scrupulously returning to the author’s script and core concept, restoring excised material, shifting the tone back towards what Whedon originally intended whilst subtly reconfiguring events until they better jibed with the established and beloved TV mythology, adaptors Christopher Golden and Daniel Brereton and artists Joe Bennett, Rick Ketcham, Randy Emberlin & J. Jadsen produced a new 3-issue miniseries which – finally – canonically established exactly what the former vapid Valley Girl did in her old hometown that got her transferred to scenic Sunnydale and a life on the Hellmouth…

The story opens in ‘Destiny Free’ as shallow but popular teen queen and cheerleader Buffy Summers shrugs off her recurring nightmares of young women battling and being killed by vampires throughout history to continue her daily life of smug contentment. Even a chance meeting with grungy stoner badboys Pike and Benny can’t dent her aura of self-assured privilege and studied indolence.

The nightmares keep mounting in intensity however, and all over town teenagers are disappearing…

Things come to a head the week her parents leave town for a trip. In a dark park, a maniac attacks Pike and Benny and is only driven off by the intervention of a mysterious, formidable old man. Even so the assailant manages to take the screaming Benny with him… Next day the old geezer is at school, annoying Buffy. She is blithely mocking until he tells her about her nightmares and explains that she has an inescapable destiny… as a slayer of monsters…

Deep in the bowels of the Earth a monster is marshalling his forces and making terrifying converts out of the spoiled worthless children of California…

Buffy’s stranger is exceedingly persistent and that night, despite her disbelieving misgivings, she and Merrick – an agent of an ancient, monster-hunting secret society – lurk in a graveyard waiting for a recently murdered man to rise from his fresh grave…

When he does – along with unsuspected others – Buffy’s unsuspected powers and battle reflexes kick in and against all odds she spectacularly triumphs…

‘Defenseless Mechanisms’ finds the altered Buffy grudgingly dropping her fatuous after-school activities – and former friends – to train with the increasingly strident and impatient Watcher Merrick. Even though her attitude is appalling and attention easily diverted, the girl is serious about the job, and even has a few new ideas to add to The Slayer’s traditional arsenal…

Even as she begins her career by luring vile vamps out by pretending to be a helpless lost girl in dark alleys, across town Pike is in big trouble. He also knows what is happening: after all every night Benny comes to his window, begging to be let in and offering to share his new life with his old, best buddy…

At school the change in Buffy is quite noticeable and all her old associates are talking and pointedly snubbing her, even as every sundown Lothos‘ legion gets bolder and bigger. A fatal mistake occurs on the night when Slayer and Watcher save the finally outmanoeuvred Pike from Benny and the Vampire Lord. Only two of the embattled humans survive and escape…

The tales escalates to a fantastic spectacular climax when the undead army invades the long-awaited Hemery High School dance looking for Buffy and fresh meat/recruits. With his bloodsuckers surrounding the petrified revellers and demanding a final reckoning, Lothos believed his victory assured, but in all his centuries of unlife he’d never encountered a Slayer quite like Buffy Summers…

Visually impressive, sassily scripted and proceeding at a breakneck rollercoaster pace, this smart and simple action-fest is extremely engaging even if you’re not familiar with the vast backstory, and is a creepy chronicle as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as by the dedicated devotee – and besides with the shows readily available on TV and DVD, if you aren’t a follower yet you soon could – and should – be…
™ & © 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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Power Surge Sunday

We’re trying something a little bit different today and concentrating on three exclusively paper-free entertainment experiences in recognition of the fact that we all live in the future now and – no matter how much I whinge about it – comics that you can’t trace with carbon paper are here to stay.

Maybe if it meets with general approval, doesn’t cause hair regrowth, a resumption of sexual of potency, or a falling of the skies we’ll do another digital Power Surge Sunday…

Let’s kick off with the latest batch of digitally archived British e-strips from Egmont UK’s Classic Comics line, comprising decades of superb material from Fleetway Comics, whose decades of existence under a variety of names produced a wealth of action-adventure, sports, romance, schools, science fiction, war, western, horror, spy and super hero stories, as well as some of the greatest and most innovative humour and gag-strips of all time.

In June the comic strip warehouse opened with four volumes from the legendary Roy of the Rovers football serial (originally published in the anthology Tiger from 1954 before gaining his own title in 1976). This has now been supplemented those with a fifth, all available from the iTunes store.

In addition this offering also added four new titles to the cartoon catalogue.

Seminal girl’s weekly Misty blended supernatural chills with relationship dramas and the title feature is now available to nostalgic adults and a whole new generation of fans.

Sinister suspense saga The Thirteenth Floor was a standout strip in short-lived 1980s horror title Scream and critically acclaimed cult combat classics Charley’s War and Major Eazy both contributed to the astounding success of weekly war comic Battle.

It’s a small and non-chronological start but, with the original periodicals in astonishingly short supply and print costs for graphic novels so high, this is a supremely cost-effective way to preserve and promote these fantastic fragments of our history.

With many more titles – such as the astounding Johnny Red – slated for inclusion, we can only hope that one day all of Fleetway’s prodigious storehouse of magnificent all-ages comics wonderment will be available for public perusal… and on more platforms.

Egmont’s Classic Comics are available from the iBooks Store on iPad for £1.99 each by following the links listed below.

MISTY:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/misty-comic-tales-from-mist/id573167123?mt=11

MAJOR EAZY:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/major-eazy-comic/id575022887?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/major-eazy-comic-part-2/id575022909?mt=11

CHARLEY’S WAR:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/charleys-war/id575535490?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/charleys-war-comic-part-two/id575567566?mt=11

ROY OF THE ROVERS:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/roy-rovers-comic-volume-5/id568395894?mt=11

THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/thirteenth-floor-comic-part/id573170121?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/thirteenth-floor-comic-part/id573174728?mt=11


Aces Weekly
By David Lloyd and many and various

This isn’t a review at all; merely the strongest possible recommendation.

David Lloyd is one of the most dedicated and creative comics makers in the business. Whilst wowing the world with a superb body of work ranging from a host of licensed strips including Dr. Who, Hulk Comic, Night Raven, Wasteland, Espers, Hellblazer, Aliens, James Bond, as well as his groundbreaking collaborations with Garth Ennis on War Story and the landmark tour de force with Alan Moore on V for Vendetta, Lloyd spent huge amounts of time and energy training a generation of new creators at the London Cartoon Centre, Cartoon County and elsewhere.

Now he’s finally turned publisher, gathering together comic artists from Britain, the USA, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, China, New Zealand and the Philippines for a boldly new and enticing venture.

Aces Weekly is a new subscribers-only, exclusively digital comics experience starring some of the planet’s greatest sequential storytellers doing the kind of stories they’ve always wanted to.

The first anthologised issue contains:

Valley of Shadows by David Lloyd & Dave Jackson, Return of the Human by JC Vaughn & Mark Wheatley, Progenitor by Phil Hester & John McCrea, Paradise Mechanism by David Hitchcock, Shoot for the Moon by Alexandre Tefenkgi & Alain Mauricet, as well as shorter pieces from Lew Stringer, Carl Critchlow, Mychailo Kazybrid, David Leach, Phil Elliott, Esteban Hernandez & Rory Walker.

