NowReadThis

May 10, 2013May 11, 2013

Mesmo Delivery

By Rafael GrampÃ¡ with Marcus Penna, translated by JÃºlio Mairena (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-465-3

In an industry and art form that has become so very dependent on vast interlocking storylines, an encyclopaedic knowledge of a million other yarns and the tacit consent to sign up for another million episodes before reaching any kind of narrative payoff, the occasional short, sharp, intensely stand-alone tale is as welcome and vital as a cold beer in the noon-day desert.

Just such a salutary singleton was Mesmo Delivery, first solo English-language release of singularly gifted writer/artist Rafael GrampÃ¡ who originally devised the macabre and gritty thriller in his native Brazil in 2008.

Picked up and translated by Dark Horse two years later, this stark and spookily effective grindhouse/trucker movie amalgam offers dark chills, gritty black humour and eerie, compulsive mystery in equal, intoxicating amounts. And it all starts, unfolds and ends here. No muss, no fuss, no busload of tie-ins.

Aging, raddled Elvis impersonator Sangrecco is a very odd deliveryman working for a rather unique haulage business. For a start he can’t drive, which is why hulking, gentle cash-starved ex-boxer Rufo has been temporarily hired by the boss to operate the truck on a run through very bleak bad country.

Rufo doesn’t ask questions. He just drives the big container rig with its mysterious, unspecified cargo that he’s not allowed to see to God knows where, listening to the obnoxious, pompous Sangrecco mouth off about his many, unappreciated talents.

Things take a bad turn when they break at the isolated Standart Truck Stop. The Elvis freak is too lazy to even fetch his own beer, and when Rufo takes care of business and grudgingly tries to pay, a sleazy pack of locals trick him into an impromptu street fight on a cash-bet.

The ploy is a set-up and when Rufo proves unexpectedly tough the prize-fight gets too serious and results in a fatality – possibly twoâ€¦

Street-fighting head tough Forceps then convinces his â€œtownieâ€ cronies and the other onlookers that they need to get rid of all the witnesses.

â€¦Which is when old Sangrecco reveals what his speciality isâ€¦

Stark, brutal, rollercoaster-paced and rendered with savage, exhilarating bravura, this thundering, down-and-dirty fable grips like a vice and hits like a juggernaut, providing the kind of excitement every jaded thriller fan dreams of.

Also included in this slim, scary and mesmerising tome is an effusive Introduction from Brian Azzarello, pin-ups by Mike Allred, Eduardo Risso, Craig Thompson and FÃ¡bio Moon and a stunning 16-page sketch, design and commentary section ‘Making of Mesmo Delivery’.

Since Mesmo Delivery, GrampÃ¡ has gone on to shine with his deliciously eccentric Furry Water as well as on such established titles as Hellblazer, American Vampire, Strange Tales and Uncanny X-Force amongst others, but this superbly visceral, raw storm of sheer visual dexterity and narrative guile is an ideal example of pared back, stripped down, pure comics creativity that no mature lover of the medium can afford to miss.

May 9, 2013May 11, 2013

Uncanny Avengers: The Red Shadow

By Rick Remender, John Cassaday, Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-528-4

In the aftermath of the blockbuster Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company-wide reboot MarvelNOW! began repositioning and recasting the entire continuity in the ongoing never-ending battle to keep old readers interested and pick up new ones.

Sadly this isn’t a merely Marvel problem but a malaise affecting the entire global comics industry, but that struggle for survival does occasionally produce some truly stellar reading results as in this impressive fusion of two grand old franchises, allowing writer Rick Remender and artists John Cassaday, Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales to take the latest brigade of the â€œWorld’s Mightiest Superheroesâ€ in a fascinating old new direction.

Collecting Uncanny Avengers #1-5 (cover-dated December 2012-May 2013), this astounding reaffirmation of the magic of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction opens with the eponymous 4-part thriller depicting the creation of a new, politically correct and provocatively inclusive team combining human and mutant heroes, tasked with proving that mutant visionary Charles Xavier‘s dream of lasting cooperation and mutual amity between Home Sapiens and Superior was not impossibleâ€¦

What You Need to Know: Once upon a time the mutant Avenger Wanda Maximoff – daughter of arch-villain Magneto and known to the world as the Scarlet Witch – married the android hero Vision and they had (through the agency of magic and her unsuspected chaos-energy fuelled ability to reshape reality) twin boys. Over the course of time it was revealed that her sons were not real and they subsequently vanished (for further details see Marvel Platinum: the Definitive Avengers).

As the years passed their loss slowly, imperceptibly drove Wanda mad and when she at long last slipped completely over the edge and destroyed a number of her Avenger team-mates, the effects of her power and actions affected and reshaped the entire Marvel Universe, resulting in a dramatic reboot event known as Avengers Disassembled.

No sooner had the team recovered from that catastrophe than reality was overwritten again when she had another breakdown and altered Earth history such that Magneto’s mutants ruled over a society where normal humans (â€œsapiensâ€) were an acknowledged evolutionary dead-end living out their lives and destined for extinction within two generations.

It took every hero on Earth and a great deal of luck to put that genie back in a bottle (in another colossal company crossover dubbed House of M), and in the aftermath less than 200 mutants were left on Earthâ€¦

The Witch was partially rehabilitated and began her redemption during Avengers versus X-Men wherein the World’s Mightiest Heroes strove against the remaining mutant outcasts for control of young Hope Summers: a girl predestined to become mortal host to the implacable force of cosmic destruction and creation known as The Phoenix.

However the primal phenomenon instead possessed a quintet of X-Men, corrupting them whilst empowering their dream of turning the planet into a paradise for besieged, beleaguered Homo Superior.

In the ensuing conflict humanity was briefly enslaved before inevitably the rapacious, selfish destructive hunger of the Phoenix Force caused those possessed to turn upon each other. Soon its transcendent energy transformed the unifying, rallying figure of head freedom-fighter Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, into another seemingly unstoppable and insatiable â€œDark Phoenixâ€.

At that crossroads moment his beloved mentor Xavier, founder of the X-Men and formulator of the policy of peaceful mutant/human co-existence returned, only to be killed by his most trusted, devoted discipleâ€¦

Professor X’s death forced X-Men and Avengers to unite against the true threat but, in the days that followed the expulsion of the Phoenix Force, progress and reconciliation stalled. The mostly human world festered with resentment even as new mutants began to appear, and liberated humanity again fell into its old habits of species intolerance and violent, bigoted vigilante outrageâ€¦

After disturbing scenes of brain surgery, our story now begins in ‘New Union’ as Wolverine leads the bereaved Homo Superior students of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning in services for their fallen inspirational Moses (or perhaps more accurately Martin Luther King). Meanwhile in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. detention centre an unrepentant Cyclops is paid a visit by his brother.

