Author: NowReadThis

Posted on

Batman: R.I.P. – the Deluxe Edition


By Grant Morrison, Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea, Lee Garbett & Trevor Scott (DC Comics/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-137-3

After a sustained and vicious campaign of brutal psychological warfare, the all-encompassing criminal hegemony calling itself the Black Glove has succeeded in destabilising the already dubious mental equilibrium of Batman. The Glove’s enigmatic, quixotic leader Dr. Hurt is on the verge of his greatest triumph…

Grant Morrison’s controversial, much-touted extended saga relating “the Death of Batman”, promised much and managed to leave many fans confused, angry and unsatisfied, but us older lags knew full well that whatever happened, however long it took, Bruce Wayne would be back and the dance would begin all over again. So let’s take a look at this culminatory saga on its isolated, intrinsic merits and not as part of the hysterical “Buy Me! Buy Me!” huckster-hype: a solitary book starring one of the industry’s most resilient stars.

I’m reviewing the rather lovely Deluxe British edition produced by Titan Books: a lavish oversized hardback that really feels like a special event and which collects the contents of Batman #676-683 plus the portentous prelude from DC Universe #0, and also includes an extensive cover gallery – including all the variants – and a sketch section by Morrison and artist Tony S. Daniel.

After the aforementioned prelude (by Morrison & Daniel), a confrontation and mutual warning for the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince, ‘Midnight in the House of Hurt’ (which begins Sandu Florea’s cracking contribution as inker) sees the villainous clan commence their end-game as distracted, exhausted, head-over-heels-in-love Batman is dragged through further tribulations. The criminal cabal invite the Joker to join their Black Glove, whilst in ‘Batman in the Underworld’ the hero’s greatest allies begin to suspect that he’s out of control: even Bruce Wayne is no longer sure…

The first inkling of a counterplan comes with a glimpse of Batman’s earliest cases – a time when the master strategist had time to plan for every possible contingency. With his closest confidante apparently dead a radical new Caped Crusader stalks Gotham – the outlandish Batman of ‘Zur En Arrh’. Death and Chaos rule on the streets in ‘Miracle on Crime Alley’ and the utterly unpredictable Clown makes his characteristically savage move in ‘The Thin White Duke of Death’…Naturally it’s not what anybody expected…

Let’s be clear here: at the time of the original comics publication, for the industry and fan-base the Death of Batman was already a done deal. With the mega-crossover event Final Crisis rumbling along like a gaudy juggernaut, everybody “knew” that Bruce Wayne was a goner and only waited to see how, so when ‘Hearts in Darkness’ finally appeared with a resplendent, resurgent, triumphant Batman vanquishing and vanishing, leaving a slew of unanswered questions, there were howls of protest.

However these are readers who were aware of a greater picture that involved the entire DCU. For the purposes of this collection though and any casual reader picking it up, there is a solid narrative conclusion which is marvelously supplemented by the two-issue postscript ‘Last Rites’ which follows.

Illustrated by Lee Garbett and Trevor Scott, ‘The Butler Did It‘ and ‘The Butler Did It Again’ focus on Alfred Pennyworth as he adapts to a life without Master Bruce and his driven alter-ego. Looking backwards and to the future these contemplative pieces pinpoint some key moments of Batman’s serried history whilst carefully planting those clues that would inform the adventures of his successor and even lay a trail of breadcrumbs that would lead to the return of Bruce Wayne…

With the addition of such fashionably despised elements as Bat-Mite and Black Casebook continuity (see Batman: the Black Casebook), as well as deferring/postponing the traditional last chapter explanation and wrap-up, Morrison caught a lot of flak for this tale, but in all honesty, with the value of distance and hindsight this whole thing actually works very well, indeed.

Pretty, enthralling beautiful and magnificently compulsive, this is a Bat-book well worth another look.

© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Titan books, who published this edition, are responsible for a huge number of publications; their magazines and graphic novels range from British and World comics and strip classics to fantasy, science fiction, licensed product and DC/Vertigo material for all tastes. Their fabulous new website/blog should beopen for business as you read this. Why not check them out as soon as you’re done here?

Posted on

NoMan


By various (Tower Books)
ISBN: 42-672

I’ve often harped on about the mini-revolution in the “Camp-superhero” crazed 1960s that saw four-colour comicbook classics migrate briefly from flimsy pamphlet to the stiffened covers and relative respectability of the paperback bookshelves, and the nostalgic wonderments these mostly forgotten fancies still afford (to me at least), but here’s one that I picked up years later as a marginally mature grown man.

Although the double-sized colour comics T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, its spin-offs Undersea Agent, Dynamo, NoMan and the magnificent war-comic Fight the Enemy were all distributed in Britain (but not, I think their youth-comedy title Tippy Teen) these monochrome, re-sized book editions, to the best of my knowledge, were not.

It doesn’t matter: to my delight, it seems that even today the format and not the glow of childhood days recalled is enough to spark that frisson of proprietary glee that apparently only comic fans (and Dinky Toy collectors) are preciously prone to.

Of course it doesn’t hurt when the material is as magnificent as this…

The history of Wally Wood’s immortal spies-in-tights masterpiece is convoluted, and once the mayfly-like lifetime of the Tower Comics line ended, not especially pretty: bogged down in legal wrangling and petty back-biting, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that the far-too brief careers of The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves was a benchmark of quality and sheer bravura fun for fans of both the reawakening superhero genre and the 1960s spy-chic obsession.