True Brit fanboys will be delighted to see the return of farcical-fave Combat Colin…

Stuffed with loads of added extras such as character sketches, working designs, line drawings and unlettered artwork, each volume of Aces Weekly comprises over 126 pages of top quality international strip material, and after the first 7-issue volume has been published on-line there will be a two week hiatus before the next volume begins.

Available to anybody with a computer/laptop/tablet device, internet access and a working credit/debit card, volume 1 of Aces Weekly only costs £6.99/$9.99/€7.99, accessible once you subscribe on the site cited below and get your personal password.

ACES WEEKLY is not available for download from any other on-line site, and is available exclusively digitally.

www.acesweekly.co.uk www.facebook.com/acesweekly http://youtu.be/n1G9iwsTqsc
@acesweekly
What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?

 The Last Days – Truth, Justice and the Way (Kindle Edition)

By Andy Dickenson, illustrated by Sarah Evans (eBookPartnership.com)
No ISBN/ASIN B00A1AIBC8

Once again I’m compelled to admit a potential conflict of interest. I first met the author when he began attending my evening classes on comics scripting. I didn’t need to teach him much – just that the spell-checker is no substitute for proof-reading in our line of endeavour – and he showed me the proposal for a story he’d been working on. He found an artist and was planning to get that sucker done and published. That was in the last century and he’s since become a television journalist…

Some few years down the line here it is, transformed into an impressive debut novel and available as an e-book on Kindle…

In these enlightened days, the signature genre of comics – the super-hero – has finally gained a degree of literary legitimacy. Even if you ignore the pulp exploits of Doc Savage and the Shadow, the novelisations and prose experiments of the bigger comic publishers with their key brands and the success of such series as the ‘Wild Cards’, hyper-powered paladins and crazed masterminds have finally broken into mainstream publishing, but seldom with a much verve and all-out gusto as with this eerie, multi-disciplinary amalgam of supernatural chiller, conspiracy thriller, murder-mystery doomsday drama.

So, just to be clear: THIS IS A NOVEL. IT HAS VERY FEW PICTURES.

Thirty years ago civilisation came to an end. Now in the frozen foothills of Ben Nevis, perhaps the last stable community on Earth ekes out a precarious existence thanks to sullen cooperation and the incredible talents of a few impossibly gifted individuals.

Staggering out of the icy wastes one day towards the patchwork enclave of Albion comes German Klaus Gravenstein: a born survivor with a ghastly secret and a hidden master. The most telling factor in a concatenation of circumstances which resulted in mankind’s fall was a deadly hemorrhagic plague, and when the wanderer fails an impromptu medical at the city gates his quest seemingly comes to an abrupt and merciless end…

Albion was originally constructed as a vast reality TV set and after Armageddon set in the place became a haven for many different kinds of refugee, drawn in by the hope of safety and the wiles and comfortable charisma of a once-ubiquitous TV celebrity.

Here fallible mortal folk rub unwashed shoulders with faded stars, paramilitary warriors, a wizard, mad professors and a band of terrifying telepathic children. Ruled by an aged, self-appointed King and his dubious dynasty of schemers and paranormal prodigies, the far-from-contented populace soldiers on in the face of Armageddon’s dreary aftermath but is soon gripped in fresh terror and turmoil…

The community has its own team of heroes: noble Knights shepherded by an incredible mutant Messiah with astounding powers. Lord Truth had the ability to make wishes real and consequently supplied Albion with much of what it needed, from clothes to booze to guns and weapons – all conjured out of thin air. Yet he too was content to serve King and council, preferring to go on adventures and scavenging missions with his devoted, merely mortal squad of young warriors.

Now the world has been turned upside down. On the last away mission to the remains of London in search of the origins of the deadly Blood Plague and the true cause of the fall of mankind, Lord Truth was murdered…

Teenaged warriors and sole mission survivors Knight Six and Apprentice Tucker are far from forthcoming about what really happened, prompting pre-eminent Psionic court advisor Jon Way and Town Sheriff Sir Walter Justice to conduct their own uniquely distinctive private enquiries.

Neither is aware of the monstrous true threat to the entire town that begins when 12-year old super-telepath Neon Way – one of a core group of child psychics crucial to Albion’s infrastructure and survival – is targeted by a malign seductive force and slowly drawn from our reality into another universe from where she helplessly observes the ancient horror’s vile plot unfold.

In the imperilled enclave the innocent Six and Tucker independently conduct their own investigations into the death of their commander and comrades, gradually uncovering a Machiavellian web of deceit and double dealing, but the love-struck squire is only dimly aware that his beguiling comrade is harbouring a dreadful secret and appalling suspicions regarding the true perpetrator of the plot against Lord Truth…

Events surge into cataclysmic top gear when a ravening, unstoppable supernal monster invades the village hostelry and proceeds to inexorably decimate the screaming patrons before kidnapping Six and dragging her off into the dank service tunnels under the city, leaving only Tucker and Sir Justice to unravel the myriad interlinked mysteries poisoning the city before they can even begin the impossible task of saving the last dregs of feeble Humanity…

Captivatingly visual, cunningly intoxicating and perfectly picking through and living off the pop cultural scraps of our dying society, The Last Days seamlessly blends the exotic fantasy of the X-Men or Avengers with TV’s Alphas and Heroes, taps into the moody best of British Doomsday scenarists like John Wyndam, Christopher Priest and J.G. Ballard whilst referencing the urban horror of Stephen King and James Herbert.

This spellbinding yarn exuberantly mixes mysticism and science fiction elements with the catch-all bestiary of a comicbook universe: Mutants, demons, savvy sidekicks, gods, superheroes, warriors, monsters, mad scientists, obscure assassins and devious detectives all happily consort and interact in a cunning murder mystery that will entice and enthral comic readers booklovers.

Andy’s already hard at work on the sequel and I still think this one would make a stunning and outrageously eye-catching graphic novel…
© 2012 Andy Dickenson. All rights reserved.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Days-Justice-ebook/dp/B00A1AIBC8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1352133575&sr=1-1
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Planetes volume 2


By Makoto Yukimura, translated and adapted by Yuki Nakamura & Anna Wenger (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 978-1-59182-509-8

These days nobody does gritty, authentic, fun hard-tech comics science fiction like the Japanese (although for sheer tight-lipped underplayed drama I’d still place Sydney Jordan’s Jeff Hawk, Frank Hampson’s Dan Dare and most of Warren Ellis’ SF work ahead of even Manga’s greatest masters…).

The tough, no-nonsense, gritty mystery and refined imagination of space travel – so much a component of immediate post-World War II industrial society in the West – began to once again captivate a legion of level-headed imagineers at the end of the 20th century when Japanese tales first began to be translated into English. One superb exponent of that mini-boom was relative newcomer Makoto Yukimura who rekindled interest in near-space exploration in all its harsh and grimy glory with an inspiring “nuts-and-bolts” manga series which scrupulously explored the probable rather than the possible…

Yukimura (born in Yokohamain 1976, just as the once-ambitious American space program was languishing in cash-strapped doldrums and five long years before the first space shuttle launch) began his professional life as an assistant to veteran creator Shin Morimura before launching his independent career with the Planetes.