Also known as the government-sanctioned mutant agent Havok, Alex Summers is appalled at the unflinching hard-line attitude of his apparently irredeemably radicalised sibling who seems oblivious to the damage his crusade has done to Xavier’s Dream. On exiting the facility, Alex is met by Captain America and Thor who have an enticing yet frightening proposal for the shaken former head of America’s X-Factor mutant task-forceâ€¦

The Sentinel of Liberty is painfully aware that America’s mutant minority has been poorly served – if not actively institutionally discriminated against – and is hungry to make amends by making real Xavier’s vision. To that end he wants to create a new high-profile, affirmatively-active Avengers Unity Division, comprising humans and mutant heroes working together.

He also wants Havok to lead the teamâ€¦

Even as Alex and the Avenger elder statesmen discuss the deeply contentious and heavy-handed proposal, an old, vile threat has resurfaced. Mutant terrorist Avalanche launches a devastating assault, slaughtering hundreds of New Yorkers, before killing himself when Thor, Captain America and Havok intervene. The atrocity has no apparent motive but the killer seems to have undergone recent cranial surgeryâ€¦

Elsewhere the desperately repentant Scarlet Witch tries to pay her condolences at Xavier’s shrine but is attacked by furiously indignant X-Man Rogue before they are both ambushed and captured by a squad of metahumans faithful to a monster claiming to be the true Red Skull.

The Nazi hate-monger has plans to eradicate the sub-human mutant race forever, and now that he has stolen the deceased Professor X’s brain – and telepathic powers – nothing can stop himâ€¦

The horror grows in ‘Skulduggery’ as Wolverine joins the heroes at the scene of Avalanche’s holocaust/suicide, confirming that the mass-mover had fully reformed and this disaster must have a hidden architect. Although dubious of Cap’s â€œpositive PRâ€ solution, the feral mutant is also convinced that someone is trying to foment genocide and agrees with Thor that they need to be stoppedâ€¦ permanently…

Answers come when the Red Skull pre-empts television broadcasts, urging humanity to rise up and destroy the mutants who are the cause of all America’s woes. It’s the same vile message as espoused in Depression-era Germany seven decades ago, but this time enforced on believers and resisters alike by Xavier’s irresistible psychic powers.

Soon, brainwashed mortals are slaughtering anybody deemed different. The message is backed up and subtly reinforced by the Fascist’s deadly deputy Honest John, the Living Propaganda, even as the Skull’s other S-Men – Goat-Faced Girl, Dancing Water, The Insect, Mzee and Living Wind – tend to their master’s mutant captivesâ€¦

Soon however Rogue and Wanda have escaped, but their flight through the monster’s hidden fortress is abruptly halted when they discover the appalling remains of Xavier, allowing the Nazi madman to make them his mindless slaves.

The Worst Fiend in History has big plans: if he can bend Wanda to his will, perhaps she can be made to rewrite reality again to the deranged Nazi’s debaseded designâ€¦

‘Skull & Bones’ sees the madman and his puppets begin their eradication campaign in Manhattan as the Crimson Hatemonger seizes direct control of ordinary humans and orders them to slaughter all mutants in an orgy of destruction with only Cap, Havok, Thor and Wolverine to battle the rampage of rampant unchecked hatred and fear in ‘Thunder’.

With so many mystical mindbenders on his team, it’s not long before Teutonic deity Thor is also seduced and beguiled by the Skull and set upon his erstwhile mutant comrades; but sadly for the briefly triumphant S-Men their leader’s iron hold on the Scarlet Witch has subsequently slippedâ€¦

Against all odds, the mismatched Politically Correct Paladins score an unlikely victory and drive off the Skull, forcing the still-unconvinced Havok to admit that his proposed new team might actually help remould the nation’s fears and opinionsâ€¦

This initial collection concludes with a tantalising glimpse of things to come in an untitled fill-in from Remender, Coipel & Morales which publicly launches the Avengers Unity Division amidst a flurry of time-bending hints and portents.

Interspersed with pithy glimpses of old adversaries Immortus, Kang the Conqueror and Onslaught as well as the advent of ancient, portentous devil-babies the Apocalypse Twins (all murderously jockeying for position), the first Press Conference of the official team – Havok, Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, Scarlet Witch, Rogue, Wonder Man, the Wasp and Sunfire – goes horribly wrong when implacable undead enemy the Grim Reaper attacks, resulting in a shocking death which looks set to undermine all that hard-won pro-mutant progress in one bloody instantâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Engaging, exciting and extremely entertaining; blending spectacular adventure with wry suspense, this new look at an old concept is magnificent fun and promises even greater thrills and chills to come.

This book also includes a vast, sublime and expansive cover-and-variants gallery by Cassaday, Mark Brooks, Sara Pichelli, Neal (not, as attributed, Arthur) Adams, Coipel, Skotti Young, Ryan Stegman, Adi Granov, Mark Texeira, J. Scott Campbell, Simone Bianchi and Milo Manara and a selection of now obligatory 21st century extra content for tech-savvy consumers in the form of AR icon sections.

These Marvel Augmented Reality App pages give access to story bonuses once you download the little dickens – free from marvel.com – onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

May 8, 2013May 11, 2013

Indestructible Hulk: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

By Mark Waid, Leinil Francis Yu & Gerardo Alanguilan (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-535-2

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, stress or other factors would cause him to transform into a gigantic green monster of unstoppable strength and fury. As both occasional hero and mindless monster he rampaged across the landscape for decades, becoming one of Marvel’s most popular comicbook features and multi-media titans.

As such, he has often undergone radical changes in scope and format to keep his stories fresh and his exploits explosively compellingâ€¦

In recent years the number of Gamma-mutated monsters thundering through the Marvel Universe has proliferated to inconceivable proportions. The days of Banner getting angry and going Green at the drop of a hat are long gone, so anybody taking their cues from the 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 randomly rainbow-coloured atomic berserkers roaming the planet, but now with that 2012 house-cleaning exercise concluded, the follow up MarvelNOW! event revived the Jade Giant in a stripped-down, back-to-basics, mercifully continuity-lite version which should find favour with new and old fans alike.

But it’s definitely not a Hulk anyone has ever seen beforeâ€¦

This first volume details the next blockbusting chapter in the ever-eventful life of Banner and his raging Emerald Animus (collecting Indestructible Hulk #1-5, cover-dated January-May 2013) rapturously reported as the epic and eponymous 5-part ‘Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.’

It all begins as Maria Hill – latest Director of the perilously all-pervasive security agency Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate – closes in on a deadly menace to humanity in a small rural American diner.

Suddenly Bruce Banner sits down beside her and shares an epiphany he had whilst again trying to eradicate his deadly conditionâ€¦

One of the smartest men on Earth, Banner has lost years of success, progress and well-deserved peer renown whilst trying to destroy the Hulk. Now, concerned about his reputation and legacy, the fugitive genius has decided to make headlines as a scientist, not a brutal, devastating force of nature.

