Author: NowReadThis

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V for Vendetta/V for Vendetta 30th Anniversary Edition


By Alan Moore & David Lloyd, with Tony Weare, Steve Whitaker, Siobhan Dodds & various (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-8500-5 (30th Deluxe HB) 978-1-4012-0841-7 (TPB)

Very few pieces of literature enter public consciousness and fewer still from the relatively young land of graphic narratives. Here’s one of the best that – as my dwindling days go by – looks and feels more and more like poetic prophecy than fantasy fiction…

The serial V for Vendetta began in 1982 in legendary British comics magazine Warrior: back when Britain had a covertly totalitarian, graspingly greedy government that looked like a Peppa Pig birthday party, but were at least marginally efficient and made some trains run on time and in affordable price bands…

The deviously convoluted mystery play describes a highly individualistic resistance campaign conducted by an enigmatic flamboyant and ruthless “anarchist” against a fascistic British government which had stumbled into power after a disaster (a nuclear exchange in this case) destroyed all the bigger countries.

Or does it?

This is just as much a tale of intellectual and political awakening and choosing to take action. Most events are seen (as the escalating situation unravels) through the eyes and experiences of Evey Hammond, a pathetic little nobody rescued from secret policemen – almost as an afterthought – by enigmatic rebel activist “V” during his first highly public exploit.

The sinisterly suspenseful series was originally presented Visually in starkly stunning black & white, every chapter title beginning with a “v” word. Fans of classic British strip art revelled in occasional contributions from the wonderfully gifted Tony Weare (Matt Marriot, Pride of the Circus, Savage Splendour, The Colditz Story and much, much more) who fully illustrated the chapter designated ‘Vincent’ and also assisted master stylist David Lloyd (Sláine: Cauldron of Blood, Night Raven: House of Cards, Aliens: Glass Corridor, Weird War Tales, Gangland, The Horrorist, Marlowe: The Graphic Novel, Hellblazer: Rare Cuts, War Story: J For Jenny, War Story: Nightingale, Kickback and more) in creating a masterpiece of daunting visual atmosphere throughout.

This was no mean feat as V – whilst dismantling with lethal efficiency the machineries of a totalitarian and ever vigilant State that constantly voiced its views that everything was better in the Good Old Days – declared himself the true guardian of lost and/or forgotten National Culture. This demanded a phenomenal amount of research and vital trust that the readership would pick up on some pretty obscure references, both Verbal and Visual…

The then-controversial jump to colour (I, for one, would kill for a fully monochrome director’s cut edition of this saga) following DC’s appropriation of the saga was deftly handled by Lloyd himself, with the hued back-up of much-missed Steve Whitaker and Siobhan Dodds, whilst the relentless and captivating Verbiage of Alan (Providence, Jerusalem, Lost Girls, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Illuminations, Voice of the Fire, A Small Killing, Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Swamp Thing, The Ballad of Halo Jones, Watchmen, D.R. & Quinch ad infinitum…) Moore’s astounding scripts came courtesy of letterers Jenny O’Connor, Steve Craddock & Elitta Fell.

… And yes, pitiless the enigmatic protagonist known only as V generally adopts the seeming of ultimate anti-authoritarian rebel Guido “Guy” Fawkes. His once-common masked vulpine visage was rescued from vintage obscurity for this tale and has subsequently become a global symbol and tool of anonymity for new generations of rebels, resisters, protestors and occupiers…

The subtle shadings of the large cast and the device of telling the tale from the point of view of its villains as much as the protagonists adds vast shades of meaning to this exploration of free will and oppression, and it’s still shocking to realise that the “hero” actions are all too often indistinguishable from those of his opponents: philosophically, morally and especially physically…

The collected book was first released in the early 1990s, re-released to coincide with a (rather disappointing) movie adaptation but remains available in hardback Deluxe, Trade paperback and future-proof digital editions.

Despite temporarily reclaiming the image of good old Guy Fawkes night, this review is actually a paean of praise for our art form’s ultimate resistance tract and I strongly suggest that if you are still uninformed and unentertained, you should experience V for Vendetta as soon as Viable. Messers Moore & Lloyd made a magnificent and mighty beast which should be Viewed in all its glory, before Vile Vehement politics ends us all, and absolutely prior to any forthcoming Plebiscite, Election or Popular Vote.
© 1988, 1989, 1990, 2009, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Last Gender: When We Are Nameless volume 1 (of 3)


By Rei Taki translated by Rose Padgett (Vertical/Kodansha)
ISBN: 978-1-6472191-4 (Vertical tank?bon PB) Digital edition 978-1-68491-721-1

A woman goes into a bar.

That’s usually shocking enough for Japanese fiction, but in Rei (Tada Ooki na Neko ni Naritai, Love-Kyo: Kateikyoushi ga xx Sugite Benkyou Dokoro ja Nai) Taki’s deft exploration of sexual diversity, it’s merely the start of a well-intentioned, honest appraisal of what infinite variety in human experience and being actually means. The tale is especially extraordinary as it comes from a country and culture currently involved in a (very polite and restrained) war of past and future and tradition vs. change, where gender and gender roles have always been cast in stone and a hot button topic…

After a short stand-alone try-out tale was reworked and developed (which is included at the end of this edition), Last Gender: Nani Mono demo nai Watashi-tachi debuted in 2022. Its brief interlocking vignettes eventually filled three volumes, employing a picaresque format – in many ways thematically similar to US sitcom Cheers – to peruse those people who generally inhabit the margins of society… either through choice or more often than not due to fear and shame.

In such a strictly formalised society those judgements are most likely to be self-inflicted and imagined, and painfully concrete and condemnatory, as we will see…

Chapter 1 opens with one person’s candid ruminations on what is gender before ‘Welcome to BAR California’ finds nasty, preachy gossip and media scandalmongering hanging in the air as assistant manager Yo prepares to open up for the evening. Checking bottles are full, glasses clean, rooms ready and restocked and all lube, fresh underwear and condom dispensers are full, they are soon distracted by a nervous and curious young woman. She has come in to the venue where “all are welcome” carrying her husband’s membership card and very much wanting to know what it exactly entitles her spouse to…

An explanation of facilities, by-laws, responsibilities, duties and potential rewards – further clarified by a new friend – results in Manami addressing her prior pre- and mis-conceptions, and signing up to discover lots more she didn’t know about herself…

With frequent subtle reminders, asides and dissertations on what staff and patrons consider constitutes gender, sexualities statuses, consent and suitable behaviour, the vignettes continue with ‘An Orchid Blooming in the Fog’. Transgender bisexual Ran shares with Yo early unhappy encounters (incidentally providing us with mindboggling factual detail on insurance cover and finance for gender affirmation surgery in Japan), and happy-go-lucky, persistently pally pansexual Mao adds his own unique perspective and past moments. Ultimately his benign attentions and upbeat manner manifest more revelations of his own unsettled life and its pressures…

The forces of expectation and tradition shaping Mao are more closely monitored in ‘Family of Mannequins’ even as stolid salaryman Sawada Masanori and college girl Amiru debut with their own individual flavours of difference. It’s a risky road to travel but bigender Sawada will only really be content once his wife and child can understand how and why he is also Marie and that will only happen if they can affirm their ‘True Love’, whilst the student still struggles to accept that any boundaries exist…

Amiru steps into the spotlight for closing episode ‘Aromantic Fairy Tale’ delving deeper into her innate belief that sex and love have nothing to do with each other and explaining how all the stories society train us with need to be re-examined if not revoked. Of course, nothing has worked yet to stop her yearning for “the one”, and some of the test candidates have been a bit extreme to say the least. Just look at Yukihiro, with his odd provisos and props… and just what is the secret he shares with only Yo?

To Be Continued…

Filling up this initial tome are ‘Translation Notes’, house ads, a featurette on sex bars and how the clientele adopts aliases in ‘BAR California’s Back Yard #1’ as well as an afterword from Rei Taki, prior to that aforementioned ‘Prototype Story: A Self For All Seasons’ showing how the initial explorations of spousal abuse and similar reasons for such sex bar venues was dialled down for a more subtle and forensic investigation of the people who need them…

There are – even by manga standards – fairly explicit and frequent sex scenes amidst all the character interplay, and the occasionally blunt yet potent evaluations, clarifications and reiterations of gender issues, minorities and status through the lens of Japanese frankness can be a bit breathtaking if we westerners aren’t braced. Nonetheless, Last Gender: When We Are Nameless is a compelling and intriguing foray into gender & sexual diversity, pansexuality, propensities, individuality and autonomy that needs to be seen by anyone still breathing and still dating. Over to you then…
© 2021 Rei Taki. English translation © 2022 Rei Taki. All rights reserved.

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Mandrake the Magician: Dailies volume 1 – The Cobra


By Lee Falk & Phil Davis (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1178276-690-2 (HB)

Time for another – belated – Birthday briefing as we celebrate 90 glorious years for another golden Age stalwart…

Regarded by many as comics’ first superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip on 11th June 1934 – although creator Lee Falk had sold the strip almost a decade previously. Initially drawing it too, Falk replaced himself as soon as feasible, allowing the early wonderment to materialise through the effective understatement of sublime draughtsman Phil Davis. An instant hit, Mandrake was soon supplemented by a full-colour Sunday companion page from February 3rd 1935.

