Author: NowReadThis

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The Pin-up Art of Humorama


By various, edited by Alex Chun & designed by Jacob Covey (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-959-3

You’ve all done it; laughed at something you know you shouldn’t have and for us utterly reconstructed modern men – and, let’s face it, women too – sometimes a sexually, racially or otherwise politically incorrect joke or scene in an old movie or TV clip. You know it’s wrong, you know it’s wicked but dammit! – funny just is…

Once upon a time when we were all trapped in our cruel and unthinking hidebound world of stereotypes and pre-judgements, there was a thriving market for staggeringly coy smutty books, naughty cartoon joke periodicals and girly magazines for men.

Women read other things and we never enquired. It’s the only sensible example of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” that I can think of…

After volumes of Pin-ups from specific comics stars (Dan DeCarlo, Bill Wenzell, Jack Cole, Bill Ward) this anthology celebration gathers the Rest of the Best from the prolific Humorama pulp-digest division. They provided saucy gags and male-oriented mirth from 1938 to the mid 1980s – when hardcore porn ended all the tamer men’s mag markets – ubiquitous little throwaway digests with titles such as Gaze, Jest, Stare, Joker, Zip, Breezy, Cartoon Comedy Parade and Romp, packed with photos of saucy vixens like Tina Louise, Sophia Loren, Betty Page, Irish (Sheena of the Jungle) McCalla, Julie (Catwoman) Newmar and her cheesecake ilk – and oodles of deliciously daring cartoons.

The company was part of the Goodman publishing empire which included Atlas/Marvel Comics and reached its pulchritudinous peak during the 1950s when Editor Abe Goodman was the biggest buyer of cartoons on Earth.

Once the sexual revolution began, however, the oddly innocent, clandestine “men only” craft atmosphere was lost to increasing in-your-face frankness and a steady decline into vulgar X-rated smut as good old-fashioned raciness and stolen illicit glimpses became the meat of TV and cinema.

After an illustrated foreword by Howard Chaykin and a comprehensive history from Editor Alex Chun the parade of risqu̩ gags Рpopulated by the kind of girls that made Mad Men such a hit and Marilyn Monroe immortal Рworks its wiles, stretches its intellects and stuns its willing prey in a glorious panoply of old-fashioned fun and frolics. These racy renditions are superbly rendered in colour, monochrome and all points in between Рink and wash, cont̩-crayon, pen and even photo-montages, and this tome even finds space to squeeze in a few amazing house ads.

From amongst the memorable proponents you’ve already heard of are gags by Ward, Wenzell, Jefferson MacHamer, Dan DeCarlo, Vic Martin, Kurt Schaffenberger (AKA Schaff), Louis Priscilla, Niso “Kremos” Ramponi, Bill Hoest, George Crenshaw, Michael Berry, Stan Goldberg, Jim Mooney, Dave Berg and Basil Wolverton, but there are so many others by unsung pencil-pushers equally deserving of your attention.

This charmingly innocent compendium of Lush Ladies, Willing Wantons, Savvy Sirens, Naive Nymphs (always stunningly beautiful women) collects more than 200 or so rude cartoons from a time when boys thought girls didn’t actually like sex – when in fact they just didn’t like us or the way we did it.

Technically, this isn’t a graphic novel or trade collection, it’s a picture book – but an absolutely stunning one, collecting some of the best and most guiltily funny illustrations ever produced: a beguiling remembrance of a different time and the sexual mores of an entirely alien generation which nevertheless presents an enticing, intoxicating treat for art lovers and, I’m afraid to admit, many hearty laughs. This is work which is still utterly addictive and the book is an honest-to-gosh treasure beyond compare.

© 2011 Fantagraphics Books. Foreword © 2011 Howard Chaykin. Introduction © 2011 Alex Chun. All rights reserved.

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The Beast is Dead: World War II Among the Animals


By Edmond-François Calvo, Victor Dancette & Jacques Zimmerman (Abi Melzer Productions)
No ISBN:

In Acknowledgement of the upcoming Comics in Conflict event at the Imperial War Museum this weekend – see our Noticeboard for details – I’m going to be reviewing a few intriguing and hopefully pertinent classics beginning with this tragically neglected cartoon masterpiece…

As the European phase of World War II staggered to its bloody and inevitable conclusion, the enslaved nations began to reclaim their homelands and various national prides in a glorious wave of liberation. All over the Old World long suppressed stories and accounts, true or otherwise, began to be shared. During France’s occupation publishing was strictly controlled – even comics – but the Nazis couldn’t suppress creative spirit and many conquered citizens resisted in the only ways they safely could.

For sculptor, artist, caricaturist and social satirist Edmond-François Calvo (26/8/1892-11/10/1958) that was by drawing. Watched by his adoring apprentice-artist Albert (Asterix) Uderzo and inspired by the Gallic graphic giant Daumier, the venerable creator of such joyous anthropomorphic classics as ‘Patamousse’, ‘Anatomies Atomiques’, ‘Les Aventures de Rosalie’, ‘Monsieur Royal Présente’, ‘Grandeur et Décadente du Royaume des Bêtes’ and ‘Cricri, Souris d’Appartement’ worked quietly and determinedly on his own devastating war-effort secret weapon.

He latterly specialised in sparkling, socially aware and beautiful family-friendly strips such as ‘Moustache et Trottinette’, ‘Femmes d’Aujourd’hui’, ‘Coquin le Petit Cocker’ and a host of fairytale adaptations for Tintin, Baby Journal, Cricri Journal, Coq Hardi, Bravo!, Pierrot Âmes Vaillantes and Coeurs Vaillants.

Beginning as a caricaturist for Le Canard Enchaîné in 1938 Calvo eventually moved into strip stories, but also had to moonlight with “real” jobs such as woodcarver and innkeeper. By the time France fell to the Germans in June 1940 he was working for Offenstadt/S.P.E. press group, contributing ‘Le Chevalier Chantecler’, ‘D’Artagnan’, ‘Les Grandes Aventures’, ‘Robin des Bois’, ‘Les Voyages de Gulliver’ and the initial three chapters of ‘Patamouche’ to Fillette, L’Épatant, L’As and Junior plus ‘La Croisière Fantastique’, ‘Croquemulot’ and ‘Un Chasseur Sachant Chasser’ to Éditions Sépia.

Most of this material was produced under the stern scrutiny of the all-conquering censors Рmuch like his comics contemporary Herg̩ in Belgium Рbut Calvo also found time to produce something far less anodyne or safe.

With both Editor Victor Dancette and writer Jacques Zimmermann providing scripts, and beginning as early as 1941, Calvo began translating the history of the conflict into a staggeringly beautiful and passionately vehement dark fable, outlining the betrayal of the European nations by literal Wolves in the Fold.