For the foreseeable future and as long as possible he will manage, rather than seek to cure, his affliction. Moreover, if S.H.I.E.L.D. will provide funding, a lab, assistants and resources, he will not only improve the world with his inventions but also allow Hill to use his uncontrollable alter ego as a deployable living weapon in times of crisisâ€¦

If she accepts, the most cutting-edge, hard-pressed and overstretched spy outfit on Earth can reap the unimaginable benefits of â€œHulk Smash, Banner Buildsâ€â€¦

Even before Hill can fully evaluate the offer Banner has proved his worth by saving her already-deployed S.H.I.E.L.D. task-force from the unexpected ramifications of an ill-planned raid on the diabolical Mad Thinker‘s secret lairâ€¦

Pushed into a corner by the terrifyingly brilliant, coldly confident Banner, S.H.I.E.L.D. sets about fulfilling their side of the deal only to have intellectual rival Tony Stark barge in, obnoxiously assuming the super-spies are all mind-controlled or just plain crazy…

The intransigent Iron Man is soon forced to reserve judgement after he accompanies Banner on his next assignment, experiencing first-hand the theoretical thinker’s ingenuity and sheer determination – but only after a traditional trading of Earth-shattering blowsâ€¦

The search for assistants smart and mad enough to work with Banner begins in the third chapter even as the ruthlessly mercenary tech-merchants of Advanced Idea Mechanics attempt to kidnap another secretive scientific prodigy in an insane scheme to revive one of their oldest terror weapons.

Unfortunately, after covertly switching Banner with the target, the Hulk horrifically emerges to find himself again battling the deadly robotic Quintronic Man – unfortunate for AIM, that isâ€¦

This superbly effective and vicariously rewarding compilation concludes with a spectacular 2-part saga set at the bottom of the sea, after Banner’s first meeting with his staff in their uncompromisingly isolated facility of Nuclear Springs, Nevada (dubbed â€œBannervilleâ€) is cut short by yet another urgent mission.

This time his increasingly callous paymasters want Banner to aim the Hulk at a sub-sea invasion of magical monsters decimating ships in the Pacific. The beasts are being directed from the sunken city of Lemuria and controlled by barbaric Atlantean terrorist warlord Attuma: a water-breathing maniac who has repeatedly tried to enslave or eradicate all surface-crawling lifeâ€¦

However even equipped with the latest breathing technologies and backed up by the Chinese Navy’s most awesome Dreadnought submersible, the Green Goliath is quickly overmatched and foundering out of his depthâ€¦

Throughout this series the Hulk had been portrayed as a savagely mindless engine of destruction, but when he is rescued by aquatic freedom fighters Mara and Canor, although Banner’s intellect provides the clues needed to save Lemuria, the formerly elemental Jade Juggernaut solves the problem of Attuma’s mystic monster arsenal with chillingly rational efficiencyâ€¦

Smart, refreshingly straightforward and gloriously wry, this latest wrinkle in the convoluted conflict-packed life of the world’s most iconic split personality offers bombastic action, sharp characterisation and genuinely gripping adventure as writer Mark Waid and illustrators Leinil Francis Yu & Gerardo Alanguilan explore fantastically uncharted and potentially priceless new territory in the history of the marauding man-monster, so no spectacle-starved, thrill-deprived fan should miss this opportunity to Go Green.

This tome also includes a stunning cover-and-variants gallery by Yu, Joe Quesada, Charles Paul Wilson III, Walt Simonson, Skottie Young, Mike Deodato Jr., Simone Bianchi, Chris Stevens and Pasqual Ferry, 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 doo-dad).

May 7, 2013May 11, 2013

An Army of Frogs â€“ A Kulipari Novel

By Trevor Pryce with Joel Naftali, illustrated by Sanford Greene (Amulet)
ISBNB: 978-1-4197-01726

We haven’t covered a straight kid’s prose novel (with the mandatory secret ingredient of loads of cool pictures) for a while now, so it’s good to break that particular duck (sorry, British Sporting metaphor – best look it up under cricket, as I’m being annoyingly clever hereâ€¦) with a fascinating new series debut from NFL football-star turned author Trevor Pryce, his authorial collaborator Joel Naftali and illustrator Sanford Greene, all dedicated to addressing and rectifying a long-standing literary disparity.

These days, it’s hard enough to get any kid into reading but of late stories targeting – and of interest to – young boys have been pretty much non-existent. Back in the dark ages when we read by candlelight, there was a wealth of essentially Boy’s Only fiction, ranging from fantasies like Heinlein’s Tunnel in the Sky or Clive King’s Stig of the Dump to uncounted war and detective stories of Biggles, Sexton Blake and their square-jawed ilk, classroom classics such as Tom Brown’s Schooldays, Billy Bunter or Just William, tales of innumerable sporting heroes and perennial adventure landmarks like Treasure Island, Ivanhoe, Call of the Wild and so forth.

There were also loads and loads of other books and series like Narnia tales or The Hobbit but those were a bit egalitarian: equally enjoyable by most girls too â€“ so they didn’t countâ€¦

Whilst laudable on so many levels, the increasingly generalised fiction experience over the decades left a lot of lads with no introductory boyish literary equivalent to modern men’s fiction: the Sven Hassels, Zane Greys, Alistair Macleans and Mickey Spillanes who service those particularly manly mainstays of fighting, chasing, outwitting and overpowering your properly evil enemies.

I mean these days even Daleks and Klingons are merely misunderstood and have their own valid points of viewâ€¦

Seeking to tackle the problem of a whole sub-set of youngsters who just give up on reading, the creators involved here pulled off a masterful trick. This is a â€œboys bookâ€ girls, parents and all other softies are going to want to see tooâ€¦

In the Outback of Australia Darel is a young frog who dreams of being a mighty warrior just like the vanished Kulipari Poison Frogs of legend.

When the horrendous spell-casting Spider Queen Jarrah and massed scorpion armies tried to invade and consume the lush Amphibilands long ago, those valiant heroes led the frog and turtle resistance, ultimately giving their all to save everyone from annihilation. Now everybody lives in idyllic peace, safely hidden from further assault by supreme Sergu, the Turtle King who dream-cast a mystic Veil around the oasis, masking it from all predators â€“ especially the ever-growing, always hungry, malevolently rapacious scorpion horde.

Darel’s dream is no idle childish fantasy: although his mother was an ordinary wood frog (as is he), his father was Kulipari and heroically gave his life to save the wetland paradise from ultimate destruction during The Hidingwar.

These day’s though, nobody really cares about the old stories: safe and complacent behind the Veil, the various frog tribes carry on their dull, happy lives and don’t care to remember the bad old daysâ€¦

Even Darel’s best friends Gurnagan and Coorah just play along as the frustrated would-be champion constantly practises fighting, sneaking and strategising, preparing for a day which might never come.

