Author: NowReadThis

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Indestructible Hulk volume 2: Gods and Monster


By Mark Waid, Walt Simonson, Matteo Scalera & Bob Wiacek (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-562-8

Once upon a time, Bruce Banner was merely a military scientist accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of his own devising. As a result, undue stress could cause him to transform into a gigantic green monster of unimaginable strength and fury. As both occasional hero and blockbusting brute he rampaged across the landscape for decades, becoming one of Marvel’s most popular characters and earliest multi-media titan.

Thus, he has often undergone radical changes in scope and format to keep his stories fresh and his exploits explosively compelling…

In recent years the number of Gamma-mutated monsters thundering through the Marvel Universe has proliferated to inconceivable proportions. The days of Bruce getting green with anger at the drop of a hat are long gone, so anybody taking their cues from TV or movie incarnations would be wise to anticipate a smidgen of unavoidable confusion.

By the time of the game-changing Avengers versus X-Men mega-crossover relaunch there were numerous Hulks, She-Hulks, Abominations and all kinds of ancillary rainbow-coloured atomic berserkers roaming around, but now with that house-cleaning exercise concluded, the subsequent MarvelNOW! event saw the Jade Giant in a stripped-down, back-to-basics version which should find favour with new and old fans alike.

But it’s definitely not your old Hulk anymore…

This stunning guest-star packed second volume details the next cataclysmic chapter in the ever-eventful life of Banner and his raging Emerald Animus (collecting Indestructible Hulk #6-10, cover-dated June-September 2013) wherein scripter Mark Waid pushes the boundaries even further whilst providing a breathtaking procession of astounding action and compelling drama…

The big transformation began when S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill was convinced to provide Banner with resources and funding to sanitise his scientific reputation in return for her utilising the Hulk as a living weapon of last resort in the agency’s armoury…

One of the smartest men on Earth, Banner had lost years of success, progress and peer renown whilst trying to destroy the Hulk. Concerned about his legacy, the fugitive genius had decided to make future headlines as a scientist, not a devastating force of nature.

For the foreseeable future and as long as possible he would manage, rather than seek cures for, his affliction. Moreover, in return for a S.H.I.E.L.D. lab and trained assistants, Banner would also give the agency first use of many of his discoveries and inventions…

Fast-paced and furious, ‘Gods and Monster’ – illustrated by Walt Simonson with Bob Wiacek – opens at the- isolated facility of Nuclear Springs, Nevada (AKA “Bannerville”) where Bruce and his team use a sliver of mystic metal Uru to open a portal to Jotunheim.

Banner theorises that the icy realm contains the most efficient superconductor in creation and, leaving climatologist Melinda Leucenstern to monitor the gateway, leads the rest of his people – biologist Patricia Wolman, renewable energies researcher Randall Jessup and molecular engineer Daman Veteri – into the frozen wastes in search of new breakthroughs… and to teach one of his staff a much-needed life-lesson.

The Uru sliver came from Thor‘s hammer Mjolnir and, soon after finding the sought after Eiderdürm liquid metal, the away party are greeted by the Asgardian Thunder God himself, come to warn them that the inimical indigenous Frost Giants don’t like trespassers.

He also mentions that he has not seen Midgardians in ages and doesn’t recognise Banner…

As the frozen monsters attack, Banner “Hulks out” and joins the Thunderer in routing the horrors. However, during the protracted battle, one of the Jotuns discovers the portal and attempts to cross into the Earth plane.

Thanks to Melinda’s quick thinking and Hill’s honking big gun, it fails, but the team are now trapped on the other side…

When Banner resumes control of himself, he realises the portal has not only spanned dimensions but also dropped them in the past, something the S.H.I.E.L.D. boffins are also keenly aware of as they try fruitlessly to repair the device…

Stranded in Jotunheim, the voyagers finish their mining and ponder a way home, unaware that the Frost Giants, hungry to invade the warm mortal lands, have magically substituted one of their own for a mortal trespasser…

When Hill and a squad of agents finally reopen the gateway the monsters attack en masse and only the shattering power of Thor and the Hulk can prevent utter disaster…

Matteo Scalera then illustrates ‘Blind Rage’ – a superbly dark, high-tension thriller which reveals how Banner has a Plan B in effect should S.H.I.E.L.D. welch on their deal…

One of the few people the Hulk – as opposed to his intellectual alter ego – trusts is lawyer Matt Murdock, the sightless sentinel Daredevil, and the attorney holds papers that will reveal the pact to the so-judgemental public if Hill oversteps herself.

Thus, when a mission to stop an illicit shipment of super-weapons takes Banner to Manhattan, he takes the opportunity to link up with the Man without Fear whilst the brutal mop-up is ongoing…

Unfortunately one of the Euro-trash Agence Byzantine mercenaries escapes with an ultrasound bazooka capable of flooring the Hulk, forcing the mismatched allies to track it down before it reaches its intended purchaser – one of the vilest villains in history…

Bombastic, hilarious, revelatory and vicariously rewarding, the Red and Green crusade through the bowels of the Big Apple is sublimely entertaining and even offers a brooding portent of a rift between Banner and his “boss” in the days to come…

Sharp, refreshingly straightforward and gloriously addictive, this latest stage in the conflict-packed life of the world’s most iconic split personality offers incredible adventure, smart characterisation and intoxicating excess for fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction, and includes a stunning cover-and-variants gallery by Simonson, Paolo Rivera, Dale Keown & Stephane Roux plus the now-customary AR icons (Marvel’s Augmented Reality App: printed portals giving access to story bonuses and extras for everyone who downloaded the free software from marvel.com onto a smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet doohickey).
™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Valerian and Laureline book 4: Welcome to Alflolol


By Méziéres & Christin, with colours by E. Tranlé and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-087-0   (Dargaud edition) 2-205-06573-4

Valérian is the most influential science fiction comics series ever drawn – and yes, that includes even Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Dan Dare and Judge Dredd.

Although to a large extent those venerable strips defined and later re-defined the medium itself, anybody who has seen a Star Wars movie or that franchise’s overwhelming homages, pastiches and rip-offs has been exposed to doses of Jean-Claude Méziéres & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings (which the filmic phenomenon has shamelessly plundered for decades): everything from the character and look of alien races and cultures to the design of the Millennium Falcon and even Leia‘s Slave Girl outfit …

Simply put, more carbon-based life-forms have experienced and marvelled at the uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in authentic futurism and light-hearted swashbuckling rollercoaster romps of Méziéres & Christin than any other cartoon spacer.

The groundbreaking series followed a Franco-Belgian mini-boom in fantasy fiction triggered by Jean-ClaudeForest’s 1962 creation Barbarella.

Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent launched in the November 9th, 1967 edition of Pilote (#420) and was an instant hit. In 1977 the fervour surrounding Greg & Eddy Paape’s Luc Orient and Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane, combined with Valérian‘s popularity led to the creation of an adult graphic sci-fi blockbuster – Métal Hurlant.

Val̩rian and Laureline (as the series eventually became) is a light-hearted, wildly imaginative time-travelling, space-warping fantasy teeming with wry, satirical, humanist action and political commentary, starring Рin the early days at least Рan affable, capable yet unimaginative by-the-book cop tasked with protecting the official universal chronology by counteracting paradoxes caused by incautious time-travellers.

When Valérian travelled to 11th century France in the initial tale ‘Les Mauvais Rêves (‘Bad Dreams’ and still not translated into English yet), he was rescued from doom by a fiery, capable young woman named Laureline whom he brought back to 28th century super-citadel and administrative capital of the Terran Empire, Galaxity.

The indomitable lass subsequently trained as a Spatio-Temporal operative and began accompanying him on all his missions.

Every subsequent Valérian adventure until the 13th was initially serialised weekly until ‘The Rage of Hypsis’ concluded, after which further yarns were solely published as all-new complete graphic novels. The whole spectacular saga resolved and ended in 2010.

Welcome to Alflolol originally ran in Pilote #631-652 (December 1971-May 11th 1972) and follows the Spatio-Temporal agents as they depart from Technorog, a desolate industrial planet whose vast resources are crucial to the running of human civilisation. So vital in fact that Galaxity sends her best agents just to inspect it every now and then…

As the S-T agents carefully negotiate the immense forcefield and asteroid belt that envelope the harsh and ferociously capitalistic factory world, Laureline is repeatedly possessed by an uncanny force. The fit also leads the couple to an immense ship which has foundered between the rocks and energy screen.

Investigating the vessel, which is purposely open to hard vacuum, Laureline again lapses into a glowing coma and eerily drifts towards a family of incredibly powerful yet rustically affable alien primitives sitting on the hull of their ship.

Valerian, closely following behind, prevents a terrible accident to his companion and is warmly greeted by the strangers, who explains that the eldest of the beings is very ill and in her throes has locked minds with his female. If they’re not careful, both could die…

Garrulous, easygoing Argol agrees to let Valerian treat the problem, and his wife Orgal telekinetically transports the Earthlings, her entire family and their pet Gumun back to the S-T astroship in mere moments. Soon Terran technology has saved both the human and alien and Argol settles back to explain what has happened…

The wanderers are naively friendly and immensely long-lived – like all their species – and are just returning to their homeworld Alflolol from an amusing perambulation through space. However since their departure – 4,000 Earth years ago – somebody has moved in…

Despite the Governor of Technorog’s protests, Galaxity law is clear and the Alflololians must be allowed back on their planet.

However the wheedling plutocrat – secure in his job’s importance to the empire – realises he doesn’t have to hand over the keys, just make room for the five meekly polite cosmic gypsies, who simply cannot grasp the concept of business and don’t understand why anybody would put up lots of flimsy, ugly buildings and spoil the hunting……

As Valerian allows the businessmen to walk all over the aliens’ rights, Laureline goes berserk: arguing for Argol’s family and indulging in a little light-hearted sabotage because the gentle giants won’t do it for themselves…

She needn’t bother though: their mere presence and incredible abilities are enough to disrupt the Governor’s precious productivity, especially when they get bored of sterile human accommodations and return to their ancestral ranges…

The real crisis only begins when the rest of the nomadic Alflololians return: one hundred separate ships full of natives protected by law and fully entitled to reclaim their homes.

The humans aren’t leaving, however, and soon the Governor has begun herding the wanderers onto a reservation and demanding they work if they want to eat.

Big mistake…

Socially aware and crusading, this is one of the earliest comics tales to catch the 1970s wave of ecological awareness and still ranks amongst the very best to explore the social iniquities which beset indigenous peoples at a time when most European ex-empires were still divesting themselves of their colonial possessions.

The theme of Capitalism versus Native Culture and the eternal struggle between territorial imperatives, moral rights and holy profit have seldom been dealt with in such an effective, sardonic and hilarious surreal manner. Ending on an outrageous twist, the story has lost none of its wit and punch forty years later.

And of course there’s the usual glorious blend of astounding action, imaginative imagery and fantastic creatures to leaven the morality play with space-operatic fun-filled, visually breathtaking and stunningly ingenious wide-eyed wonderment…

Between 1981 and 1985, Dargaud-Canada and Dargaud-USA published a quartet of these albums in English (with a limited UK imprint from Hodder-Dargaud) under the umbrella title Valerian: Spatiotemporal Agent and this tale was the third release, translated then by L. Mitchell.

Although this modern Cinebook release boasts far better print and colour values and a more fluid translation, total completists might also be interested in tracking down those 20th century releases too…
© Dargaud Paris, 1972 Christin, Méziéres & Tran-Lệ. All rights reserved. English translation © 2012 Cinebook Ltd.

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The Children of Palomar


By Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 976-1-60699-625-6

In the 1980s a qualitative revolution forever destroyed the clichéd, segregated, stereotypical ways genres of comic strips were produced and marketed. Most effective in blasting the comfy funnybook pigeonholes were three young guys from Oxnard, California: Jaime, Mario and Gilberto Hernandez.

Love and Rockets was an anthology magazine (and previously a self-published comic in 1981) that broke all the rules, featuring intriguing, adventuresome larks and captivating, experimental narratives which pretty much defied classification, all cloaked in the ephemera of LA’s Hispanic and punk music scene.

Stories generally focussed on the slick, sci-fi-seasoned larks of young gadabouts Maggie, Hopey and their extended eccentric circle of friends or the heart-warming, terrifying, gut-wrenching soap-opera travails of rural Central American outpost Palomar.

The Hernandez Boys, gifted synthesists all, enthralled and enchanted with incredible stories that sampled a thousand influences conceptual and actual – everything from comics, cartoon shows, masked wrestlers, trashy movies and American Hispanic pop culture to German Expressionism. There was also a perpetual backdrop displaying the holy trinity of youth: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll – for which please hear mostly alternative music and punk rock.

The result was dynamite. Mario only officially contributed on rare occasions but his galvanising energy informed everything. The slick and enticing visual forays by Jaime explored friendship and modern love whilst destroying stereotypes of feminine attraction through his fetching coterie of Gals Gone Wild, whilst Gilberto mostly crafted a hyper-real microcosm in his Latinate landscape: a playground of wit, toil, passion and raw humanity in a poor village with a vibrant, funny and fantastically quotidian cast created for his extended epic Heartbreak Soup.