In the early 1960s the Bond movie franchise went from strength to strength, with action and glamour utterly transforming the formerly understated espionage vehicle. The buzz was infectious: soon Men like Flint and Matt Helm were carving out their own piece of the action as television shanghaied the entire bandwagon with the irresistible Man From U.N.C.L.E. (beginning in September 1964), bringing the whole genre inescapably into living rooms across the world.

Creative maverick Wally Wood was approached by veteran MLJ/Archie Comics editor Harry Shorten to create a line of characters for a new distribution-chain funded publishing outfit – Tower Comics. Woody called on many of the industry’s biggest names to produce material for the broad range of genres the company envisioned: Samm Schwartz and Dan DeCarlo handled Tippy Teen – which outlasted all the others – whilst Wood, Larry Ivie, Len Brown, Bill Pearson, Steve Skeates, Dan Adkins, Russ Jones Gil Kane and Ralph Reese all contributed to the adventure series.

With a ravenous public appetite for super-spies and costumed heroes exponentially growing the idea of blending the two concepts seems a no-brainer now, but those were far more conservative times, so when T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 appeared with no fanfare or pre-publicity on newsstands in August 1965 (with a cover off-sale date of November) thrill-hungry readers like little me were blown away. It didn’t hurt either that all Tower titles were in the beloved-but-rarely-seen 80 Page Giant format: there was a huge amount to read in every issue!

All that being said the tales would not be so revered if they hadn’t been so superbly crafted. As well as Wood, the art accompanying the compelling, rather more mature stories was by some of the greatest talents in the business: Reed Crandall, Gil Kane, George Tuska, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Ayers, Joe Orlando, Frank Giacoia, John Giunta, Steve Ditko and others.

This slim, seductive digest stars the UN Agency’s number two troubleshooter (after the iconic Dynamo) in four stirring spy thrillers featuring a winning combination of cloak-and-dagger danger, science fiction shocks and stirring super-heroics. Although UN commandos failed to save brilliant Professor Jennings from the mysterious Warlord, they rescued some of the scientist’s greatest inventions, including a belt that could increase the density of the wearer’s body, a brain-amplifier helmet and a cloak of invisibility.

These prototypes were divided between several agents, creating a unit of superior fighting men to counter the increasingly bold attacks of global terror threats such as the aforementioned Warlord.

Inexplicably, the origin tale ‘T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent NoMan’ which told how aged Dr. Anthony Dunn had his mind transferred into an artificial android body equipped with the invisibility cape is not included here, but the book’s back cover features a Wood pin-up “file page” which distils the powers and background into a handy recap. In those long-ago days kids didn’t much care for long-winded and endless reworkings of past detail: origins just weren’t as important as beating bad-guys….

Incredibly strong, swift and durable, NoMan had one final advantage: if his artificial body was destroyed his consciousness could transfer to another android body. As long as he had a spare ready, he could never die.

The action starts with ‘In the Warlord’s Power’ (by Bill Pearson, Dick Ayers, Joe Orlando and Wood) as the artificial agent has to defend an entire Missile Base from an assault by an army of Zombie-men, swiftly followed by ‘NoMan Faces the Threat of the Amazing Vibraman’ (Pearson, John Giunta, Wood & Tony Coleman) wherein the threat was far les esoteric but no less deadly: a freelance villain who used devastating sound weapons.

Next the Invisible Agent tackled a fiendish Mastermind equipped with his own android army in ‘The Synthetic Stand-Ins’ by Steve Skeates, Mike Sekowsky & Frank Giacoia, and the explosive adventures rush to a classy climax in ‘The Caverns of Demo’ (astoundingly illustrated by Gil Kane, Wood and Dan Adkins) wherein NoMan faced an entire island of Neanderthal Beast-Men controlled by an arch criminal who had stolen his cloak of invisibility! Sheer magic!

Supplemented by an exciting ‘NoMan in Action’ fact-feature this is a book that would have completely blown away pre-teen me and still has all the impact of a blockbuster bomb. These are truly timeless comic tales that improve with every reading and there’s precious few things you can say that about…
© 1966 Tower Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

The Effluent Society


By Norman Thelwell (Magnum/Eyre Methuen)
ISBN: 0-417-01050-8

Norman Thelwell is still one of our most beloved cartoonists – even though he passed away in 2004. I was going to astound you with my encyclopedic knowledge here but frankly his work has always been its own best advocate, and if you need to know more about this brilliant creator you should crank up your search-engine of choice. I heartily recommend the official website as well as Steve Holland’s excellent Bear Alley resource.

Thelwell’s superbly gentle cartooning combined Bigfoot abstractions with a keen and accurate eye for background detail, not just on the riding and countryside themes that made him a household name, but on all the myriad subjects upon which he turned his canny eye. His compositions are an immaculate condensation of everything warm yet charged, resonant with being resolutely Post-War, Baby-Booming British without ever being parochial or provincial.

His work has international implications and scope, neatly achieving that by presenting us to the world for decades. There are 32 books of his work and every aficionado of humour – illustrated or otherwise – could do much worse than possess them all.

From 1950 when his gag-panel Chicko first began in the Eagle, and especially two years later with his first sale to Punch, he built a solid body of irresistible, seductive and always funny work. He appeared in innumerable magazines, comics and papers ranging from Men Only to Everybody’s Weekly. In 1957 his first collection of published cartoons Angels on Horseback was released and in 1961 he made the rare reverse trip by releasing a book of all-new cartoons that was subsequently serialised in the Sunday Express.

His dry, sly, cannily observed drawings were a huge success and other books followed to supplement his regular appearances in a variety of newspapers and magazines. Thus we have here his shrewd graphic ruminations on Tomorrow’s World: the then-budding Conservation Movement.