Just in caseâ€¦

Out in the harsh desert badlands however, supreme scorpion Lord Marmoo plans to destroy the Veil forever and feast on the frogs he knows reside beyond it. To facilitate his scheme he has entered into a risky alliance with monstrous Jarrah and even recruited divisions of lizards and â€œsandpaper frogsâ€ â€“ debased mercenaries who would do anything, even betraying their own kind for profitâ€¦

One day, whilst hunting herbs for apprentice healer Coorah at the very edge of the all-concealing barrier, Darel and Gurnagan encounter a scorpion reconnaissance party ensorcelled by the Spider Queen to breach the hem of the Veil and lay the foundations of the mystic shield’s destruction. Further out, the terrified froglets can see an impossibly huge army just waiting in the shimmering sands for the fall of the wallâ€¦

Sensing his moment has come, Darel sends faithful â€œGeeâ€ back to warn the village whilst he spies on the invaders but Gurnagan is quickly captured and dragged off before he can carry out his task.

With all hope resting in his pads, Darel boldly infiltrates the Scorpion Lord’s camp to save his friend, and begins an astonishing heroic odyssey that will bring his people and homelands to the brink of extinction and take him to the mythic allies needed to fulfil his inescapable destinyâ€¦

Superbly illustrated by Sanford Greene who provides maps, character studies and more than fifty fascinating fun and scary full-colour illustrations, An Army of Frogs is an enthralling and captivatingly rousing read which rattles along and will hopefully lead to a host of stirring sequels.

May 6, 2013May 11, 2013

Star Wars: Darth Vader and Son

By Jeffrey Brown (Lucas Books/Chronicle Books)
ISBN: 978-1-4521-0655-7

It’s never too late to find a treasure or have a good time. Cartoonist Jeffrey Brown certainly knows that, as a glance at any of his painfully incisive autobiographical mini-comics, quirky literary graphic novels and hilarious all-ages comedy cartoons will show.

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1975, Brown studied Fine Art at the Chicago Art Institute but abandoned painting to concentrate on comics.

His painfully intense, bizarrely funny observational strips soon garnered him fans amongst in-the-know consumers and fellow creators alike: all finding something to love in such varied fare as Every Girl Is The End of the World For Me, Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Other Observations, Little Things or current on-going series Sulk.

Happily, unlike so many creators with such an eclectic oeuvre, Brown has also achieved a measure of mainstream success thanks to his keen artistic sense and a lifelong love affair with the most significant popular arts phenomenon of the last 35 years.

In 2012 Brown created a breakout and mainstream best-seller with his hilarious spin on the soft and nurturing side of the Dark Lord of the Sith: exploring what might have been, had the most dangerous man (more or less) in the Empire had the opportunity to spend a little quality time with his missing son and heirâ€¦

The hilarious pre (Jedi) school experiences of Star Wars – Episode Three and a Half: Darth Vader and Son features deliriously daft and telling snatches of Skywalker domesticity highlighting such memorable moments as baseball practise with light sabre, a day at the beach (on Tatooine), budding sibling rivalry with a stupid-head sister, having â€œthe talkâ€ about babies, Trick or Treating with dad in tow, playing in Trash (compactors), finding a babysitter for a precocious kid, shovelling snow on Hoth, playing with that Solo kid and the joy of that first (Speeder) bike as well as a host of other awkward, touching warm moments in the otherwise drab life of a galactic nemesis.

No fan of the all-conquering franchise could possibly do without this deliciously sweet and still readily available hardcover hit â€“ or its recent sequel Vader’s Little Princess – and these superbly subversive cartoon treats could easily make converts of the hardest hearted, fun-starved rationalist or clone.

Gloriously daft and entrancingly fun, this is a superb treat for fans and unbelievers alike and there’s even the promise of a third volume in the pipelineâ€¦

May 5, 2013May 11, 2013

Will & Whit

By Laura Lee Gulledge (Amulet Books)
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0546-5

We’re well into the 21^st century now (with no foreseeable chance of ever getting back to sensible proper times) and yet there still aren’t enough good comics for girls.

Yes, they’ve pretty much sewed up the prose-reading marketplace, but within the realms of pictorial sequential narrative the stories are still all pretty much geared up for adolescent males (for which assume any boy from 11 to 108) with material devised to puff up chests, pump up adrenaline and set testosterone a-bubbling.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying females don’t enjoy Sturm, Drang, angst, mindless fighting and overblown physical carnage, only that they can appreciate other aspects of storytelling too. Oranges are not the only projectile to leave a nasty bruiseâ€¦

Happily, life is not always about battle, struggle, self-doubt, terror and glorious triumph, so it’s wonderful when creators like Laura Lee Gulledge come along to shine a different light into our shadowy ghetto.

Born in 1979, Gulledge is a multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in Education, Scenic Painting, event production and drama, and seamlessly broke into comics with her beguilingly intimate and aspirational visual testament Page by Paige in 2011.

Will & Whit also highlights her penetrating insight and absorbingly imaginative grasp of purely visual metaphor by relating the Rubicon-crossing moment of a young woman coming to terms with personal tragedy and inescapable adulthood, aided only by her own gifts and the truest of friendsâ€¦

‘Sparks’ introduces 16-year old Wilhelmina â€œWillâ€ Huckstep who lives with her free-spirited Aunt Elsie; helping run the small town a second-hand shop called Foxxden Antiques during the most eventful summer of their lives.

Artistic, contemplative and backward-looking, Will is introspective and traumatised by bad memories. She thinks of herself as a â€œpassed-down sort of girlâ€, obsessed with old things and memories, deathly scared of the dark, making lamps as homespun therapy and casting the most interesting and scarily expressive shadows in the world.

Ella Foxx is worries about her ward. It’s just the two of them these days and Will has grown into a tense, insomniac borderline workaholic, even now in the laziest days of summer vacation.

However this year Will is finally going to escape from her Shadowâ€¦

It starts in ‘Bright Ideas’ as she visits her best friends Autumn and Noel in nearby Charlottesville. All Will’s pals are creative too. Autumn – daughter of two pushy Indian doctors – is a brilliant puppeteer whilst easy-going Noel is a cordon bleu chef.

It’s his cool little sister Reese‘s thirteenth birthday and they plan to make her a full member of the gangâ€¦ if she’ll only put down her cellphone for five minutes.

After a lazy day on the river, Will idly wishes for more such days of old-fashioned â€œunplugged adventureâ€â€¦

The first ominous news reports about Tropical Storm Whitley begin terrifying folks in ‘Shedding Light’ as Will minds the store and three obnoxious kids come in to check out the â€œjunk shopâ€.