After years of patient creation – and presumably limited dissemination amongst trusted confreres – the first part of La Bete est Mort! – ‘When the beast is raging’ was published in 1944, followed a year later with the concluding ‘When the animal is struck down’. Both were colossal hits even before the war ended and the volumes were continually reprinted until 1948 when the public clearly decided to move on with their lives…

The story is related in epic full-page painted spreads and captivating, luscious strip instalments and the smooth, slick glamour of Disney’s production style was co-opted to deliver the list of outrages to be addressed and a warning to the future, with each nation being categorised by a national totem.

The French were rabbits, the Italians hyenas and the Japanese monkeys. Britain was populated by bulldogs, Belgium by lions, Russia by polar bears and America by vast herds of buffalo…

Hitler’s inner circle of monsters got special attention: such as Goering the Pig and Himmler the Skunk, but so did the good guys: General de Gaulle was depicted as a magnificent Stork…

A fiercely unrepentant but compellingly lovely polemic by a bloody but unbowed winning side, The Beast is Dead was forgotten until republished in 1977 by Futuropolis. This particular English-language, oversized (225 x 300mm or 9 inches x 12) hardback edition was released in 1985 and includes the introduction from a Dutch edition; a dedication from Uderzo and a monochrome selection of Calvo’s wartime and post-war cartoons.

Magnificent, compelling radiant, hugely influential (without this there would never have been Maus), astoundingly affecting and just plain gorgeous, this modern horror tale of organised inhumanity is out of print but still available if you look hard and since an animated film adaptation was begun in 2005, hopefully there’s a new edition in the works too.
© 1944-1945 Éditions G.P. © 1977 Éditions Futuropolis. © 1984 Abi Melzer Productions.

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Marvel Masterworks (volume 8): The Incredible Hulk #1-6


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-594- 9   second edition: 978-0785111856

Coming out of a monster comics mini-boom and well aware of the fact that everybody loves a terrifying titan, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby didn’t look too far afield or take massive risks when they were looking to capitalise on the burgeoning success of their radical new comic Fantastic Four.

The Incredible Hulk was Marvel’s second superhero title, although technically Henry Pym debuted earlier in a one-off yarn in Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962), but he didn’t become costumed hero Ant-Man until the autumn, by which time Ol’ Greenskin was not-so-firmly established.

The Hulk crashed right into his own comicbook and after some supremely exciting exploits by Young Marvel’s finest creators, crashed right out again. After six bi-monthly issues the series was cancelled and Lee retrenched, making the character a perennial guest-star in other Marvel titles (Fantastic Four #12, Amazing Spider-Man #14, The Avengers from #1- first as a member then a recurring foe) until they found a way to rekindle the drama in their new “Split-Book” format.

Cover-dated May 1962 The Incredible Hulk #1 introduced physically unprepossessing atomic scientist Bruce Banner, sequestered on a secret military base in the desert, perpetually bullied by bombastic commander General “Thunderbolt” Ross as the hours and minutes slipped away before the World’s first Gamma Bomb test.

Besotted by Ross’s daughter Betty, Banner endured the General’s constant jibes as the clock ticked on and tension increased even while his abrasive assistant Igor constantly cajoled him for keeping the details of the G-Bomb secret.

During the final countdown Banner saw a teenager drive into Ground Zero and frantically dashed to the site to drag the boy away. Unknown to him the Igor, who has been ordered to delay the countdown, has an agenda of his own…

Rick Jones was a wayward but good-hearted kid. After initial resistance he lets himself be dragged into a safety trench, but just as Banner was about to join him The Bomb detonated…

Miraculously surviving the blast Banner and the boy were secured by soldiers, but that evening as the sun set the scientist underwent a monstrous transformation. He grew larger; his skin turned a stony grey…

In six simple pages that’s how it all started and no matter what any number of TV or movie reworkings, comicbook retcons and psycho-babble re-evaluations would have you believe it’s still the best and most primal take on the origin. A good man, an unobtainable girl, a foolish kid, an unknown enemy and the horrible power of destructive science unchecked when the sun set and darkness fell…

Written by Stan Lee, drawn by Jack Kirby with inking by Paul Reinman, ‘The Coming of the Hulk’ barrels along as the man-monster and Jones are kidnapped by Banner’s Soviet counterpart the Gargoyle for a rousing round of espionage and Commie-busting before simple humanity saved the day and returned the heroes to their own, less than friendly shores.

In the second issue the plot concerned invading aliens – a staple of Early Marvel Tales – and the Banner/Jones relationship settled into a traumatic nightly ordeal as the scientist metamorphosed and was summarily locked into an escape-proof cell whilst the boy stood watch helplessly. Neither considered for a moment telling the government of their predicament…

‘The Terror of the Toad Men’ was formulaic but viscerally and visually captivating as Steve Ditko inked Kirby, imparting a genuinely eerie sense of sinister unease to the artwork as grotesque invaders conquered Earth only to be repelled at the last moment by Banner – not the Jade Juggernaut. Incidentally, this is the story where the Hulk inexplicably developed his more accustomed Green tan.

Although back-written years later as a continuing mutation, the plain truth is that grey tones caused all manner of problems for the production colourists so it was arbitrarily changed to the simple and more traditional colour of creatures.

The third issue presented a departure in format as the full-length, chaptered epics gave way to complete short stories. Dick Ayers inked Kirby in the transitional ‘Banished to Outer Space’ which radically altered the relationship of Jones and the monster after the rampaging Hulk was rocketed into orbit where radiation created a mental link between boy and beast. Moreover the Hulk was now able to emerge even in daylight from there on…

The story thus far was reprised in a three-page vignette ‘The Origin of the Hulk’ and that Marvel mainstay of malice the Circus of Crime debuted in ‘The Ringmaster’ – a riotous romp of brute strength and inspired larceny.

After a double-image cover which presaged those aforementioned split-books, the Hulk went on an urban rampage in #4’s first tale ‘The Monster and the Machine’ and Rick began using a colossal cyclotron to forcibly change the beast back into Banner whilst aliens and Commies combined in unlikely fashion with the second adventure ‘The Gladiator from Outer Space!’

The Incredible Hulk #5 was a joyous classic of primal Kirby action; introducing the immortal despot Tyrannus and his subterranean empire in ‘The Beauty and the Beast!’ whilst those pesky commies came in for another drubbing when our Jolly Green freedom-fighter travelled to the East to counter the invasion of Lhasa by ‘The Hordes of General Fang!’