Everything from life, death, adultery, magic, monsters, murder and especially gossip could happen in Palomar’s metafictional environs, as the artist mined his own post-punk influences in a deceptively effective primitivist art style which perfectly blended a personalised mythology of comics, music, intoxicants, strong women, gangs, sex and family. The denizens of Palomar still inform and shape Beto’s work, both directly and as imaginative spurs for spin-off stories.

Winning critical acclaim but little financial success, the brothers temporarily put aside their favourite toys to work on side projects and special series before creatively reuniting a few years back to produce annual collections of new material in their particularly peculiar shared or, rather, intermittently adjacent pen-and-ink universes.

In 2006, more than a decade after the canonical Heartbreak Soup stories, Beto popped back to his leafy arcadia via a three-magazine run entitled New Tales of Old Palomar, producing a too-brief selection of elucidating tales drenched in revelation and imagination which revealed a few answers to questions we never knew we had…

In the opening act of ‘The Children of Palomar’ the denizens of the little town are going about their daily business with a little less than usual calm since a couple of abandoned wild kids have been stealing food from everyone, everywhere. The naked little nippers are incredibly fleet-footed and not even Sheriff Chelo can catch them.

Her immediate problems are solved once sporty soccer-playing Pipo decides to prove who is truly the fastest runner in town, but unfortunately, once feral foundlings Tonantzin and Diana Villaseñor have been taken in, the village has to civilise and find homes for them…

The men meanwhile have devised a scheme to make Palomar a little export money. They mean well but when the mayor and his pals decide to blow up a boulder just as the stray kids take off, it takes all Pipo’s acceleration to prevent a horrific tragedy…

Another time little boys were on the other side of “The Crack” hazing young Gato before letting him join their black shirt gang. When they got bored and left, Pintor tried to help the traumatised candidate get home but the log across the giant gorge had vanished.

Stuck and terrified they were then abducted by strangers in space suits who experimented on them. The strangers spoke a strange language but another Palomar boy named Manuel was there and he said that soon they would be made to forget everything…

The villagers meanwhile had noticed them gone and Sheriff Chelo led a search party to the gap, but when their makeshift bridge sundered, only she managed to get across. By the time she found the kids their captors were arguing and the violence only escalated when she intervened…

The entire outpost then vanished in an explosion but at least she got the boys back…

Of course, Chelo had no idea that one of the ghostly White Strangers was still alive and intensely interested…

Palomar is surrounded by huge, ancient statues and the people all know they live in a world of magic. When babosa-selling Tonantzin began seeing a ghostly chuckling “Blooter Baby”, a wise woman explained that they only appeared to girls and women who would be childless, before telling her how to get rid of it.

Instead, she and the spectre reach an accommodation and the girl learns she is not alone before gaining a mission for life…

Our picaresque peregrinations conclude some time later when diminutive Carmen thinks she feels an Earth tremor no one else noticed. She considers asking the peculiar white scientists doing their weird bird research at the edge of town but doesn’t know their language.

Everybody goes about their day until the strangers kidnap Chelo and the horrified sheriff recognises one of the “aliens” from across the gorge all those years ago. Although formidable, she succumbs to superior force and wakes up maimed but back in bed in Palomar.

Not normally an unforgiving woman, Chelo goes looking for her tormentors as soon as she’s able… and finds them…

There’s fiction, there’s Meta-fiction and then there’s Gilbert Hernandez. In addition to Love and Rockets‘ captivating tales of Palomar he has produced numerous controversial and groundbreaking volumes such as Sloth, Grip, Birdland, Girl Crazy and Julio’s Day: all distinguished by his bold, instinctive, compellingly simplified artwork and a mature, sensitive adoption of the literary techniques of Magical Realist writers like Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez.

These techniques he has sublimely amplified and, visually at least, made utterly his own. This beguiling return to his landmark, signature series has been long overdue for a deluxe edition such as this splendid hardback, and such is the quality of the accessible writing and intoxicating art that first-timers will have no trouble slipping south of the border to join the veterans and devotees in a marvellous Latin mystery and adventure…
© 2013 Gilbert Hernandez. This edition © 2013 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Walrus (Brandon Graham’s All Bum Album – from Tusk ‘Till Dawn)


By Brandon Graham (PictureBox)
ISBN: 978-0-9851595-9-7

Autumn is officially here, with its fire-storms, droughts and sunburns, so it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the Holiday Season is inescapably close. After all, the Christmas films have been playing on Sky Movies since early March…

Seriously though, if you’re prudent, it is time to start looking at gifts for your loved ones or family, and here’s one of the prettiest and most intriguing comics art-books I’ve seen in many a year…

Brandon Graham was born in Oregon in 1976, an inveterate graffiti artist who seamlessly turned his graphic gifts and narrative flair to comicbook storytelling, beginning with Ameri-manga publisher Antarctic Press (October Yen) in 1996, dividing his time with Alternative or Independent Publisher projects and gracing the mainstream with work for Image, NMB, IDW and Vertigo.

He is a founder member of artistic collective MeatHaus, and if you like comedy, science fiction, erotica, manga and Moebius, you might want to seek out collections such as King City, 24Seven, Escalator, Multiple Warheads, Perverts of the Unknown and others – as well as this book…

Walrus is a monochrome and colour compendium of “Drawings and Sketchbook Comics from 2009-2011”, featuring  artworks, working roughs, calligraphy, rendered thoughts and idle musings, finished pieces and found imagery that serve to introduce viewers into a beguiling world of fantastic futurity and mesmerising wonderment – and there are weird critters and hot chicks…

A roughly comicbook-sized paperback (112 pages, 240x173mm) with a beautiful gatefold cover, this marvellous compendium comprises snippets of reportage, designs, roughs and layouts from finished stories.

There are moments of tenderness and intimacy, peeks into the creative process, bizarre moments of communal reality, caricatures, gags, spoofs of and tributes to comics and movies (such as Fantastic Four #9, Dirty Pair, Conan and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), a commemoration of Moebius (The Long Goodbye), deliciously funny and whimsical gags, complete stories such as ‘Far North’, ‘Work Weak’ and ‘Today in the Life’ plus a preponderance of pages dedicated to evocative, seductive post-modern glamour art.

Punky, funky, enduring, enchanting and sublimely entertaining, this is another perfect example of the kind of book that makes the reader hungry to get out and draw stories now! Now!! NOW!!!

…As well as being just plain wonderful to see.

All art-forms need such creators and Walrus might well be the book to get you – or your kids – off the couch and into a studio.
© 2013 Brandon Graham. All rights reserved.