Snotty Ava, Blake and Desmond are putting on an Arts Carnival in an abandoned building and they’re looking for props, but the poseur tension dissipates after Desmond recognises â€œWilly-Nillyâ€ as an old chum from Elementary School.

Soon the kids are leaving with loads of great stuff and Will has volunteered Autumn as a performer. Of course the diffident Asian-American girl is not keen but, after Blake ladles on the charm in ‘Foreshadowing’, Autumn’s head is turned and her lifelong silent crush on Noel utterly forgottenâ€¦

Des is keen on Will performing too, but she demurs. After all she just makes lampsâ€¦

As the storm finally hits in ‘Out Whitted’, Noel is starting to realise what his complacency and lack of boldness has cost him. Even though Ella is in her element making plans and simply coping, Will is concerned that the hurricane is going to cause a blackout, leaving her stuck in the terrifying, all-consuming dark â€¦

All over the region friends and strangers are battening down the hatches and, determined to deal, she occupies herself making a lamp that will save her, but Will’s mind keeps going back to the crash that made her an orphanâ€¦

That rash dream of an unplugged life comes true in ‘Will Powered’ as, in the immediate aftermath of the storm, folks come to terms with the lack of electrical power. The kids organise a giant Blackout Bonfire party and cook-out where Noel shows off his culinary craft and bends Will’s ear about their love-struck BFF before forcing her to confront her fears and take control of her imagination.

However, when Ava organises games in the wood, the junior master chef stumbles over Blake and Autumn taking advantage of the cloak of night and realises how much worse than the unknown reality can beâ€¦

‘The Dark Side’ finds the phone-less Reese displaying astounding insight as her brother mopes, and her casual conversation with Will prompts the lamp-maker to make an artistic leap in the dark. Soon however Will is consoling Autumn, whose time with Blake ended almost as soon as it began.

Ava and Desmond need help too. With power gone they need someone innovative with light to help the show go onâ€¦

Everything comes together ingeniously and perfectly in ‘Shadowboxing’ and leads to a deliciously authentic but satisfying happy ending with all mysteries and conflicts resolved in ‘Illuminated’ and ‘Epilogue’â€¦

Comics as a English-language medium has had many worthy stabs at producing material for the teen/young adult audience and especially that ever-elusive girl readership, ranging through translated manga material, targeted tales from DC’s Minx imprint and evergreen Archie Comics situation comedies, but the lasting hits have always come when creators ignore editorial and marketing demographics and simply concentrated on telling an honest, absorbing story.

That’s why Maus, Persepolis, Hereville and Castle Waiting worked and how Fables, The Tale of One Bad Rat and The Ballad of Halo Jones found an unexpected, devoted female following, and it’s also why this aspirational, incisive, moving, funny and satisfyingly human yarn should find a permanent place beside those celebrated classics.

Text and illustrations Â© 2013 Laura Lee Gulledge. All rights reserved.
Reviewed from an uncorrected proof copy. Will & Whit will be published on May 7^th 2013.

May 4, 2013May 4, 2013

Stars Wars: Vader’s Little Princess

By Jeffrey Brown (Lucas Books/Chronicle Books)
ISBN: 978-1-4521-1869-7

Since its launch in 1977 the Star Wars franchise has spawned an awful lot of comic books, toys, games, countless examples of merchandise and even some more movies. The disciples, followers, fans, adherents and devotees are as helplessly dedicated as Trekkies and Whovians (without, as far as I’m aware, being subject to a demeaning descriptive appellation) and are well on the way to becoming the first religion to actively admit it’s completely fictional.

In 2012 Jeffrey Brown, star of such quirkily irresistible indy comics as Unlikely, Clumsy, Bighead, Funny, Misshapen Body and Incredible Change-Bots, scored his first global best-seller with a hilarious spin on the soft and nurturing side of the Jedi experience in Darth Vader and Son and now – just in time for National Star Wars Day – has expanded the concept with â€œEpisode Three and Three-Quartersâ€ to cover Luke Skywalker’s long-lost, turbulent, truculent twin sister Leia (we don’t call her Ambassador Organa anymoreâ€¦ yetâ€¦ whateverâ€¦) in Vader’s Little Princess.

If we peek behind the midnight cape and ebony re-breather helmet of the long-suffering Lord of the Sith, we can glimpse the dark side for the hard-working single parent trying his best to bring up a rebellious girl child and her rather disappointing brotherâ€¦

Dear daddy Darth only wants a little peace and quiet to destroy the Rebel Alliance and maybe rule the Galactic Empire, but it’s not easy as we can see in this sublime, full colour hardcover charting the rocky road of his capricious, changeable and charming little madam, from nosy, bossy, know-it-all brat to feisty, capable independent know-it-all college applicant in a series of gloriously arch and whimsical cartoons that will delight young and old alike.

It’s the same oft-told tale of parenthood: one minute she’s knitting you ugly presents, hiding your X-Wing’s keys or making faces behind your back whilst you admonish Grand Moff Tarkin, and the next she’s embarrassed to be seen with you; not taking messages from The Emperor and trying to stop you from even â€œtalkingâ€ to that good-for-nothing, obnoxious, sneaky Corellian Solo kid who’s always hanging aroundâ€¦

Of course it’s not all one way traffic: Dads – no matter how important – don’t care about important things like fashion, never like your boyfriends and can be so-ooo embarrassing when you’re trying to impress the cool kidsâ€¦

Gloriously daft and entrancingly fun, this is a superb treat for fans and unbelievers alike and there’s even the promise of a third volume in the pipelineâ€¦

May 3, 2013May 2, 2013

Jeremy Brood part 1: Relativity & Fantagor Presents Brood

By Richard Corben & Jan Strnad with additional designs by Stan Dresser (Fantagor Press/Longhorn Book Distribution)
ASIN: B0006F7UMUÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ISBN: 978-0-96238-410-3

Richard Corben is one of America’s greatest proponents and pioneers of graphic narrative: a legendary animator, illustrator, publisher and cartoonist who surfed the tumultuous wave of independent counterculture commix of the 1960s and 1970s to become a major force in pictorial storytelling with his own unmistakable style and vision. Renowned for his mastery of airbrush and anatomical stylisation – producing works of captivatingly excessive overwhelming eroticism – and infamous for delightfully wicked, darkly comedic horror, fantasy and science fiction tales, Corben’s epic storytelling, violent, cathartically graphic and often blackly hilarious triumphs through the 1970s and 1980s were instrumental in making comics a mainstream medium and art form for mature readers.

Always garnering huge support and acclaim in Europe, he was regularly collected in luxurious albums even as he fell out of favour – and print – in his own country. Although most acclaimed for interpretations of classic horror literature, he is equally adept at capturing the alarming nuances of technological terror and cynical political intrigue in shocking science fiction tales such as the truncated epic spotlighted here.