Despite the sheer verve and bravura of these stripped-down, simplistic classics – some of the purest most exhilarating and rewarding comics nonsense ever produced – the series was not selling and Kirby was moved on to more appreciated arenas. Steve Ditko handled the art chores for #6, which returned to a full-length epic – and an extremely engaging one. ‘The Incredible Hulk Vs the Metal Master’ involved an invasion by an alien who could mentally manipulate minerals, alloys and processed metal and almost made Earth his own. Combining superb action, sly and subtle sub-plots, tragedy, mystery and a sublime thinking man’s resolution, it was nonetheless the final issue.

After shambling around the nascent Marvel universe for a year or so, usually as a misunderstood villain-cum-monster, the Emerald Behemoth got another shot at the big time and eventually found a home in Tales To Astonish where Ant-Man/Giant-Man was rapidly proving to be a character who had outlived his time.

The rest is history…

These immortal epics are available in numerous formats (including softcover editions of the luxurious deluxe hardback under review here), but for a selection that will survive the continual re-readings of the serious, incurable fan there’s nothing to beat the substantial full-colour feel of these Marvellous Masterwork editions.
© 1962, 1963, 1989, 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Heart of Hush


By Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2123-2, softcover 978-1-84856-214-1

Paul Dini once more proved himself the very best of contemporary Batman writers with this chilling, suspenseful epic of love and obsession featuring Bruce Wayne’s ultimate adversary Tommy Elliot, a boyhood friend as twisted by his own mother’s malign influence as the boy Bruce was transformed by the murder of his parents Thomas and Martha Wayne.

Eminent surgeon Elliot became the sadistic and obsessive Hush to obtain vengeance on Bruce Wayne; his boyhood friend and companion but one who had been perpetually held up to him as a perfect example of a son by Elliot’s disabled and deranged mother. Now in this intriguing and affecting collection, reprinting Detective Comics #846-850 we gain a deeper insight into Batman’s dark doppelganger and the succession of tragedies that made him.

The stunning saga opens with ‘First Families of Gotham’ with occasional allies Catwoman and Batman tackling theme villain Doctor Aesop, unaware that the malignant, murderously patient Elliot is watching their every move. As telling slices of his ghastly childhood are presented the crazed doctor concludes the final preparations for his greatest scheme of vengeance…

In ‘The Last Good Day’ more memories of Elliot’s school days with young Bruce Wayne counterpoint the targeting of Robin, Zatanna and Nightwing as the entire Batman Family come under Hush’s meticulous and malicious gaze and the villain prepares a perfect trap for Batman with the terrifying assistance of Dr. Jonathan Crane – the Scarecrow…

Batman is forced to confront the greatest chink in his heroic armour in  ‘Heartstrings’ and Catwoman is struck down and made the ultimate hostage via a grotesque surgical strike, pushing the Dark Knight to the edge of reason and brink of death in ‘Scars’…

When the finally part of the plan culminates in Tommy Elliot becoming Bruce Wayne the scene is set for a spectacular confrontation with neither combatant quite sure who is the hero and who ‘The Demon in the Mirror’…

With a vast assembly of guest-stars and visiting villains, Heart of Hush finally elevated the previously over-hyped and uninspiring Tommy Elliot to the first rank of Batman’s Rogues Gallery. Fast, furious, genuinely scary and powerfully this is a masterful tale of suspense that no fan should miss… and since it’s available in both handsome hardback and scintillating softcover editions, you don’t have to..
© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Signal From Space


By Will Eisner with Andre LeBlanc (Kitchen Sink Press)
ISBN: 0-87816-014-0

Here’s another classy contemporary cartooning classic which although readily available in a number of formats is still seen best in first release. Ambitious and deliberately targeting an adult book-reading rather than comics audience, this initial collection of Will Eisner’s trenchant political thriller-cum-social commentary proves once more that sometimes the medium really is the message…

It is pretty much accepted today that Eisner was one of the pivotal creators who shaped the American comicbook industry, with most of his works more or less permanently in print – as they should be.

From 1936 to 1938 William Erwin Eisner worked as a jobbing cartoonist in the comics production hothouse known as the Eisner-Eiger Shop, creating strips for both domestic US and foreign markets. Using the pen-name Willis B. Rensie he created and drew opening instalments for a huge variety of characters ranging from funny animal to historical sagas,

Westerns, Detectives, aviation action thrillers… and superheroes – lots of superheroes …

In 1940 Everett “Busy” Arnold, head honcho of the superbly impressive Quality Comics outfit, invited Eisner to take on a new challenge. The Register-Tribune newspaper syndicate wanted a 16-page weekly comicbook insert for the Sunday editions and Eisner jumped at the opportunity, creating three series which would initially be handled by him before two of them were delegated to supremely talented assistants. Bob Powell inherited Mr. Mystic and distaff detective Lady Luck fell into the capable hands of Nick Cardy (then still Nicholas Viscardi) and later the inimitable Klaus Nordling.

Eisner kept the lead feature for his own and over the next twelve years The Spirit became the most impressive, innovative, imitated and talked-about strip in the business. However, by 1952 he had more or less abandoned it for more challenging and certainly more profitable commercial, instructional and educational strips, working extensively for the US military in manuals and magazines like P*S, the Preventative Maintenance Monthly and generally leaving comics books behind.

After too long away from his natural story-telling arena Eisner creatively returned to the ghettos of Brooklyn where he was born on March 6th 1906. After years spent inventing much of the visual semantics, semiotics and syllabary of the medium he dubbed “Sequential Art” in strips, comicbooks, newspaper premiums and instructional comics he capped that glittering career by inventing the mainstream graphic novel, bringing maturity, acceptability and public recognition to English language comics.

In 1978 a collection of four original short stories in strip form were released as a single book, A Contract With God and Other Tenement Stories. All the tales centred around 55 Dropsie Avenue, a 1930’s Bronx tenement, housing poor Jewish and immigrant families. It changed the American perception of cartoon strips forever. Eisner wrote and drew a further 20 further masterpieces opening the door for all other comics creators to escape the funnybook and anodyne strip ghettos of superheroes, funny animals, juvenilia and “family-friendly” entertainment. At one stroke comics grew up.

Eisner was constantly pushing the boundaries of his craft, honing his skills not just on the Spirit but with years of educational and promotional material. In A Contract With God he moved into unexplored territory with truly sophisticated, mature themes worthy of Steinbeck and F. Scott Fitzgerald, using pictorial fiction as documentary exploration of social experience.