Working exclusively for Kodansha, his award-winning premier Seinen series ran in Weekly Morning magazine from January 1999-January 2004 and was later collected as four tankōbon volumes. The serial easily made the jump to a popular anime series and since then Yukimura, after producing Sayōnara ga Chikai node for Evening magazine, has since 2005 abandoned the future for the past and concentrated his creative energies on the monolithic historical epic Vinland Saga – serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Afternoon – and filling 11 bloodcurdling volumes to date…

The grimly existential premise of Planetes is devilishly simply and powerfully engaging. Humanity is a questing species but cannot escape its base origins. In 2075 space travel and exploitation is practically commonplace but, as we’ve conquered the void between Earth and the asteroid belt and prepare to exploit the outer planets, the once-pristine void around us has become clotted with our obsolete tech and casually discarded rubbish.

Even the most minuscule piece of junk or debris falling through hard vacuum is a high-speed, potentially deadly missile and to keep risk to a minimum, hardy teams of rugged individualists have to literally sweep the heavens free of our discarded crap.

The stories revolve around youthful trashman Hachimaki Hoshino whose greatest dream is to become a true deep-space astronaut and famous explorer like his famous – if disreputable – father. The boy has his future all mapped out: a similar career-path to dear old dad will lead to fame and wealth and then he can buy his own spaceship and be really free…

Sadly the incessantly dull toil of his deep night day-job is wearing away at the passionate, excitable Hachi who is becoming swiftly disenchanted with the whole dreary, disgusting drudgery aboard DS-12 – a standard sanitation/cargo ship fondly dubbed Toybox…

The first episode in this stunning second volume begins with ‘Running Man’ as the Toybox’s weary crew visit Moon Orbital Space Port and the obsessively training Hachimaki is approached by an unctuous business type looking for his infamous dad. Werner Locksmith is the head and chief designer of the Earth Development Community-sponsored manned mission to Jupiter and, unknown to the starry-eyed kid, had pegged Hachi’s father as the only man capable of piloting the innovative new vessel on the five year mission: one the boy would give anything to be on.

However the elder explorer doesn’t want to go and has actually absconded from the Private/Public sector project and is currently a fugitive…

The old rogue has had enough of space-faring: a fact he finds impossible to relate to his furious son when they meet. The old spacer intends to retire to Earth and make things right with the wife he’s abandoned…

Meanwhile Locksmith has been called away. Something has gone disastrously wrong with the Jupiter ship Von Braun…

Above Luna as Hachi argues with his dad, another crisis occurs as a devastating explosion rips through the station and everybody evacuates. In the safe chill of the void, Hachi and the crew see a phenomenal debris field emanating from the moon’s surface. The Von Braun’s experimental engines have failed and an entire lunar base has been evaporated…

Following the tragedy the ruthlessly cool Locksmith unswervingly starts to rebuild and the senior Hoshino breathes a sigh of relief. Hachi is undeterred. He resumes his training, knowing that when the Von Braun is ready to fly, he will be ready to join it…

Acknowledging their comrade’s impossible dream, stoic Russian Yuri Mihairokov and commander Fee Carmichael have inducted by a raw new recruit to the Toybox team and tasked Hachi with training her to be his eventual replacement. According to the ambitious lad, however, Ai ‘Tanabe’ is a hopeless case, fruitlessly wasting valuable time he could be using to train and study for his application to the Jupiter Mission. Suffering mightily from having to baby-sit the useless girl, he only discovers her suppressed inner fire after a 50-year old space coffin is recovered from the dark expanse and provokes a bitter dispute about love, passion and man’s place in the cold, lonely universe…

Hachi’s dream comes a giant leap closer to reality in ‘A Black Flower named Sakinohaka Part 1’ as he finally begins his official audition for the Von Braun. The boy has become an emotional void with nothing but his cold ambition driving him. He can’t even process the deadly and constant threat posed by increased sabotage activity from the terrorist SDL; a group determined to keep space free of Man’s toxic presence.

Despite the more than 20,000 applicants, Hoshino is beginning to distinguish himself when a series of bomb blasts rocks the controversial project. Narrowly escaping death, Hachi is visited by his old friends who are horrified by the obsessed spacer’s blasé attitude and apparent disregard for the pain and suffering of his rival candidates who were caught in the detonations. Is he truly so determined to get on the mission that all he sees are fewer competitors?

Only fellow applicant and new buddy Hakimu seems to understand that any sacrifice and personal misery are worth the prize…

Soon the testing is in its final stages and Werner Locksmith lectures the remaining candidates from the bridge of the almost completed Von Braun. Only nine of the desperate spacers will make this final cut but the big day is again delayed after Hachi confronts the insidious saboteur and fails to stop him…

The tale resumes six months later as the last twenty three candidates await the final call whilst in ‘A Black Flower named Sakinohaka Part 2’ Hachi’s still-fugitive father is targeted by SDL assassins and heads back to the son who has disowned him. His arrival coincides with young Tanabe’s visit to deliver the boy’s belongings from Toybox, leading to an embarrassing confusion as to her amatory status, but before things can be fully clarified the terrorists attack again, determined to ensure the death of the “only man who could pilot the Von Braun”…

Fleeing through the lowest levels of the Moon’s Oriental Basin Underground Tunnel City the trio are more of a danger to each other than their murderous pursuers and after another catastrophic explosion Hachi again confronts the traitor who sabotaged his last attempt to join the mission and almost commits an unpardonable act until gentle Tanabe talks him off the emotionally-charged metaphorical ledge…

‘Lost Souls’ sees the lad successfully in final training for the mission that has become his life when a lunar accident strands Hachi and new comrade Leonov on the unforgiving surface with only hours of oxygen and a 40 kilometre walk to the nearest relief station. It would have been impossible even if the co-pilot wasn’t wounded with a slowly-leaking suit.

By the time rescue arrived Hachi had reached the stage where he fought his saviours, frantic to prove that he truly needs no one’s help to achieve his goals…

This sublime saga concludes here with ‘СПАСИБО’ (or “Spasibo” which can be either “thank you” or “God save you”) as the recuperating Hachi returns to the family home in Japan, accompanied by his penitent father, and is visited by Leonov’s grateful mother. Although he doesn’t understand a word she says, the old lady still makes far more sense than his constantly warring family and, after another drunken fight with his dad, events come to tragic, galvanising crisis which at last crushes the walls around the traumatised young man’s head and heart…

Also included are working sketches, pin-ups, a bunch of four-panel sidebar humour strips ‘A Four Panel Comic’, ‘Namao-san (Presumably Male)’, ‘Eat? That Thing?’, ‘Drinking Hot Coffee through a Straw’ and prose biographies of revered and inspirational author Kenji Miyazawa and pioneer Cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevitch Gagarin in ‘Conceptualising Space Travel’.

Suspenseful, funny, thrilling and utterly absorbing, these tales readily reinvigorate and reinvent the magical allure of the Wild Black Yonder for newer generations, and this authentic, hard-edged and wittily evocative epic is a treat no hard-headed dreamer with head firmly in the clouds can afford to miss…

This book is printed in the traditional Japanese right to left, back to front format.
© 2001 Makoto Yukimura. All rights reserved. English text © 2004 TOKYOPOP Inc.