Falk – as a 19-year old college student – had sold the strip to King Features Syndicate years earlier, but asked the monolithic company to let him finish his studies before dedicating himself to it full time. Schooling done, the 23-year-old born raconteur settled into his life’s work: entertaining millions with astounding tales. Falk also created the first costumed superhero in moodily magnificent generational manhunter The Phantom, whilst spawning an entire comic book subgenre with his first creation. Most Golden Age publishers boasted at least one (but usually many) nattily attired wizards in their gaudily-garbed pantheons: all roaming the world(s) making miracles and crushing injustice with varying degrees of stage legerdemain or actual sorcery.

Characters such as Mr. Mystic, Ibis the Invincible, Sargon the Sorcerer, and an assortment of  “…the Magician” ’s like Zatara, Zanzibar, Kardak proliferated ad infinitum: all borrowing heavily and shamelessly from the uncanny exploits of the elegant, enigmatic man of mystery gracing the world’s newspapers and magazines.

In the Antipodes, Mandrake was a suave stalwart regular of Australian Women’s Weekly and became a cherished icon of adventure in the UK, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and across Scandinavia: a major star of page and screen, pervading every aspect of global consciousness.

Over the years he has been a star of radio, movie chapter-serials, a theatrical play, television and animation (as part of the cartoon series Defenders of the Earth). With that has come the usual merchandising bonanza of games, toys (including magic trick kits), books, comics and more…

Falk worked on Mandrake and “The Ghost who Walks” until his death in 1999 (even on his deathbed, he was laying out one last story), but also found a few quiet moments to become a renowned playwright, theatre producer and impresario, as well as an inveterate world-traveller.

After drawing those the first few strips Falk united with sublimely polished cartoonist Phil Davis. His sleekly understated renditions took the daily strip, especially that expansive full-page Sunday page (collected in a sister volume), to unparalleled heights of sophistication. Davis’ steadfast, assured realism was the perfect tool to render the Magician’s mounting catalogue of spectacular miracles.

Those in the know are well aware that Mandrake was educated at the fabled College of Magic in Tibet, thereafter becoming a suave globe-trotting troubleshooter, always accompanied by his faithful African friend Lothar and beautiful companion (eventually, in 1997, bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne, co-operatively solving crimes and fighting evil.

Those days, however, are still to come as a wealth of fact-filled features begins here with college Classics Professor Bob Griffin vividly recalling ‘From Fan to Friend: My Memories of Lee Falk’. Mathematics lecturer and comics historian Rick Norwood traces comic book sorcerers and sources in ‘Mandrake Gestures Hypnotically’ before the strips section of this luxury monochrome landscape hardback opens on the hero’s first case.

A classy twist on contemporary crime dramas and pulp fiction, ‘The Cobra’ (June 11th – November 24th 1934) exhibits the eponymous criminal mastermind menacing the family of US ambassador Vandergriff… until a dapper, haunting figure and his colossal African companion insert themselves into the affair. Initially mistrusted, Mandrake & Lothar guide the embattled diplomat through a globe-girdling vendetta against a human fiend with mystic powers and a loyal terrorist cult. Employing their own miracles, wonders and common sense, the heroes defeat every scheme leading to a ferocious final clash in the orient and the seeming destruction of the wicked evil wizard.

At their ease in Alexandria, Mandrake & Lothar are targeted by criminal mastermind ‘The Hawk’ (November 26th 1934 – February 23rd 1935) and meet distrait socialite Narda of Cockaigne, who employs her every wile to seduce and destroy them. Thwarting each plot, Mandrake learns her actions are dictated by a monstrous stalker blackmailing Narda’s brother Prince Sigrid. With his true enemy revealed, the Mage sets implacably to work to settle the villain’s affairs for good…

With an impending sense of further entanglements to come, the wanderers leave Narda, eventually fetching up in the Carpathians and encountering a lonely, embattled woman tormented by crazed Professor Sorcin and ‘The Monster of Tanov Pass’ (February 25th – June 15th 1935). This time, there’s a fearsomely robust and rational explanation for all the terror and tribulations…

Mandrake & Lothar meet weary policeman Inspector Duffy and clash with a brilliant mimic and master thief in Arabia. ‘Saki, the Clay Camel’ (June 17th – November 2nd 1935) is driving the occupying British authorities to distraction but an offer of mystic assistance brings danger, excitement and a surprise reunion with Narda before the faceless fiend and his army of desperate criminals are defeated…

Heading into the frozen north, magician and strongman encounter persecuted Lora, saving her from her own unscrupulous and cash-crazed family and ‘The Werewolf’ (November 4th 1935 – February 29th 1936) before this first volume concludes with ‘The Return of the Clay Camel’ (March 2nd – July 18th 1936): a rip-roaring romp showing off Falk’s deft gift for comedy…

It begins with our heroes curing a raging, obsessive sportsman of the urge to hunt, before expanding into a baffling mystery as the long vacationing Sir Oswald returns home to England only to discover someone has been perfectly impersonating him for months…

Devolving into a cunning robbery and comedy of mistaken identity, Mandrake and the false faced Saki test wits and determination, but even with the distraction of an impending marriage being hijacked too, its certain that the canny conjuror is going to come out on top…

Closing with ‘The Phil Davis Mandrake the Magician Complete Daily Checklist 1934-1965’ this thrilling tome offers exotic locales, thrilling action, bold belly laughs, spooky chills and sheer elegance in equal measure. Paramount taleteller Falk instinctively knew from the start that the secret of success was strong and – crucially – recurring villains to test and challenge his heroes, and make Mandrake an unmissable treat for every daily strip addict. These stories have lost none of their impact and only need you reading them to concoct a perfect cure for the 21st century blues.
Mandrake the Magician © 2016 King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. All other material © 2016 the respective authors or owners.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks Spider-Man volume 4: The Master Planner


By Stan Lee & Steve Ditko with Sam Rosen & Art Simek (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4899-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Today marks the 6th Anniversary of Steve Ditko’s death. Here’s a reminder of why he’s so revered, in possibly his greatest sequence of stories starring his most unforgettable character.

The Amazing Spider-Man’s founding stories are timeless and have been gathered many times before but this collection of Steve Dito’s greatest moment on the character is part of The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line: designed with economy in mind and newcomers as target audience. These new books are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller, about the dimensions of a paperback book. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for digital editions, that’s no issue at all.

Marvel is often termed “the House that Jack Built” and King Kirby’s contributions are undeniable and inescapable in the creation of a new kind of comic book storytelling. However, there was another unique visionary toiling at Atlas-Comics-as-was, one whose creativity and philosophy seemed diametrically opposed to the bludgeoning power, vast imaginative scope and clean, gleaming futurism that resulted from Kirby’s ever-expanding search for the external and infinite.

Steve Ditko was quiet and unassuming, diffident to the point of invisibility, but his work was both subtle and striking: innovative and meticulously polished. Always questing for affirming detail, he ever explored the man within. He saw heroism and humour and ultimate evil all contained within the frail but noble confines of humanity. His drawing could be oddly disquieting… and, when he wanted, decidedly creepy.

Crafting extremely well-received monster and mystery tales for and with Stan Lee, Ditko had been rewarded with his own title. Amazing Adventures/Amazing Adult Fantasy featured a subtler brand of yarn than Rampaging Aliens and Furry Underpants Monsters: an ilk which, though individually entertaining, had been slowly losing traction in the world of comics ever since National/DC had successfully reintroduced costumed heroes. Lee & Kirby had responded with The Fantastic Four and so-ahead-of-its-time Incredible Hulk, but there was no indication of the renaissance ahead when officially just-cancelled Amazing Fantasy featured a brand new and rather eerie adventure character…

This compelling compilation reprises the unstoppable climb of the wallcrawler as steered by Ditko and originally seen in Amazing Spider-Man #29-38 (spanning cover-dates October 1965-July 1966). The parable of Peter Parker began when a smart but alienated high schooler was bitten by a radioactive spider on a science trip. Discovering he’d developed arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own ingenuity and engineering genius – Peter did what any lonely, geeky nerd would when given such a gift… he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Creating a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor celebrity – and a vain, self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him, he didn’t lift a finger to stop the thug, and days later discovered that his Uncle Ben had been murdered by the same criminal…

Vengeance crazed, Parker stalked and captured the assailant who made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known. Since his social irresponsibility led to the death of the man who raised him, the boy swore to always use his powers to help others…

It wasn’t a new story, but the setting was familiar to every kid reading it and the artwork was downright spooky. no gleaming high-tech world of moon-rockets, mammoth monsters and flying cars here… this stuff could happen to anyone…

Sans frills or extras – but graced with pre-edited cover art at the back – Ditko’s Spider-Man culminates herein stories plotted and rendered by the inspired artist/auteur. Although other artists have inked his narratives, Ditko handled all the art on Spider-Man and these glittering gems demonstrate his fluid mastery and just how much of the mesmerising magic came from his pens and brushes…

The potent parables are lettered throughout by unsung superstars Sam Rosen & Art Simek, allowing newcomers and veteran readers to comprehensively relive some of the greatest moments in sequential narrative.