One of the few genres where Eisner never really excelled was science fiction – and arguably he doesn’t in this tale either as, in Signal From Space, the big discovery is just a plot maguffin to explore politics, social interactions and greed – all premium Eisner meat…

The material in this collection was originally serialised in as eight 16 page episodes in Will Eisner’s Spirit Magazine as ‘Life On Another Planet’ from October 1978 to December 1980, rendered in toned black and white (a format adhered to and title revived in subsequent Kitchen Sink, DC and W.W. Norton collections). However for this luscious hardback the artist and long-time confederate Andre LeBlanc fully-painted the entire saga using evocative tones and hues to subtly enhanced the sinister, cynical proceedings.

One night lonely radio astronomer Mark Argano, based at a New Mexico observatory, picks up ‘The Signal’ a mathematical formula which originated from Barnard’s Star – proof positive of extraterrestrial intelligence…

One of his colleagues wants to inform the public immediately but Argano is adamant that they go slowly as he harbours schemes to somehow “cash in”. Unfortunately the other scientist he shares the secret with is a Soviet sleeper agent…

Almost immediately the first murder in a long and bloody succession is committed as various parties seek to use the incredible revelation to their own advantage. World-weary science advisor and maverick astrophysicist James Bludd is dispatched by the CIA to verify and control the situation, but he walks straight into a KGB ambush and narrowly escapes with his life…

There’s now a deadly Cold War race to control contact with the mysterious signallers and ‘The 1st Empire’ follows recovering addict Marco as he turns his life around and uses the now public sensation to create a personality cult dedicated to leaving Earth and joining the aliens. Whilst Marco’s Star People grab all the headlines ruthless plutocrat Mr. MacRedy uses his monolithic Multinational Corporation to manipulate Russia and America, intending to be the only one to ultimately capitalise on any mission to Barnard’s Star.

Since travel to far space is still impossible for humans MacRedy sanctions the unethical and illegal creation of a human/plant hybrid and starts looking for volunteers to experiment on in ‘A New Form of Life’ whilst Bludd accepts another undercover assignment – now more reluctant spy than dedicated scientist. Casualties moral, ethical and corporeal mount in ‘Pre-Launch’ whilst in distressed African nation Sidiami, a desperate despot declares his nation a colony of Barnard’s Star to avoid UN sanctions and having to pay back his national debt to Earthly banks…

Soon he’s offering a base to Multinational for their own launch site and sanctuary to those Star People anxious to emigrate…

In ‘Bludd’ the scientist and his sultry KGB counterpart find themselves odd-bedfellows and the Mafia get involved in the crisis – for both personal and pecuniary reasons – whilst in America MacRedy prepares to install his own President…

Now determined to take matters into his own hands and screw all governments and interests, Bludd is caught up in an unstoppable, uncontrollable maelstrom of events in ‘Abort’ and after the American President has a fatal accident in ‘The Big Hit’ MacRedy thinks he’s finally won, but is utterly unprepared for Bludd’s unpredictable masterstroke in ‘The Last Chapter’…

A Signal From Space is a dark and nasty espionage drama as well as a powerfully intriguing ethical parable: a Petrie dish for ethical dilemmas where Eisner masterfully manipulates his vast cast to display human foible and eventually a glimmer of aspirational virtue. This is a hugely underrated tale from a master of mature comics guaranteed to become an instant favourite. And it’s even better in this sumptuous oversized edition which is well worth every effort to hunt it down.

After all, Per Ardua ad Astra…
© 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983 Will Eisner.All rights reserved.

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Showcase Presents Metal Men volume 2


By Robert Kanigher, Mike Sekowsky, Ross Andru, Mike Esposito & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1559-0

The Metal Men first appeared in four consecutive issues of National/DC’s try-out title Showcase: legendarily created over a weekend by Kanigher – after an intended feature blew its press deadline – and rapidly rendered by the art-team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. This last-minute filler attracted a large readership’s eager attention and within months of their fourth and final adventure the gleaming gladiatorial gadgets were stars of their own title.

This second sterling black and white chronicle collects the solid gold stories from Metal Men #16-35 and the second of their nine team-up appearances in Brave and the Bold; in this case #66.

Brilliant young Einstein Will Magnus constructed a doomsday squad of self-regulating, intelligent automatons, governed by micro-supercomputers dubbed “Responsometers”.

These miracles of micro-engineering not only simulate – or perhaps create – thought processes and emotional character for the robots but constantly reprograms the base form – allowing them to change their shapes.

Magnus patterned his handmade heroes on pure metals, with Gold as leader of a tight knit team consisting of Iron, Lead, Mercury, Platinum and Tin warriors. Thanks to their responsometers, each robot specialised in physical changes based on its elemental properties but due to some quirk of programming the robots developed personality traits mimicking the metaphorical attributes of their base metal.

This compendium takes the high tech team through the best and worst of the 1960s “Camp Craze” and solidly into the bizarrely experimental phase that presaged the temporary decline of costumed heroes and rise of mystery and supernatural comics.

Metal Men #16 (October-November 1966) opens the proceedings as creative team Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito pulled out all the stops for the spectacularly whacky ‘Robots for Sale!’

Platinum or “Tina” always believed herself passionately in love with Magnus and his constant rebuffs regularly drove her crazy. Here his latest rejection made her so mad she fled into space and when the rest of the Metal Men chased her they all ended up reduced to doll size on a derelict planet where ravenous mechanical termites had almost destroyed the native wooden robots that lived there.

Issue #17 depicted Tina’s worst nightmare as Magnus and his motley metal crew investigated cosmic cobwebs which fell to Earth and the inventor was bewitched by a horrifying mechanical Black Widow in ‘I Married a Robot!’, whilst the team tackled a terrifying technological Tyrannosaur in #18’s ‘The Dinosaur Who Stayed for Dinner!’

‘The Man-Horse of Hades!’ featured a supernatural and mythic menace who had waited centuries for his true love to return before mistaking Tina for his missing “centaurette”, after which the Alloyed Avengers met Metamorpho, the Element Man in Brave and the Bold #66 (June-July 1966).

‘Wreck the Renegade Robots’ by Bob Haney & Mike Sekowsky saw the freakish hero turn to Doc Magnus to remedy his unwelcome elemental condition just as utterly mad scientist Kurt Borian resurfaced with his own Metal Men, extremely distressed that somebody else had patented the idea first.