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Richie Rich Gems Special Edition


By Sid Jacobson, Ernie Colón, Ralph Newman, Lennie Herman, Warren Kremer, Sid Couchey & various (Ape Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-937676-27-8

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: a cheap and cheerful treat for the entire family starring a true icon of kids comics… 8/10

Even if in today’s world the subtext that money fixes everything might be a little harder to swallow, the core premise of this golden classic is charmingly simple: Richard “Richie” Rich Jr. is the only child of the wealthiest man in the world, but hasn’t let the money spoil him. The lad loves simple pleasures and prefers to pal around with proper kids like Freckles and Pee-Wee Friendly rather than his obnoxious wannabe-girlfriend Mayda Munny or mean, spoiled cousin Reggie Van Dough Jr.

Moreover Richie is utterly smitten with pretty, proud pauper Gloria Glad, who spends all her time trying to convince Richie to stop showering her with imprudent, impractical presents and flashy, expensive treats.

Even so the trapping of outrageous fortunes are always there: allowing for incredible adventures and wild situations…

Once upon a time the American comicbook for younger readers was totally dominated by Gold Key, with their TV and Disney licenses, and Harvey Comics. The latter had begun in the 1941 when Brookwood Publications sold its comicbook licenses for Green Hornet and Joe Palooka to entrepreneur Alfred Harvey. Hiring his brothers Robert B. and Leon, the new publisher began making impressive inroads into a burgeoning new industry.

For nine years the company combined conventional genres and some licensed properties in a bid for the general market, but from 1950 increasingly concentrated on a portfolio of   wholesome, kid-friendly characters for early readers and fans of gentle comedy.

In the late 1940s the Harvey Brothers struck a deal with Famous Studios/Paramount Pictures to produce strips starring movie animation stars Little Audrey, Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip and Casper, the Friendly Ghost to supplement newspaper comics stars such as Blondie and Dagwood, Mutt and Jeff and Sad Sack amongst others, and eventually minted original wholly-owned stars such as Little Dot, Little Lotta and Richie Rich.

Even though the company constantly tried to diversify into mainstream genres such as horror, science fiction, western, war and superhero (producing some of the very best “forgotten classics” of the era) it was always the kids’ titles that made the most money. In 1959 the Harvey’s bought the controlling rights to their Famous Studios characters just in time for the 1960s boom in children’s television cartoons.

The result was a stunning selection of superb young reader comics starring Casper, Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, Nightmare, The Ghostly Trio, Stumbo, Wendy, the Good Little Witch and Hot Stuff, the Little Devil all bolstered by weekly “Harveytoons” TV shows.

It was a new Golden Age for kid-appropriate funny books that lasted until declining morals, the inexorable rise of “free” entertainments such as television, games saturation and rising print costs finally forced Harvey to bow out in 1982 when company founder Alfred Harvey retired.

During that boom period, however, a new star had risen to staggering dominance.

Richie Rich first debuted as a back-up strip by Alfred Harvey and artist Warren Kremer in Little Dot #1 (September 1953) but was only given his chance at solo stardom in 1960 by line editor Sid Jacobson in 1960.

As both writer and editor, Jacobson masterminded the Harvey Comics monopoly of strips for younger American readers in the 1960s and 1970s, devising Wendy and many others whilst re-creating Richie Rich, and spinning the character off into more than 55 separate titles between 1960 and 1982.  When the company folded he then worked the same magic for Marvel’s Star Comics imprint, where he oversaw a vast amount of family-friendly material; both self created – such as Royal Roy or the superb Planet Terry – and a huge basket of licensed properties.

In latter years he has worked closely with fellow Harvey alumnus Ernie Colón on such thought-provoking graphic enterprises as The 9/11 Report: a Graphic Adaptation in 2006 and its 2008 sequel After 9/11: America’s War on Terror, Che: a Graphic Biography and Vlad the Impaler.

Colón was born in Puerto Rico in 1931: a creator whose work has been loved by generations of readers. Whether as artist, writer, colourist or editor his contributions have benefited the entire industry from the youngest (Monster in My Pocket, Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost for Harvey Comics, and many similar projects for Marvel’s Star Comics), to the traditional comicbook fans with Battlestar Galactica, Damage Control and Doom 2099 for Marvel, Arak, Son of Thunder and Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld, the Airboy revival for Eclipse, Magnus: Robot Fighter for Valiant and so very many others.

There are also his sophisticated experimental works such as indie thriller Manimal, and his seminal genre graphic novels Ax and the Medusa Chain. Since 2005 he’s been hard at work on the strip SpyCat for Weekly World News.

Jacobson and Colón were reunited with one of their oldest projects in 2011 when Ape Entertainment relaunched and resurrected the “Poor Little Rich Kid” as contemporary kids adventure comicbook Richie Rich: Rich Rescue – which saw the beloved, whimsical child character and friends reformatted as altruistic young trouble-shooters helping the less fortunate.

Touted as a blend of “James Bond and Indiana Jones with the bank account of Donald Trump” the comic miniseries also prompted two one-shot seasonal specials (Valentine’s Day and Winter 2012) combining new material with a wealth of themed reprints from the vast archives. This slim digitally (re)coloured compilation happily re-presents them both in one single tome with a gold-plated guarantee of scintillating satisfaction…

The wealth of wholesome fun opens with the all-new ‘Unhappy Valentine’s Day’ by Jacobson & Colón, wherein nasty Reggie sabotages Gloria’s card to Richie, only to reap his usual reward of regret and recrimination courtesy of Richie’s devoted robot maid Irona, after which the vintage treasures begin with ‘Box of Chocolate’ (by Ralph Newman & Warren Kremer), wherein crafty Richie again sneaks a sumptuous gift to his disapproving girl Gloria.

‘The Great Mansion Mystery’ by Lennie Herman & Colón told of how ghostly presences in the vast Rich residence turned out be long lost – really, really lost – lovers, whilst ‘Ju$t Married!’ (Herman & Kremer) saw Richie save the day when the confetti and rice ran out at a High Society ceremonial, and ‘All That Glitters’ (Newman & Colón) again found Gloria accepting a simple gift with unsuspected cachet and value…

Richie’s ‘Electric Serenade’ (by Newman & Sid Couchey) actually charmed the stubborn little red-head, but Mayda Munny was far from happy with Richie’s expansive courtship of her rival in ‘Too Much Gloria’ (Herman & Kremer), after which it was back to business as ‘Garden Party’ by Herman & Kremer, ‘The Sound of Money’ by Newman & Colón and ‘Big Drink’ from Newman & Couchey all demonstrated the lovesick lad’s largesse but lack of restraint when shopping for the feisty Miss Glad…

Mayda once again calamitously tried to outshine her rival by becoming the ‘The Big Donator’ at a gem-studded charity event (Herman & Colón), whilst Richie was too touched by Gloria’s gift to him to reveal what truly constituted ‘Giant Jellybeans’ (Newman & Colón). The romantic reminiscences conclude with ‘Wel-Gum Home!’ by Newman & Couchey as the Lucky Lad reciprocated in his own unique style…

The Winter Special again opened with a new yarn in the spooky saga of ‘The Walking, Stalking and, Yes, Talking Snowmen’ by Jacobson & Colón wherein another of Reggie’s cruel pranks inevitably rebounded on him, after which some indoor fun in the mansion proved that there was ‘Snow Need for a Heater’ (Newman & Couchey) and ‘Snow Much Fun!’ (Newman & Colón) again displayed how imagination and improvisation were always more desirable that any expensive toy.