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Batman: Time and the Batman


By Grant Morrison, Fabian Nicieza, Tony S. Daniel, Cliff Richards, Andy Kubert, Frank Quitely, David Finch, Richard Friend, Scott Kolins & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2990-0

At the climax of a harrowing and sustained campaign of terror by insidious cabal The Black Hand, Batman was apparently killed. Although the general public were unaware of their loss, the superhero community secretly mourned whilst a small dedicated army of assistants, protégés and allies (trained over years by the Dark Knight) formed a “Network” to police GothamCity in the catastrophic days and weeks which followed: marking time until a successor could be found…

Most of the Bat-schooled taskforce refused to believe their inspirational mentor dead. On the understanding that he was merely lost, they accepted Dick Grayson – first Robin and latterly Nightwing – as a stand-in until Bruce Wayne could find his way back to them…

This slim, grim volume collects the contents of Batman #700-703 (August-November 2010) and takes an imaginative glimpse into the past and future whilst laying the groundwork for the imminent Return of Bruce Wayne…

The turbulent time-warping terror and tragedy begins in the anniversary #700, written as a detective mystery by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Tony S. Daniel. ‘Yesterday’ sees the Dynamic Duo at the start of their careers, with Batman and Robin saving chronal researcher Carter Nichols from a pack of kidnappers which include Catwoman, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, Riddler and the Joker.

The assembled felons and maniacs are using Carter’s “Maybe Machine” discoveries to plunder and muck up the time-stream, but after capturing the Gotham Gangbusters the Harlequin of Hate is getting some particularly dangerous ideas about the nature of reality…

By the time Jim Gordon‘s SWAT team breaks in it’s all over, but Nichols is clearly disturbed. Why else would he want the Joker’s Jokebook as a souvenir…?

‘Today’ (with art from Frank Quitely & Scott Kolins) opens years later as Dark Knight Dick Grayson and Bruce’s assassin-trained son Damian (the latest Boy Wonder) investigate the locked-room murder of Nichols. The bullet-riddled corpse is decades older than it should be…

It’s a busy night: after brutally cleaning up “Crime Alley” the heroes are almost too late to break up an underworld auction where a horde of masked malcontents are bidding on the recently discovered Joker’s Jokebook…

‘Tomorrow’ (Andy Kubert) takes us into a previously established future where Damian is the Batman of a Gotham even more impossibly debased and chaotic, where Joker venom rains from the skies thanks to weather control sabotage by cyborg psycho Max Roboto.

However even with Jokerzombies marauding through the besieged urban jungle and Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon‘s forces ruthlessly hunting the Cowled Crime-crusher, Damian has no time to rest as he searches for the macabre 2-Face-2, who holds hostage innocent toddler Terry McGinnis.

The unpredictable maniac has the infamous Joker’s Jokebook and seems to have a time-traveller named Nichols as his advisor…

The generational saga ends in brief visits with a succession of Future Batmen in ‘And Tomorrow…’ by David Finch & Richard Friend; encompassing the mid 21st century and ADs 3000, 3050 and 85298 (with guest appearances by Batman Beyond, Batman and Robin 3000, Brane Taylor and Batman One Million…)

Issues #701 and 702 revisited a recent Batman crossover with ‘R.I.P. – the Missing Chapter: The Hole in Things’ wherein Morrison & Daniel at last supplied the details of what occurred between the Dark Knight’s nigh-pyrrhic victory over Dr. Hurt and the Black Glove and his apparent demise after New God Darkseid invaded our dimension in Final Crisis.

‘R.I.P. – the Missing Chapter: Batman’s Last Case’ also reveals what bizarre machinations led to Bruce Wayne being alive in the corridors of history whilst apparently rendered into a mouldering corpse in Blackest Night.

Confusing, no?

A measure of narrative normality returned in #703 as ‘The Great Escape’ – scripted by Fabian Nicieza and illustrated by Cliff Richards – resumed the adventures of Dick and Damian in the now, with the heroes trying to stop second-generation super-thief Getaway Genius, all whilst Red (Tim Drake) Robin carried on his campaign to stop investigative journalist Vicki Vale proving that all Bruce Wayne’s kids were masked vigilantes…

This bombastic collection also includes a host of pretty picture treats: a selection of covers and variants by Daniel, Finch, Scott Williams, Andy Kubert, Mike Mignola & Kevin Nowlan, plus ‘Creatures of the Night: A Batman Gallery’ by Shane Davis, Sandra Hope, Barbara Ciardo, Juan Doe, Dustin Nguyen, Guillem March, Tim Sale, Bill Sienkiewicz & Philip Tan, and detailed and instructive ‘Operational Files: The Batcave’ offering views, schematics and diagrams by Freddie Williams II & Mathew K. Manning to satisfy any rabid Batfan…

Torturous, tumultuous, convoluted and challenging, this action-packed, high-octane Fights ‘n’ Tights drama will deliver all the thrills, spills and chills fans could hope for with impressive punch and panache aplenty. Sadly, though it’s all very pretty to look at and deucedly clever, it’s probably utterly impenetrable to casual consumers.

I’m not saying don’t read it if you qualify as a neophyte, just be prepared… and, perhaps, patient…
© 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Captain America: the First Avenger


By Fred Van Lente, Luke Ross; Neil Edwards, Crimelab Studios & Daniel Green; Javi Fernandez; Andy Smith & Tom Palmer; Richard Elson & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5725-0

With new superhero comics-based Summer Movie Blockbusters now an annual tradition there’s generally a wealth of supplementary reading released to coincide, cash in on and tantalise all us die-hard print addicts. Thus, through the comfortable hindsight of time passed and all hype deflated, here’s a slim tome designed as a combination tie-in and prequel to the 2011 Captain America film…

Scripted by Fred Van Lente, First Vengeance was a 4-issue comicbook miniseries that actually began as 8 webcomic chapter teasers before bounding into paper physicality during April and May 2010. It concentrated on the cinematic iteration of the Star Spangled Avenger, infilling background, adding character and disclosing the secret history of the main players, opening with Chapter 1 (illustrated by Luke Ross and colourist Richard Isanove) as Captain America parachuted into Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1944, idly reminiscing about his tough childhood in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan two decades earlier as he drifted down amongst the shell-bursts and ack-ack fire.