Tragically, the only way to stop Borian’s rampage involved reversing Metamorpho’s cure…

‘Birthday Cake for a Cannibal Robot!’ featured a second appearance for Robert Kanigher’s craziest creation. Egg Fu was a colossal ovoid Chinese Communist robot determined to “Destloy Amelica” (I know, I know: different times OK?). The mechanical mastermind had first battled Wonder Woman, but resurfaced here to crush the West’s greatest artificial heroes with a giant automaton of his own, whilst ‘The Metal Men vs the Plastic Perils!’ played it all slightly more seriously in a guest-star stuffed romp (Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Flash) pitting the team against criminal genius Professor Bravo and his synthetic stalwarts Ethylene, Styrene, Polythene, Silicone and Methacrylate…

Soviet scientist Professor Snakelocks unleashed an unpredictable synthetic life-form against the heroes in #22’s ‘Attack of the Sizzler!’ before launching an invasion of America and, although they could handle hordes of mechanical Cossacks, they were completely outgunned when the sparkling synthezoid transformed Doc into a robot and the Metal Men into humans…

Issue #23 saw the robots restored but Doc still steel-shod as they faced ‘The Rage of the Lizard!’ – another sinister spy attacking the Free World – but before the inevitable end, Magnus too had regained his mortal form. Unfortunately Tina and Sizzler had become rivals for his attentions…

Metal Men #24 pitted the expanded team against a monstrous marauding inflatable alien in ‘The Balloon Man Hangs High!’ after which the ‘Return of Chemo…the Chemical Menace!’ saw tragedy strike as the Sizzler was destroyed and Doc grievously injured just before the toxic terror attacked. Mercifully the Shiny Sentinels proved equal to the task even without their mentor-inventor and it was back to regular zaniness for #26’s ‘Menace of the Metal Mods!’ wherein mechanical fashion icons went on a robbing rampage. ‘The Startling Origin of the Metal Men!’ rehashed their first mission as a modern Mongol Genghis Khan launched an anti-American assault.

‘You Can’t Trust a Robot!’ saw a fugitive gang-boss take control of the Metal Men’s spare bodies, resulting in a spectacular “evil-twin” battle between good and bad mechanoids, after which it was back into outer space to battle ‘The Robot Eater of Metalas 5!’ and his resource hungry masters – a staggeringly spectacular romp which marked an end for the Kanigher, Andru &Esposito team’s connection with the series.

Metal Men #30 (February-March 1968) featured the first of two fill-in issues by Otto Binder and Gil Kane – with Esposito hanging on to provide inks – after which a whole new and highly radical retooling was undertaken.

In ‘Terrors of the Forbidden Dimension!’ the Handmade Heroes were forced to travel to other realms in search of a cure when Magnus fell into a coma after a lab accident. No sooner did they defeat a host of hazards to fix him than he insulted them by building another team! Issue #31’s ‘The Amazing School for Robots!’ introduced Silver, Cobalt, Osmium, Gallium, Zinc and Iridium – although she preferred “Iridia”…

It was all barely manageable until disembodied alien intelligence Darzz the Dictator possessed the newcomers and civil war broke out…

By1968 superhero comics were in steep and rapid decline. Panicked publishers sought new ways to keep audiences as tastes changed and back then, the entire industry depended on newsstand sales, so if you weren’t popular, you died.

Editors Jack Miller and George Kashdan tapped veteran Mike Sekowsky to stop the metal fatigue and he had a radical solution: the same nuts and bolts overhaul he was simultaneously spearheading with Denny O’Neil on the de-powered Diana Prince: Wonder Woman.

The enchantingly eccentric art of Sekowsky had been a DC mainstay for decades and his unique take on the Justice League of America had cemented its overwhelming success. He had also scored big with Gold Key’s Man from Uncle and Tower Comics’ T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and Fight The Enemy!

Now he was creatively stretching himself with a number of experimental, youth-targeted projects; tapping into the teen zeitgeist with the Easy Rider-like drama Jason’s Quest, new sci-fi project Manhunter 2070, the hopelessly moribund Amazon and eventually Supergirl.

Sekowsky began conservatively enough in #32 and Binder scripted ‘The Metal Women Blues!’ wherein Doc built counterparts and companions for his valiant crew with disastrous results, after which the new “relevancy” direction debuted in The New Hunted Metal Men #33 (August-September 1968).

Kanigher returned as scripter as Sekowsky & George Roussos crafted a darker paranoic tone for ‘Recipe to Kill a Robot!’ wherein the once celebrated team went on the run from humanity. The problems started when Doc increased their power exponentially, causing them to constantly endanger the very people they were trying to help and were compounded when their creator was injured and plunged into another coma.

Pilloried by an unforgiving public and only stopping briefly to defeat an invasion by voracious giant alien insects, the misunderstood mechanoids fled, finding sanctuary with Doc’s brother David – a high ranking military spook.

Issue #33 ‘Death Comes Calling!’ had them encounter a ghastly extraterrestrial force which murderously animated America’s shop manikins after Tina rejected its amorous advances. The carnage and highly visible collateral damage was exacerbated in #35 – the last tale in this masterful monochrome tome – and added to humanity’s collective woes when a vast and love-hungry Volcano Man joined the chase in ‘Danger… Doom Dummies!’

Kanigher’s masterful ability for dreaming up outlandish visual situations and bizarre emotive twists might have dropped out of vogue, but this simply opened the door for more evocative and viscerally emotive content more in keeping with the series’ now teen-aged audience and the best was still to come…

But that’s the stuff of another volume – and ASAP, please!

© 1965-1969, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Commies From Mars the Red Planet: the Collected Works


By Tim Boxell, Hunt Emerson, Peter Kuper & various (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-343-5

When political debate in America was less strident and a little more reasoned (let’s call it 1972) a bunch of filthy anarchist pinko hippy satirists recruited by the traitorously seditionist Tim Boxell began contributing raw, rude and utterly hilarious skits, sketches and spoofs on the social and cultural scene to a sporadically published underground comics anthology called Commies From Mars.

Taking their lead from the turbulent but well-informed political climate and deeply influenced by both EC horror and science fiction publications of the 1950s and the classic 1962 Wally Wood Mars Attacks trading cards, contributing artists took cartoon pot-shots at God, Mother and Country in brilliant pastiches ranging from graphic ultra-violence and outrageous interplanetary, inter-species sex-shockers to surreal adventure and outright polemical diatribes. The overriding premise if you’re still not following me was: Communism is Evil; Martians want to conquer us and steal our women. Ergo Martians must be Commies…

Or maybe the cartoonists were just being “clever”…

Six issues were published between 1972 and 1987 and at the end of 1986 Last Gasp publisher Ron Turner released a black and white compilation of (most of) the first four to commemorate the imminent release of #5. That supremely subversive tome is still available if you look hard and surely the time is long overdue for an updated, revised and complete edition…

Following a Foreword from Jerry (Grateful Dead) Garcia, ‘A Warning From the Editor’, ‘Excerpts From the Journal of Billy “Rage” Riley’ and the cover to issue #1, the graphic assault begins with ‘In our midst… Commies From Mars!’ which sets the scene and the scenario with a gritty story of rural resistance from Boxell, after which John Pound’s cover for #2 and more ‘Excerpts From the Journal of Billy “Rage” Riley’ precede a stunning Boxell fantasy-fest ‘Snak?’, a wry and grimly grotesque conversation with Martian Comrade Colonel Bemovitch in ‘The Treaty!’ courtesy of (Comrade) Rich Larson, and Hunt Emerson relates the astounding extra-terrestrial ‘Adventures of Alan Rabbit’.