Ditko’s preference for tales of gangersterism drove the stories, but his plots also found plenty of time and room for science fictional fun, compelling supervillain frolics and subplots involving Peter Parker’s disastrous love life and poverty-fuelled medical dramas involving always-on-the-edge-of-death Aunt May…

The wallcrawler was still the whipping boy of publicity-hungry – and eventually clinically obsessed – publisher J. Jonah Jameson, who bombarded the hero with libellous print assaults in his newspaper The Daily Bugle. “Ol’ JJ” was blithely unaware the photos Parker sold him for his scurrilous print attacks were paying Spider-Man’s bills…

In the ever-more popular monthly mag, ASM #29 warned ‘Never Step on a Scorpion!’ as the lab-made larcenous lunatic returned, seeking vengeance on not just the webspinner but also Jameson for initially paying to turn a disreputable seedy private eye into a super-powered monster. Once again, the ungrateful demagogue only lived because his despised target stepped up and stepped in…

That breathtaking Fights ‘n’ Tights clash was followed by #30’s off-beat crime-caper which cannily sowed seeds for future masterpieces. ‘The Claws of the Cat!’ grittily depicted a city-wide hunt for an extremely capable burglar (way more exciting than it sounds, trust me!), whilst introducing an organised gang of thieves working for mysterious menace The Master Planner.

Sadly, by this time of their greatest comics successes, Lee & Ditko were increasingly unable to work together on their greatest creations. Ditko’s off-beat plots and quirky art had reached an accommodation with the slickly potent superhero house-style Kirby had developed (at least as much as such a unique talent ever could). The illustration featured a marked reduction of signature line-feathering and moody backgrounds, plus a lessening of concentration on totemic villains, but – although still very much a Ditko baby – Amazing Spider-Man’s sleek pictorial gloss warred with Lee’s dialogue.

These efforts were comfortably in tune with the times if not his collaborator. Lee’s assessment of the readership was probably the correct one, and disagreements with the artist over editorial direction were still confined to the office and not the pages themselves. However, an indication of growing tensions could be seen once Ditko began being credited as plotter of the stories…

After a period where old-fashioned crime and gangsterism predominated, science fiction themes and costumed crazies returned full force. As the world went gaga for masked mystery men, the creators experimented with longer storylines and protracted subplots. When Ditko abruptly left, the company feared a drastic loss in quality and sales but it didn’t happen. John Romita (senior) considered himself a mere “safe pair of hands” keeping the momentum going until a better artist could be found, but instead blossomed into a major talent in his own right, and the wallcrawler continued his unstoppable rise at an accelerated pace.

Change was in the air everywhere. Included amongst the milestones for the ever-anxious Peter Parker collected here are graduating High School and starting college, meeting first love Gwen Stacy and tragic friend/foe Harry Osborn, plus the introduction of nemesis Norman Osborn. Old friends carried in Parker’s wake included Flash Thompson and Betty Brant who subsequently begin to drift out of his life…

‘If This Be My Destiny…!’ in #31 details a spate of high-tech robberies by the Master Planner, culminating in a spectacular confrontation with Spider-Man. Also on show is that aforementioned college debut, first sight of Harry and Gwen, with Aunt May on the edge of death due to an innocent blood transfusion from her mildly radioactive darling Peter…

This led to indisputably Ditko’s finest and most iconic moments on the series – and perhaps of his entire career. ‘Man on a Rampage!’ (ASM #32) sees Parker pushed to the edge of desperation when the Planner’s men make off with serums that could save May, resulting in an utterly driven, berserk wallcrawler ripping the town apart whilst trying to find them. At the last, trapped in an underwater fortress, pinned under tons of machinery, the hero faces his greatest failure as the clock ticks down the seconds of May’s life…

This in turn generates the most memorable visual sequence in Spidey history as the opening of ‘The Final Chapter!’ luxuriates in 5 full, glorious pages depicting the ultimate triumph of will over circumstance. Freeing himself from tons of fallen debris, Spider-Man gives his absolute all to deliver the medicine May needs, and is rewarded with a rare happy ending…

Russian exile Kraven returns in ‘The Thrill of the Hunt!’, seeking payback for past humiliations by impersonating the webspinner, after which #35 confirms that ‘The Molten Man Regrets…!’: a plot-light, astoundingly action-packed combat classic wherein the gleaming golden bandit foolishly resumes his career of pinching other people’s valuables…

Amazing Spider-Man #36 offers a deliciously off-beat, quasi-comedic turn in ‘When Falls the Meteor!’ with deranged, would-be scientist Norton G. Fester calling himself The Looter to steal extraterrestrial museum exhibits…

In retrospect, these brief, fight-oriented tales, coming after such an intricate, passionate epic as the Master Planner/Nam on a Rampage saga should have indicated something was amiss. However fans had no idea that ‘Once Upon a Time, There Was a Robot…!’ – featuring a beleaguered Norman Osborn targeted by his disgraced ex-partner Mendel Strom, and some eccentrically bizarre murder-machines in #37 and the tragic tale of ‘Just a Guy Named Joe!’ – (Amazing Spider-Man #38, July 1966 and on sale from April 12th) wherein a hapless sad-sack stumblebum boxer gains super-strength and a bad-temper – would be Ditko’s last arachnid adventures.

And thus an era ended…

Full of energy, verve, pathos and laughs, gloriously short of post-modern angst and breast-beating, these fun classics – also available in numerous formats including eBook editions – are quintessential comic book magic constituting the very foundation of everything Marvel became. This classy compendium is an unmissable opportunity for readers of all ages to celebrate the magic and myths of the modern heroic ideal: something no serious fan can be without, and an ideal gift for any curious newcomer or nostalgic aficionado.
© 2023 MARVEL.

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Grosz


By Lars Fiske (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-041-6 (HB/digital edition)

As we in Britain and France enter the final stretch of our elections and seeming agreement to abandon consensual truth and classical democracy, lets revisit a born dissident, repeat immigrant and visual vigilante who lived through painfully similar times and trials as our own. His generation’s party chic, desperate searches and minimal resistance led to some pretty bad outcomes. I for one can’t wait to see how this “year of elections” treats us…

Although I bang incessantly on and on about the communicative power of word and pictures acting in unison, I will never deny the sheer efficacy and raw potency of the drawn image. Therefore, whenever an author makes the extra effort to create a narrative that stands or falls on vision alone, I’m ready to applaud mightily and shout “oi, look at this!”…

Today that means taking a little lesson in art history and social awareness via a truly radical pictorial biography of Dadaist anti-fascist, caricaturist, artist and commentator Georg Ehrenfried Groß AKA George Grosz.

He was a complex and amazing man, risking his life for his beliefs but also deeply, dangerously flawed at the same time, and this cartoon confection really captures the feel of him and his tempestuous, self-annihilating life…

Devoid of verbal narrative, an edgy and uncompromising picture play adds reams of emotional kick to the history of a radical non-conformist who grew up in Imperial Germany, found his true calling during the Great War and fought a seditious and dangerously lonely struggle against the growing National Socialist (Nazi) party in the post-war Weimar Republic, all while embracing the heady sexual decadence of that pre-apocalyptic era…

In brief visual sallies supported by brief quotes from his writing – such as ‘Pandemonium: “I am up to my neck in visions”’, ‘Amerikanismus: – day by day my hate for Germany gains, new, blazing nourishment…’, ‘America: New York: The City!!!”’ and ‘Nationalsocialismus: “The Devil alone knows how things will turn out”’ – Lars Fiske traces the one-sided conflict and follows the artist as he relocates to his long-loved-from-afar USA. He then reveals what happened next in notional comic strip excursions that conclude with return to Berlin at the height of the Cold War as wryly seen in ‘Kaputt: Ugh! I have spoken’…

Just like life and our current predicament, with this book there’s no half-measures. Oddly, I suspect the reader will be best served if you know a lot about Grosz or nothing at all, but if he’s an artist you vaguely recall, there may be many rapid consultations of Wikipedia before you come away awed and amused…

The same seems to apply to the voting conundrum. Apparently the only wrong thing to do is nothing at all…
© 2017 Lars Fiske, by arrangement with No Comprendo Press.

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The Case of Alan Turing


By Éric Liberge & Arnaud Delalande, translated by David Homel (Arsenal Pulp Press)
ISBN: 978-1-55152-650-8 (HB/Digital edition)

After decades of cruel injustice and crushing, sidelining silence, British mathematician Alan Turing – one of the greatest intellects in humanity’s history – is finally the household name and revered pioneer of science he always deserved to be. As well as books and films describing the astounding achievements and appalling way this brilliant, misunderstood man – arguably the creator of the modern world we inhabit – was treated by his contemporaries and society in general, there are also graphic novels (so if you’re interested you should also seek out Jim Ottaviani & Leland Purvis’ The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded) delineating the factual stuff whilst trying to get beneath the skin of a most perplexing and unique individual.

This gloriously oversized (231 x 13 x 287 mm) full-colour hardback biography – also available as an e-book – was first released in 2015 as Le Cas Alan Turing: Histoire extraordinaire et tragique d’un genie and employs an emphatic literary approach that is more drama than documentary. The moving script by author Arnaud Delalande (La Piege de Dante) – via award-winning translator David Homel – only touches on Turing’s early, troubled home life and post-war scandals as the genius descended into self-loathing and court-mandated chemical castration to cure his “social deviancy”.