In 1982 he began, with long-time collaborator Jan Strnad, a proposed series of European style square-bound albums starring a troubled star traveller, but it sadly fell victim to an economic downturn before it could find its feet. This taste of a tantalisingly uncompleted greater epic began in Jeremy Brood: Relativity and was brought to an abrupt finish in the magazine Fantagor Presents Brood (Fantagor #5, 1983). The tale has since been collected in a book in 1989 and subsequently re-released in 1998.

The original chronicle begins with a fascinating glimpse at the artist’s working process in his picture-packed ‘Illustrators Notes’ before the full Technicolor experience opens with spare-faring civil servant Brood and his horny but frustrated co-pilot Charlene receiving a sub-space transmission from Earth.

An agent on the planet Eden has sent a distress call and they are to divert there at top speed. Their civilisation is at a cultural crossroads and needs nudging in the right direction – or so planetary sociologist Bernard Finchley claims.

However due to the relativistic nature of near-light speeds, the message is three years old by the time it reaches them and their short trip to Eden will take two centuries in local timeâ€¦

When they at last arrive, the promised paradise world is a hot, dry desert but, following protocol and armed with the latest tapes of the language, Brood dons a disguise and makes his way to the nearest city, leaving Char and the ship as back-up in case of trouble.

It finds him anyway and the Earthman is attacked by barbaric grotesques and has to get physical with the brutesâ€¦

In the intervening years Eden has fallen into religious fanaticism, and as Brood enters the devastated city he is found by an aged cleric who draws him towards a vast gathering. The worshippers are about to sacrifice another nubile virgin maid to Holobar – an increasingly rare occurrence as most girls wisely â€œdisqualifyâ€ themselves at their very first opportunity – in the hope that the prophesied saviour will appear to deliver them from their oppressive all-conquering deity. As Jeremy watches in secure anonymous horror, his ancient guide Narrl hurls him into the middle of the ceremony and urges him to deflower the alien maiden or be torn apart by the mobâ€¦

Repressed WASP Brood used to have trouble getting sufficiently amorous even with his black girlfriend in the privacy of their spaceship – and she was actually the same species – so this horrific situation almost ends in disaster until the old wise man smashes the stone mask on a huge idol above the altar. Underneath, the monolith has Brood’s faceâ€¦

Shocked, panicked and realising he’s been set up by a man dead for centuries, Brood at last accomplishes what he was dispatched for, encouraged in equal measure by the willing female under him and the screaming fanatics surrounding him.

Meanwhile miles distant, desert brigands mount a lethal assault on the grounded starshipâ€¦

Safe for the present, Brood and his new bride Brynne are filled in by the devious alien Priest – who is also Narrl’s brother. The old connivers are the great grandsons of Finchley and a native girl, and their family has been working to build a counter-religion and messiah-cult based on Brood’s eventual arrival in the expectation that his Earth technology will allow them to overthrow the oppressive, draconian fundamentalist followers of Holobar â€¦

Jeremy can’t think about his proposed role as rabble-rousing rebel: he’s lost radio contact with Char, and is forced to trek back to the ship. En route, however, Narrl tries to kill Brood, revealing himself to be a traitor seeking to destroy the saviour and crush the people’s hope of redemption forever. Eradiating his betrayer Brood pushes on, only to discover he is now the only Earthling on Edenâ€¦

Fantagor Presents Brood came out a year later: a special edition of Corben’s own occasional and self-published art magazine which ran a conclusion of sorts in full colour, supplemented by a black and white reprint and a new unconnected monochrome fantasy tale.

(In case you’re wondering the reprint was Razar the Unhero’ written in 1970 by Herb Arnold as â€œStarr Armitageâ€: a dark and sexily violent spoof with a deprecating edge, deliciously lampooning the Sword and Sorcery epics dominating paperback bookshelves of the day. The new tale was ‘Ogre II’, a tragic comic monster love story sequel to a yarn that ran in Warren Publishing’s 1984 #4.)

Jeremy Brood however starred in the rocket-paced all-action shocker ‘The Big Shriek!’ which picked up moments after Relativity endedâ€¦

As Jeremy buries what remains of Charlene, hordes of airborne dragon-riding Holobar zealots pass over his head heading towards the city and the (presumably) impregnated Edenite Madonna, determined to end the heretical resistance foreverâ€¦

Soon the city is under shattering bombardment and all looks black until the infuriated Brood storms in, crashing his barely airworthy ship into the central square and briefly driving back in the attackers.

Retreating to the temple, Brood and Brynne prepare for their inevitable end, but the cunning far-seeing and ruthless Bernard Finchley and his devoted disciple Priest had arranged a last-ditch contingency plan, with no thought at the horrific cost their centuries-separated dupe Jeremy would be forced to payâ€¦

Moody and trenchant, laced with sparkling irreverence and cynicism, this parable could and should have found time to fully flower but the times and trends were against it. However Corben and Strnad’s sublime acumen in depicting humanity’s primal drives and inescapable failings has never been better exemplified, and at least the 80 or so pages that were complete are still available in one single edition should you care to check out yet one more book no comics or fantasy fan should be without.
Â© 1982, 1983, 1989 Richard Corben and Jan Strnad. All rights reserved.

May 2, 2013May 1, 2013

The Collected Fat Freddy’s Cat volumes One and Two

By Gilbert Shelton with Dave Sheridan & Lieuen Adkins (Knockabout)
ISBN: 0-86166-055-2 & 0-86166-056-0Â Â Omnibus 978-0-86166-161-9

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers shambled out of the Underground Commix counter-culture wave in 1968; initially appearing in Berkeley Print Mint’s Feds ‘n’ Heads, and in Underground newspapers before creator Gilbert Shelton and a few like-minded friends founded their own San Francisco based Rip Off Press in 1969.

This effective collective continued to maximise the madness as the hilarious antics of the â€œFreaksâ€ (contemporary term for lazy, dirty, drug-taking hippy folk) captured the imagination of the more open-minded portions of America and the world (not to mention their kids)â€¦

In 1971 Rip Off published the first compilation: The Collected Adventures of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers – which has been in print all around the planet ever since – and soon assorted underground magazines and college newspapers were joined by the heady likes of Rip Off Comix, High Times, Playboy and numerous foreign periodicals in featuring the addictive adventures of Freewheelin’ Franklin, Phineas T. Freakears and Fat Freddy Freekowtski (and his quintessentially idealised cat): simpatico metaphorical siblings struggling day-to-day with their selected life style of sybaritic self-indulgence.

In the grand tradition of early newspaper â€œFunniesâ€ sections, the original strips were often accompanied by â€œtopperâ€ or â€œfooterâ€ strips – separate mini adventures which accompanied the main story – designed to fill any odd spaces on the various syndicated pages.