Newman & Kremer united to tell of ‘The Abominable Snow Plan’ of Reggie Van Dough and how Richie scotched his sneaky schemes Yeti again in ‘A Snow Thing’, after which ‘Snow Time to Play’, ‘Snow Problem’ (Newman & Colón), Kremer’s ‘Snow Problem Bonus Pin-up’ and Newman & Colón’s ‘It Seems Like Real Fun’ all demonstrate the sheer joy of combining skiing with mischief-making …

Topping off the package are four single-page gag strips from the Rich Rescue series featuring the odd inventions of on-staff boffin Professor Keenbean.

‘Keenbean’s Corner #1-4′ are by Patrick Rills & James Silvani and reveal the ups and downs of science in relation to super submarines, mouthy microchips, exo-skeleton gadgets and unsanctioned tinkering with faithful old Irona…

With contemporary children’s comics all but extinct these days, it’s lucky we have such timeless classics to draw upon and draw kids in with, and compilations like this one belong on the shelves of every funnybook-loving parent and even those still-contented couples with only a confirmed twinkle in their eyes. This clutch of classic children’s tales is a fabulous mix of intoxicating nostalgic wonder and exuberant entertainment which readers of all ages cannot fail to love…
™ and © 2012 Classic Media LLC. All rights reserved.

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Batman Archives volume 6


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, Don Cameron, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Win Mortimer, Jack & Ray Burnley, Jim Mooney, Charles Paris & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0409-0

Debuting a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (joined eventually by Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented National Comics as the market and genre leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry, and the dashing derring-do and strictly human-scaled adventures of the Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were judged.

By the time of this the tales in this superb sixth deluxe hardback compilation (collecting the Batman adventures from Detective Comics #120-135, spanning cover-dates February 1947-May 1948) the Dynamic Duo were inescapably a co-operative effort with a large and ever-changing creative team crafting increasingly varied and captivating escapades for the heroes. One further note: many of the tales in this tome carry no writer’s credit but are most likely the work of pulp writer Edmond Hamilton, so apologies for the less than usually clear attributions throughout…

As discussed in the Foreword by celebrated critic and historian Bill Schelly, the post-war years saw a careful repositioning and reformatting of the heroes, as the publishers cautiously proceeded to tone down outlandish violence and nightmarishly macabre villains in favour of a wide variety of more mundane mobsters, gangsters and petty criminals, plus a few of the most irrepressibly popular favourites such as Penguin and The Joker.

Even so the former felon even gets cover billing in the opening costumed drama, reproduced in full from Detective #120; another riotous romp co-starring the rakish, rotund rogue indulging in ‘Fowl Play!’

Illustrated by Win Mortimer, this yarn describes how the pompous Penguin responds after an ornithologist is cited as America’s Greatest Bird Expert, leading to a campaign of fresh feather-themed crimes before the Dynamic Duo once again caged the crafty crook.

In #121 Hamilton & Howard Sherman take a rare look at corruption when Gotham’s top cop is forced from office by blackmailers exerting pressure on the Mayor. However, even whilst ‘Commissioner Gordon Walks a Beat’ Batman and Robin are tracking down the true cause of all the city’s woes…

Bob Kane & Charles Paris limned the uncredited (but probably Hamilton) case of ‘The Black Cat Crimes’ in the next issue as the sinisterly sultry Catwoman busted out of jail and ruthlessly, spectacularly exploited superstitions to plunder the city, whilst with Ray Burnley on inking in #123 ‘The Dawn Patrol Crimes’ saw a trio of aged pioneer pilots fall prey to the insidious schemes of a criminal mastermind in their fevered desperation to fly again. Happily the sinister Shiner had not reckoned on the Batman’s keen detective ability or the indomitable true grit of the patsy pilots…

The Joker returned in #124 as ‘The Crime Parade’ (Hamilton, Kane, Lew Sayre Schwartz & George Roussos) found the Mountebank of Mirth turn a radio chart show into his own private wishing well of inspired brazen banditry, after which ‘The Citadel of Crime’ (scripted by Bill Finger in #125) saw the Caped Crimebuster infiltrate a fortress where reformed crooks were imprisoned by a deranged maniac dubbed the Thinker and forced to build deadly weapons for a criminal army. Although credited here to Dick Sprang, this is actually one of the last art strips by the superb Jack Burnley, ably inked by his brother Ray and Charles Paris.

Detective Comics #126’s ‘Case of the Silent Songbirds’, by Hamilton(?) & Jim Mooney, again found The Penguin purveying his particular brand of peril and perfidy by stealing the voices of nightclub singers as part of the world’s most incredible protection racket until Batman stepped in, whilst #127’s ‘Pigmies in Giantland’ – featuring a rare pencil and ink outing for Charles Paris – saw the outrageous Dr. Agar shrink his wealthy victims to the size of dolls until the Dynamic Duo unravelled the impossible truth…

Only The Joker could conceive of ‘Crime in Reverse’ (Hamilton, Kane & Ray Burnley) as he proceeded to once again attempt to bamboozle Batman and Boy Wonder, whilst in

Detective #129 Finger, Jack Burnley & Paris took our heroes to ‘The Isle of Yesterday’ where a rich eccentric had turned back time to the carefree 1890s for all the bemused but unstressed inhabitants. Such a pity then that a mob of modern crooks were using the idyllic spot as a hideout… but not for long…

In #130 Finger, Kane & Paris described the horrific fate of a string of greedy crooks who tried to open ‘The Box’ but it took Batman’s razor-keen intellect to finally solve the decades-long mystery behind the trail of bodies left in its wake, after which Don Cameron, Kane, Sayre Swartz & Paris examined the tragic lives of two brothers doomed by dire destiny: one a callous racketeer and the other a good man forced by family ties to become ‘The Underworld Surgeon’…

In #132 esteemed escapologist Paul Bodin retired to raise his daughter, but within months ‘The Human Key’ began robbing vaults using all the master’s tricks. Only Batman could see through the open-and-shut case to discern the truth in a powerful human interest tale illustrated by Mooney & Paris, whilst ‘The Man Who Could See the Future’ (Hamilton, Kane, Sayre Schwartz & Paris) offered a moody counterpoint as the Gotham Gangbusters exposed an unscrupulous charlatan clairvoyant whose uncanny predictions always led to shocking disasters and missing valuables.