Mere hints and allegations – let alone actual accusations – of homosexuality destroyed many men until officially decriminalised in Britain’s 1967 Sexual Offences Act, and although (after years of passionate campaigning) Turing was posthumously pardoned in 2013, his loss to suicide probably deprived the entire world of a generation of marvels…

The major proportion of this tale concentrates on World War II and Turing’s work as a cryptographer and inventor at British code-breaking centre Bletchley Park, where an insular young man struggled to convince his officious, unimaginative superiors to let him construct a mechanical brain to defeat the Wehrmacht’s presumed-infallible Enigma machines. Turing’s victories cemented his reputation and ensured that the battle against fascism was won…

The key figures are all there: sometime fiancée Joan Clark, Professor Max Newman, and the weak, shady rent-boy who brought about Turing’s eventual downfall and demise, fully complemented by less well known figures: the MI5 operative who was his constant shadow before and after the war, boyhood lost love Christopher Morcom and so many other unsung heroes of the intelligence war…

Played out against a backdrop of global conflict, Turing’s intellectual obsession with Walt Disney’s Snow White and a recurring motif of poisoned apples (the method by which the tormented soul ended his life) loom large in a story which reads like a movie in the making. Moreover, this powerful tale of an outsider’s temporary triumphs and lasting impact is beautifully and compellingly rendered by true master of historical comics Eric Liberge (Monsieur Mardi-Gras Descendres, Le Dernier Marduk, Tonnerre Rampant, Les Corsaires d’Alcibiade), affording proceedings an aura of unavoidable, impending destiny…

Balancing out the tragedy of chances missed is an informative photo-illustrated essay on ‘The Cryptography War’ from historian, educator and government consultant Bruno Fuligni detailing the development and use of different kinds of cipher and codes; how Enigma changed the rules of the spying game and how Turing changed it all again…

This is an astoundingly effective and moving way to engage with a true story of incredible accomplishment, dedication and terrifying naivety, one that ends with horrific loss to us all and forever-unanswered sentiments of “What If?” and “If Only…”
Text © Éditions des Arènes, Paris 2015. Translation © 2016 by David Homel.

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Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather


By Ron Zimmerman, John Severin, Steve Buccellato, Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Wes Abbott & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4362-8 (HB/Digital edition) 978-0-7851-1069-9 (TPB)

For most of the 1960s nobody did superheroes better than Marvel Comics. However, even fully acknowledging the stringencies of the Comics Code Authority, the company’s style for producing their staple genre titles for War, Romance and especially TV-driven Western fans left a lot to be desired. Any hint of sexuality, venality of authority figures, or using guns the way they were intended to be used capitulated to overwhelming caution and a tone that wouldn’t be amiss in kids’ cartoons or pre-Watershed family TV shows. Eventually, however, the reborn company’s boldness and hunger for innovation overwhelmed practicality and common sense. Mercifully for revivals of pre-superhero veterans like Rawhide Kid, the meagre art-pool consisted of master craftsmen such as Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers and others…

Technically the Kid is one of the company’s older icons, having debuted in his own title with a March 1955 cover-date. A stock-standard sagebrush centurion clad in a buckskin jacket, his first adventures were illustrated by jobbing cartoonists like Bob Brown and Ayers and the book was one of the first casualties when Atlas’ distribution woes forced the company to cut back to 16 titles a month in the autumn of 1957.

With small screen cowboys ubiquitous and youthful rebellion a hot societal concept in 1960, owner/publisher Martin Goodman – via Stan Lee & Jack Kirby – unleashed a brand new six-gun stalwart little more than a moody teenager and launched him in summer of that year, economically continuing the numbering from the failed 50’s original…

Crucial to remember is that those yarns were not trying to be gritty or authentic: they were accessing a vast miasmic morass of wholesome, homogenised Hollywood mythmaking that generations of mainly white preferred to learning of the grim everyday toil and terror of the real Old West: simplistic Black Hats vs. White Hats delivered with all the bombast and bravura Jack Kirby and his stellar successors could so readily muster…

It all (re) began when Lee, Kirby & Ayers introduced adopted teenaged Johnny Bart who showed all and sundry what he was made of after his retired Texas Ranger Uncle Ben was gunned down by a fame-hungry cheat. After very publicly exercising his right to vengeance, the naive kid fled Rawhide before explanations could be offered, resigned to life as an outlaw.

The Kid was a wandering, straight shootin’ action ace for decades, periodically returning and even joining forces with the Avengers to battle Kang the Conqueror before fading into the sunset.

Then he became a perennial revivalist, enjoying an occasional miniseries encore (beginning with Rawhide Kid volume 2 #1-4 in 1985) whenever creators wanted to test genre waters or craft experimental media mash-ups. Maybe it was because a mean teen the size of Wolverine offers some sort of untapped reader interest? A taste of Team appeal saw Rawhide bundled with fellow western stalwarts in 2000’s Blaze of Glory #1-4, 2002’s sequel Apache Skies #1-4 and 2010’s Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven…

However, his most memorable and controversial stint is what we’re covering today. Between April and June 2003, The Kid fell under the aegis of the mature-reader Marvel Max imprint and the result was a smart and sassy spoof featuring a gay cowboy at the peak of his prowess…

Scripted by Ron Zimmerman, Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather was illustrated by the legendary John Severin: an incredibly gifted illustrator who had split his stunning career between gritty action tales (Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat, Nick Fury, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, Incredible Hulk, King Kull, The Losers, Semper Fi) and hilarious comedy in parody/lampoon vehicles like Mad, Cracked and Crazy magazines.

His collaborator Zimmerman was a film and TV producer/stand-up comedian and writer who worked on Friday the 13th, Jet Li’s The One and many other shows and movies. His other comic credits included Spider-Man: Get Kraven, Ultimate Adventures, and stints on The Punisher, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel and more.

Here, the partnership resulted in some of funniest moments in Marvel’s genre history…

Following a scene-setting faux edition of the Wells Junction News revealing some life history under the banner headlines ‘Rawhide Kid seen in town’, the daft and deceptive drama begin when an infamous outlaw rides into desolate and isolated Plum Springs one quiet fall day.

Like the movie Shane, this tale is seen through the eyes of a young lad who might not be mature enough to glean the subtext of what’s going on…

Toby Morgan is callow and impressionable so when the notorious gunslinger appears, his paw – farmer turned sheriff Matt Morgan – starts reassessing what it means to be a “real man”. The sheriff is already trying to live down being publicly humiliated – and shot as an afterthought – by Cisco Pike and his gang when they stormed the town. Now he has an unsuspecting – and incredibly glamorous and attractive – rival for his son’s admiration…

Matt is keenly aware that’s he’s lost the manhood stakes. Toby is bullied at school and reveals that he too thinks his pa’s a coward whilst the appalling things the ensconced outlaws call him are even echoed by his own friends. When Mayor Walker Bush demands Matt get rid of the increasingly bold and obnoxious owlhoots, Morgan can’t even find a deputy to die with him…

Rawhide’s reputation keeps the Pike gang cowed, even after he refuses to join their number in a classic confrontation, but no-one expected the fearsome Kid to be so well spoken and prissy: worrying about his clothes and hair and manners and such. Why, what with his moisturizers, bathrobes, provocatively shiny chaps, cigarette holders, Canadian Beaver hats, unsolicited fashion and grooming tips he’s practically swishy…

Learning of the Morgan family problems, the Kid offers to help out: setting young Toby straight and urging his advice on stolid, stoic Matt. The sheriff – despite being regularly shot every time the gang appears – momentarily believes things might work out, but is unaware Pike has recruited extra help for the inevitable showdown. These are all ace killers like Thunderclaw, Red Duck, Le Sabre, Chinese ninjas and lethal man-hating Catastrophe Jen. Of course, they need to move pretty fast now or Jen will kill all the guys she’s riding beside…

And then the inescapable showdown happens and Morgan learns who he really is and who his real friends are…

Challenging stereotypes by combining constant outright hilarity with classic wild west tropes, cartoon action and moments of true pathos, Slap Leather plays the originally moody and po-faced gunfighter as a wittily sharp-tongued, out-&-proud gay man in a vibrant tribute to genre-bending – think The Birdcage or In & Out blended with Blazing Saddles or Zorro: The Gay Blade. It also comes packed with a passel of TV in-jokes (schoolmarm Laura Ingulls, ranchers Haus & Little Jo Cartrite, newspaper publisher Lew Grant) and comics sight gags by the masterful and puckish Severin. With covers by Dave Johnson, Kaare Andrews, Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson, Darwyn Cooke and J. Scott Campbell, this a jolly and uplifting treat for anyone who likes to see old edifices poked…
© 2018 MARVEL.

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Planet of the Apes Archive volume 1: Terror on the Planet of The Apes


By Doug Moench, Mike Ploog, Tom Sutton, Herb Trimpe, Frank Chiaramonte, Virgil Redondo, Rich Handley & various (Boom! Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-60886-990-9 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-61398-661-5

The most effective and long-lasting exploration of human ambition failing and dystopia resulting is not the last 40 years of global government, but rather a film franchise built upon a seminal French science fiction novel released in 1963 – Peirre’s Boulle’s satirical La Planète des singes. A former secret agent and engineer, Boulle earned major accolades as an author. Your entire family has probable seen his other Oscar-winning blockbuster, never realising semi-autobiographical La Pont de la rivière Kwai was David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai…

Originally translated in 1964 as Monkey Planet, his other epic became – after a major rewrite by screenwriter Rod Serling – 1968 US movie sensation Planet of the Apes. It inspired four sequels and – from September to December 1974 – a television series which lived on in reruns and reedited TV movies for decades to come, an animated series, books toys, games, a home projector pack, records and comics.