These strips, culled mostly from the venerable and equally-missed Punch, come from a time when Global Warming and Climate Change were unheard of and “Population Explosions” and “Pollution” were the media bugbears of choice – but for all that an era when many scientists were finally beginning to make themselves heard in a commercial and political arena that simply did not want to listen…

These cartoons range from the wonderfully silly to the painfully trenchant, created by a man who loved and valued the countryside, but Thelwell was also an observer who could spot cupidity and cant a mile off, so here no cows were sacred and all sides are similarly targeted…

Subdivided into Water, Water Everywhere, The Good Earth, A Breath of Fresh Air, Down in the Dumps, The Race for Space (that’s residences not rocket-ships), Animal Farm (food production), All Creatures Great and Small, Technical Hitch, The Grave New World and Let’s Protest, far too many of these gags are still devastatingly relevant today: which is as much a condemnation of Society’s truculent procrastination as the artist’s fantastic, funny foresight.

Clearly it’s not too late to stack down this manifesto of mirth, and perhaps somebody should be thinking about re-issuing this classy cracker…
© 1971 Norman Thelwell.

Posted on

Dame Darcy’s Meat Cake


By Dame Darcy (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-346-0

Since 1993 Dame Darcy has been building a weird, wistful and Gothically girlish fantasy

universe in her oddly enchanting comicbook Meat Cake, as well as the occasional graphic novel and collection such as Frightful Fairytales, The Illustrated Jane Eyre, Dollerium, Comic Book Tattoo, Gasoline and others. Now an affordable black and white paperback reprinting the best moody marvels from the first eleven issues is available and keenly awaits your effulgent appreciation.

Darcy Megan Stanger is a prolific and restless artist, musician, animator, dollmaker, interior designer, fashion model, art teacher and reality TCV star – one of those ever-so-likable, infuriating do-it-alls modern society is increasingly populated by.

For some her darkly comic, magic-infested, mock-Victorian realm of slender, ethereal, hauntingly lovely gamins and ghastly side-show freaks might be a step too far. This is a stark place with no room for dull, fat people or the plain visaged…

Certainly this collection is best read in measured instalments, lest the girly-girl blend of Edwardian emo-fashion, Jazz-age make up, tragic love-stories, sinister childhoods, ghostly interventions, maids behaving badly and “fractured fairy-tale” moral instruction lose its power to affect, but the sensibilities of modern female characters thriving in a gloomy imaginative otherplace is one that is rich with entertainment potential especially when scripted with the deliciously scandalous wit of la Dama.

Although some few non-related snippets are included, the major portion of the book concerns the tribulations of a rather distinctive cast of self-absorbed, grotesque and genteel ladies of varied means and character. There’s shrinking violet Friend The Girl, the abrasive Richard Dirt, the constantly bickering conjoined twins Hindrance and Perfidia, seductive, bitchy mermaid Effluvia, Strega Pez, who communicates through a livid gash in her throat, the talkative crustacean Scampi the Shellfish, the utterly bonkers wise woman Granny, Igpay and undead, monstrous token male Wax Wolf, all living in a world at once similar and wondrously ancient and removed.

In sultry, sinister or just plain strange tales like ‘Laughing All the Way to the Bank’, ‘Shrimpboats is A-Comin”, ‘Employ Ahoy!’, ‘Bus-Ted’, ‘Hookie Lau Breakfast Special’, ‘The Hitch-Hiker’, ‘Grave Concerns’, ‘Happy Hi-Jinx’, ‘Lessons on the Principles of Magnetism’, ‘Honey’, ‘Dirty Rich’, ‘Demon Drink’, ‘Silver Lining’ and ‘Fruit Bat‘ the extended eccentric cast live their odd and abstracted lives for us whilst in longer fables such as ‘The Juicer and the Cake Walk’, ‘The Next Holy Virgin’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, ‘Stained Glass’, ‘The Ghost Filly’, ‘Sweet William and Lady Margaret’, ‘EZ Bake Coven’ and ‘Latch Key Kids Cookbook‘ Darcy demonstrates her love and tacit understanding of classical storytelling and particularly Gothic Romance fantasies.

Amidst the assorted unaligned graphical gags and oddments are such brief gems as ‘Ruby Rack! Ruby Rack!’, ‘The Wishing Star’, ‘Existence Forgets’, ‘Spontaneous Generation’, ‘Puppet Show’ (an homage to cartoon pioneer Gustave Verbeek), and an acerbic assemblage of actively skewed ‘Old Nursery Rhymes’ as well as some decidedly quirky autobiographical incidents like ‘Double Trouble or Freaky Friday’, ‘Paper Doll Fun!’, ‘Your Diary’, ‘My Patron’ and ‘Show Me My Hand’ but the absolute show-stealer is her baroque, wilfully whimsical satire-fest with Alan Moore who scripted the marvellously captivating ‘Hungry is the Heart’: a spectacular expose of the extraordinary life and times of turn of the century Society Maverick, Wild-Woman and Button Magnate Wellington Woolenboy AKA Jumbalor – “Damp String Woman”.

Macabre, hilarious and addictively odd, Meat Cake satisfies appetites you can’t believe you have. This is a book for girls that every comicbook guy really needs to see…

© 2010 Dame Darcy. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Hawkman Volume 1: Endless Flight


By Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Rags Morales & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84023-714-6

Although perhaps one of DC’s most long-lived and certainly their most visually iconic character, the various iterations of Hawkman have always struggled to find enough of an audience to sustain a solo title. From his beginnings as the second feature in Flash Comics, Winged Wonder Carter Hall has struggled through assorted excellent but always short-lived reconfigurations. From ancient hero to the re-imagined Thanagarian space-cop and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths freedom fighter (both named Katar Hol – see Showcase presents Hawkman volumes 1-2 and Hawkworld respectively) to the seemingly desperate but highly readable bundling together of all the past versions into the reincarnating immortal berserker-warrior of today, without ever really making it to the big time. Where’s a big-time movie producer/fan when you need one?