Greg Irons revealed ‘Gregor’s 115th Wet Dream’ and Capitalism, Interplanetary Communism and nasty fast food collided at Boxell’s ‘Commies From Mars Café’ before #2 closed with the charmingly dark ‘Man on the Moon’ by Shawn Kerri.

Pound’s arresting cover for #3 and another “Rage” Riley page are followed by an untitled Checkered Demon/Commies From Mars team-up by S. Clay Wilson and a superb Kerri anthropomorphic exploit ‘Life on the New Martian Earth’, before Boxell waxes cataclysmically philosophical in ‘Washed Up’.

Ripp (Larry Rippee) plugged ‘Tourism on the Red Planet’ and a young Peter Kuper revealed a recurring nightmare in ‘Shiver and Twitch’ whilst Irons contributed a socially inclusive argument for welcoming the invaders in an impressive double-page spread. Boxell’s ‘Stoned Wolf’ went on a ‘Crash Diet’ after which Ian (Jim Schumeister) James & Jon Rich got shockingly dramatic with ‘Prayers from a Closet’ and Revilo drew up a fabulous integration questionnaire in ‘A Comic’.

Following the usual cover and “Rage” piece for #4 Shawn Kerri explains ‘The Communist Way’, Tom Cheney describes ‘Life on the Planet Floyd’ and Larson explicitly defines ‘Making Loveski’.

Chad Draper outlines ‘Mixed Marriage’ and Revilo expands the romantic theme in harrowing detail with another ‘A Comic’, after which Kuper also gets in on the unnatural act with ‘True Martian Romance’. Larson & Boxell contribute a brace of ‘False Views’ after which ‘Bye Bye Baby’ explains a few new facts of life.

Melinda Gebbie & Adam Cornford promote the social graces in ‘Hall Monitors from Mars’ and Kenneth Huey explores the political effects of the military industrial complex in ‘Dictation: Tales from the Apocalypse’, after which Mr. Rippee returns with ‘A Marriage Made in Heaven’ and Boxell punches the action button in the X-rated ‘Under His Hat?’

Hunt Emerson details romance in a Martian Socialist State with ‘The Date’ and Spain Rodrigues provides a graphic tribute to Godfather of the series Wally Wood, after which Boxell & Grisly went all-out weird and nasty with ‘The Swap’ to close the story portion of this outrageous entertainment.

Absolutely packed with pin-ups, supplementary art and prose pages, a selection of astoundingly intriguing house ads and with an extensive biographies dossier on the Underground greats and cartooning luminaries who contributed to this Big Red Scare, this delicious tome is still a marvellous example of un-Realpolitik as only cartoonists could conceive it.

Next time you feel the need to stretch your boundaries in a mature manner, why not try this never-more-contemporary tome. Just think “Fundie” or “Repug” and you’ll see what I mean…
©1985 Tim Boxell and contributing artists. All rights reserved.

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X-Men: Age of X


By Mike Carey, Simon Spurrier, Clay Mann, Steve Kurth, Paul Davidson & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-490-4

Most people who read comics have a passing familiarity with Marvel’s ever-changing X-Men franchise and most of us have seen alternate world stories so this intriguing and highly entertaining package seems pretty easy to pigeonhole… but appearances can be deceiving.

With a property as valuable as these massed mutants, change is a necessarily good thing, even if you sometimes need a scorecard to keep up. This utterly engrossing tome (collecting Age of X Alpha, X-Men Legacy #245-247, New Mutants volume 3 #22-24 and Age of X Universe #1 and 2) keeps the backstory baggage to the barest minimum for newbies and non-addicts; concentrating instead on building an “end-of-days” tension in a brutally harsh last stand scenario – although the pacing is a little hard to grasp in places.

This Marvel publishing event, which ran from January to April 2011, is a tribute to the Age of Apocalypse mega-crossover of 1995, with an introductory Alpha issue, dedicated stories in X-men core titles and a pair of “Universe” compilations focusing on the non-mutant heroes of the altered continuity.

Written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Mirco Pierfederici, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Carlo Barberi, Walden Wong, Paco Diaz and Paul Davidson, the initial instalment describes a very different world where all-out species war is being waged between humans and homo superior. Anti-mutant statutes by the Human Coalition have all but eradicated mutantkind and any ordinary mortal who might carry the hated genes to make them.

Three years of inspired atrocity later, the stories of those last remnants of the variant species are examined in telling vignettes: Scott Summers was forced to execute his fellow inmates at a mutant Alcatraz before spectacularly escaping, Sam Guthrie survived the extermination of his entire family, super-powered or not, and Wolverine lost all his abilities destroying a pathogen designed to wipe out all genetic aberrations.

During the darkest moment of this man-made Extinction Event Magneto rescued the last remnants of meta-humanity and created a monumental Fortress X from the ruins of a devastated city. Here the remaining mutants hold out in a desperate all-or-nothing holding action…

After 1000 days of dire and valiant resistance a kind of last ditch détente persists. The humans keep attacking and the mutants perpetually narrowly beat them off. In this world where there are no telepaths and there has never been a Professor X, every day is one more precious moment of defiant unity in the face of imminent doom.

The stalemate continues in X-Men Legacy #245 (Carey, Clay Mann & Jay Leisten) as the resistors continue to defy the human world’s technology and soldiery. Especially vital are the contributions of the Force Warriors: energy-casting mutants whose powers maintain an impenetrable energy-shield around Fortress X. They are led by the charismatic Legion – son of Dr. Moira MacTaggert and an unknown father…

The most tragic hero is Legacy, whose touch can steal memories and abilities. She is not allowed to fight but is tasked with preserving forever the dying memories of mutants who fall in battle.

A few resisters are troubled by more than just the state of the world: something is imperceptibly wrong with reality itself. Metal-morph Madison Jeffries discovers there is something amiss with the stars in the sky; Summers, dubbed the Basilisk, realises that he’s killed some humans more than once and some defenders question why so many mutants are mysteriously imprisoned in the citadel’s dungeons.