… And that’s all before Tim Burton’s 2001 remake and the 2011 reboot of the still ongoing franchise…

There have been many comics adaptations, beginning with two manga interpretations (1968 & 1971); a 1970 Gold Key movie adaptation and assorted international versions. In 1974 – no doubt thanks to the impending TV show – a Marvel Magazine continuation, combining serialised comics adaptations of the movies, features and articles began. When Marvel abruptly cancelled PotA in December 1976 the franchise lay fallow until Malibu Comics picked it up in 1990 (reprints, new stories and franchise mash-up Ape Nation). Other companies also added new material over the years and much of that history is covered in erudite Introduction ‘Gorilla Warfare – and Tales of Terror’ by expert/editor/fan-addict Rich Handley…

This first monster compilation gathers a wholly new addition to the mythos, scripted in entirety by Doug Moench (Batman, Werewolf by Night, Moon Knight, Master of Kung Fu), who alternated these trenchant tales with two other Apes strands: “Future History Chronicles” and expanded comics adaptations of the five original films, which are the subject of a separate, future, review…

When Marvel secured the comics rights (also fully covered in Handley’s prose piece) they undertook to fabulously and fantastically expand upon the premise via a fantastic procession of scenarios. The most significant dealt with the much-strained friendship of two teens: a human named Jason and chimpanzee Alexander. They had grown up together in an idyllic integrated community of apes and humans, guided by benign spiritual leader The Lawgiver, but when the saint vanished on a pilgrimage, the garden of Eden began to rot…

The storyline had been devised by Gerry Conway, but his schedule couldn’t handle the increased workload and Moench took it all on. Initially, Terror on the Planet of The Apes was illustrated by Mike Ploog (Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing, Kull the Destroyer, Frankenstein’s Monster, Weirdworld, The Spirit), who produced some of his very best work up to #19 – his longest continual run on any strip – after which Tom Sutton (Vampirella, Doctor Strange, Western Gunfighters, Grimjack, Star Trek) took over.

Sporting an August 1974 cover-date and on sale from June 25th of that year, Planet of the Apes #1 blended photos and articles with Part 1 (of 6) of an adaptation of the 1968 movie plus all new ape-ventures set at a time when humans were still sapient talkers and lived in notional harmony with equally erudite orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. That’s where this book – re-presenting Terror on the Planet of The Apes stories from PotA #1-4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 19-20, 23, 26-28 – starts off, following a Photo intro message.

Chapter One ‘The Lawgiver’ introduces best friends Jason and Alexander who witness chief Peacekeeper Brutus (a gorilla chosen by The Lawgiver to safeguard everyone until his return) leading a murderous lynching and burning raid on the human sector. Despite being disguised by hoods and robes (this was a time when the Ku Kux Klan was constantly in the headlines for terrorising African Americans emboldened by Civil Rights successes), the youngsters see gorillas murder Jason’s parents in the opening gambit of a scheme to make their kind the dominant species on Earth. In Chapter Two’s ‘Fugitives on the Planet of the Apes’ the witnesses’ attempts to expose the atrocity lead to Brutus murdering his own wife and framing Jason and Alexander for the deed.

After they spectacularly escape the city, another recapping Photo Intro segues into ‘The Forbidden Zone of Forgotten Horrors!’ as Jason and Alexander spy on Brutus’ terrorist base and are almost caught. This prompts another murder spree that the Peacekeeper blames them for. Wounded and scared, in ‘Lick the Sky Crimson’ they head for the radioactive wastes of the Forbidden Zone in search of The Lawgiver and encounter weird mutants, bizarre machines and monsters. These terrors thrive in a buried city run by a gestalt of giant bottled brains calling themselves The Inheritors. Worst of all, the chimp realises his human friend is becoming a vengeance-hungry savage in many ways the equal of Brutus…

The power of mutual hate is further explored after Photo Intro 3 leads us to ‘Spawn of the Mutant-Pits’ where hideous drone-slaves pursuing them clash with gorillas Brutus has set on Jason’s trail. Inker Frank Chiaramonte supplements Ploog’s inspired pencils as they butcher each other, before Jason & Alexander are captured by the Forbidden Zone’s hidden overlords and despatched to ‘The Abomination Arena!’ to fight fresh terrors beside a surviving gorilla…

Another hairsbreadth escape leads them to the captive Lawgiver and a lucky rescue/breakout in a stolen flying craft before Part 4 details their flight, crash and rendezvous with ‘A River Boat Named Simian’. Here largely film-inspired antics take a big broad pause as we see how other parts of the Planet of the Apes recovered from Armageddon. Brutus strikes a deal with the cerebral Gestalt Commanders: securing futuristic tanks, energy weapons and drone battle fodder in return for destroying the Lawgiver’s city and civilisation. It’s a deal neither side intends to honour but in the interim the fugitives he’s actually intent on eradicating are recuperating thanks to river traders bringing unity to scattered communities.

Daniel Boone-inspired orangutan ‘Gunpowder Julius’, his human pal Steely Dan and a feisty, gloriously rowdy crew of frontiers-folk do much to soothe the poison brewing in Jason’s soul, but the healing halts as soon as Brutus’ forces catch them all celebrating. Launching a devastating assault kills many and instantly reignites the hate in the human’s heart…

Shot from Ploog’s pencils, Part 5 ‘Malagueña Beyond a Zone Forbidden’ sees the survivors encounter a happy band of ape and human Romani with Jason distracted and then beguiled by a beautiful young woman. Jealousy and hot heads might have led to catastrophe and damnation, but the duel for her hand is interrupted by Brutus and his multispecies army in ‘The Planet Inheritors!’, resulting in a deadly stand-off until Julius thrashes Brutus in a vicious personal duel…

With the Peacekeeper a prisoner, Jason, Alexander, their wise patriarch and Malagueña set out for the integrated home city, blithely unaware of how much has deteriorated since they’ve been gone. Now humans are second-class citizens and although many apes are unhappy with the tyranny of gorillas, trouble is brewing and will boil over ‘When The Lawgiver Returns…’

This dramatic point sees the true plans of both Brutus and Gestalt Commanders explosively exposed prior to Terror on the Planet of the Apes Phase 2 opening with the introduction of a new character in ‘The Magick-Man’s Last Gasp Purple Light Show’. Although seemingly defeated, Brutus escapes punishment and flees, with incandescently enraged Jason following him back into the wilderness to extract true justice. Along the way he meets archaeologist/ philosopher Lightning Smith, a human whose pursuit of the secrets of the Ancients has unearthed a stockpile of pre-disaster wonders and a lot of woolly misconceptions about the masters of science who once ruled the planet…

“Lightsmith” and faithful companion Gilbert (a mute but fully sapient gibbon) seek further revelations – including the location of legendary stockpile of lost wonders “the Psycho-drome”. Proselytising technology at every stop, they take Jason under their wing, ultimately bringing him to their secret mountain home in ‘Up the Nose-Tube to Monkey-Trash’. The base is a masterful example of acerbic satire, eventually revealing to us, if not the players, the last days of human hegemony. Meanwhile Alex and Malagueña have been tracking Jason, but sadly catch up just as savage, primitive “Assisimians” attack Lightsmith, leading to a shocking show of salvaged wonders and the obsessive hatred of tribal shaman Maguanus…

Brutus has not been idle: once again duping the Gestalt Commanders and taking their last technological armaments to end Jason and anyone else in the Peacekeeper’s way. The tyrant finally finds him as Maguanus’ minions are besieging them, and a tenuous double-dealing truce drives our beleaguered heroes into new territory to face ‘Demons of the Psychodrome’ (art by Ploog & Tom Sutton).

Tragically, the answers Lightsmith hungers for almost destroy him as the truth of the psycho-drome exposes an extraterrestrial component to the Ancients’ downfall and a terrifyingly patient ‘Society of the Psychodrome’ (Sutton art) waiting for Earth to be pacified for them…

As Jason, Alexander & Malagueña scrape from calamity to clash to catastrophe, Brutus almost claims total victory by stealing enough nuclear missiles to exterminate all humans. Thankfully he doesn’t know how to use them and when Jason once more foils the plot in ‘Messiah of the Monkey Demons’, an atomic inferno apparently ends the alien threat…

However, a new menace appears when The Lawgiver’s devoted young apprentice is co-opted by another technological faction to survive the fall of man. As our stars – safely transported a vast distance away whilst the nukes went up – cavort in snow for the first time, ‘Northlands!’ (art by Herb Trimpe & Virgil Redondo with tones by Rudy Mesina) sees them meet ape Vikings and witness another crime of ignorance and bigotry before heading back south in an ice-riding dragonship…

Waiting for them is seemingly unkillable Brutus, the last remnants of The Inheritors’ forces and new threat The Makers. These human holdovers are kidnapping gorillas to make cyborg slaves and their unleashed ‘Apes of Iron’ seem likely to control the world, However, as seen in last chapter ‘Revolt of the Gorilloids!’ (Trimpe & Virgil Redondo) Jason and his allies won’t go down without a fight…

Frustratingly, the saga stopped there and remains uncompleted, but in postscript ‘Still Apey After all These Years’ Handley offers more information and partial closure with his efforts to share Moench’s unpublished last scripts. He also posits what might have been had the author been allowed to complete the saga abruptly curtailed when the magazine was cancelled without warning. It left three separate story strands… well, stranded…

Also of interest is a section on unique permutations of Marvel UK’s weekly Planet of the Apes iteration (ask your grandad about “Apeslayer” and see the reaction …or just google it).