Most of these micro strips supplementing the Freaks’ antics starred Fat Freddy’s Cat who rapidly became an offensively anarchic star in his own right. Eventually those 5 or 6 panel gags became complete single pages which bloomed during the 1970s into full-blown extended exploits of the canny, cynical feline reprobate in his own series of digest-sized comicbooks entitled, unsurprisingly, The Adventures of Fat Freddy’s CATâ€¦

Much of the material consisted of untitled quickies and short sequences concocted by Shelton (with assistance from Dave Sheridan, Paul Mavrides and Lieuen Adkins) and eventually, inevitably, those little yarns were collected by UK Publisher Knockabout as a brace of oversized Â 297x212mm Â black and white albums and, as here, two mass-market b-format paperbacks in the company’s Crack Editions imprint.

In 2009 the entire canon was finally collected in one arm-busting tome as The Fat Freddy’s CAT Omnibus.

These tales are wicked, degenerate, surreal, hilariously cynical, scatologically vulgar and relentlessly drenched in daft pre-stoner â€œDude, Where’s my Litterboxâ€¦â€ drug culture idiom; sublimely smutty and brilliantly funny in any format but with their raw, anarchic, arch-hysteria perhaps best enjoyed in the fabulous jacket-pocket-concealable editions I’m highlighting today.

Book One opens with the hilariously whacky epic ‘Chariot of the Globs’ (written by Adkins with art by Shelton & Sheridan) revealing how the imperturbable, insouciant puss saved alien explorers from a hideous fate on our backward planet, followed by 38 short, sharp shockers covering every topic from mating to feeding, the joy of bathing cats to the things they’ll put in their cute little mouths, and the equally voluble creatures such as the Massed Cockroach Army under Freddy’s fridgeâ€¦

Other pant-wetting topics covered include talking to humans, the war between felines and electrical appliances, how chickens think, kittens, travelling in Mexico, why you should never have uncaged moggies in your van and especially how cats inflict revengeâ€¦

The next extended saga is the devious and satirical 1973 spy-spoof ‘I Led Nine Lives!’ recounting the days when the fabulous feline worked undercover for the FBI. This is followed by 31 more mirthful manic gag strips about eating, excreting, clawing, dancing, grooming and meeting fellow felines. Shelton and Sheridan then disclose the horrors of ‘Animal Camp’ wherein the irrepressible feline was dumped by Fat Freddy in a Boarding Kennel run by Nazi war criminals where pets were converted into clothing and pet food or else used in arcane genetic experiments!

Naturally the brainy beast had to lead a rebellionâ€¦ leading to the last 15 gag strips and ending with a big song and dance number in the Ballad of Fat Freddy’s Catâ€¦

Volume Two begins with the lengthy and uproarious epic ‘The Sacred Sands of Pootweetâ€¦ or the Mayor’s Meower’ from 1980, a splendidly raucous political satire based on the tale of Dick Whittington.

When a religious hard-liner overthrows the oil-rich nation and former US satellite of Pootweet, Fat Freddy attempts to scam religious dictator the Supreme Hoochy-Coochy by using the cat to clean up kingdom’s rodent problem. Only trouble is that the pious and poor Pootweet populace have no vermin problem (even after Freddy industriously attempts to import and manufacture one); only sacred, unblemished, un-desecrated shining serene sands which the cat â€“ in dire need of a potty-break â€“ heads straight forâ€¦

Then 39 more unforgettable side-splitting shorts investigate food, weather, diets for cats,Â communication, feline entertainments, food, Christmas, mice, cat mimes and food, and ‘Fat Freddy’s CAT in the Burning of Hollywood’ from 1978 wherein the sublimely smug and sanguine survivor of a million hairy moments regales his ever-burgeoning brood of impressionable kittens with how he and his imbecilic human spectacularly flamed out in the movie biz: a truly salutary tale for all fans and readersâ€¦

This second tome then descend into catty chaos with 66 more solo strips covering and comprising talking cockroaches, drug-fuelled excess, toilet training (and imbibing), fighting, mating, outsmarting humans, outsmarting Freddy (not the same thing), begging, playing, healing and getting lost and being found â€“ in fact all those things which make pet ownership such an untrammelled delight, and possibly explain the rise of recreational substance abuse since the 1970sâ€¦.

Despite the hippy-dippy antecedents and stoner presentiments, Gilbert Shelton is always a consummate comedy professional. His ideas are enchantingly fresh yet timeless, the dialogue is permanently spot-on, and his pacing perfect. The stories, whether half-page quickies, short vignettes or full blown sagas, start strong and relentlessly build to spectacular â€“ and often wildly outrageous, hallucinogenic yet story-appropriate â€“ climaxes. Moreover, blessed by his superbly skewed view, these scurrilous, scandalous and supremely hilarious examples of the cartoonists’ skill are comics classics to be read and re-read ad infinitum.

Anarchically sardonic and splendidly ludicrous, the madcap slapstick and sly satire of Gilbert Shelton is always an irresistible, riotously innocent tonic for the blues and these tales should be a compulsory experience for any fan of the comics medium.
Â© 1987 Gilbert Shelton. All rights reserved.

May 1, 2013April 30, 2013

Wonder Woman Archives volume 5

WW arc 5 bk
By Charles Moulton (William Moulton Marston & Harry G. Peter) with Joye Murchison (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1270-4

The Princess of Paradise Island debuted as a special feature in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941), conceived by polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston and illustrated by Harry G. Peter, in a calculated attempt to offer girls a positive and forceful role model and, on Editor M.C. Gaines’ part, sell funnybooks.

She then catapulted into her own series, and held the cover-spot of new anthology title Sensation Comics a month later. An instant hit, the Amazing Amazon won her own eponymous supplemental title a few months later, cover-dated Summer 1942.

Once upon a time on a hidden island of immortal super-women, American aviator Steve Trevor of US Army Intelligence crashed to Earth. Near death, he was nursed back to health by young, impressionable Princess Diana.

Fearful of her besotted child’s growing obsession with the creature from a long-forgotten and madly violent world, Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyte revealed the hidden history of the Amazons: how they were seduced and betrayed by men but rescued by the goddess Aphrodite on condition that they forever isolated themselves from the mortal world and devoted their eternal lives to becoming ideal, perfect creatures.

However with the planet in crisis, goddesses Athena and Aphrodite now instructed Hippolyte to send an Amazon back with the American to fight for global freedom and liberty, and Diana clandestinely overcame all other candidates to become their emissary Wonder Woman.

On arriving in America she bought the identity and credentials of lovelorn Army nurse Diana Prince, elegantly allowing the Amazon to be close to Steve whilst enabling the heartsick medic to join her own fiancÃ© in South America. Diana gained a position with Army Intelligence as secretary to General Darnell, ensuring she would always be able to watch over her beloved. She little suspected that, although the painfully shallow Steve only had eyes for the dazzling Amazon superwoman, the General had fallen for the mousy but supremely competent Lieutenant Princeâ€¦

Using the nom de plume Charles Moulton, Marston (with some help in later years from assistant Joye Murchison) scripted the Amazing Amazon’s fabulous adventures until his death in 1947, whereupon Robert Kanigher took over the writer’s role. Venerable veteran illustrator and co-creator H.G. Peter performed the same feat, limning practically every titanic tale until his own death in 1958.