After his mother died, sickly Steve Rogers went to an orphanage and was befriended by protective scrapper James Buchanan Barnes…

The second instalment (Neil Edwards, Crimelab Studios & Sotocolor) recalls later years as the frail art student struggled to join the military in the face of increasing war-tensions, even inducing boxing champ “Bucky” Barnes to teach him how to fight. Those painful memories are interrupted when the US super-soldier is ambushed by Germany’s equivalent – a stormtrooper in a massive lightning-throwing mechanical exo-skeleton…

Chapter 3 (Ross & Isanove again) continues that spectacular duel whilst flashing back to Berlin in 1934 to detail Adolf Hitler‘s first meeting with a man even crazier, more fanatical and far deadlier than he…

Johann Shmidt was a Nazi scientist obsessed with elder gods, arcane lore and creating the Übermensch through interventionist science. After allying himself with the monstrous Heinrich Himmler, Shmidt proceeded to eradicate every obstacle to his unholy dream…

Javi Fernandez & Veronica Gandini produced the fourth episode – which continued the byplay between elucidating flashbacks and Cap’s combat against Nazi terror weapons – detailing how Shmidt co-opted willing German technologist Arnim Zola and coerced hostage Jewish biologist Abraham Erskine to further his schemes, whilst Ross & Isanove handled Chapter 5, exploring how pioneering industrialist and inventor Howard Stark created the Yankee hero’s invulnerable shield…

Chapter 6 (Andy Smith, Tom Palmer & Gandini) reveals how British spy Peggy Carter rescued Erskine from Shmidt, but not before the Nazi became the first recipient of the biologist’s prototype super-soldier serum… The saga then introduced the pan-national filmic version of the Howling Commandos as the comic prologue built to a spectacular end courtesy of Ross & Richard Elson, with the introduction of the ghastly Red Skull, the conclusion of Cap’s clash with Nazi science, an origin for the Howlers, the return of Bucky and the fateful meeting of a patriotic sad sack with the men who would transform him from 4-F failure to America’s ultimate fighting man…

To Be Continued in Captain America: The First Avenger…

This compilation also includes an interview with Van Lente from Captain America: Spotlight and a gallery of covers by Paolo Rivera, John Cassaday, Laura Martin & Tyler Stout.

This short, sweet, action package is a fine, fun comics read which certainly succeeds as an enticing appetiser for movie mavens and print fiends alike, offering the best of both worlds and delivering big bangs for your bucks…
© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics


By Gahan Wilson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-612-6

According to Gary Groth’s Afterword here, legendary cartoonist Gahan Wilson was born in 1930 and grew up reading comic strips.

It shows.

The mordantly macabre, acerbically wry and surreal draughtsman has been tickling funnybones and twanging nerves with his darkly dry graphic confections since the 1960s; contributing superb spoofs, sparklingly horrific and satirically suspenseful drawings and strips and panels as a celebrated regular contributor in such major magazines as Playboy, Collier’s, The New Yorker and others.

He also wrote science fiction, criticism, book and film reviews for Again Dangerous Visions, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Twilight Zone Magazine and Realms of Fantasy.

In an extremely broad and long career he has worn dozens of creative hats, and even embraced that modern electrickery stuff by creating – with Byron Preiss – his own supernatural computer game, Gahan Wilson’s the Ultimate Haunted House.

When National Lampoon first began its devastatingly satirical all-out attack on the American Dream, Wilson was invited to contribute a regular strip to their comics section. His sublimely semi-autobiographical, darkly hilarious paean to lost childhood ran from 1972 and until 1981 and was recently collected as Nuts.

Few people– me included – knew that during that period he also, apparently more for fun and relaxation than profit, produced his own syndicated Sunday strip feature.

For two years beginning on March 3rd 1974, Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics appeared in a small cross-section of newspapers from Boston to Los Angeles and, as with all his work, it bucked a trend.

At a time when most cartoonists were seeking a daily continuity strip, building a readership and eking jokes out with sensible parsimony, Wilson let himself go hog-wild, generating a half-dozen or so single-shot gags every Sabbath, blending his signature weird, wild monsters, uncanny aliens and unsavoury scenes with straight family humour, animal crackers, topical themes and cynically socio-politically astute observations.

Looking at them here it’s clear to me that his intent was to have fun and make himself laugh as much as his readers; capturing those moments when an idea or notion gave him pause to giggle whilst going about his day job…

I’m not going to waste time describing the cartoons: there are too many and despite being a fascinating snapshot of life in the 1970s they’re almost all still outrageously funny in the way and manner that Gary Larson’s Far Side was a scant six years later.

I will say that even whilst generating a storm of humorous, apparently unconnected one-offs, consummate professional Wilson couldn’t help himself and eventually the jokes achieved an underlying shape and tone with recurring motifs (clocks, beasts, wallpaper, etc), guest appearances by “The Kid” (from Nuts) and features-within-the-feature such as The Creep and Future Funnies…

Collected in a gloriously expansive (176 pages, 309x162mm) full-colour, landscape hardback, this complete re-presentation of a lost cartooning classic offers a freewheeling, absurdist, esoterically banal, intensely, trenchantly funny slice of nostalgia. These fabulous joke page compendiums range from satire to slapstick to agonising irony and again prove Wilson to be one of the world’s greatest visual humourists.

This is book no fan of fun should miss and, with Christmas bearing down on us, could be a crucial solution to the perennial “what to get him/her” question…

All comic strips © 2013 Gahan Wilson. This Edition © Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.
Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics will be published September 26th 2013.

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Sidney Sime: Master of the Mysterious


By Simon Heneage & Henry Ford (Thames and Hudson)
ISBN: 0-500-27154-2

A little while ago I mentioned with due reverence the wonderful illustrator Sidney Herbert Sime: late Victorian, Edwardian and latterly Georgian master of fantasy art whose stunning and imaginative pictorial forays into the realms of fable, myth and literary romanticism influenced two generations of readers and creators, but who is these days all but forgotten.

Not On My Watch…

Sime is archetypal of the rag-to-riches-to-obscurity fate which befell so many talented individuals of this period (for instance, do you know who Arthur Machen, William Hope Hodgson or even William Friese-Greene were?). After pulling himself up by his bootstraps, Sime became a celebrated and notable society figure thanks to his unique creations before changing modes and his own uncompromising nature isolated him from rapidly evolving times and tastes.

There aren’t too many tomes celebrating his work (this one is still available through a few internet dealers, though) but you can still see many of his original works if you visit the Sidney Sime Memorial Gallery in Worplesdon, near Guildford in Surrey.

After Acknowledgements and an Introduction, a short, erudite essay – packed with supporting artworks – describes the artist’s beginnings in ‘The Early Years’, disclosing that we don’t really know when he was born (sometime between 1865-1867 in Hulme, Greater Manchester) before going on to describe how the second son of six fathered by a warehouseman worked as a child in coal mines, as a linen draper, in a bakery, barbers and a shoemakers: voraciously self-educating, busking music and creating pictures to sell in his off-hours.

He graduated to sign-writing and found the funds to attend Liverpool School (later College) of Art, then joined the University of Liverpool before moving to London, winning artistic awards and securing commercial commissions in many newspapers and especially ‘The Magazines’ such as Pick-Me-Up, Pall Mall Gazette, Eureka, The Idler (which he eventually purchased thanks to a wealthy relative’s bequest) and others.