This first volume closes with a ‘Full colour painted cover gallery’ of issues #3, 4, 13, 17. 19 & 23 by Bob Larkin, #14 & 26 by Malcolm McNeill and #11 by Gray Morrow – all seen sans logos and livery.

In equal parts vivid nostalgia and crucial component of current comics expansion, this compelling and lovely treat is pure whacky fun no film fan or comics devotee should miss… and there’s more to come…
Planet of the Apes ™ & © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Stories and illustration ™ & © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Teen Titans: The Silver Age volume One


By Bob Haney, Bruno Premiani, Nick Cardy, Irv Novick, Bill Molno, Sal Trapani, Jack Abel & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7508-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

Although primarily concerned with celebrating Pride Month and simultaneously prepping for a really big blowout/hunkering down for the new dystopia following our imminent election, I couldn’t let the month end without shouting out to an anniversary celebrating a publishing landmark that truly changed the comics landscape. Here you go, Groovers and True Believers…

The concept of kid hero teams was not a new one when the 1960s Batman TV show prompted DC to entrust their big stars’ assorted sidekicks with their own regular venue in a fab, hip and groovy ensemble as dedicated to helping kids as they were to stamping out insidious evil. The biggest difference between the creation of the Teen Titans and earlier wartime youth teams like The Young Allies, Newsboy Legion, Boy Champions and Boy Commandos or even 1950s holdovers such as The Little Wise Guys or Boys Ranch was quite simply the burgeoning phenomena of “The Teenager” as a discrete commercial and social force. These newcomers were kids who could – and should – be allowed to do things themselves without constant adult help or supervision.

This quirkily eclectic compilation re-presents the landmark try-out appearances from The Brave and the Bold #54 & 60 and Showcase #59 – collectively debuting in 1964 and1965 – as well as the first 11 issues of the Teen Titans solo title, spanning January/February 1966 to September/October 1967.

As early as April 30th – albeit cover-dated June/July – 1964, The Brave and the Bold #54 saw DC’s Powers-That-Be test the waters in a gripping tale by writer Bob Haney superbly illustrated by unsung genius Bruno Premiani. ‘The Thousand-and-One Dooms of Mr. Twister’ initially united Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin the Boy Wonder in desperate battle with a modern wizard-cum-Pied Piper who sought to abduct every teen of scenic Hatton Corners. The young heroes accidentally meet in the town by chance after involved students individually invite them to mediate in a long-running dispute with the town’s adults…

This element of a teen “court of appeal” was the motivating principle in many of the group’s subsequent cases. One year later the team reformed for a second adventure (B&B #60, by the same creative team) and introduced two new elements. ‘The Astounding Separated Man’ features more misunderstood kids (weren’t we all?): this time in coastal hamlet Midville and threatened by an outlandish monster whose giant body parts detach and move independently. Wonder Girl was added to the roster (not actually a sidekick, or even a person at that juncture, but rather an SFX incarnation of Wonder Woman as a child – a fact the writer and editor of the series seemed blissfully unaware of (or simply ignored) but most importantly the kids finally had a team name: ‘Teen Titans’.

Their final try-out appearance was in Showcase (#59, November/December 1965) and the birthplace of so many hit comic concepts. It was also the first drawn by the brilliant Nick Cardy (who became synonymous with the 1960s series). ‘The Return of the Teen Titans’ pits the neophyte team against teen pop trio ‘The Flips’ who are apparently also a gang of super-crooks. As was so often the case, the grown-ups had got it all wrong again…

One month later Teen Titans #1 debuted (cover-dated January/February 1966 and released mere weeks before the Batman TV show aired on January 12th), with Robin very much the point of focus on the cover… and most succeeding ones. Haney & Cardy crafted an exotic thriller entitled ‘The Beast-God of Xochatan!’ which sees the team acting as Peace Corps representatives in a South American drama of sabotage, giant robots and magical monsters. The next issue held a fantastic mystery of revenge and young love involving ‘The Million-Year-Old Teen-Ager’ who was preserved by accidental entombment and revived in the 20th century. He might have survived modern intolerance, bullying and culture shock on his own, but when his ancient blood enemy also turned up, the Titans were ready to lend a hand…

‘The Revolt at Harrison High’ in #3 cashed in on a contemporary craze for drag-racing in a tale of bizarre criminality. Produced during a historically iconic era, many readers now can’t help but cringe when reminded of such daft foes as Ding-Dong Daddy and his evil biker gang, and of course the hip, trendy dialogue (it wasn’t that accurate then, let alone now) is pitifully dated, but the plot is strong and the art magnificent.

‘The Secret Olympic Heroes’ guest-starred Green Arrow’s cocky teen partner Speedy in a very human tale of parental pressure at the Olympics, although there’s also skulduggery aplenty from a terrorist organisation intent on disrupting the games. Next TT #5’s ‘The Perilous Capers of the Terrible Teen’ finds the Titans facing the dual task of aiding a troubled young man and capturing elusive super-villain The Ant, despite all evidence indicating that they’re the same person, after which another DC sidekick made his Titans debut.

Illustrated by Bill Molno & Sal Trapani ‘The Fifth Titan’ then brings aboard Beast Boy (the obnoxious juvenile know-it-all from the Doom Patrol). Feeling unappreciated by his adult mentors, the young hero wrongly assumes he’ll be welcomed by his peers. Rejected again, he falls under the spell of an unscrupulous circus owner and the kids need to set things right…

Slow and overly convoluted, it’s possibly the low-point of a stylish run, but many fans disagree, citing #7’s ‘The Mad Mod, Merchant of Menace’ as the biggest stinker. However, beneath painfully dated dialogue there’s a witty, tongue-in-cheek tale of swinging London, cool capers and novel criminality, plus the return of magnificent Nick Cardy to the art chores.

It was back to America for ‘A Killer called Honey Bun’ (illustrated by Irv Novick & Jack Abel): another tale of intolerance and misunderstood kids, played against a backdrop of espionage in Middle America, and featuring a deadly prototype robotic superweapon in the menacing title role…

TT #9’s ‘Big Beach Rumble’ finds the Titans refereeing a swiftly-escalating vendetta between rival colleges on holiday when modern day pirates led by the barbarous Captain Tiger crash the scene. Novick pencilled it and Cardy’s inking made it all very palatable in a light and uncomplicated way. Editor George Kashdan clearly concurred as the art teem continued for the next few issues, beginning with ‘Scramble at Wildcat’: a rowdy crime caper featuring dirt-bikes and desert ghost-towns, with skeevy biker The Scorcher profiting from a pernicious robbery spree…

Wrapping up this first outing, Speedy returned in #11’s spy-thriller ‘Monster Bait’, with the young heroes going undercover to save a boy being blackmailed into betraying his father and his country…

Although dated in delivery now, these tales were an incomprehensibly liberating experience for kids when first released. They betokened a new empathy with increasingly independent youth and sought to address problems that were more relevant to and generated by that specific audience. That they are so captivating in execution is a wonderful bonus. This is absolute escapism and absolutely delightful and you absolutely should get this book.
© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Kevin Keller Celebration! Omnibus


By Dan Parent, J. Bone , Paul Kupperberg, Bill Galvan, Pat Kennedy, Tim Kennedy, Fernando Ruiz, Bob Smith, Rich Koslowski, Al Milgrom, Glen Whitmore, Jack Morelli, Gisele Lagace, Derek Charm, Sina Grace, Phil Jimenez, Ryan Jampole, Gary Martin, Digikore Studios & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-64576-887-6 (HB/Digital edition)

Following the debut of Superman, MLJ were one of so many publishers to jump on the “mystery-man” bandwagon: concocting their own small but inspired pantheon of gaudily clad crusaders. In November 1939 they launched Blue Ribbon Comics, and swiftly followed up with Top-Notch and Pep Comics. Content was that era’s standard mix of masked heroes, clean-cut two-fisted adventurers, genre prose pieces and gags.

Soon after, Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater (hence MLJ) spotted a gap in the already overcrowded market. In December 1941 the Fights ‘n’ Tights, heaving He-Man crowd were gently nudged aside by a much less imposing hero: an ordinary teenager in mundane adventures just like the readership, but with the companionable laughs, good times and romance emphasised. Goldwater developed the youthful everyman protagonist concept and tasked writer Vic Bloom & artist Bob Montana with making it all work. Inspired by and referencing the successful Andy Hardy movies (starring Mickey Rooney), their new notion premiered in Pep Comics #22. The unlikely star was a gap-toothed, freckle-faced, red-headed kid obsessed with impressing the pretty blonde next door.