This fifth lavishly deluxe full-colour hardback edition collects the increasingly fanciful and intoxicating adventures from Wonder Woman #10-12 and Sensation Comics #33-40, spanning cover-dates September 1944-April 1945 and following the unique champion of freedom from her primarily war-footing to the scary days of a world notionally at peaceâ€¦

After an appreciative Foreword from industry insider, historian and comics all-star Jim Amash detailing the cultural contribution of the creators and their billion-dollar baby, the action opens with ‘The Disappearance of Tama’ from Sensation Comics #33, wherein the Amazon’s college friend Etta Candy overhears a plot to kidnap and murder a movie starlet and embroils herself and Diana in a delightfully bewildering farrago of deadly doubles and impish impostors, after which Wonder Woman #10 (Fall 1944) offered a novel-length epic of alien invasion.

In ‘Spies From Saturn’, a rare vacation with Etta and her sorority sister Holliday Girls leads to trouble with outrageous neighbour Mephisto Saturno who turns out to be the leader of a spy ring from the Ringed Planet. However even after imprisoning his extraterrestrial espionage squad the danger is not ended, as the aliens insidious â€œlassitude gasâ€ turns America into a helpless sleeping nation and forces the Amazon to take ‘The Sky Road’ to the invaders’ home world to find a cure and rescue her beloved Steveâ€¦

The cataclysmic clash concludes in ‘Wonder Woman’s Boots’ as the victorious Earthlings return home, unaware that Mephisto is still free and has a plan to avenge his defeatâ€¦

Social injustice informed ‘Edgar’s New World’ in Sensation Comics #34, when the Amazing Amazon tackled the case of a â€œproblem childâ€ near-blind and living in squalor whilst his mother languished in jail. Soon however the big-hearted heroine uncovered political chicanery and grotesque graft behind the murder charge sending innocent Esta Poore to the death chamberâ€¦

In Sensation #35 ‘Girls Under the Sea’ found Wonder Woman again battling to save lost Atlantis from tyranny and misrule after beneficent ruler Octavia was ousted by a committee of seditious anarchists, whilst #36 pitted the Power Princess against deranged actor Bedwin Footh, a jealous loon who envied the Amazon’s headline grabbing, and organised her old foes Blakfu the Mole Man, Duke of Deception, Queen Clea, Dr. Psycho, The Cheetah and Giganta into an army against her. However all was not as it seemed in the ‘Battle Against Revenge’â€¦

Wonder Woman #11 (Winter 1944) offered big thrills and rare (for the times) plot continuity as ‘The Slaves of the Evil Eye’ saw Steve and Diana battling an uncanny mesmerist intent on stealing America’s defence plans against Saturn.

The spy trail led to bizarre performer Hypnota the Great and his decidedly off-kilter assistant Serva, but there were layers of deceit behind ‘The Unseen Menace’, and a hidden mastermind intent on re-igniting the recently-ended war with Saturn in the climactic final chapter ‘The Slave Smugglers’.

This spectacular psycho-drama of multiple personalities and gender disassociation was another masterpiece directly informed by Marston’s psychiatric background and provided another weirdly eccentric tale unique to the genreâ€¦

With the war in Europe all but over, comicbook content was changing and constantly experimenting. Sensation Comics #37 (January 1945) depicted ‘The Invasion of Paradise Island’ wherein troubled orphans Kitty and Terry stow away aboard Wonder Woman’s invisible plane even as Diana and Steve were busting the orphanage’s crooked, grafting owner. When the kids were discovered back on Paradise Island they found themselves at the tender mercies of a horde of rambunctious Amazon toddlers (don’t ask â€“ it’s comics, ok?) just as a U-Boat of escaping Nazis arrived looking for a safe harbour and refuge to conquerâ€¦

For years Wonder Woman had been celebrating Christmas with exceptional Seasonal offerings and #38 was no exception. ‘Racketeers Kidnap Miss Santa Claus’ revealed how young sceptic Pete Allen sought the Amazon’s help to save his mother from an abusive relationship and learned the true spirit of giving after the Amazon stopped a brutal bullion grabâ€¦

Etta and the Holliday Girls then resurfaced in #39 as an expedition to find a lost Roman colony left them ‘In the Clutches of Nero’ and urgently requiring the assistance of their Amazon associate to quash the ambitions of the latest madman to bear the name, whilst Sensation Comics #40 introduced urbane, untrustworthy freelance spy Countess Draska Nishki, eager to earn cold hard cash spying for General Darnell. Sadly her loyalties couldn’t stay bought and Steve and Diana had good reason to call her ‘Draska the Deadly’â€¦

This glorious tome of treasures concludes with Wonder Woman #12 and another epic fantasy.

When alien Queen Desira declared WWII over, she also brought warning that warmongers were already preparing for the next conflict. In ‘The Winged Maidens of Venus’ this news inadvertently led to Diana Prince’s capture by spy Nerva and her bosses – a cabal of Capitalists who always profited from destruction – until Steve and Etta came to her rescueâ€¦

When the profiteers were transported to Venus for reconditioning, they escaped and fomented chaos and rebellion in ‘The Ordeal of Fire’ almost resulting in ‘The Conquest of Venus’ and carnage on Earth until Wonder Woman and Steve stepped in to save the dayâ€¦

This last tale is credited to Marston’s assistant Joye Murchison who shared the author’s workload as first polio and then lung cancer increasingly hampered him until his death in 1947.

Seen through modern eyes, there’s a lot that might be disturbing in these old comics classics, such as plentiful examples of apparent bondage, or racial stereotypes from bull-headed Germans to caricatured African-Americans, but there’s also a vast amount of truly groundbreaking comics innovation too. The skilfully concocted dramas and incredibly imaginative story-elements are drawn from hugely disparate and often wondrously sophisticated sources, but the creators never forgot that they were in the business of entertaining as well as edifying the young.

Always stuffed with huge amounts of action, suspense, contemporary reflection and loads of laughs, as well as the scandalous message that girls are as good as boys and can even be better if they want, Wonder Woman influenced the entire nascent superhero genre as much as Superman or Batman and we’re all the richer for it.

This exemplary book of delights is a triumph of exotic, baroque, beguiling and uniquely exciting adventure: Golden Age exploits of the World’s Most Marvellous Warrior Maiden which are timeless, pivotal classics in the development of our medium and still offer astounding amounts of fun and thrills for anyone interested in a grand old time.
Â© 1944, 1945, 2007 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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