As well as the enigmatic fantasy works he loved creating, Sime sold straight illustrations, humorous cartoons, political gags, topical portraits, theatrical sketches and all the other assorted images a picture-hungry public demanded in an era when photography was still in its infancy.

Almost all of Sime’s best works were created in black and white – although he crafted them in a bewildering melange of media which frequently aroused the ire of the printers and plate-makers who had to reproduce his work in the newspapers, magazines and books of the era.

His native brilliance soon found him a place amongst the artistic and intellectual intelligentsia where he moved easily beside the likes of Caran d’Ache, Max Beerbohm, Phil May, Arnold Golsworthy and Raven-Hill as ‘Painter and Clubman’…

Sime is best remembered however for ‘The Illustrated Books’ – providing visual accompaniments for the burgeoning ranks of literary fantasists such as Golworthy (Death and the Woman), William Hope Hodgson (The Ghost Pirates), Machen (House of Souls) and more.

His most famous pieces resulted from a decades-long collaboration with Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany. The young Irish writer and dramatist – who published under the name Lord Dunsany – was a huge fan who sought out Sime in 1904 and together they revolutionised popular literature with such unforgettable fables as The Gods of Pegana, The Book of Wonder, and The King of Elfland’s Daughter.

Changing tastes following the Great War saw a decline in sublimely ethereal fantasy and Sime pursued newspaper work once more in periodicals such as The Illustrated London News, The Sketch, Tattler and The Strand. In his later years he also moved into ‘Theatre Design’ – including a triptych of operas based on the Mabinogion – and even held successful one-man shows as detailed in ‘The Exhibitions of 1924 and 1927’ before gradually fading from public view.

Concentrating on oil painting and illustrating the Gospel of St. John during ‘Later Years at Worplesdon’, he lived quietly in a cottage he purchased for himself and bride Mary Susan Pickett. He died on May 22nd 1941.

The ‘Conclusion’ and extensive ‘Bibliography’ suitably round things off here as an hors d’oeuvre to the visual main course here as The Plates: a Fantasy Portfolio offers a dozen fully annotated, full page Magazines Illustrations and 46 stunning masterpieces from the Dunsany books similarly presented…

Included in this last section are astounding and captivating prints from The Gods of Pegana, Time and the Gods, The Sword of Welleran, A Dreamer’s Tales, The Book of Wonder, Tales of Wonder, The King of Elfland’s Daughter and My Talks with Dean Spanley, covering the period 1905 to 1936, after which a scholarly Index neatly concludes the affair.

Sidney Sime is an astonishing one-of-a-kind creator whose influence is still being felt today, and one who has been overlooked for far too long. Here’s hoping the current trend for spooky wonders tempts some enterprising publisher to produce the kind of laudatory deluxe chronicle his genius truly deserves…

© 1980 Thames and Hudson Ltd, London. All Rights Reserved.
The master of mystery does have his own gallery so please check out The Sidney Sime Gallery and then go see the astounding arts and crafts masterpieces for yourself…

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Thor: Siege Aftermath


By Kieron Gillen, Richard Elson & Doug Braithwaite with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Neal Adams & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4638-4

In the middle of 1962, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby launched their latest offbeat superhero creation in monsters-and-mysteries anthology Journey into Mystery #83. The tale   introduced crippled American doctor Donald Blake who took a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing in terror he was trapped in a cave wherein lay an old, gnarled walking stick. When, in helplessness and frustration, the puny human smashed the cane into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his insignificant frame was transformed into the hulking and brawny Norse God of Thunder, Thor!

The series grew from formulaic beginnings battling aliens, commies and cheap thugs into a vast, breathtaking cosmic playground for Kirby’s burgeoning imagination with Journey into Mystery inevitably becoming the Mighty Thor where, after years of bombastic adventuring, the peculiarities and inconsistencies of the Don Blake/Thor relationship were re-examined and finally clarified to explain how the immortal godling could also be locked within frail Don Blake.

The epic saga took the immortal hero back to his long-distant youth and finally revealed that the mortal surgeon was no more than an Odinian construct designed to teach the Thunder God humility and compassion…

Time passed; Kirby left and the Thunderer’s fortunes waxed and waned. During the troubled mid-1990’s the title vanished, culled with the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four and subcontracted out to Image Comics instigators Jim Lee and Rob Liefield during 1996-1997 in a desperate attempt to improve sales after Marvel’s apocalyptic Onslaught publishing event.

In 1998 Heroes Return and Heroes Reborn saw those properties rejoin the greater Marvel Universe, relaunched in brand new first issues with the Thunder God reappearing a few weeks later.

After many phenomenal adventures the second volume concluded with issues #84-85 (November-December 2004) which once-and-for-all depicted the Really, Truly, We Mean It End of the Gods and Day of Ragnarok as Thor himself instigated the final fall to end a ceaseless cycle of suffering and destruction, ultimately defeating the ruthless beings who had manipulated the inhabitants of Asgard since time began…

You can’t keep a profitable property down or a great comics character unresurrected, so he was reborn again as a mysterious voice summoned Thor back to life – and Earth (us fans call it Midgard) – in a crack of spectacular thunder. Revived for an unspecified purpose the solitary Lord of Asgard swiftly set about retrieving the souls of his fellow godlings, all scattered and hidden inside human hosts and set up Asgard on Earth a few paltry feet above the ground of Broxton, Oklahoma…

As this small, simple community with some intriguing neighbours increasingly became the focus of cosmic events, expatriate big city doctor Don Blake was corporeally merged with Thor and became the mortal host for the God of Thunder…

What you need to know: trickster god Loki is dead but his legacy of malign machinations continues to affect the earthbound Asgardians as they begin to rebuild their devastated city following an appalling assault by the massed forces of out-of-control American Security Czar Norman Osborn in Siege…

Balder the Brave is the latest leader of the displaced deities but the populace is far from united behind him, with factions forming advocating the accession of Thor or his brother Tyr, God of War. Neither blood-son of lost Odin wants the job or feels worthy of the throne…

When Asgard materialised on Earth, the afterlife realms of Hel and Valhalla were displaced and Hela, caretaker of the dead, allowed Loki to broker a deal which sublet a portion of Mephisto‘s Hell as a home for the wandering Norse dead. Hela feared her phantom charges would become prey to an ancient pre-Asgardian horror which consumed the spirits of fallen heroes, but she was unaware that the dire Disir were also pawns of the turbulent, troubled God of Evil who was her father…

Nor was she privy to the fact that, to seal the deal, Loki had given Mephisto mastery of the voracious, vile and utterly debased Dead-eaters…

Collecting issues #611-614 of Thor (from August to November 2010), this grim fury tale of Hells without a Heaven also includes a classic 3-part saga of Asgardians in the Underworld first seen in Thor #179-181 at the end of the 1960s.