A 6-page untitled tale introduced hapless boob Archie Andrews and wholesomely fetching Betty Cooper. The boy’s wryly unconventional best friend and confidante Jughead Jones also debuted there, as did idyllic small-town utopia Riverdale. It was a huge hit and by the winter of 1942 the kid had won his own series and then a solo-starring title. Archie Comics #1 was MLJ’s first non-anthology magazine and with it began an inexorable transformation of the entire company. With the introduction of ultra-rich, raven-haired Veronica Lodge, all the pieces were in play for the comic book industry’s second Genuine Phenomenon.

By 1946 the kids were totally in charge, and MLJ officially reinvented itself, becoming Archie Comics, retiring most of its costumed characters years before the end of the Golden Age and becoming, to all intents and purposes, a publisher of family-friendly comedies.

The hometown settings and perpetually fruitful premise of an Eternal Romantic Triangle – with girl-hating Jughead to assist or deter and scurrilous love-rat rival Reggie Mantle to test, duel and vex our boy in their own unique ways – the scenario was one that not only resonated with fans but was somehow infinitely fresh and engaging…

Like Superman’s, Archie’s success drove a change in content at every other US publisher (except Gilberton’s Classics Illustrated), creating a culture-shifting multi-media brand encompassing TV, movies, newspaper strips, toys, merchandise, a chain of restaurants and (in the swinging sixties) a pop music sensation when Sugar, Sugar – from one of the many animated TV cartoons – became a global summer smash hit. Clean and decent garage band “The Archies” has been a fixture of the comics ever since…

The eternal triangle has generated thousands of charming, raucous, gentle, frenetic, chiding and even heart-rending humorous dramas ranging from surreal wit to frantic slapstick, with the kids and a constantly expanding cast of friends (boy genius Dilton Doily, genial giant jock Big Moose and occasional guest Sabrina the Teenage Witch amongst so many others), growing into an American institution and part of the American cultural landscape.

The feature thrived by constantly refreshing its core archetypes; boldly and seamlessly adapting to a changing world outside those bright and cheerful pages: shamelessly co-opting youth, pop culture, fashion trends and even topical events into its infallible mix of comedy and young romance. Each and every social revolution has been assimilated into the mix and over decades the company has confronted most social issues affecting youngsters in a manner both even-handed and tasteful.

Constant addition of new characters like African-American Chuck Clayton and girlfriend Nancy Woods, fashion-diva Ginger Lopez, Hispanic couple Frankie Valdez &Maria Rodriguez, student film-maker Raj Patel and spoiled home-wrecker-in-waiting Cheryl Blossom all contributed to a wide and refreshingly broad-minded scenario. In 2010 Archie jumped the final hurdle (until now) – for decades a seemingly insurmountable one for kids’ comic books – when openly gay student Kevin Keller became an adored and admired advocate tackling and dismantling one of the last major taboos of mainstream comics.

Created by writer/artist Dan Parent & inker Rich Koslowski (lettered by Jack Morelli and coloured by Digikore Studios), Kevin debuted in Veronica #202 (September 2010). It was the first comic book in the company’s long, long history to go into a second printing…

This landmark Kickstarter-funded hardback/eBook compendium gathers that delightful debut and the avalanche of tales that followed – specifically from Veronica #202, 205, a 4-issue Kevin Keller miniseries in #207-210; Kevin Keller #1-15, Life with Kevin #1-5; Life With Archie #16, a strip from 2015’s Comic Book Legal Defense Fund #1 and a slew of seldom seen, rare and even all-new material comprising the first decade of the new star..

It all begins with a ‘Foreword’ by creator Dan Parent and context-establishing ‘Introduction – Who is Kevin Keller?’ before the first of many, many covers and variants segues into ‘Chapter One: Isn’t it Bro-Mantic’ (Veronica #202, September 2010), introduces a charming, good-looking and exceedingly-together lad who utterly bowls the flighty heiress over. Veonica Lodge is totally smitten with him, even though he can out-eat human dustbin Jughead and loves sports. Although suave Kevin inexplicably loves hanging out with the ghastly Jones boy Ronnie is determined to make him exclusively hers. Jughead (who clearly possesses fully-functioning gaydar) is totally cool with his new pal, and sees an opportunity to pay Ronnie back for the many mean things she has said and done over the years…

When Kevin finally explains to Veronica why she is wasting her time, she takes it fabulously well and soon they are hanging out as best buds. After all, they have so much in common: chatting, stylish clothes, shopping, boys…

The cover parade alternates with Retro Fashion pages (depicting our star and his new friends in assorted pin-ups detailing styles across the decades) and the first here accompanies the cover of Veronica #205 (March 2011). Immensely popular from the outset, Kevin struck a chord with the readership and returned a few months later in ‘The Buddy System’, with her bombastic dad giving the obviously perfect new guy an all-clear to monopolise his daughter’s time. The following fun-filled days do have one major downside however, as poor Betty is increasingly neglected…

You’d think Archie would be jealous too, but he’s just glad someone “safe” is keeping other guys away from “his” Ronnie. It seems the ideal scenario for everyone but Betty, but when man-hunting, filthy rich, overprivileged, entitled precious princess Cheryl Blossom hits town, it puts everything back into perspective…

A text briefing on Kevin’s own Mini Series precedes the next big step as repeated cameos in Archie titles rapidly evolved into a miniseries, expanding Kevin’s role whilst answering many questions about his past. It started with ‘Meet Kevin Keller!’ (as the new boy took over Veronica #207-10, June – December 2011) wherein we learn he was an army brat, born in Britain but raised all over the world, and now living in Riverdale with his dad (retired and invalided army colonel) Thomas, mum Kathy and feisty sisters Denise and Patty. It also shows Kevin is a typical guy who loves practical jokes as much as food and sports…

Whilst sharing these facts with Betty and Ronnie, he also lets slip some less impressive details: how he was a nerdy, braces-wearing late developer frequently a target of bullies…

‘The Write Stuff’ (#208) is set during the build-up to his dad’s surprise birthday party and discloses how Kevin plans to serve in the army before becoming a journalist, whilst also showing the gentle hero’s darker side after he is compelled to intervene – and end – the persecution of a young Riverdale student by older kids.

‘Let’s Get it Started’ (#209) finds Kevin ambushed and pressganged by his new friends into participating in a scholastic TV quiz show where anxiety and nerves almost get the better of him. Happily, Ronnie inadvertently breaks his paralysing stage fright with a humiliating gaffe, but that’s just a palate cleanser for a potent object lesson in the concluding chapter…

As Kevin steps in to shelter and help one of the kids who used to torment him long ago, ‘Taking the Lead!’ also finds him reluctantly running for Class President at the insistent urging of Ronnie and the gang. It’s not that he wants the position particularly, but when star school quarterback and bigoted jock David Perkins starts a campaign based on intolerance, innuendo and intimidation, Kevin feels someone has to confront the smugly-macho, “real man” who boasts of being the most popular boy in school…

Despite a smear campaign and dirty tactics any Presidential candidate would be proud of, truth, justice and decency win out…

This breezy and engaging collection pauses for ‘An Interview with Kevin Keller’ offering further background direct from the horse’s mouth and segues into a briefing on Kevin’s Ongoing Series as Kevin Keller #1-15 (February 2012 – September 2014) opens with ‘Chapter Seven: There’s a First Time for Everything’ wherein the much-travelled, journalism-obsessed “Army Brat” finally starts to settle in at Riverdale High. In short order he is elected Class President, has his first commercial writing published and reveals a shocking secret…

For all his accomplishments Kevin has never gone on a real date, and when a certain someone asks him out, the Keller kid turns to Betty for some confidence-boosting advice. He isn’t a complete neophyte; there was something like a date once before, but thanks to his catastrophic nervousness it was a major disaster. Unfortunately, Reggie overhears their huddled conversation and the self-proclaimed romance expert elects to give Kevin the benefit of his vast masculine wisdom. Exuberant preparations become a catalogue of horror and, as more well-meaning friends involve themselves, it looks certain Kevin will repeat that horrific initial experience…

Thankfully some stabilising words from lurve-hating Jughead and an eventful morning with remarkably understanding Colonel Keller, mum Kathy and feisty sisters Denise and Patty soon restore some necessary calm and equilibrium.