Moreover, the enigmatic “X” who runs the fortress seems more concerned with containing them than defeating the human attackers. Even Magneto feels something is being kept from him – and he’s in charge…

When immaterial internee Kitty Pryde escapes the Brig and penetrates the forcefield she discovers something fantastic and X orders her silenced at all costs, precipitating traitorous action from Legacy, Cajun thief Gambit and even Magneto himself…

The New Mutants chapters are illustrated by Steve Kurth & Alex Martinez and follow Basilisk, Legacy and the liberated Pryde as they begin unpicking the darkly credible but ferociously flawed universe they inhabit. A turning point comes when the fugitive fighters free an imposing bald man named Xavier who claims to be a telepath…

Cunningly tapping into the brooding pressure and extreme vivacity of life during wartime and wonderfully reminiscent of William Hope Hodgson’s macabre 1912 classic The Night Land (an absolute “must-read” for all fantasy fans) this is an effective thriller and just a little different from your standard “unite and save the universe” crossover-events with a superb and spectacular surprise climax that will delight regulars and visiting readers alike.

And that’s the only real problem here: because after that satisfactory ending the Age of X Universe stories (written by Simon Spurrier, Jim McCann & Chuck Kim, illustrated by Khoi Pham, Tom Palmer, Paul Davidson & Gabriel Hernandez Walta) follow, totally killing the mood and the flow despite all being extremely well-produced revelatory side-bars and effective character-pieces.

Viewed on their own merits the stories of Spider-Man’s ultimate sacrifice, the brutal and tragic career of Humanity’s Avengers (Captain America, Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, the arachnoid Redback plus the most disturbing Hulk ever) and hidden secrets of the Mutant-hunting Dr. Strange are extremely impressive. If they’d been disclosed before the big reveal, surprise ending they would have been valuable elements in the greater narrative but chucked in after the fact they just detract from a really impressive story-ending.

This action-packed, compulsive and otherwise excellent volume also includes variant covers by Olivier Coipel and Clayton Mann.

If you want fast, furious and fulfilling Fights ‘n’ Tights magic this is a nearly perfect one-shop stop for your edification and delectation – just make sure you read the last bit after the first bit and before the middle bit…

™ and © 2010 & 2011 Marvel Entertainment LCC and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. A British edition released by Panini UK Ltd.

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Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954


By Alex Toth, Mike Peppe & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-408-5

Alex Toth was a master of graphic communication who shaped two different art-forms and is largely unknown in both of them.

Born in New York in 1928, the son of Hungarian immigrants with a dynamic interest in the arts, Toth was something of a prodigy and after enrolling in the High School of Industrial Arts doggedly went about improving his skills as a cartoonist. His earliest dreams were of a strip like Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates, but his uncompromising devotion to the highest standards soon soured him on newspaper strip work when he discovered how hidebound and innovation-resistant the family-values based industry had become whilst he was growing up.

At age 15 he sold his first comicbook works to Heroic Comics and after graduating in 1947 worked for All American/National Periodical Publications (who would amalgamate and evolve into DC Comics) on Dr. Mid-Nite, All Star Comics, the Atom, Green Lantern, Johnny Thunder, Sierra Smith, Johnny Peril, Danger Trail and a host of other features. On the way he dabbled with newspaper strips (see Casey Ruggles: the Hard Times of Pancho and Pecos) and found nothing had changed…

Continually trying to improve his own work he never had time for fools or formula-hungry editors who wouldn’t take artistic risks. In 1952 Toth quit DC to work for “Thrilling” Pulps publisher Ned Pines who was retooling his prolific Better/Nedor/Pines comics companies (Thrilling Comics, Fighting Yank, Doc Strange, Black Terror and many more) into Standard Comics: a comics house targeting older readers with sophisticated, genre-based titles.

Beside fellow graphic masters Nick Cardy, Mike Sekowsky, Art Saaf, John Celardo, George Tuska, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito and particularly favourite inker Mike Peppe, Toth set the bar high for a new kind of story-telling: wry, restrained and thoroughly mature; in short-lived titles dedicated to War, Crime, Horror, Science Fiction and especially Romance.

After Simon and Kirby invented love comics, Standard, through artists like Cardy and Toth and writers like the amazing and unsung Kim Aamodt, polished and honed the genre, regularly turning out clever, witty, evocative and yet tasteful melodramas and heart-tuggers both men and women could enjoy.

Before going into the military, where he still found time to create a strip (Jon Fury for the US army’s Tokyo Quartermaster newspaper The Depot’s Diary) he illustrated 60 glorious tales for Standard; as well as a few pieces for EC and others. On his return to a different industry – and one he didn’t much like – Toth split his time between Western/Dell/Gold Key (Zorro and many movie/TV adaptations) and National (assorted short pieces, Hot Wheels and Eclipso): doing work he increasingly found uninspired, moribund and creatively cowardly. Soon he moved primarily into TV animation, designing for shows such as Space Ghost, Herculoids, Birdman, Shazzan!, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? and Super Friends among many others.

He returned sporadically to comics, setting the style and tone for DC’s late 1960’s horror line in House of Mystery, House of Secrets and especially The Witching Hour and illustrating more adult fare for Warren’s Creepy, Eerie and The Rook. He redesigned The Fox for Red Circle/Archie, produced stunning one-offs for Archie Goodwin’s Batman or war comics (whenever they offered him a “good script”) and contributed to landmark or anniversary projects such as Batman: Black and White.

His later, personal works included Torpedo and the magnificently audacious Bravo for Adventure!

Alex Toth died of a heart attack at his drawing board on May 27th 2006.

After reprinting an extensive interview with the artist from Graphic Story Magazine conducted by Vincent Davis, Richard Kyle and Bill Spicer in 1968, this fabulous full colour chronicle reprints every scrap of Toth’s superb Standard fare beginning with impressive melodrama in ‘My Stolen Kisses’ from Best Romance #5 (February 1952), after which light-hearted combat star Joe Yank nearly lost everything to ‘Black Market Mary’ in the debut issue of his own title (#5 March 1952).

Perhaps a word of explanation is warranted here: due to truly Byzantine commercial considerations all Standard Comics started with issue #5, although the incredibly successful Romance comics were carried over from their earlier Better Comics incarnations such as New Romances #10 (March 1952) for which Toth illustrated the touching ‘Be Mine Alone’ or the parable of empty jealousy ‘My Empty Promise’ from #11.

The hilarious ‘Bacon and Bullets’ offered a different kind of love in Joe Yank #6 (May) – a very pretty pig named Clementine – after which witty 3 pager ‘Appointment with Love’ (Today’s Romance #6 May) provides a charming palate cleanser before the hard-bitten ‘Terror of the Tank Men’ from Battlefront #5 (June 1952) offers a more traditional view of the then raging Korean War.