Hawkman premiered as the second feature in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940), created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville, although the most celebrated artists to have drawn this Winged Wonder are Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Kubert, whilst a young Robert Kanigher was justly proud of his later run as writer.

Carter Hall was a playboy archaeologist until he uncovered a crystal knife that unlocked his memories. He realised that once he was Prince Khufu of ancient Egypt and that he and his lover Chay-Ara had been murdered by High Priest Hath-Set. Moreover with his returned memories came the knowledge that both lover and killer were also nearby and aware…

Using the restored knowledge of his past life Hall fashioned a costume and flying harness, becoming a crime-fighting phenomenon. Soon the equally reincarnated Shiera Sanders was fighting and flying beside him as Hawkgirl. Together these ancient “Mystery-Men” battled modern crime and tyranny with weapons of the past.

Fading away at the end of the Golden Age (Hawkman’s last appearance was in All Star Comics #57, 1951 as leader of the Justice Society of America) they were revived nine years later as Katar Hol and Shayera Thal of Thanagar by Julie Schwartz’s crack creative team Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert – a more space-aged interpretation which survived until 1985’s Crisis, and their long career, numerous revamps and retcons ended during the 1994 Zero Hour crisis.

When a new Hawkgirl was created as part of a revived Justice Society comicbook, older fans knew it was only a matter of time before the Pinioned Paladin rejoined her, which he did in the superb JSA: the Return of Hawkman.

Which is where Endless Flight takes off: reprinting issues #1-6 of the comicbook that spun-off from that epic extravaganza, plus the one-shot Hawkman Secret Files. The new series begins with the reborn, reunited heroes settling into a comfortably familiar setting as museum curators in the Louisiana City of St. Roch – a venue with as great story potential as it was during the Silver Age when Katar Hol had a similar job in Midway City.

The reconstituted Hawkman now has knowledge of all his past lives: many millennia when and where he and his princess fought evil together as bird-themed champions, dying over and over at the hands of an equally renewed Hath-Set. Most importantly, Kendra Saunders, the new Hawkgirl differs from all previous incarnations. This time Shiera was not born again, but possessed the body of a grand-niece when that tragic girl committed suicide. Although Carter Hall still loves his immortal inamorata his companion of a million battles is no longer quite so secure or sure of her feelings…

‘First Impressions’ by Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Rags Morales & Michael Bair drops the couple straight into a high-flying adventure as their oldest foe orchestrates an opening attack just as a new friend goes missing in India. ‘Into the Sky’ further explores new lives and ancient civilisations as the Hawks travel to the subcontinent in a leftover Thanagarian space-cruiser and encounter old enemies Shadow-Thief and Copperhead stealing artifacts from a lost – and trans-dimensional – city.

‘Lost in the Battlelands’ sees the Feathered Furies striving against ancient Vedic warriors to save enslaved, intelligent, six-limbed elephant men, an epic struggle that concludes in a savage war of liberation in ‘Beasts of Burden’.

Meanwhile back home in St. Roch, millionaire Kristopher Roderic is laying sinister long-term plans and a superlative archer is committing murders in the street…

‘Hidden Past and Hidden Future’, by Johns, Patrick Gleason & Christian Alamy, reveals Shadow-Thief’s connection to Roderick whilst retelling the ancient tragedy of Prince Khufu, his betrothed Chay-Ara and their betrayal by the Priest Hath-Set, before ‘Slings and Arrows’ (Johns, Robinson, Morales & Bair) finds Hawkman butting heads with old “Frenemy” Green Arrow, a cunning two-part thriller that features bad-guy bowman The Spider (fans of James Robinson’s superb Starman run will be delighted to see him again) attempting to frame the Emerald Archer and set up the Hawks to kill him…

Grim, gripping and often brutal, these opening tales of a noble savage taking back what once was his are some of the very best adventures of the Winged Wonders and hint at even greater things to come. A must-read for older fans of costumed melodramas, they are still a powerful, beautiful and compelling example of what great creators and fresh ideas can achieve with even the oldest raw material.

Don’t delay any longer. Hunt this book down now…

© 2002, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

The Book of Mr. Natural (Profane Tales of that Old Mystic Madcap)


By Robert Crumb (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-352-1

Robert Crumb is a unique force in the world of comics and cartooning with as many foes as fans, but his idiosyncratic, unflinching, controversial but always enchanting work is impossible to ignore. This beautiful black and white hardback collects a varied and impressive selection of strips starring his most famous character produced between 1967 and 1995 and as always touches on the creator’s most intimate and disturbing idiosyncrasies regarding sex and women, both in the unsettling Abstract and the painful, side-splitting, lustful, painful and loving Concrete.

Therefore if harsh language, mild blasphemy, artfully grotesque cartoon nudity and comedic fornication are liable to upset you, stop reading this review and don’t buy the book.

For the rest of us; here’s a quick rundown of what’s in store…

Mr. Natural is a short, balding, bewhiskered, be-robed guru and engagingly vulgar huckster who began selling enlightenment and simple living in the May 5th 1967 issue of counter-culture paper Yarrowstalks. His assaults on the vapidity and venality of the modern world were reproduced and absorbed by an astoundingly broad variety of truth-seekers and laugh lovers who followed the succession of strips in an incomprehensible number of places.