The next tale moves from straight slapstick to heart-warming empathy as Class President Kevin must organise a prom in ‘May I Have this Dance?’ Only then does he discover that he has a secret admirer. Of course, once Veronica finds out it’s not a secret for long…

As the 70s-themed fashion disaster begins to take shape, further furtive communications reveal the clandestine would-be wooer is someone still not fully at ease with his sexual orientation; forcing Kevin to be at his most understanding and forgiving…

Contentious themes and prejudices surface in #3’s ‘Stranded in Paradise’ when the summer vacation begins and Kevin gets a job as a lifeguard. One beach is the time-honoured hangout of all Riverdale kids, but when Cheryl Blossom and her rich Pembroke School cronies invade the space, sparks fly. The grubby “Townies” are challenged to a surfing contest for sole possession of the sands with Kevin as star competitor and secret weapon for the home team. The fair-minded stalwart has, however, underestimated the vicious tactics of loathsome homophobe Sloan…

Next comes a timely international epic set at the 2012 London Olympics. ‘Games People Play’ sees the Colonel – who has dual British/American citizenship – invited to be a torchbearer. Having been UK born and latterly spending four years in England, Kevin is delighted to be going back for a visit and reconnecting with old mate Brian. He doesn’t even mind when shopping-crazy Veronica inveigles an invite to join the family. Thus, when Dad falls foul of London’s Underground at a crucial moment, Kevin is ready and more-or-less willing to step in for what appears to be the unluckiest and most dangerous section of the entire torch route…

Feeling GLAAD reviews the award KK won prior to ‘Drive Me Crazy!’ (#5, December 2012) hitting the next milestone in a young man’s life as the affable pedestrian finally gains independence with the arrival of his first car. It is, in fact, the old jeep belonging to his dad and the fun really hits high gear after Moose and Dilton offer to spruce it up and make it roadworthy in their own inimitable manner – just in time to play havoc with Kevin’s date with old pal Todd…

A Word from George Takei offers the insights of the actor, author and rights activist in anticipation of his walk-on part in star-studded saga ‘By George!’ (#6, January 2013) wherein a class project about inspirational heroes leads to the kids invading a local comic convention headlined by the Star Trek star. Meanwhile, Mr. Takei surprises all concerned by returning the favour at Riverdale High. If only Kevin wasn’t so distracted by the return of old flame Brian and the promise of new romance…

KK #7 demand ‘Decisions, Decisions!’ as Kevin dates aggressive surly bad boy Devon: a student determined to keep his status as a macho hetero male. Patience, understanding and love only go so far though, and when Kevin convinces Devon to finally come out, the misunderstood lout faces repercussions from his family and friends the Keller kid couldn’t anticipate…

Moreover, piling on the pressure, an old secret admirer who remained anonymous chooses this moment to identify himself to the ever-popular Kevin. Everything boils over in ‘Play by the Rules!’ (#8) as Veronica cons him into starring in her self-penned stage opus Teenagers: The Musical! Kevin’s proximity to former secret admirer Paul drives Devon to jealous stalking, but thankfully in the unavoidable denouement, the only real casualty is Ronnie’s atrocity of a show…

Possibly due to increasingly targeted flack from real world villainous oppressors One Million Moms, the remaining run of Kevin Keller never made the jump to graphic compilations – until now. Here Never Before Collected! gathers them issues beginning with #9 as ‘Chapter Fifteen: The Tag-Alongs’ sees childhood friends William and Wendy (the other two of the “Three Musketeers”) sign up as lifeguards too. The reunion is marred when Ronnie and Devon continually distract the swim sentinels, but it’s as nothing as circumstance conspire to drag all of them – and the rest of the family – on Kevin and the Colonel’s sacrosanct annual father/son fishing trip…

The Kiss details how and why One Million Moms singled out Kevin Keller as a threat to America’s children as the creators sneakily struck back whilst covering the next big landmark in the fictional hero’s life. Kevin Keller #10 (August 2013) saw ‘A Kiss Isn’t Just a Kiss!’ share that first moment of commitment with Devon, how one obnoxious woman bystander responded to it and how the rest of Riverdale slapped her down…

Dan Parent remained as penciler when Paul Kupperberg scripted #11’s ‘Charity, Schmarity!’ (ably assisted by inker Rich Koslowski, Jack Morelli on letters and Digikore Studios applying colours) as Kevin and Ronnie go to war after being unable to agree on what kind of fundraiser to organise for the after school Literacy Program, but when New Year’s Eve traditions are pilloried in ‘Resolution Revolution’ (written by Parent), the besties are fondly reunited with Devon acting as a latterday Grinch and ultimately going far too far…

Single again in Kevin Keller #13 (May 2014),Kevin’s woes are lifted when Paul seizes his romantic chance in Kupperberg & Parent’s ‘Elementary, My Dear Kevin!’ As the school is gripped by constant – if not actually always true – “exposés” perpetrated by salacious scandal-mongering gossip “The Riverdale Whisperer”, devoted journalist Kevin determines to unmask the cruel liar…

Because no comic book star can be truly complete without a costume, Kevin Keller #14 and 15 saw our hero suit up as a costumed cavorter. The reasoning is explained in The Equalizer before the last two issues of Kevin’s first solo series changed his life forever. It begins penultimately as in ‘That’s Really Super, Kevin!’ (Parent, Koslowski, Morelli & Glenn Whitmore) as Ronnie uses her wealth to remake her favourite guy into an gadget-geared mystery man after he saves an old lady from a mugger.

Although initially reluctant, the chance to help others and Veronica’s persistent badgering as potential costumed compatriot Power Teen soon sees him prowling Riverdale as clean-cut masked vigilante The Equalizer…

Typically, the reluctant do-gooder is torn between pleasing a pal, helping people in need and not being an embarrassing idiot, and he’s soon distracted and far more concerned with impressing the Lodge’s hunky support staffer Tony than reducing the ludicrously low crime rate of Riverdale. The added pressure of the most popular and well-known teen in town keeping his identity secret from all the people who know him forces a big decision in closing issue #15’s ‘Holding Out For a Hero’…

Life with Kevin textually covers the next chapter as ‘Meet the New Kevin Keller’ details how his solo gig ended but two years later, he was back in a 5-issue miniseries by Parent, inker J. Bone & Jack Morelli, focused what occurred after he finished at Riverdale and graduated from college. Life with Kevin – in a limited but superbly effective palette of black, white and blue – traced his career after moving to Manhattan to join a major metropolitan news outlet…

Cover-dated June 2016 and subtitled Kevin in the City, #1 referenced sitcoms like 30 Rock, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, and begins in ‘Chapter 22: You’re Gonna Make it After All! (Maybe)’ as Keller moves into a grim apartment, meets his interesting neighbours and makes an unforgettable first impression on his new boss at station NYC-TV. Sadly, his views on what constitutes journalism don’t tally with hers in the cutthroat era of clickbait and Twitterstorms. Even more tragically, the fact that the camera loves and viewers adore him means Kevin could be forced into becoming a useless, vapid Screen Celeb himself…

The day ends perfectly when Veronica shows up. On Kevin’s advice, his BFF talked back to daddy and now she’s disinherited, broke and homeless…

‘Room for Change’ picks up a short while later with Kevin finding his love life and dating days seriously curtailed by oblivious roommate Ronnie, who, unsurprisingly, cannot hold on to any job she finds (mostly waitressing) and whose efforts to help inevitably go badly awry…

After building a profile on a dating app and then accidentally outing himself on live TV – a strict policy no-no at NYC-TV – Kevin’s life gets even crazier. In ‘I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can!’ boss Babs is ordered to exploit her camera-shy protégé onscreen as much as legally possible, leading Ronnie to accidentally endanger the mental health of a shy young gay student Kevin is secretly helping through difficult times…

The gathering storm breaks on social media in ‘Past Tense!’ with Bab’s ruthless attempt to capitalise on the personal crisis for ratings compelling Kevin to make a world-changing decision – but only after a chaotic comedy of errors devastates the station’s schedules…

The story pauses for now with ‘Moving Forward!’ (#5, January 2018) as the progression of roommate dramas, two-timing bad boyfriends, family health scares and career calamities lead to Kevin taking charge of his life and choosing the future he wants and deserves despite what everyone else thinks…

Archie Comics were early advocates of alternate reality wherein adult versions of their pantheon explored in great depth unlikely possibilities. The strand saw Archie married to both Betty and Veronica in drama-heavy sagas and even murdered.

As explained in Kevin Marries…, the Keller boy got the same opportunities in Life With Archie #16 (January 2012), much to the ire of those One Millom Mom martinets…

Here ‘Chapter Twenty-Seven: For Better or For Worse’ and ‘Chapter Twenty-Eight: For Richer or For Poorer’ (by Kupperberg, Fernando Ruiz, Bob Smith & Whitmore, and released just as America was legalising gay marriage) saw wounded soldier Kevin fresh back from the Middle East and recuperating from physical and mental wounds. His assigned physical therapist became so much more and – as all the drama and intrigue of the Archie-verse played out around them – Kevin and Clay Walker decided to tie the knot…

As previously mentioned, this epic compilation was funded by friends on Kickstarter. The response also generated new a Parent-tale as ‘Chapter Twenty-Nine: Brand New Story Celebration!!’ takes us on a tour of Riverdale with old friends meeting many of the contributors who stumped up for the book – and new boyfriend Paolo, before ‘Chapter Thirty: Bonus Story ‘Read Between the Lines’ makes a stand for diversity and champions libraries and librarians’ never-ending battle against book-banners, as first seen in Comic Book Legal Defense Fund #1, 2015.

Closing this book are a number of ‘Bonus Features’: pin-ups and a cover gallery including modern masterpieces and remastered classic Archie images retrofitted to suit our 21st century all-star by Parent, Gisele Lagace, J. Bone, Derek Charm, Sina Grace, Phil Jimenez, Dan DeCarlo, Bill Galvan, Ryan Jampole, Steve Downer and more: ‘Bonus promotional Sketches’ and full ‘Backer Credits’.

At once hilarious, enthralling and magically inclusive Kevin Keller: Celebration! is a joyous, miraculously fun collection for you and everyone you know and like to enjoy over and over again.
Kevin Keller Celebration! © 2022 Archie Comics Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.