‘The Fine Print’ consists of four chapters scripted by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Richard Elson & Doug Braithwaite and begins with Thor, Balder and Tyr officiating at a mass pyre for the hundreds who fell in defence of Asgard and Broxton. Meanwhile in Mephisto’s blazing inferno, lesser demons ousted from their hellish lands prepare to oust Hela and her transplanted Hall of Heroes, but are completely eradicated by the Disir – despised proto-Valkyries who served primordial god Bor until they acquired a taste for the flesh and souls of fallen warriors and were condemned for all eternity.

Simply to speak their communal name summons them from eternity to kill and consume. As none has done so in an age, most Asgardians believe them to be myth…

Now, with upheaval in the Realms of the Gods, the horrors are free to sate their insatiable hungers, first upon the demon armies and after on the hallowed Asgardian dead. First, however, they must gain the sanction of their new master Mephisto.

The arch deceiver won’t say yes – but he doesn’t say no either…

When the “Ever-Hungry Ones” raid Valhalla, the only place Hela can turn is to the living world where hopefully flesh and blood still honours the sanctity of the fallen…

In Asgard, Balder is uneasy with his stewardship and seeks comfort in the wisdom of weather goddess Kelda Stormrider, who sacrificed so much – including her mortal beloved Bill and briefly her own life – to defend the kingdom. He is completely unaware what Loki’s magics have made of her now…

When Hela materialises amongst the ashes of the recent dead and begs for aid, she is naturally rebuffed until one foolhardy warrior utters the forbidden name of the damned and is instantly rent to shreds by the terrifying harpies…

Rather than kill them all, Brün of the Disir leaves with a warning: her kind prefers meals seasoned by life’s ending and would prefer to dine on souls that have expired. After all, they are patient and have all the time in the world…

With the weakened Hela only able to carry two warriors, Thor and Tyr ignore their suspicious misgivings and return with her to rescue their departed friends and family. The War God goes with Hela to defend the embattled shades of Valhalla whilst the Thunderer prepares to fight his way across all Hell in search of the sword Eir-Gram, forged by Loki through despicable rite and ritual and the only weapon capable of harming Disir…

The puissant blade is lodged in Mephisto’s Great Hall but Thor wisely chooses to force his way to it rather than accept a sly offer of assistance from the Tempter to simply collect it…

Ferocious, grandly scaled, truly epic and astoundingly clever, this is a superb tale of operatic tone and proportions, full of twists and turns and surprises that adds volumes to the modern mythology of the Thunder God and will delight fans of comics and the cosmic.

This dark and brutal tome continues with a masterful changing of the guard and sign of the times which originally appeared in Thor #179-181, August to October 1970.

In #179 ‘No More the Thunder God!’ saw Thor, Sif and Balder dispatched to Earth to arrest Loki. This story was Kirby’s (and inker Vince Colletta’s) last: the entire vast unfolding new mythology was left on an artistic cliffhanger as the Thunder God was ambushed by his wicked step-brother who used infernal magic to trade places with his shining-souled half-brother…

By switching bodies, the Lord of Evil gained safety and the power of the Storm whilst Thor was doomed to endure whatever punishment Odin decreed…

‘When Gods Go Mad!’ introduced the totally different style of Neal Adams to the mix, inked by the comfortably familiar Joe Sinnott, as the true Thunder God was sent to Hell and the tender mercies of Mephisto, whilst on Earth Loki used his brother’s body to terrorise the UN Assembly and declare himself Master of the World…

In #181 ‘One God Must Fall’ Sif led Warriors Three Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg on a rescue mission to the Infernal Realm, whilst Balder struggled to combat the combined power of Thor and malice of Loki, until Mephisto was finally thwarted and a cataclysmic battle of brothers on embattled Earth set the world at last to rights.

Dark, brooding and ferocious, this is a breathtaking Costumed Drama that will enthral and delight fans of both comic and filmic Asgardian iterations which also includes covers and variants by Mico Suayan, Laura Martin, Adams, Sinnott, John Romita Sr., Marie Severin, John Buscema & Chris Stevens plus a beautiful selection of pencilled original art by Braithwaite.
© 1970, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Seven Soldiers of Victory Archives volume 1


By Mort Weisinger, Bill Finger, Jerry Siegel, Mort Meskin, George Papp, Jack Lehti, Hal Sherman, Creig Flessel, Ed Dobrotka & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 978-04012 1-84576-236-3

After the actual invention of the comicbook superhero – for which read the Action Comics debut of Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s history was the combination of individual sales-points into a group. Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: a multitude of popular characters could multiply readership simply by appearing together.

Plus, of course, a mob of superheroes is just so much cooler than one (or one-and-a-half if there are sidekicks involved) …

You can’t say it too often: the creation of the Justice Society of America in 1941 utterly changed the shape of the budding industry. Soon after the team launched, even National/DC – All American Comics’ publishing partner in the landmark venture – wanted to get in on the act and created their own proprietary squad of solo stars, populated with a number of their characters who hadn’t made it onto the roster of that super-successful cooperative coalition of AA and DC stars.

Oddly they never settled on a name and the team of non-super powered mystery men who debuted in Leading Comics #1 in 1941 were retroactively and alternatively dubbed The Law’s Legionnaires or The Seven Soldiers of Victory.

They never even had their own title-logo but only appeared as solo stars grouped together on the 14 spectacular covers – the first four of which, by Mort Meskin and Fred Ray, preface each collaborative epic in this spectacular deluxe hardback.

The full contents of this bombastic barrage of comicbook bravado were originally presented in the quarterly Leading #1-4, spanning Winter 1941/1942 to Fall 1942 and, following a fascinating history lesson and potted biography of the component crusaders in cartoonist, biographer and historian R.C. Harvey’s Foreword, the Golden Age glamour and glory begins with the heroes’ first adventure.

The sagas all followed a basic but extremely effective formula, established by scripter Mort Weisinger in the first adventure when dying criminal genius The Hand drew up a ‘Blueprint for Crime’ (illustrated by George Papp) to leave a lasting legacy of villainy.