The little wise guy had genuine insight and even greater powers, but peddled his wisdom for crass, material cash or other, less transferable favours. Obviously, and lucky for us all, he’s the only Holy Man or preacher ever to do such a reprehensible, unspiritual thing…

Of the twenty-seven tales gathered here, ranging from single-page strips to the epic 40 page ‘Mr. Natural and Devil Girl’ there are a number of classic yarns that seemingly everyone has seen or heard of but also one or two genuinely rare experiences -  particularly the wonderfully dense and informative ‘Origins of Mr. Natural’.

A less charitable reviewer might suspect that this book has been padded out with older material simply to give the legendary Devil Girl saga – originally serialised in Hup and never before collected into book form – a more accessible and commercially appetising home… and if so I applaud the move as that 1991 tale is one of the most wonderfully jolly and unsettling pieces of work Crumb has yet produced.

Flakey Foont was the foil of many of the earlier strips and a handy barometer of Everyman America. Over the decades the ex-disciple who was beguiled, reviled and defiled by “The Natch” eventually Turned Off, Tuned Out and Dropped back “In”, but found himself losing all self-control when confronted in his happily middle-class suburban family paradise by the returned Sage and the raw, lustful female animal that was both antithetical enemy and willing slave…

Other notable gems include ‘Mr. Natural in Death Valley’, ‘Mr. Natural Visits the City’, ‘It’s Workaday World’, ‘Mr. Natural Goes to a Meeting of the Minds’, ‘Sunny Side Up’ ‘Om Sweet Om’, ‘Mr. Natural Stops Talking’, ‘A Girl in Hotpants, ‘The Girlfriend’ and the utterly perfect and fully zeitgeisted ‘Mr. Natural’s 719th Meditation’, a plethora of revelation and confrontation that still provides merriment and queasy shock in equal proportion.

Crumb’s subtle mastery of his art-form and compulsive, uncompromising need to reveal his most hidden depths and perceived defects – in himself and the world around him – has always been a unquenchable wellspring of challenging comedy and riotous rumination. This magical, mystical tome is an ideal dipping book for occasional slices of his raucous wit and the perfect vehicle to introduce any (definitively over 18) newcomers of your acquaintance to the world of grown up comics.

© 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1995, 2010 R. Crumb. All Rights Reserved. Edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books, Inc.

Posted on

Wolfpack – A Marvel Graphic Novel


By Larry Hama, Ron Wilson, Whilce Portacio, Kyle Baker & others (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-306-7

It’s been a long while since Marvel published an all-original graphic novel as opposed to a reprint collection, but not too long ago they were the market leader in the field with an entire range of “big stories” told on larger than normal pages (285 x 220mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168mm) featuring not only proprietary characters but also licensed assets like Conan and even creator-owned properties.

They also took chances on unusual and cross-genre tales such as this little oddity which falls squarely into the category of a successful “bold departure” which subsequently spawned its own twelve issue series.

Wolfpack (not to be confused with the later maverick band of costumed heroes that appeared in the Marvel crossover event House of M) is an intriguing meld of savage inner-city reportage and high fantasy Ninja conspiracy thriller set in the utterly alien streets of the South Bronx. It takes a two thousand year old, multi-generational battle between ultimate Good and Evil and sets its latest skirmish in a terrifying ghetto where hope and honour refuse to die. It would make a great Teen TV show today…

‘Rafael’ is a loner in trouble. The corridors of Horace Harding High School are every bit as dangerous as the mean streets outside, but the cocky young outsider has a secret. He’s been training with the school caretaker…

What Rafael Vega doesn’t know is that Mr. Mack is a man with a past and a plan. As a black sailor in post-war Japan he experienced intolerance and repression from his own (white) shipmates, but found acceptance from certain Japanese ancients who saw in him a chance to continue a battle that had already spanned two millennia.

The ancients trained him in all their fighting arts, requiring him to form a new “Pack” and confront an everlasting circle of wealth, power and wicked excess called “The Nine”: an ever-changing cycle of decadents who represented the forces of Evil in some indefinable Cosmic Balance.

Mack returned to New York and began his task, knowing this opposing force would find him wherever he went. Ghastly and blighted as it was, the South Bronx would have been far worse if not for the decades-long, beneficent watch of a silent guardian – but that’s all about to change…

Unknown to even his pupils, Mr. Mack had been clandestinely training kids in various fighting and philosophical arts for years, so when up-and-coming schoolboy gangster Lamarr targeted Raphael for death, Mack realised that it was time at last to introduce his young wolves to each other.

Now in ‘The Crucible’ Rafael discovers that some of his oldest associates were also singled out for a higher purpose by Mack and as he reassesses his new pack-mates, “Slag” Slagley, “Slippery Sam” Weltschmerz, wheelchair-bound “Wheels” Wolinski and even his own girlfriend Sharon, events turn ugly with startling rapidity. The new warriors organise none too soon as Lamarr graduates to attempted murder by destroying the store owned by Slippery Sam’s dad.

The Nine now make their move, recruiting Lamarr to their inner circle, but the wicked, Old-World Machiavellians have no idea how modern inner-city depravation can shape the nature of evil. As the death-toll mounts and the Pack strike back, events speed to a violent conclusion in ‘Transfiguration’ and The Nine realise that they might have made a terrible mistake with Lamarr…

Harsh and uncompromising, this introductory tale (I can’t shake the feeling this was originally scheduled as a three-part story-arc and “bumped” into a more high-profile graphic novel at the last moment) effortlessly compels with a dark mix of telling social drama, dark wit and superlative action-adventure that is far more hard-hitting than most comicbook tales even today.