The Penguin opened ‘The Umbrellas of Crime’ in Detective #134 (Finger, Mooney & Paris) but his innovative inventions couldn’t stop Batman closing down his latest crime spree, and this blockbusting barrage of vintage Bat-tales comes to a blistering climax with #135’s ‘The True Story of Frankenstein’ (Hamilton, Sayre Swartz & Paris) as the Caped Crusaders were drawn back in time by Professor Carter Nichols to save a rural village from an incredible monster and the brute he manipulated into acts of evil…

With stunning covers by Jack Burnley, Paris, Mortimer, Kane & Sayre Schwartz, Mooney and Dick Sprang, and full creator biographies included, this supremely thrilling, bombastic action-packed compilation provides another perfect snapshot of the Batman’s amazing range from bleak moody avenger to suave swashbuckler, from remorseless Agent of Justice and best pal to sophisticated Devil-May-Care Detective, in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and enrapture. Moreover, these sublimely sturdy Archive Editions are without doubt the most luxuriously satisfying way to enjoy them over and over again.
© 1947-1948, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time


By Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Neil Edwards, Stefano Caselli & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4624-7

For a popular character/concept lumbered with a fifty-year pedigree which only really works when the hero is played as a teenaged outsider, radical reboots are a painful if annoying periodic necessity. When the Spider-Man continuity was drastically dialled-back and controversially revised for the ‘Brand New Day’ publishing event, a refreshed, rejuvenated single (and never-been-married to Mary Jane) Peter Parker was parachuted into a similar yet different whole new life, so if this is your first Web-spinning yarn in a while – or you’ve drawn your cues from the movies – be prepared for a little confusion…

What is still valid: outcast, geeky school kid Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and, after seeking to cash-in on the astonishing abilities he developed, suffered an irreconcilable personal tragedy. His beloved guardian Uncle Ben was murdered and the traumatised boy determined henceforward to always use his powers to help those in dire need.

For years the brilliant boy hero suffered private privation and travail in his domestic situation, whilst his heroic alter ego endured public condemnation and mistrust as he valiantly battled all manner of threat and foe…

Now, all that changes in an instant as Big Time finds the Original Hard Luck Hero finally reaping some of benefits of his unique gifts and lonely crusade…

Collecting Amazing Spider-Man #648-651 (January – March 2011) this enchanting thriller opens with the Webslinger revelling in new-found glory and the benefits of back-up as the newest addition to the Mighty Avengers leads the team into battle against the incorrigible Dr. Octopus in the eponymous first chapter ‘Big Time’. This acceptance among the superhero set hasn’t affected New York City Mayor J. Jonah Jameson who is still on his fanatical anti-Spider-Man crusade, but the former publisher is blithely unaware that he too is the obsessive target of a deadly menace stalking him and his family…

Spidey has more pressing problems: his new girlfriend is Police CSI Officer Carlie Cooper, but old flame and barely-reformed super-thief Felicia Hardy – AKA the svelte and sexy Black Cat – continues to flirtatiously hang around raising suspicions and temperatures…

As the city burns Doc Ock’s new Sinister Six – Electro, Sandman, Chameleon, Mysterio and The Rhino – continue carrying out their tentacled tyrant’s latest doomsday plan until the Wall-crawler outperforms both his own team-mates and the fabled Fantastic Four to foil the explosive plot in the last seconds…

At the new Daily Bugle, reporter Ben Urich has got his nephew Phil a job as an office boy, unaware that the disbarred young photo-journalist once fought crime with a suit of Green Goblin armour and bag of tricks he’d found in an old warehouse owned by Norman Osborn. The poor kid isn’t happy and is beginning to resent his fall from grace after being caught doctoring some pictures he’d sold…

Peter Parker’s life is still a mess. Spending all his time saving the world has resulted in his being eviction after forgetting to pay the rent and this time he’s run out of friends to crash with…

However things are about to change radically after Pete’s Aunt May – newly married to Jameson’s wealthy father – show Jonah’s wife Marla the boy’s old High School science awards and scrap book. Marla is a very influential researcher and knows someone who might give Peter a job…

Soon young Parker is being interviewed by super-cool Max Modell – “the Johnny Depp of Einsteins” and owner of private think tank Horizon Labs – unaware that as part of Jameson’s extended family he too is being hunted by the Mayor’s latest nemesis…

The interview is a lucky disaster. When one of Modell’s scientific wonder-kids loses control of an experiment involving deadly new element “Reverbium”, Peter’s quick thinking saves the day and he’s offered a spot in the company’s exclusive team of geniuses. Soon the stunned lad has his own lab, an open brief to invent cool new stuff and a monthly salary that bigger than all his previous paychecks combined…

…And across town Wilson Fisk and his executive office Montana interview the murderous Hobgoblin for the position of enforcer. The Kingpin of Crime has been informed of Reverbium’s existence and he will stop at nothing to possess the potentially unstoppable new weaponised element…

In ‘Kill to Be You’, the recent bloody history of Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley is revealed before the super-assassin discovers Phil Urich skulking in his hidden warehouse lair. Callously moving in for the kill, the mercenary is completely unprepared for the kid’s long-hidden super-power and is mercilessly slaughtered by the traumatised youth who, succumbing to the Osborn/Goblin “curse”, then appropriates his gadgets and guise to become the new and utterly psychopathic Hobgoblin…

As Spidey and Black Cat continue their strictly crime-busting affair, at high security Federal prison The Raft former foe the Scorpion is finally separated from the alien Symbiote which had turned him into the latest incarnation of Venom, but the process has caused a massive collapse. If warder Mach 5 and Doctors Coleman and Nichols can’t find a solution soon, inmate Mac Gargan is surely doomed…

Back at Horizon Labs, Peter hasn’t even been introduced to his six super-smart colleagues before the newest Hobgoblin busts in determined to fulfil his predecessor’s mission. However when Spider-Man overconfidently tackles the intruder, Urich’s irresistible sonic super-power quickly has the wall-crawler on the ropes and inches from death…

The third chapter (inked by Scott Hanna, Joseph Damon & Victor Olazaba) finds the hero ignominiously saved by fellow geeky brain-box Bella Fishbach who manages to drive the exultant Hobgoblin off, but not before the manic marauder snatches up the deadly Reverbium sample and delivers it to the Kingpin. Determined to retrieve the stolen sample Peter calls on the Black Cat, but also takes the time – and Horizon’s resources – to whip up a new high-tech stealth-mode Spidey-suit…

The blistering all-action finale (with inks from Cuevas & Damon) commences with a raid on the Kingpin’s skyscraper HQ, but even after beating an army of thugs and ninjas, Montana and Hobgoblin, Spider-Man and the Cat are unprepared for the ferocious physical might of the crime-lord and only the devastating escape of the catastrophically unstable Reverbium saves them from certain death – although it also allows Urich and Fisk to escape…

This magnificent slice of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy also includes two short back-ups from issues #650 and 651 which act as pulse-pounding prologues for the next collected edition as ‘The Final Lesson’ (written by Slott with art from Neil Edwards & Hanna) finds genetics expert Professor Eli Folsom attempting to cure the ailing Mac Gargan. However it’s all a cunning plot by mad scientist Alistair Smythe to kidnap the former Scorpion, one that super guard Mach 5 is helpless to stop. The triumphant Spider-Slayer is then revealed as the menace stalking the Jameson clan as he further warps, augments and mutates Gargan in ‘The Sting that Never Goes Away’ (Slott, Stefan Caselli & Edgar Delgado) in preparation to unleashing an Army of Insect Warriors as part of his final ‘Revenge of the Spider-Slayer’.