Unable to carry out his perfidious plans in person, he subcontracted a fistful of macabre felons but insisted they warn their particular heroic arch-enemies as part of the triumphal deal…

Following a trail of breadcrumbs, Green Arrow and Speedy, the Shining Knight, Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, Crimson Avenger and the Vigilante stumbled upon each other, shared their knowledge of the grand scheme and soon separated again to tackle their own particular antagonists…

Papp continued as illustrator whilst the Emerald Archers headed to ‘Death Valley’ to stop the ingenious Professor Merlin using a freeze machine to extort the location of a fabulous gold mine out of a sun-loving old prospector, before heading back to track down the Hand…

Regular creative team Jerry Siegel & Hal Sherman then took the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy south of the border in ‘Peril in Panama’, where ectomorphic assassin the Needle tried to steal a seismic ray gun and shatter the Canal Zone and American trade, whilst Jack Lehti revealed how Crimson Avenger (and oriental sidekick Wing) bagged blue-collar mobster Big Caesar when the thug created a ‘Blackout over Broadway’ to plunder in relative safety…

Arthurian paladin the Shining Knight slept in ice until defrosted in 1941, where his magic sword, armour and winged horse made Sir Justin a formidable foe of injustice. Here he battled ‘The Red Dragon’ (illustrated by Creig Flessel) to free a lost tribe of Indian braves from the sinister slaver whilst undisputed artistic star of the show Mort Meskin revealed in stunning style how Hollywood’s glitterati were saved from being transformed into ‘The Stone People’ by the diabolical Dummy…

With each subordinate subdued, the heroes simultaneously closed on The Hand to end the dying dastard’s depredations in Weisinger & Papp’s explosive finale ‘Blueprint for Crime’…

The valiant crusaders came together again in Leading Comics #2 as ‘The Black Star Shines’ (Weisinger & Flessel) found juvenile genius Sylvester Pemberton and his chauffer Pat Dugan witnesses to a simple bank heist perpetrated by five of the nation’s most infamous criminals and realising that Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy might need a little assistance…

The Pentagram of Perfidy were actually operating under explicit instructions to steal millions for themselves from a cautious and secretive hidden Machiavelli who only required five unobtrusive and mundane objects for himself, but the Law’s Legionnaires had no inkling of such when they split up to track the fiends down…

The cross-country campaign began with Sir Justin who hit New Orleans during Mardi Gras to confront the ‘Mystery of the Clowning Criminals’ (Weisinger & Flessel). The Shining Knight clashed with gang-leader Falseface and his battalion of buffoons, but although victorious was unable to prevent the sneaky Black Star from stealing an old rag doll…

Hal Sherman joined Weisinger to solve the ‘Mystery of the Santa Claus Pirate’ wherein the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy tackled a seaborne scoundrel Captain Bigg in Florida: a jolly jokester who gave away rather than stole loot. Of course the bandit had a bigger game plan in motion which the patriotic pair soon scuttled, but once again the surreptitious Black Star got away with the true prize – an old corncob pipe…

‘Mystery of the One-Man Museum’ (Weisinger & Papp) found Green Arrow and Speedy in glamorous Pleasure City hunting The Hopper, a mobster trying to appropriate valuable objets d’art from an eccentric millionaire. Once the human kangaroo was captured, however, his silent partner delightedly sloped off with a broken pocket watch…

The Crimson Avenger and Wing headed for the Great Lakes to duel with The Brain in ‘The Case of the Twisted Twins’ (Weisinger & Lehti), wherein the criminal genius assaulted attendees at an identical siblings convention whilst Black Star used the subsequent commotion to purloin an old silver dollar.

Bill Finger & Meskin handled the last two chapters and revealed the incredible truth as Vigilante battled venomous villain The Rattler at rich retired folk’s resort ‘The Sixty Kiddie Club’, but couldn’t stop the real menace grabbing an old key. Thus when ‘The Black Star Shines’ – using the gathered bric-a-brac to become an incredible super-menace – it needed the full might of the assembled Seven Soldiers to thwart the menace and end his astounding threat forever.

The scripter of ‘The Tyrants of Time’ in Leading #3 is sadly unknown but the first chapter (with art credited to Meskin) discloses how sinister scientist Dr. Doome built a time machine and recruited five historical tyrants to loot 1942, gathering funds and resources to build an even better device.

Their entire campaign was overheard by Speedy and the temporal thugs were then targeted by the Law’s Legionnaires, beginning with Stripesy and the Star-Spangled Kid who gave Napoleon a taste of ‘Defeat Before Waterloo’ (Sherman art), whilst the Amazing Archers prevented Alexander the Great from turning ‘The Radium Robots’ (Papp) into his most unbeatable army…

Flessel illustrated ‘The Man Who Told a Fish Story’ with the Shining Knight and an inveterate angler scuppering the naval ambitions of time-transplanted Genghis Khan, even as Vigilante teamed with a western legend to smash the schemes of Attila the Hun in ‘The Spirit of Wild Bill Dickson’ (by Meskin as “Mort Morton & Cliff”).

Lehti then delineated the bombastic battle between the Crimson Avenger and piratical Emperor Nero in ‘Fiddler’s Farewell’ before the Septet of Sentinels convened to follow Dr. Doome into the past and end the menace of ‘The Tyrants of Time’ in a stunning conclusion by Meskin, set at the fall of fabled Troy…

‘The Sense Master’ in Leading #4 was completely created by Bill Finger & Ed Dobrotka: a clever compendium of mystery and melodrama which commenced after paralysed mastermind The Sixth Sense used a robot to surgically augment the abilities of a band of brigands, as part of a plan to obtain five unique jewels for his undisclosed but nefarious purposes.

Interrupted by Sir Justin, the hyped-up hoods overcame the crusader before scattering, leaving the Shining Knight no recourse but to call in his crime-busting colleagues…

The Crimson Avenger then intercepted sound sensitive Mickey Gordon as ‘The Crime Concerto’ that the ex-musician conducted deprived a young girl of her precious diamond, but also started an irrevocable process of redemption in the penitent criminal…

In ‘Don Quixote Rides Again’ the Knight followed “Fingers” to the home of a dotty scholar who loved a certain book, but although he saved Don Coty‘s life, the paladin was unable to stop the theft of his golden Topaz, after which the Star-Spangled Kid (and Stripesy) failed to stop the Human Bloodhound from stealing Mrs. Pemberton‘s fabulous emerald in ‘The Man Who Followed His Nose’.

Vigilante and his geriatric sidekick Billy Gunn met a former movie idol who was ‘The Man who was Afraid to Eat’… It was all a cunning campaign by taste-sensitive poisoner “Palate” to purloin the faded star’s gem and, following his success, Green Arrow and Speedy were unable to prevent ‘The Man with the Miracle Eyes’ making off with a circus barker’s garnet.

However “Eagle Eye” didn’t escape, and once the heroes joined forces – assisted by Mickey Gordon – to track down ‘The Sense Master’ behind the whole incredible charade, they saw him briefly obtain ultimate power only to lose everything once the indomitable crusaders waded in…

These raw, wild and excessively engaging capers are actually some of the best but most neglected thrillers of the halcyon Golden Age. Still modern tastes too have moved on and these yarns are probably far more in tune with contemporary mores, making this a truly guilty pleasure for all fans of mystery, mayhem and stylish superteam tussles…
© 1941, 1942, 1949, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.