The workmanlike Ron Wilson is probably nobody’s favourite artist, but he is a solid dependable illustrator with a good line in brooding brutes and inner city landscapes. Here, inked and augmented by such diverse budding stylists as Whilce Portacio and Kyle Baker his art takes on a moody realism that complements both the harsh environs of the plot and mystical martial arts elements with striking effect. The letters are provided by Joe Rosen and the somewhat hit-or miss colouring is by Petra Scotese, Max Scheele and Glynis Oliver.

Ugly, uncompromising, breathtakingly hard, this is the kind of book to show anybody who thinks that comics are all about men-in-tights and written for powerless sissy-boys…
© 1987 Marvel Entertainment Group. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Jack Kirby’s The Demon


By Jack Kirby & Mike Royer (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-4012-1916-1

There’s a magnificent abundance of Jack Kirby collections around these days (though still not all of it, so I remain a partially disgruntled fan) and this magnificent hardback compendium re-presents the complete “King’s Canon” of possibly his most enduring – although subsequently misunderstood and mishandled – DC creation after the comics landmark that was his Fourth World Cycle.

Famed for his larger than life characters and gigantic, cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual man who had lived though poverty, gangsterism, the Depression and World War II. He had seen Post-War optimism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures. He was open-minded and utterly wedded to the making of comics stories on every imaginable subject.

On returning from World War II, with his long-term creative partner Joe Simon, he created the genre of Romance comics for the Crestwood/Prize publishing outfit. Amongst that dynamics duo’s other concoctions for Prize was a, noir-ish, psychologically underpinned supernatural anthology Black Magic and its short-lived but fascinating companion title Strange World of Your Dreams. These titles eschewed the traditional gory, heavy-handed morality plays and simplistic cautionary tales for deeper, stranger fare, and until the EC comics line hit their peak were far and away the best mystery titles on the market.

Kirby understood the fundamentals of pleasing his audience and always strived diligently to combat the appalling state of prejudice about the comics medium – especially from industry insiders and professionals who despised the “kiddies world” they felt trapped in.

After his controversial, grandiose Fourth World titles were cancelled Kirby looked for other concepts which would stimulate his vast creativity and still appeal to an increasingly fickle market. General interest in the Supernatural was rising, with books and movies exploring the unknown in gripping and stylish new ways, and the Comics Code Authority had already released its censorious choke-hold on mystery and horror titles, thereby saving the entire industry from implosion when the superhero boom of the 1960s fizzled away.

At DC’s suggestion the King had already briefly returned to his Black Magic experimentation in a superb but poorly received and largely undistributed monochrome magazine. Spirit World #1 – and only – launched in the summer of 1971, but as before, editorial cowardice and back-sliding scuppered the project before it could get going.

Material from a second, unpublished issue eventually appeared in the colour comic-books Weird Mystery Tales and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #6, but with most of his ideas misunderstood, ignored or side-lined by the company Kirby opted for more traditional fare. Never truly defeated though, he cannily blended his belief in the marketability of the supernatural with flamboyant super-heroics to create another unique and lasting mainstay for the DC universe: one that lesser talents would make a pivotal figure of the company’s continuity.

The Demon #1 launched in September 1972 and introduced a howling, leaping monstrosity (famously modelled after a 1939 sequence from Hal Foster’s Arthurian classic Prince Valiant) which battled beside its master Merlin as Camelot died in flames: a casualty of the rapacious greed of sorceress Morgaine Le Fey.

Out of that apocalyptic destruction, a man arose and wandered off into the mists of history…

In our contemporary world Jason Blood, demonologist and paranormal investigator, had a near-death experience with an aged collector of illicit arcana, which resulted in a hideous nightmare about a demonic being and the last stand of Camelot. He has no idea that Le Fey was alive and had sinister plans for him…

And in distant Moldavia, strange things were stirring in crumbling Castle Branek, wherein lay hidden the lost Tomb of Merlin…

Blood was wealthy, reclusive and partially amnesiac, but one night he agreed to host a small dinner party, entertaining acquaintances Harry Mathews, psychic UN diplomat Randu Singh, his wife Gomali and their flighty young friend Glenda Mark. It did not go well.

Firstly there was the painful small talk, and the sorcerous surveillance of Le Fey, but the real problems started when an animated stone giant arrived to “invite” Blood to visit Castle Branek. This epic journey led to Merlin’s last resting place but just as Blood thought he might find some answers to his enigmatic past Le Fey pounced. Suddenly he began to change, transforming into the horrific beast of his dreams…

Issue #2, ‘My Tomb in Castle Branek!’ opened with wary villagers observing a terrific battle between a yellow monster and Le Fey’s forces, but when the Demon was defeated and Blood arrested, only the telepathic influence of Randu in America could aid him. Le Fey was old, dying, and needed Merlin’s grimoire, the Eternity Book, to extend her life. Thus she manipulated Blood, who had lived for centuries unaware that the Demon Etrigan – Merlin’s hellish Attack Dog – was chained inside him, to regain his memories and awaken the slumbering master mage. It looked like the last mistake she would ever make…

Kirby’s tried and trusted approach was always to pepper high concepts throughout blazing, breakneck action, and #3 was one the most imaginative yet. ‘The Reincarnators’ saw Blood back in the USA, aware at last and with a small but devoted circle of friends. Adapting to a less lonely life he encountered a cult who could physically regress people to a prior life – and use those time-lost beings to commit murder…

The Demon #4-5 comprised a two-part adventure, wherein a simple witch and her macabre patron actually captured the reawakened, semi-divine Merlin. ‘The Creature from Beyond’ and ‘Merlin’s Word’s… Demon’s Wrath!’ introduced that cute little monkey, Kamara the Fear-Monster (later used with devastating effect by Alan Moore in Saga of the Swamp Thing #26-27) and featured another startling “Kirby-Kreature” – Somnanbula, the Dream Beast.