To Be Continued…

With a cover gallery including variants by Ramos & Delgado, Mark Brooks, Caselli, and Marcos Martin, plus promotional art and pages of Ramos design sketches, this is a joyously light yet bombastic rollercoaster ride for fans but also works well as a jumping-on point for readers new or returning.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Monkeywanger – the Crimes of Oscar Dirlewanger (Special Edition)


By Peeler Watt Ph.D., illustrated by MIND, Jahn Fermindoza & Red Ink studios
ISBN: 978-1-47928-230-2

As any long-time reader will attest, I’m a huge advocate of doing it yourself when it comes to making comics and this collection – gathering the first three books of an epic historical exposé of one of humanity’s greatest monsters – shows just why, as it spectacularly blends harsh fact with high drama to reveal a mere smattering of the atrocities perpetrated by macabre madman Oskar Paul Dirlewanger, one of the most infamous and deviant of villains to find purpose, outlet and sanction under the Nazis…

This ambitiously oversized (280x216mm) mostly blood-red-and-monochrome horror story by historian Peeler Watt (not his real name) and animator/illustrator Mike Ian Noble Dobson (augmented and supplemented by Jahn Fermindoza and Filipino studio Red Ink Animation: Van Winkle Amaranto, Silvan Amante, Mikaela and Sharon Amaranto, Clewin Mars & Flor Villa) introduces fictionalised antagonist Untersturmfuhrer Otto Voge (an amalgam of actual people caught up in Dirlewanger’s sphere of unholy influence), a dedicated, passionate patriotic German cop with a secret who volunteered for active duty with the SS and lived to regret it…

The tale begins, after a brief and brutal comic strip pr̩cis of the political, social and religious background, with Voge arriving in the Nazi controlled Jewish ghetto of Lublin in August 1941 and seeing first-hand the atrocities perpetrated by Penal Battalion Oranieburg Рan SS division personally founded by Dirlewanger from criminal scum too debased for the regular army.

Due to a clerical error Voge was assigned to the appalling dreg unit rather than a decent and proper army division on active service and soon realises that the soldiers have their commanding officer’s full approval to loot, brutalise and torture the subjugated Poles – Jewish or otherwise.

The deviant Captain is nonetheless very impressed with his new subordinate’s obvious martial prowess. After savage skirmishes in the devastated city the Captain puts Voge forward for an Iron Cross, impressing the young leutnant with his obvious craving for real combat on the Russian Front rather than glorified guard duty in the ghetto.

Dirlewanger is an odd character, a spit-and-polish martinet with terrifying self-composure: ruthlessly cruel, fiercely passionate in his prejudices but utterly devoted to the pet monkey “Moses” which is never far from his side…

Voge’s fellow officers are little better than the conscripted men, but they would all be horrified if they knew their comrade’s dark secret: Voge is a Soviet sleeper agent who has been reporting to his Communist paymasters since his days as a peace-time policeman…

When Dirlewanger sends his men on another raid to rob and torment the subjugated Jews, Voge tries to curb their worst excesses but, as partisan’s attack the soldiers, the Leutnant is again forced to display his talent for combat, further cementing his commander’s favourable impressions. As Jewish women and children are rounded up Voge pushes his luck and manages to save one mother and her mentally deficient child from the fate of the others…

As the days pass Voge learns more about his outcast fellows and their reprehensible chief. Dirlewanger was a decorated hero in WWI and the Spanish Civil War, but also a psychopathic killer, and child-molester (according to some historians he was also a sadist and necrophiliac and given the dubious distinction of being “the most evil man in the SS”) …but certainly no fool.

Voge finds it increasingly impossible to stay uninvolved and concentrate on either his ostensible duties or covert mission and soon is deeply embroiled in the criminal machinations of the Battalion whilst simultaneously secretly working with Jewish Partisans. His only concern is to save innocent civilians from his debauched and murderous German comrades, but finds that they are equally endangered by their own ruthlessly driven and fanatical Resistance fighters and Voge’s increasingly impatient Russian spymasters…

The day is swiftly approaching when the mounting, conflicting pressures will surely cause a fatal misstep, but when Dirlewanger gets word from a Jewish informant of a Catholic convent hiding Hebrew girls that should be spicing up the Nazi’s private brothel,  it soon becomes clear that Voge’s own morality might be his actual undoing.

Painfully aware that his now suspicious commander was playing with him, Voge moves too late to save the girls and, after another ferocious clash between partisans and battalion soldiers, realises a final confrontation is now unavoidable…

Dark, brooding, painfully oppressive and grimly adult in nature, Monkeywanger is a powerful story of war, obsession and duty that will certainly impress fans of war stories, history buffs and devotees of fine storytelling, and there’s even the prospect of more to come …

No Trademark invoked so I’m assuming © 2012 Peeler Watt. All rights reserved.
For more information and to obtain your own copy check out http://www.monkeywanger.com

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Astonishing X-Men: Exogenetic


By Warren Ellis, Phil Jiminez & Andy Lanning (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3169-4

By now you’re either aware or not of mutant continuity, so in the spirit of this high octane, terse, gritty and bombastic monster-mashing thriller, I’ll forego the usual catch-up scorecard and précis and simply state that new readers can jump on with the minimum of confusion and, aided by the skilful use of banter, be readily brought up to cruising speed. Set in the aftermath of M-Day when the world’s mutant population was horrifically reduced to a couple of hundred Children of the Atom, the current official team of Cyclops, White Queen Emma Frost, Wolverine, Storm, the Beast and spunky Japanese teen Hisako Ichiki (AKA Armor) convene to tackle the latest threat to Earth’s dwindling mutant race.

To counter hostile public opinion in a world that has always hated and feared mutants, these heroes have renounced their traditionally clandestine lifestyle to fight their battles in the glare of the media. The new agenda is simple: carry on saving the day but do it in such a way that the world knows who to thank. Thus they can slowly change humanity’s attitudes and misperceptions whilst still doing their job.

It all sounded so easy…

Exogenetic opens with Abigail Brand and her agents of S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation & Response Department) sterilising yet another alien-infested asteroid base before succumbing to an overwhelming counterattack from the horrific invaders – parasitic Brood who have repeatedly attempted to ingest and assimilate our mutant champions.

Barely escaping, she heads back to Earth in a doomed ship where her helpless ground officers call in a little Homo Superior help…

Her craft is heading for a catastrophic crash into San Francisco, so it’s lucky that bestial Hank McCoy – the X-Men’s brilliant technical wizard and Brand’s current boyfriend – is heading the rescue mission, but even after a spectacular last-minute save nobody is truly safe…

In the gawping city-crowds avidly rubber-necking below is mutant Laurie Collins …but she’s been dead for months. The resurrected Wallflower suddenly mutates into a monstrous, marauding organic Sentinel indiscriminately determined to kill X-Men and human San Franciscans alike; firing off “her” inbuilt and reconfigured Brood drones in the way robotic Sentinels utilise missiles and ray-blasts…

After another breathtakingly bombastic imbroglio the mutants are eventually victorious, but forensic examinations of the remains indicate that Laurie was regrown, modified with ET DNA and mechanically augmented by agents unknown based on doomsday files stolen from McCoy’s own database and cell bank.

Someone has plundered the X-Men’s own secret technologies and desecrated their honoured dead…

Moreover the illicit harvester of dead X-Genes seems intent on using the purloined powers, stolen mechanisms and alien plasm to create an army to wage an all-out war of genocide on the Earth’s paltry remaining mutants…

With Abigail’s help the horrified heroes track down elderly geneticist Kaga who has apparently spent more than a decade on his plan to eradicate Earth’s Homo Superior. However after invading his floating storehouse of exotic and exhumed weaponry the appalled and traumatised X-Men discover that their race’s greatest foe has the most incredible and oddly logical motive for his fanatical crusade…

Untroubled by extraneous subplots or meandering sidebar storylines, starring an horrific host of “monsterised” old friends and foes whilst irresistibly combining stunning action and superb characterisation: this is a staggeringly impressive and addictive summer blockbuster.

Forthright, uncomplicated, and unforgettable, this riotous rollercoaster of thrills still finds moments for wrenching empathy and laugh-out-loud gags as the team again triumphs against impossible odds, and creators Warren Ellis, Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning have a perfect grasp of their charges here, and even leave a sting in the tale to end on….

Collecting Astonishing X-Men #31-35 (with text features from Astonishing X-Men/Amazing Spider-Man: the Gauntlet Sketchbook), this book also includes a gallery of covers and variants by Jimenez, Frank D’Armata, Travis Charest & Justin Ponsor, plus a copiously illustrated lengthy interview with the artist discussing his approach and techniques to illustrating the saga in ‘Sketching Out Phil Jimenez’.
© 2009, 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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Superman Archives volume 6


By Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Don Cameron, Jack Burnley, Fred Ray, Ed Dobrotka, John Sikela, Leo Nowak, George Roussos, Pete Riss, Sam Citron & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-602-8

I sometimes think – like many others I know – that superhero comics were never more apt or effective than when they were whole-heartedly combating fascism with explosive, improbable excitement and mysterious masked marvel men. All the most evocative visceral moments of the genre seem to come when gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and please forgive the offensive contemporary colloquialism – “Nips and Nazis”.  However, even in those long-ago dark days, comics creators were wise enough to augment their tales of espionage and imminent invasion with a barrage of gentler and more whimsical four-colour fare…

This sixth classic hardcover Superman compendium – collecting #21-24 (March/April to September/October 1943) of the World’s Premier Superhero own solo title – revisits the height of those war years with the indomitable Man of Tomorrow a thrilling, vibrant, vital role model whose sensational exploits spawned a host of imitators, a genre and an industry. His startling abilities and take-charge, can-do attitude had won the hearts of the public at home and he was embraced as a patriotic tonic for the troops across the war-torn world.

Behind stunning, morale-boosting covers by Fred Ray and Jack Burnley depicting Superman thrashing scurrilous Axis War-mongers, reminding readers what we were all fighting for and even having a gentle, stress-relieving laugh with us, scripter Jerry Siegel was producing some of the best stories of his career, showing the Man of Steel in all his ebullient glory, thrashing thugs, spies and masters of bad science whilst America kicked the fascists in the pants…

However at this time of this collection the call of armed duty caught up with the writer and Don Cameron was hired to fill the authorial void. Co-creator Joe Shuster however, exempt from military service due to his rapidly failing eyesight, was still fully involved in the creative process, despite being plagued by crushing deadlines on the syndicated newspaper strip iteration. In the comicbooks he could only manage the occasional story and was forced to merely oversee the illustration production line: drawing character faces whenever possible, but leaving the lion’s share to the burgeoning talent pool of the “Superman Studio”…

Following the fulsome Foreword ‘A Short Flight and a Long Journey’ by distribution and retail guru Stephen A. Geppi, the all-star, full-colour action begins with the splendid, all-Siegel contents of Superman #21 starting with ‘X-Alloy’, drawn by Ed Dobrotka & John Sikela, wherein a virtual secret army of Nazi infiltrators and fifth columnists stole American industrial secrets and would have conquered the nation from within if not for the ever vigilant Man of Steel.

It was Clark Kent rather than his flamboyant alter ego who really cracked the Leo Nowak-limned case of ‘The Four Gangleaders’ who had declared war on each other, whilst in ‘The Robber Knight’ (illustrated by Shuster & George Roussos) Lois Lane was accused of shoplifting after an armour-suited Robin Hood began giving pretty women “presents” from the department store he plundered. Once again it took a real steel hero to sort things out before ‘The Ghost of Superman!’ (with Pete Riss art) saw the Action Ace play dead to trick a confession out of a cheap killer defying justice…

Light-hearted yet barbed whimsy led in the Siegel-scripted issue #22 as ‘Meet the Squiffles!’ (Riss) found Adolf Hitler approached by the king of a nefarious band of pixies who offered to sabotage all of America’s mighty weapons. Neither nefarious rogue had factored Superman – or patriotic US gremlins – into their schemes though…

A philanthropic, well-beloved gambler was framed by unscrupulous stockbrokers, but with the Man of Tomorrow’s assistance eventually regained ‘The Luck of O’Grady!’ (Sikela), after which ‘The Great ABC Panic!’ (Dobrotka) featured the return of the perfidious Prankster who almost succeeded in patenting the English language until his greatest enemy intervened, and Riss’ ‘A Modern Robin Hood’ saw the inevitable tragic end to a well-intentioned, altruistic thief who could handle Superman but not actual mobsters and gunsels…

Superman #23 opened with a Don Cameron script illustrated by Sam Citron. ‘America’s Secret Weapon!’ was a rousing paean to American military might as Clark and Lois reported on cadet manoeuvres and the Man of Steel became an inspiration to the demoralised troops in training. Siegel then wrote the rest of the issue beginning with ‘Habitual Homicide’ (Roussos art): a crime-caper worthy of Batman which began when a co-ed rebuffed her tutor’s amorous advances, prompting the unstable scholar to frame her boyfriend for murder. Unfortunately for Superman and the staff of Spurdyke University, once Professor Raymond Lock started killing he found that he really liked it…

Then ‘Fashions in Crime!’ (Riss) found Lois and Clark plunged into the world of Haute Couture and designer knock-offs, accidentally uncovering a lethally lucrative business run by a masked swell dubbed The Dude, whilst the Sikela-illustrated ‘Danger on the Diamond!’ once more combined sports action with gambling skulduggery as Superman saved the career of an on-the-skids Baseball player and cleaned up the game… again.

Cameron wrote all but one tale in issue #24, starting with a surreal Dobrotka fantasy which eschewed rational continuity to relocate the entire Superman cast back to the 1890s, where our hero saved his chaste intended from ‘Perils of Poor Lois!’

Siegel & Riss then revealed ‘The King of Crackpot Lane’ – a Marx Brothers-inspired romp which introduced whacky mute inventor Louie Dolan of the Army’s Department of Constructive Theories whose impossible gadgets made a lot of trouble for both the Man of Tomorrow and America’s enemies…

Cameron, Dobrotka & Roussos close this collection with a couple of stirring adventure yarns; first with ‘Surprise for Superman!’ which saw the Metropolis Marvel plagued by an inventive impostor who even fooled Lois, after which ‘Suicide Voyage!’  ends everything on an exuberant high as Clark – and stowaway Lois – visit the Arctic as part of a mission to rescue downed American aviators. Of course nobody was expecting a secret invasion by combined Nazi and Japanese forces, but Superman and a patriotic polar bear were grateful for the resultant bracing exercise…

Ageless and evergreen, endlessly re-readable, these epic hardback Archive Editions fabulously frame some of the greatest and most influential comics tales ever created, and taken in unison form a perfect permanent record of breathtaking wonder and groundbreaking excitement. How can any dedicated fan resist them?
© 1943, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.