‘Shattered Dream!’ (My Real Love #5 June) is an ordinary romance well told whilst ‘The Blood Money of Galloping Chad Burgess’ (The Unseen #5 June 1952) reveals the sheer quality of Standard’s horror stories and ‘The Shoremouth Horror’ (Out of the Shadows #5) that same month proved Toth to be an absolute master of terror.

‘Show Them How to Die’ (This is War #5 July) is a superbly gung-ho combat classic whilst the eerie ‘Murder Mansion’ and ‘The Phantom Hounds of Castle Eyne’ both from Adventures into Darkness #5 (August) once more demonstrate the artist’s uncanny flair for building suspense.

The single page ‘Peg Powler’ (The Unseen #6 September) is reprinted beside the original artwork – which makes me wish the entire collection was available in black and white – after which the experimental ‘Five State Police Alarm’ (Crime Files #5) displays the artist’s amazing facility with duo-tone and craft-tint techniques before the salutary ‘I Married in Haste’ (Intimate Love #19, September) takes a remarkably modern view of relationships.

Science Fiction was the metier of Fantastic Worlds #5 which provided both the contemporary ‘Triumph over Terror’ and futuristic fable ‘The Invaders’ to finish off Toth’s September chores after which ‘Routine Patrol’ and ‘Too Many Cooks’ offered two-fisted thrills from This is War #6 (October).

‘The Phantom Ship’ is a much reprinted classic chiller from Out of the Shadows #6 and October also offered the extremely unsettling ‘Alice in Terrorland’ in Lost Worlds #5. Toth only produced four covers for Standard, and the first two, Joe Yank #8 and Fantastic Worlds #6 precede ‘The Boy who Saved the World’ from the latter (November 1952) after which service rivalry informed ‘The Egg-Beater’ from Jet Fighters #5.

The cover of Lost Worlds #6 (December) perfectly introduces the featured ‘Outlaws of Space’ after which the single-page ‘Smart Talk’ (New Romance #14) perfectly closes the first year and sets up 1953 which opens strongly with ‘Blinded by Love’ from Popular Romance #22 January) in which the classic love triangle has never looked better…

This was clearly Toth’s ideal year as ‘The Crushed Gardenia’ from Who is Next? #5 shows his incredible skills to their utmost in one of the best crime stories of all time. ‘Undecided Heart’ (Intimate Love #21 February) is a delightful comedy of errors whilst both ‘The House That Jackdaw Built’ and ‘The Twisted Hands’ from Adventures into Darkness #8 perfectly reveal the artist’s uncanny facility for building tension and anxiety.

The cover to Joe Yank #10 is followed by the splendid aviation yarn ‘Seeley’s Saucer’ from the March Jet Fighters (#7) whilst the clever and racy ‘Free My Heart’ from Popular Romance #23 (April) adds new depth to the term sophisticated and ‘The Hands of Don José’ (Adventures into Darkness #9) is just plain nasty in the manner horror fans adore…

‘No Retreat’ (This is War #9 May) offers more patriotic combat, but ‘I Want Him Back’ (Intimate Love #22) depicts a far softer and more personal duel and ‘Geronimo Joe’ (Exciting War #8 May) proves that in combat there’s no room for rivalry.

Toth was rapidly reaching the peak of his design genius as ‘Man of My Heart’ (New Romances #16 June), ‘I Fooled My Heart’ (Popular Romance #24 July, and reprinted in full as original art in the notes section) and both ‘Stars in my Eyes’ and ‘Uncertain Heart’ from New Romances #17 (August) saw him develop a visual vocabulary that cleanly imparted plot and characterisation simultaneously.

He often stated that he preferred these mature and well-written romance stories for the room they gave him to experiment and expand his craft and these later efforts prove him right: especially in the moving ‘Heart Divided’ (Thrilling Romances #22) and compelling ‘I Need You’ from the September Popular Romances (#25).

‘The Corpse That Lived’ was a historically based tale of grave-robbing from Out of the Shadows #10, whilst the deeply affecting ‘Chance for Happiness’ (Thrilling Romances #23 October) is as powerful today as it ever was. ‘My Dream is You!’ (New Romances #18) offered a fresh look at the old dilemma of career or husband whilst a far darker love was displayed in ‘Grip on Life’ (The Unseen #12 November), but true love actually triumphed in ‘Guilty Heart’ from Popular Romance #26.

Another ‘Smart Talk’ advice page ends 1953 (New Romances #19 December) and neatly precedes an edgy affair in ‘Ring on Her Finger’ (Thrilling Romances #24 January 1954), after which ‘Frankly Speaking’ from the same issue leads to a terrifying historical horror in ‘The Mask of Graffenwehr’ (Out of the Shadows #11).

February produced a fine crop of Toth tales beginning with charming medical drama ‘Heartbreak Moon’ (Popular Romance #27), spooky mining mystery ‘The Hole of Hell’ (The Unseen #13), one-page amorous advisory ‘Long on Love’ (Popular Romance #27), the lesson in obsession ‘Lonesome for Kisses’ and two further advice pages ‘If You’re New in Town’ and ‘Those Drug Store Romeos’ all from Intimate Love #26.

These last stories were eked out in the months after Toth had left, drafted and posted to Japan. However, even though he had presumably rushed them out whilst preparing for the biggest change in his young life there was no loss but a further jump in artistic quality.

One final relationship ‘Smart Talk’ page (New Romances #20 March 1954) precedes a brace of classic mystery masterpieces from Out of the Shadows #12: ‘The Man Who Was Always on Time’ (also reproduced in original art form in the ‘Notes’ section at the back of this book) and the graphic wonderment regrettably concludes with the cynically spooky ‘Images of Sand’ – a sinister cautionary tale of tomb-robbing…

After all this the last 28 pages of this compendium comprise a thorough and informative section of story annotations, illustrations and a wealth of original art reproductions to top off this sublime collection in perfect style.

Alex Toth was a tale-teller and a master of erudite refinement, his avowed mission to pare away every unnecessary line and element in life and in work. His dream was to make perfect graphic stories. He was eternally searching for “how to tell a story, to the exclusion of all else.”

This long-awaited collection shows how talent, imagination and dedication to that ideal can elevate even the most genre-locked episode into a masterpiece the form and a comicbook into art.

All stories in this book are in the public domain but the specific restored images and design are © 2011 Fantagraphics Books. Notes are © 2011 Greg Sadowski and the Graphic Story Magazine interview is © 2011 Bill Spicer. All rights reserved.