It seems odd in these blasé modern times but the Demon was a controversial book in its day – cited as providing the first post-Comics Code depiction of Hell and one where problems were regularly solved with sudden, extreme violence. ‘The Howler!’ in issue #6, was a truly spooky yarn with Blood hunting a primal entity of rage and brutal terror that transformed its victims into murderous lycanthropic killers, whilst #7 introduced a spiteful, malevolent young fugitive from a mystical otherplace.

‘Witchboy’ Klarion and his cat-familiar Teekl were utterly evil little sociopaths in an time where all comic-book politicians were honest, cops only shot to wound and “bad” kids were only misunderstood: another Kirby first…

‘Phantom of the Sewers’ skilfully combined movie and late night TV horror motifs in the dark and tragic tale of actor Farley Fairfax, cursed by the witch he once spurned. Unfortunately Glenda Mark was the spitting image of the departed Galatea, and when decades later the demented thespian kidnapped her to raise the curse, it could only end in a flurry of destruction, death and consumed souls.

This three-part thriller was followed by another extended epic (The Demon #11-13) ‘Baron von Evilstein’ a powerful parable about worth and appearance featuring the ultimate mad scientist and the tragic monster he so casually built. It’s a truth that bears repeating: ugly doesn’t equal bad…

Despite Kirby’s best efforts The Demon was not a monster hit, unlike the science-fictional disaster drama Kamandi, and by #14 it’s clear that the book was in its last days. Not because the sheer pace of imagination, excitement and passion diminished – far from it – but because the well-considered, mood-drenched stories were suddenly replaced by rocket-fast eldritch romps – with returning villains.

First back was Klarion the Witchboy who created a ‘Deadly Doppelganger’ to replace Jason Blood and kill his friends in #14-15, before the series – and this wonderful hardcover treasury of wicked delights – ended in a climactic showdown with the ‘Immortal Enemy’ Morgaine Le Fey…

Kirby continued with Kamandi, explored WWII in The Losers and created the magnificent Omac: One Man Army Corps, but still could not achieve the all-important sales the company demanded. Eventually he returned to Marvel and new challenges such as Black Panther, Captain America, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Devil Dinosaur, Machine Man and especially The Eternals.

As always in these wondrously economical collections it should be noted that the book is stuffed with un-inked Kirby pencilled pages and roughs, and Mark Evanier’s fascinating, informative introduction is, as ever, a fact-fan’s delight.

Jack Kirby was and is unique and uncompromising: his words and pictures are an unparalleled, hearts-and-minds grabbing delight no comics lover could resist. If you’re not a fan or simply not prepared to see for yourself what all the fuss has been about then no words of mine will change your mind.

That doesn’t alter the fact that Kirby’s work from 1937 to his death in 1994 shaped the entire American comics scene and indeed the entire comics planet – affecting the lives of billions of readers and thousands of creators in all areas of artistic endeavour for generations and still winning new fans and apostles every day, from the young and naive to the most cerebral of intellectuals. His work is instantly accessible, irresistibly visceral, deceptively deep and simultaneously mythic and human.

He is the King and time has shown that the star of this book is one of his most potent legacies.

© 1972, 1973, 1974, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

JLA: volume 3 Rock of Ages


By Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, John Dell & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-416-9

After the Silver Age’s greatest team-book died a slow, painful, embarrassing death, not once but twice, DC were taking no chances with their next revival of the Justice League of America and tapped Big Ideas wünderkind Grant Morrison to reconstruct the group and the franchise.

And the idea that clicked? Shove everybody’s favourite Big Names in the team.

Of course it worked, but that’s only because as well as star quantity there was an absolutely huge burst of creative quality. The stories were smart, compelling, dauntingly large-scale and illustrated with infectious exuberance. One glance at JLA and anybody could see all the effort undertaken to make it the best it could be.

This third collection re-presents issues #10-15 of the resurgent revival and covers a spectacular landmark tale where old-world goodies-vs.-baddies met contemporary fringe science chic for a rollercoaster ride of boggled minds which only served to set up even bigger concept clashes further down the line. That’s the magic of foreshadowing, folks…

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman are the legends who are targeted by a coalition of arch enemies comprising Lex Luthor, the Joker, Circe, Mirror Master, Ocean Master and Doctor Light, in the prologue ‘Genesis and Revelations’ wherein ghastly doppelgangers of the World’s Greatest Heroes go on a campaign of destruction all over the globe. Even with new members Aztek and Connor Hawke (the new Green Arrow), on board the new “Injustice Gang’ are running the heroes ragged, but the stakes change radically when the telepathic Martian Manhunter detects an extinction-level entity heading to Earth from deep space…

Rock of Ages proper begins with ‘Hostile Takeover’ as the legion of villains press their advantage whilst the New God Metron appears to warn the JLA that the end of everything is approaching. As Circe tries to head-hunt Aztek, Arrow and Plastic Man, Green Lantern and Flash are treated to a distressing view of the Universes beyond our own reality, as they are dispatched to recover the fabled Philosopher’s Stone in a last-ditch effort to save the worlds.

In ‘Wonderworld’ the fabled last defenders of Cosmic Reality proffer a grim warning of Mageddon, the Anti-Sun, ender of all things to the lost superheroes. Shell-shocked, they are rescued by Hourman, an artificial time-controlling intelligence, and return to our plane of existence only to find it has been conquered by the evil god Darkseid.

‘Wasteland’ is a bleak and chaotic taste of the Final Crisis, with humanity all but dead, and the surviving champions fighting their last battle against the horrors of Apokolips-on-Earth, leading to a perfect Deus-ex-Machina moment of triumph in ‘Twilight of the Gods’ as this wicked universe is un-made and “our” reality reinstated.

Unfortunately if you’ve been keeping up, that was the continuity where the Injustice Gang were beating the stuffing out of the good guys…

‘Stone of Destiny’ brings the saga to a neat and satisfying conclusion as the villains go down fighting and an approximation of order is restored in a cataclysmic combat climax. With Gary Frank, Greg Land, John Dell & Bob McLeod lending artistic assistance to the spectacular proceedings, Morrison and Porter resolve the epic and close with a perfect example of the maxim “always leave them wanting more” – shocking twist to make the reader hungry for the next instalment.

If you haven’t read this sparkling slice of fight ‘n’ tights wonderment then your fantastic comic-life just isn’t complete yet. Savvy, compelling, challenging but not afraid of nostalgia or laughing at itself, the new JLA was an all-out effort to be Smart and Fun. For that moment these were the “World’s Greatest Superheroes” and these increasingly ambitious epics reminded everybody of the fact. This is the kind of thrill that nobody ever outgrows. Got yours yet?

© 1997, 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Superman vs. the Flash


By Jim Shooter, Curt Swan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0456-3

The comic-book experience is littered with eternal questions that can never really be satisfactorily answered. The most common and most passionately asked always begin “who would win if…” or “who’s strongest/smartest/fastest…”

Teenaged scripting wunderkind Jim Shooter knew that very well when he pitched and subsequently scripted a Superman story in 1967 that created a sub-genre of comic-plot and led inevitably and delightfully to the graphic novel under review here.

DC Editors in the 1960s generally avoided such questions as who’s best for fear of upsetting some portion of their tenuous and perhaps temporary fan-base, but as the superhero boom slowed and the upstart Marvel Comics began to make genuine inroads into their market, the notion of a definitive race between the almighty Man of Steel and the “Fastest Man Alive” became an increasingly enticing and sales-worthy proposition.

This sporty chronicle gathers together the initial contest and numerous rematches between the heroic speed-demons, but if you’re seeking a definitive answer you won’t find it here. These are splendid costumed entertainments; adventures designed to catch your breath and quicken your pulse. It not about the winning: it’s all to do with the taking part…

‘Superman’s Race With the Flash’ (Superman #199, August 1967) gets the ball rolling in a stirring saga by Shooter, Curt Swan & George Klein, wherein the two speedy champions were asked to compete in an exhibition contest by the United Nations, thereby raising money to fight World Hunger. Naturally they agreed, but the clever global handicap, circling the planet three times, was secretly subverted by rival criminal combines attempting to stage the greatest gambling coup in history…

Of course justice and charity triumphed in the end, but the stakes were catastrophically raised in the inevitable rematch from Flash #175 (December 1967). ‘Race to the End of the Universe!’ found the old rivals speeding across the cosmos when ruthless alien gamblers threatened to eradicate Central City and Metropolis unless the pair settled who was fastest. Scripter E. Nelson Bridwell added an ingenious sting in the tale, whilst Ross Andru & Mike Esposito delivered a sterling illustration job in this yarn, but once more the actual winning was deliberately fudged.

When World’s Finest Comics became a team-up vehicle for Superman the first guest star was the Flash who again found himself in speedy if contrived competition. ‘Race to Save the Universe!’ and its conclusion ‘Race to Save Time’ (WFC #198-199 November and December 1970, by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella) once more upped the stakes as the high-speed heroes were conscripted by the Guardians of the Universe to circumnavigate the entire cosmos at their greatest velocities to undo the rampage of the mysterious anachronids, faster-than-light creatures whose pell-mell course throughout the galaxies was actually unwinding time itself. Little did anybody suspect that Superman’s oldest enemies were behind the scheme…

‘Chase to the End of Time!’ and ‘Race to the End of Time!’ opened the new team-up series DC Comics Presents (#1-2, July-August and September-October 1978) as Marty Pasko and the utterly superb Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez & Dan Adkins rather reprised the World’s Finest tale with warring alien races tricking Superman and Flash into speeding through the time-stream to prevent Earth’s history from being corrupted and destroyed. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, nobody could predict the deadly intervention of the Scarlet Speedster’s most dangerous foe, Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash…

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths DC heroes got a sound refitting, and the frankly colossal power levels of the heroic community were downscaled to more believable levels. Some stalwarts even died, and when ‘Speed Kills!’ debuted in Adventures of Superman #463 (February 1990 by writer/artist Dan Jurgens and inker Art Thibert), touted as the first race between the fastest men on Earth, there was a new kid in the Flash’s uniform: ex-sidekick Wally West had graduated to the role.

The story itself is a delightfully whacky romp wherein 5th dimensional pest Mr. Mxyzptlk coerced the pair into running a race everybody knew was fixed from the get-go…

This collection concludes with a spectacular saga unerringly aimed at older fans. ‘Speeding Bullets’ (from one-shot DC First: Flash/Superman July 2002) is by Geoff Johns, Rich Burchett & Prentis Rollins, and features villain Abra Kadabra who challenges the Man of Steel and the 1940s Flash Jay Garrick to catch the current Vizier of Velocity who is running amok at hyper-speed and rapid-aging with every step…

If they can’t catch him then the Fastest Man Alive won’t be…

With the addition of some of the very best covers the company has ever produced to this book, readers casual or deeply devoted are guaranteed a joyous thrill-ride from some of the most entertaining stand-alone stories in DC history. On your marks… get set… Buy!

© 1970, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2005 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved.