Category: Adaptations

Posted on

Stingray Comic Albums volumes 1 & 2 – Battle Stations! & …Stand By For Action



Written, edited and compiled by Alan Fennel with Dennis Hooper, illustrated by Ron Embleton, with Steve Kite (Ravette Books/Egmont)
ISBN: 978-1-85304-456-4 (Album TPB #1) 978-1-85304-457-1 (Album TPB #2)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The worlds of Gerry Anderson have provided generations of fans with life-changing, formative puppet-based entertainment since 1957’s The Adventures of Twizzle and 1958’s Torchy the Battery Boy (made with fellow fantasy puppetry pioneer Roberta (Space Patrol) Leigh before they went their separate ways). Anderson’s later TV efforts included Four Feather Gulch, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, and truly bizarre transition to live action feature The Secret Service. As was the nature of the times, these audio-visual delights spawned comics iterations, initially licensed to outside publishes but eventually via an in-house publishing venture created in collaboration with City Magazines (part of the News of the World group).

TV Century 21 (the unwieldy “Century” was eventually dropped) patterned itself on a newspaper – albeit from 100 years into the future – a shared conceit that carried the avid readership into a multimedia wonderland as television and reading matter fed off each other.

Stuffed with high quality art and features, tabloid sized TV21 featured Anderson strips such as Fireball XL5 and Supercar as well as the crack team of aquanauts pitted against a bizarre and malevolent plethora of beings who lived beneath the waves. Even the BBC were represented by a full-colour strip starring The Daleks. In-house crossovers were common and graphic adventures were supplemented with stills from the TV shows (and later, films). A plenitude of photos also graced the text features adding to the unity of one of the industry’s first “Shared Universe” products. The comic also offered features, gags, and other (US) television adaptations such as My Favourite Martian and Burke’s Law.

TV Century 21 #1 launched on January 23rd 1965 – Happy Birthday future-boys! – instantly capturing the hearts and minds of millions of children, and further proving to comics editors the unfailingly profitable relationship between television shows and healthy sales. Filled with high quality art and features, printed in glossy, gleaming photogravure, TV21 featured previous shows in strips including latest hit Stingray, prior to next big draw Thunderbirds beginning on 15th January 1966, and incredibly illustrated by Frank Bellamy. It also ran the adventures of future spy Lady Penelope in advance of her screen debut.

In an attempt to mirror real world situations and be topical, the allegorically Soviet state of Bereznik constantly plotted against the World Government (for which read The West) in a futuristic Cold War to augment aliens, aquatic civilisations, common crooks and cosmic disasters that perpetually threatened the general wellbeing of the populace. Even the BBC’s TV “tomorrows” were represented by a full-colour strip starring The Daleks. In that first year, Fireball XL5, Supercar, Lady Penelope and Anderson’s epic submarine series Stingray captivated fans and catered to their future shocks, with top flight artists including Mike Noble, Eric Eden, Ron Embleton, Don Lawrence and Ron Turner.

These collected comic albums stem from the early 1990s (when many of Anderson’s unforgettable creations enjoyed a popular revival on TV and in comics publishing), each reprinting three unforgettable strip thrillers from the legendary weekly, scripted by editor/writer Alan Fennel (and possibly studio partner Dennis Hooper) and limned by the incredible Ron Embleton (Strongow the Mighty, Wulf the Briton, Wrath of the Gods, Biggles, The Trigan Empire, Oh, Wicked Wanda! and many more, in Mickey Mouse Weekly,  Express Weekly, TV Century 21, Princess, Boys’ World, Look and Learn, Penthouse and others). For TV21, he especially distinguished himself on the Captain Scarlet and Stingray strips.

In September 2024 an epic hardback collection – the Stingray Comic Anthology Vol. 1: Tales from the Depths – was released by Anderson Entertainment: a hefty hardback with no digital edition available yet. That’s a book for another time and if it’s beyond your means at the moment, these paperback tomes are still readily available, remarkably cheap and eminently re-readable…

Although reproduction leaves something to be desired, and chronologically adrift in terms of running order, initial compilation Stingray Comic Album volume 1: Battle Stations delivers weekly undersea action by Fennel, Dennis Hooper & Embleton, collectively covering TV21 #23-44, cover-dated 26th June – 20th November 2065. As part of the conceit, every issue was forward dated by a century, so if you still need help that’s 26th June – 20th November 1965…

Spanning #23 to 30 (26th June – 14th August) ‘The Ghosts of Station Seventeen’ see trusty aquanauts Troy Tempest, Phones Sheridan and Commander Sam Shore investigating a research station no scientist can remain in, uncovering sly skullduggery by aquatic aliens, whilst ‘Aquatraz’ (#31-37, 21st August to 2nd October) offers a gritty yet fantastical prison break yarn as our heroes must spring WASP personnel held by Titan at the bottom of the ocean. The action ends with another calamitous battle bonanza as ‘The Uranium Plant Invasion’ (TV21 #38-44, 9th October 2065 November 20th 1965) sees Titan’s forces steal the secrets of atomic energy from the surface men and upgrade their Terror Fish fleet. The resultant war is spectacular, short, and a near-fatal wake-up call for humanity…

 

Stingray Comic Album volume 2 declares …Stand By for Action and re-presents the earliest episodes of the original run in staggeringly lovely 2-page weekly episodes by Fennel & Embleton as crafted for the incredibly rewarding but notoriously laborious and difficult to master photogravure print process. Throughout, these tales run in landscape format spreads – so read across, not down the page, guys…

Crafted by Fennel & Embleton, ‘The Monster Jellyfish’ (TV21 #1-7, 23rd January – March 6th 1965) sees subsea despot Titan of Titanica attack the World Aquanaut Security Patrol with a mutated sea predator, capable of sinking the most modern aircraft carriers in the fleets. Thankfully Troy, Phones and amphibian ally Marina are on the job and Marineville is saved by the sterling super-sub, before plunging on to face the astounding ‘Curse of the Crustavons’ (#8-14, March 13th – April 24th).

Once the threat of losing all Earth’s capital cities to talking lobster villains is dealt with, the drama descends into far more personal peril as ‘The Atlanta Kidnap Affair’ (#15-21, May 1st – June 12th 1965) sees Commander Shore’s capable daughter made a pawn in the ongoing war. Abducted by Titan’s agents whilst on a painting holiday, the incident incites Troy to go undercover to track her down and rescue her…

These are cracking fantasy rollercoaster rides full of action and drama and illustrated with captivating majesty by the incredible Ron Embleton, who supplemented his lush colour palette and uncanny facility for capturing likenesses with photographic stills from the TV shows. Whether for expediency, artistic reasons tor editorial diktat the effect on impressionable young minds was electric. This made the strips “more real” then and the effect has not diminished with time. These are superb treat for fans of all ages.
© 1992 ITC Entertainment Group Ltd. Licensed by Copyright Promotions Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Peanuts Dell Archive


By Charles M. Schulz, Jim Sasseville, Dale Hale, Tony Pocrnick & various (KaBOOM!)
ISBN: 978-1-68415-255-1 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-64144-117-9

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peanuts is unequivocally the most important comics strip in the history of graphic narrative. It is also the most deeply personal. Cartoonist Charles Monroe “Sparky” (forever dubbed thus by an uncle who saw young Charlie reading Billy DeBeck’s strip Barney Google: that hero’s horse was called “Spark Plug”) Schulz crafted a moodily hilarious, hysterically introspective, shockingly philosophical epic for half a century, producing 17,897 strips from October 2nd 1950 to February 13th 2000. He died, from the complications of cancer, the day before his last strip was published. Twenty five years later, his strip is still seen daily all over the world.

At its height, Peanuts ran in 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries, translated into 21 languages. Many of those venues are still running perpetual reprints, and have ever since his departure. Attendant book collections, a merchandising mountain and television spin-offs made the publicity-shy artist a billionaire.

In case you came in late – and from Mars – our focus (we just can’t call him “star” or “hero”) is everyman loser Charlie Brown who, with increasingly high-maintenance, fanciful mutt Snoopy, is at odds with a bombastic and mercurial supporting cast hanging out doing kid things with disturbingly mature psychological overtones…

The gags and tales centre on play, pranks, sports, playing musical instruments, teasing each other, making baffled observations about the incomprehensible world and occasionally acting a bit too much like grown-ups. The ferocious unpredictability and wilfulness of seasonal weather often impacts on these peewee performers, too. You won’t find many adults in the mix – which includes Mean Girl (let’s call her “forthright”) Violet, prodigy Schroeder, “world’s greatest fussbudget” Lucy, her strange baby brother Linus and dirt-magnet “Pig-Pen” all adding signature twists to the mirth – because this is essentially a kids’ world.

Charlie Brown has settled into existential angst and is resigned to his role as eternal loser: singled out by fate and the relentless diabolical wilfulness of Lucy who sharpens her spiteful verve on everyone around her. Her preferred target is always the round-headed kid though: mocking his attempts to fly a kite, kicking away his football and perpetually reminding him face-to-face how rubbish he is…

A Sunday page debuted on January 6th 1952; a standard half-page slot offering more measured fare than the daily. Both thwarted ambition and explosive frustration became part of the strip’s signature denouements and these weekend wonders gave Sparky room to be at his most visually imaginative, whimsical and weird. By that time, rapid-fire raucous slapstick gags were riding side-by-side with surreal, edgy, psychologically barbed introspection, crushing judgements and deep ruminations in a world where kids – and certain animals – were the only actors. The relationships were increasingly deep, complex and absorbing…

None of that is really the point. Peanuts – a title Schulz loathed, but one the syndicate forced upon him – changed the way comics strips were received and perceived, by showing cartoon comedy could have edges and nuance as well as pratfalls and punchlines. It also became a multimedia merchandising bonanza for Schulz and the United Features Syndicate, generating toys, games, books, TV shows, apparel and even comic books. These days there’s even an educational institution, The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, from which a goodly portion of the archival contributions in this wonderful compilation originate…

Just how and why the comic book version differs from the strip is explored with incisive and analytical vigour in Derrick Bang’s (of CMS M&RC) Introduction ‘Peanuts in Comic Books’ revealing how, in the early 1950s, reprints in St. John and, later, Dell Comics titles such as Tip Top Comics and United Comics gradually gave way to original back-up material in Fritzi Ritz, Nancy and other anthology titles. Very little of it was by Schulz – although he did contribute many covers – but rather were ghosted by hand-picked associates like Jim Sasseville, who ably aped Sparky Schulz and kept the little cast in character and on message for strips in Fritzi Ritz, Nancy, Tip Top or Nancy and Sluggo. Sasseville wrote and drew all of the Western Publishing’s Peanuts try-out issue (Four Color #878, February 1958). However, Schulz contributed heavily to the second FC Peanuts (#969, February 1959) with Dale Hale and Tony Pocrnick handling subsequent back-up tales plus third Four Color tester #1015 (August/October 1959).

The fourth release became Peanuts #4: a title that ran for 13 issues, before ending in July 1962. By then, Dell staff artists and writers were generating the stories and the overall quality was nothing to brag about – although Schulz still drew covers, at least. In terms of calibre and standards, the 75 comic tales here – beginning with the very first by Schulz from Nancy #146 (September 1957) to the anonymous last – are quite enjoyable and some are truly exceptional: such as Sasseville’s ‘The Mani-Cure’ (Tip Top #211, November 1957/ January 1958) or Dale Hale’s untitled treatise on keeping secrets from Tip Top #217 (May/July 1959).

Admittedly, hard core fans might have trouble with later yarns as the kids face an amok robot or dare the terrors of an old haunted house, but overall this collection remains a splendid peek at a little known cranny of the franchise and there is the joy of all those lost gems from Sparky to carry the day. After all, where else are you going to see the kids in stories you haven’t read yet… you Blockhead!?
Peanuts Dell Archive all contents unless otherwise specified © 2005 Peanuts Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Planet of the Apes Adventures – The Original Marvel Years


By Doug Moench, George Tuska, Alfredo Alcala, Mike Esposito, Tony Mortellaro, Dave Hunt, George Roussos & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5073-6 (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-3029-5999-9 (TPB/Epic Collection)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the most effective and long-lasting explorations of failed human ambition and resultant dystopia is not the last 50 years of global government, but rather a film franchise built on a seminal French science fiction novel.

Peirre’s Boulle’s satirical La Planète des singes (1963) was just another tale from a former secret agent/engineer who earned major accolades and rewards as an author. Your entire family has probably seen his other Oscar-winning blockbuster – David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai – never realising it is an autobiographical saga originally called La Pont de la rivière Kwai.

Translated into English 1964, his other epic became Monkey Planet, and – after numerous major rewrites by screenwriters Rod Serling & Michael Wilson – was 1968’s movie sensation Planet of the Apes. The US production inspired four sequels and a TV series which lived on in reruns and reedited TV movies for decades after, plus an animated series, books, toys, games, a home projector pack, records and comics and other merchandise. In 2001 it was added to the US National Film Registry as the Library of Congress deemed it as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”… and that’s all before Tim Burton’s 2001 remake, the 2011 reboot and an ongoing, evolving franchise still growing to this day…

There have been numerous comics iterations and adaptations, beginning with two manga interpretations (1968 & 1971) intersecting a 1970 Gold Key movie adaptation and assorted later international versions. In 1974 – no doubt thanks to the impending TV show – a Marvel Magazine continuation combining serialised comics continuations, expanded comics adaptations of the five original films, features and articles began. 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 blockbuster movie, plus all-new ape-ventures set in a time period when humans were still sapient talkers living in notional harmony with equally erudite orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. For more on that you could consult our review Planet of the Apes Archive volume 1: Terror on the Planet of The Apes or simply go buy that book too. It’s quite good…

Although the US magazine was resolutely aimed at a readership beyond a standard newsstand kids range, in Britain that material was solidly aimed at 10-13-year-olds. When Marvel US 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 added new material over the years. However, at the height of the fuzzy fun and furore, Marvel reprinted in colour deftly re-edited and toned-down film adaptations from the magazine. The general release incarnation was a simpler affair, and somewhat sporadic in distribution.

Now that Marvel is again helming the simian franchise these tales are again offered to fans: available in hardback and trade paperback Epic Collection each with its digital versions, backstopping new stories in the niche universe. Scripted by Doug Moench (Batman, Moon Knight, Master of Kung Fu), and with comics veteran George Roussos “colorizing” the monochrome art of George Tuska, Mike Esposito, Tony Mortellaro & Dave Hunt, the first film filled #1-6 (October 1975-June 1976) of Adventures on the Planet of the Apes.

Wilson & Serling’s excoriatingly satirical screenplay was faithfully serialised as ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘World of Captive Humans’, ‘Manhunt!’, ‘Trial’ and ‘Into the Forbidden Zone’ before at last revealing ‘The Secret’ of the anthropoid world to time-lost astronaut George Taylor. Due to calamity and enemy action Taylor is soon the sole survivor of an Earth space flight that lands him on a primitive devastated world. Here talking orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas live in tense collaboration and humans are barely-sensate beasts of burden or preferred targets of bloodsports. The civilisation is superstitious, uncompromisingly theocratic but, as Taylor quickly deduces, clearly suppressing some awful secret about the human herds they hunt and enslave…

The rebellious talking human is somehow a clear threat to the power and dogma of the ruling simians, but thanks to the aid of well-meaning chimps scientists Zira, Lucius and Cornelius, Taylor and indigenous human companion Nova are able to escape the schemes of chief scientist Zaius who knows the awful truth Taylor and his allies are stumbling towards…

Although film fans waited two years for what happened next, the comics story seamlessly continues as Moench & Roussos join illustrator Alfredo Alcala (Swamp Thing, Batman, Man-Thing) for Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Paul Dehn & Mort Abrams’ bleak, chilling screenplay sequel becomes a dark, brooding and ultimately apocalyptic quest for answers when Taylor is captured by mutated humans who worship nuclear weapons even as Earth’s follow-up expedition smashes to destruction just like the first…

Eponymous opening ‘Beneath the Planet of the Apes’ sees sole survivor Brent similarly stranded in 3955 AD and equally unaware that his ship has brought him back to a much-altered birthworld. He soon meets Nova, who was ignored by whatever rules the “Forbidden Zone”. The fact that she’s wearing Taylor’s dog tags convinces Brent to accompany the mute, but he thinks twice when Nova leads him to Cornelius and Zira in Ape City. The metropolis is in turmoil with gorilla General Ursus increasingly usurping Dr. Zaius and demanding eradication of humans and conquest of the heretically sorcerous Forbidden Zone…

In this febrile atmosphere, Nova brings Brent to Taylor’s chimpanzee benefactors, before they are captured and ‘Enslaved!’ by gorillas preparing to invade the land of terror. On escaping, and barely ahead of an ape army, Brent and Nova return to the lost land where the shocked explorer delves deep into subterranean ruins and discovers the secret after recognising a place where he used to live so very long ago. Now it’s a tomb of terror and temple to ‘The Warhead Messiah’, ruled by cruel telepaths who are all that remain of sapient humanity. As ape forces advance, these ‘Children of the Bomb’ introduce Brent to their other captive, forcing the ancient astronauts to battle. As Ursus’ killers invade the nuclear cultists anticipate detonating the bomb to end all bombs and as violence and brutality explode everywhere, any chance to stop ‘The Hell of Holocaust’ dwindles and dies…

With the collection cover art by E.M. Gist and individual series covers by John Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Rich Buckler, Dan Adkins, Ron Wilson, Vince Colletta, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Klaus Janson, Jim Starlin, Mike Nasser/Netzer, Esposito, Alcala, Paty Anderson, & Earl Norem, this is a straightforward slice of allegorical action hokum that reads remarkably well even after all these years. Moreover, as Marvel recently regained the franchise rights, this iteration neatly inspired its own sequel of sorts – for which see a forthcoming review….

In equal parts vivid nostalgia and crucial component of current comics expansion, this compelling treat is pure whacky fun no film fan or comics devotee should miss… and there’s more to come…
© 2023 20th Century Studios.

Posted on

Walt Kelly’s Our Gang volume 1


By Walt Kelly (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN 978-1560977537 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today is the anniversary of controversial screen pioneer Hal Roach (January 14th 1892 – November 2nd 1992), a movie man responsible for some of the best comics and newspaper strips ever made. Here’s one of the very best solely in need of rediscovery and new archival editions…

The movie shorts franchise Our Gang (latterly the Li’l Rascals) were one of the most popular in American Film history. Beginning in 1922 they featured the fun and folksy humour of a bunch of “typical kids”. Atypically though, there was always full racial equality and mingling – and the little girls were still always smarter than the boys. Romping together, they all enjoyed idealised adventures in a time both safer and more simple.

The rotating cast of characters and slapstick shenanigans were the brainchild of film genius Hal Roach who directed and worked with Harold Lloyd, Charley Chase and Laurel & Hardy amongst so many others. These brief cinematic paeans to a mythic childhood entered the “household name” category of popular Americana in amazingly swift order. As times and tastes changed Roach was forced to sell up to the celluloid butcher’s shop of MGM in 1938, and the features suffered the same interference and loss of control that marred the later careers of Stan and Ollie, the Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton.

In 1942 Dell released an Our Gang comic book written and drawn by Walt Kelly who, consummate craftsman that he was, deftly restored the wit, verve and charm of the glory days via a progression of short comic stories elevating lower class American childhood to the mythic peaks of Dorothy in Oz, Huckleberry Finn or Laura Ingalls of Little House… fame.

Over the course of the first eight issues so lovingly reproduced in this glorious collection, Kelly moved beyond the films – good or otherwise – to sculpt an idyllic storyscape of games and dares; excursions; pee-wee adventures; get-rich-quick schemes; battles with rival gangs and especially plucky victories over adults, mean, condescending, criminal or psychotic.

Granted great leeway, Kelly eventually settled on his own cast, but aficionados and purists can still thrill here to the classic cast of Mickey, Buckwheat, Happy/Spanky, Janet and Froggy.

Thankfully, after far too long a delay, today’s comics are once again offering material of this genre to contemporary audiences. Even so, many modern readers may be unable to appreciate the skill, narrative charm and lost innocence of this style of children’s tale. If so I genuinely pity them, because this is work with heart and soul, drawn by one of the greatest exponents of graphic narrative America has ever produced. I hope their loss is not yours.
© 2006 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Batman Returns One Dark Christmas Eve – The Illustrated Holiday Classic


By Ivan Cohen & JJ Harrison & various (Insight Editions)
ISBN: 978-1-64722-754-8 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Mirthful Movie Moments… 9/10

The Holiday Season means many things to most people. For comics fans – legendarily the sappiest and most sentimental people on Earth – it has always delivered delightful festive tales that break hearts, gladden spirits and thrill the pants off you. Batman has owned Christmas in comics since the Golden Age – and where’s my archive collection of those stories, huh?

In 1992 Tim Burton and his talented cinematic cohort perfectly addressed all that Holiday Heritage in the blockbuster Batman Returns – the first X-Mas Superhero movie. You’ve either seen it or not, but its legacy looms large in this (practically) all-ages treat from author, graphic novelist, journalist and TV writer Ivan Cohen (Space Jam: A New Legacy, Star Wars, Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Teen Titans GO!) with gallery artist/illustrator JJ Harrison (A Die Hard Christmas, Ninja Boy Goes to School, Gremlins: The Illustrated Storybook) making the pictures.

Batman Returns One Dark Christmas Eve whimsically revisits the film milieu in a deviously approachable spoof based on Daniel Waters and Sam Hamm’s original screenplay: a strange attractor taking plot and dialogue from the film, setting it to a familiar Christmas carol and somehow succinctly synthesising the epic into a wry, wittily hilarious picture book with batarang-sharp edges. This Bat-bauble highlights the fun side of heroes and villains, perfectly capturing the charms of Bruce Wayne/Batman and Alfred as they contest The Penguin, Catwoman and killer capitalist Max Shreck whilst ensuring a “Merry Christmas, and to all a Dark Knight”…
© 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Christmas Comes to Moominvalley


By Tove Jansson, adapted by Alex Haridi & Cecilia Davidsson, illustrated by Filippa Widlund, translated by A. A. Prime (Macmillan Children’s Books)
ISBN: 978-1-5290-0362-8 (HB) 978-1-5290-0363-5 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-5290-5762-1

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: All the Christmas You Ever Wanted… 9/10

Tove Jansson was one of the greatest literary innovators and narrative pioneers of the 20th century: equally inspired in shaping words and making images to create whole worlds of wonder. She was especially expressive with basic components like pen and ink, manipulating slim economical lines and patterns to realise sublime realms of fascination, whilst her dexterity made simple forms into incredibly expressive and potent symbols and as this collection shows, so was her brother…

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and rather bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9th 1914. Patriarch Viktor was a sculptor and mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson a successful illustrator, graphic designer and commercial artist. Tove’s brothers Lars – AKA “Lasse” – and Per Olov became – respectively – an author, cartoonist and art photographer. The family and its close intellectual, eccentric circle of friends seems to have been cast rather than born, with a witty play or challenging sitcom as the piece they were all destined to inhabit.

After extensive intensive study (from 1930-1938 at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, the Graphic School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and L’Ecole d’Adrien Holy and L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris), Tove became a successful exhibiting artist through the troubled period of the Second World War. Brilliantly creative across many fields, she published the first fantastic Moomins adventure in 1945. Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood or latterly and much more euphoniously The Moomins and the Great Flood) was a whimsical epic of gently inclusive, acceptingly understanding, bohemian misfit trolls and their rather odd friends…

A youthful over-achiever, from 1930-1953 Tove had worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for the Swedish satirical magazine Garm: achieving some measure of notoriety with an infamous political sketch of Hitler in nappies that lampooned the Appeasement policies of European leaders in the build-up to WWII. She was also an in-demand illustrator for many magazines and children’s books, and had started selling comic strips as early as 1929.

Moomintroll was her signature character. Literally.

The lumpy, gently adventurous big-eyed romantic goof began life as a spindly sigil next to her name in her political works. She called him “Snork” and claimed she had designed him in a fit of pique as a child – the ugliest thing a precocious little girl could imagine – as a response to losing an argument with her brother about Immanuel Kant.

The term “Moomin” originated with her maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who attempted to stop her pilfering food when she visited, by warning her that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks. Over time Snork/Moomin plumped up, filled out and became timidly nicer – if a little clingy and insecure. He became a placid therapy-tool to counteract the grimness of the post-war world. The Moomins and the Great Flood didn’t make much of an initial impact but Jansson persisted, probably as much for her own edification as any other reason, and in 1946 published second book Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland).

Many commentators believe the terrifying tale a skilfully compelling allegory of Nuclear Armageddon. In truth, an undercurrent of bleak anxiety and the dangers of imminent unwanted change underpins all of her Moomin tales, subtly addressing the fact that the world is a wonderful but also scary, dangerous place beyond our control, and why we should value friends and family and always welcome the needy and all strangers. You should read it now… while you still can.

When it and third illustrated novel Trollkarlens hatt (1948, Finn Family Moomintroll AKA sometimes The Happy Moomins) were translated – to great acclaim – into English in 1952, it prompted British publishing giant Associated Press to commission a newspaper strip about her seductively sweet and sensibly surreal creations. Jansson had no misgivings or prejudices about strip cartoons and had already adapted Comet in Moominland for Swedish/Finnish paper Ny Tid. Mumintrollet och jordens undergäng. Moomintrolls and the End of the World was a popular feature so Jansson readily accepted the chance to extend her eclectic family across the world. In 1953, The London Evening News began the first of 21 Moomin strip sagas which promptly captivated readers of all ages. Jansson’s involvement in the cartoon feature ended in 1959, a casualty of its own success and a punishing publication schedule. So great was the strain that towards the end she recruited brother Lars to help. He took over, continuing the feature until its end in 1975.

Liberated from the strip’s pressures, she returned to painting, writing and her other creative pursuits, generating plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera and nine more Moomin-related picture-books and novels, as well as 13 books and short-story collections strictly for grown-ups. Tove Jansson died on June 27th 2001. Her awards are too numerous to mention, but consider this: how many artists get their faces on the national currency?

Whenever such a creative force passes on, the greatest tragedy is that there will be no more marvels and masterpieces. Happily, so tirelessly prolific was Tove that her apparently endless bounty bequeathed plenty of material for later creators and collaborators to pick over. One such example is this glorious picture book, part of a series using her characters and adapted from her short story The Fir Tree. Like previously recommended picture book The Invisible Guest in Moominvalley, this moving, thought-provoking yarn was a short story in 1962’s Det osynliga barnet (Tales from Moominvalley) and has been reprinted many times in a bunch of varying formats. It’s been adapted to television too, if you have one of those…

Moomintrolls are easy-going free spirits: rounded modern bohemians untroubled by domestic mores and unwelcome or intrusive societal pressures. Moominmama is warm, kindly tolerant and capable, if perhaps too concerned with propriety and appearances, whilst devoted spouse Moominpappa spends most of his time trying to rekindle his adventurous youth or dreaming of fantastic journeys. Their son Moomin is a meek, dreamy boy with confusing ambitions. He adores and moons over permanent houseguest the Snorkmaiden – although that flighty gamin prefers to play things slowly whilst waiting for somebody potentially better…

Heartwarming with a hidden edge and packing plenty of impact to balance the fun and charm, this beguiling picture tale is adapted by Alex Haridi & Cecilia Davidsson with Jansson’s unique imagery translated by prolific comics star/book illustrator Filippa Widlund.

Here the adaptors have sustained the shocking wonder of a close, loving family, who, due to the Moomintroll habit of hibernation, have never heard of Christmas… until a Hemulen digs down to their snowcapped attic to loudly warn them that Christmas is coming…

Awakened, aroused and much afeared, the family frantically canvas the neighbours – and everyone else rushing about – and hear of the bizarre litany of tasks they must accomplish before it’s all too late! With fading hopes of doing all that catching up and tree decorating and tribute wrapping and food finding necessary to appease the clearly savage and utterly unreasonable beast that is Christmas, the family set to and do their very best…

However, as they all pitch in and do as the neighbours do, fear fades a bit and a little miracle happens…

Witty, engaging, sentimental and deeply moving, every youngster’s perfect introduction to sequential narratives, and a beguiling reminder to oldsters why we love them…
© Moomin Characters™. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Marvel Comics Presents – Stoker’s Dracula


By Bram Stoker, adapted by Roy Thomas & Dick Giordano with Joe Rosen, & VC’s Chris Eliopoulos, Cory Petit, Randy Gentiles & Rus Wooton (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4905-7 (TPB/Digital edition) 978-0-7851-1477-2 (2005 HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Moody Masterpiece …8/10

At the end of the 1960s American comic books were in turmoil, much like the youth of the nation they targeted. Superheroes had dominated for much of the decade; peaking globally before explosively falling to ennui and overkill. Older genres such as horror, westerns and science fiction returned, fed by bold trends in movie-making and on TV, which now supplied the bulk of young adult entertainment needs for those kids who had grown up with Marvel.

Inspiration isn’t everything. In fact as Marvel slowly grew to a position of market dominance in the wake of the losing their two most innovative and inspirational creators, they did so less by experimentation and more by expanding proven concepts and properties. The only real exception to this was a resurrection of horror titles in response to the industry down-turn in super-hero sales – a move vastly aided expedited by a rapid revision in the wordings of the increasingly ineffectual Comics Code Authority rules.

The switch to supernatural stars had many benefits. Crucially, it brought a new readership to House of Ideas, one attuned to the global revival in spiritualism, Satanism and all things sinisterly spooky. Almost as important, it gave the reprint-savvy company an opportunity to finally recycle old 1950s horror stories that had been rendered unprintable and useless since the code’s inception in 1954. A scant 15 years later the CCA prohibition against horror was hastily rewritten – amazing how plunging sales can affect ethics – and scary comics came back in a big way with a new crop of supernatural heroes and monsters popping up on the newsstands to supplement the ghosts, ghoulies and goblins already infiltrating the once science-only scenarios of the surviving mystery men titles.

In fact lifting of the Code ban resulted in such an en masse creation of horror titles (both new characters and reprints from the massive boom of the early 1950s) that it probably caused a few more venerable costumed crusaders to (temporarily, at least) bite the dust. Almost overnight nasty monsters (and narcotics – but that’s another story) became acceptable fare on four-colour pages and whilst a parade of pre-code reprints made sound business sense, the creative aspect of the contemporary buzz for bizarre themes was catered to by adapting popular cultural icons before risking whole new concepts on an untested public.

As always in entertainment, the watch-world was fashion: what was hitting big outside comics was to be incorporated into the mix as soon as possible. One of Marvel’s earliest hits was an annexation of much of the lore around Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. With the secrets of that comic book success being held in abeyance here due to specific reviews of those tales imminently forthcoming, today we’re focusing on and recommending a lost gem of graphic narrative that grew out of the short lived phenomenon…

As far better explained by Roy Thomas in this compilation’s fact-packed Introduction ‘Dracula Lives – Again!’, the Tomb of Dracula newsstand periodical swiftly begat a non-code, anthological magazine spin-off – Dracula Lives – which, by various processes and endeavours further detailed by illustrator Dick Giordano in his Afterword ‘More than thirty years ago…’, spawned a full and thorough, serialised adaptation of the Stoker source material. More details of its production, and how the sudden downturn in horror themed fare caused the adaptation to stall and the magazines that carried it to fold are fully discussed in both essays and form part of the copious treasure trove of ‘Extras’ that close this tome of terror.

A work of astounding, respectful authenticity, and completely compelling at all stages despite a 30-year pause, this haunting beautiful adaptation is a triumph of that comics subdimension concerning adaptations of found literary material. As such, it compiles the chapters from Dracula Lives #5-8, 10-11 (spanning cover-dates March 1974 – March 1975) plus the completed but homeless seventh chapter which found a home in Marvel Preview #8 (AKA Legion of Monsters #1, September 1975) before the project stalled. After much long protracted wishing, and dalliances with other companies, the project was finally revived and the full finished saga was commissioned by Marvel three decades after the fact. The result was initially released as 4-issue miniseries Stoker’s Dracula (October 2004 to May 2005) before transferring for Halloween 2005 to its more apposite graphic novel incarnation.

A few more things to point out. Thomas and Giordano were deeply invested in the project and pulled out all the innovative stops to make the serial something special. Thomas designated specific lettering for each character’s narration – one of the earliest incidences of the technique, and Giordano – in an era long before graphic novels were possible in America – designed each instalment with drop-away caption boxes, on the hope that if one day the US gathered material in albums like Europe, individual chapter titles and “coming next issue!” captions could just be excised… like in a “real” novel…

However, as we’re all accursed with completism in comics, all those pages, plus miniseries front and back covers, Dracula Lives covers, paste up recap pages (11 in all) are included in the aforementioned Extras section, as well as 15 pages of sketches and 8 more showing the art process from rough pencils to inks and grey-tone wash finishes, before ending with the Giordano cover of Alter Ego #53 which highlighted the completion of the book of many ages…

As for the story, we all know it to some degree, but this one is guaranteed the closest ever to helping kids with their book reports without inflicting the modern bane of AI plagiarism on already despondent English teachers…

In an unbroken flow of gothic wonderment, the monochrome glory begins with a significant opening line quote, as on May 3rd 1897, English lawyer Jonathan Harker is lured to the wilds of Transylvania and horror beyond imagining when an ancient bloodsucking horror prepares to relocate to the pulsing heart of the modern world. As seen in ‘Into the Spider’s Web’, ‘The Female of the Species’, and ‘And in that Sleep…!’ English man of business Harker becomes an enforced guest, left to the tender mercies of his vampiric harem, and narrowly escapes even as their dark master Dracula travels by schooner to England, slaughtering every seaman aboard the S.S. Demeter in ‘Ship of Death’ before quietly unleashing a reign of terror on the sedate and complacent British countryside.

In the seat of Empire, Harker’s fiancée Mina Murray finds her flighty friend Lucy Westenra fading due to troublesome dreams and an uncanny lethargy none of her determined suitors – Dr. Jack Seward, Texan Quincy P. Morris and Arthur Holmwood (the next Lord Godalming) – can dispel. As Harker struggles to survive in the Carpathians, in Britain, Seward’s deranged patient Renfield claims horrifying visions and becomes greatly agitated…

Dracula, although only freshly arrived in England, is already causing chaos and disaster, and constantly returns to swiftly declining Lucy. His bestial bloodletting prompts her three beaux to summon famed Dutch physician Abraham Van Helsing to save her life and cure her increasing mania. As seen in ‘If Madness be Thy Master…!’, ‘Death Be Thou Proud!’, ‘Hour of the Wolf!’ and ‘Tell Truth, and Shame the Devil’ Harker survives his Transylvanian ordeal, and when nuns notify Mina, she rushes to Romania and marries him in a hasty ceremony to save his health and wits…

In London – and ‘For in that Sleep of Death…’ , ‘If Blood be the Price…’ , ‘For the Blood is the Life…’ and ‘The Demon in his Lair’ – Dracula renews his assaults and Lucy dies, and is reborn as a predatory, child-killing monster. After dispatching her to eternal rest, Van Helsing, Holmwood, Seward and Morris – joined by recently returned, much-altered Harker and his bride – vow to hunt down and destroy the ancient evil in their midst, after a chance encounter in a London street between the newlyweds and an astoundingly rejuvenated Count.

Dracula has incredible forces and centuries of experience on his side. Having tainted Mina with his blood-drinking curse, he flees back to his ancestral lands. Frantically, giving the mortal champions give chase in ‘Pursuit’ and ‘Jaws of the Dragon’, battling the elements, the monster’s enslaved “gypsy army” and horrific eldritch power in a race against time lest Mina finally succumb forever to his unholy influence. Thankfully, but at great cost, Dracula’s efforts are all foiled and ‘Sunset’ sees his final death, with the survivors seen enjoying a fresh new dawn in ‘Epilogue’…

This breathtaking, oft-retold yarn delivers moody mystery, epic action, moving melodrama and astounding adventure all mantled in grim gothic horror, delivering beguilingly beautiful images and stunning thrills and chills in a most satisfactory traditional manner. Well worth the incredible wait, this is a comics classic every fan should hunt down.
© 2021 MARVEL.

Posted on

Frankenstein


By Mary W. Shelley adapted by Martin Powell & Patrick Olliffe (Malibu Graphics Inc./ Moonstone/ CreateSpace)
ISBN: 0-944735-39-8 (TPB Malibu), 978-0-97129-379-3 (HB Moonstone)
978-1-47927-227-3 (TPB CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s gothic classic The Modern Prometheus was first published in 1818 and is still one of the most influential novels of popular fiction ever written. As is so often the case, it is the book rather than the many cinematic or other reinterpretations that best informs this impressive lost graphic gem from 1990.

Originally released as a 3-issue miniseries from Eternity Comics, it followed the success of author Powell’s Sherlock Holmes pastiches Scarlet in Gaslight and A Case of Blind Fear (collected by Moonstone as Sherlock Homes Mysteries Volume 1, ISBN: 978-0-97216-686-7), but rather than extrapolation, the author aimed for a more straightforward adaptation of the source material.

Although no true and faithful version yet exists – since most of the novel deals with the agonies, travails and travels of hellbent natural philosopher Victor Frankenstein and his interactions with his damned creation are relatively few (albeit torturous and telling) – this is an effective and often chilling interpretation made starkly memorable by illustrator Patrick Olliffe (Edgeworld: Sand, Amazing Spider-Man, 52, Dracula: Lord of the Undead, Hero Alliance).

Version 1.0.0

The chiaroscuric art-in-transition of the young artist perfectly establishes a mood of tortured humanism, with breathtaking resonances of Roy G. Krenkel and solid echoes of Berni Wrightson; but, oddly, not that latter’s own impressive treatment of Shelley’s text. Of the many, many versions of the tale, this ranks closest to the superb Mike Ploog version put out by Marvel in the early 1970’s (see The Monster of Frankenstein link please to October 15, 2022).

This is not a replacement for the novel – so please read that too – but a well-crafted addendum that deserves a larger audience. Oddly enough the Spanish and others abroad already agree with me as editions of this quintessentially English masterpiece have been available in their languages for decades.

¿Qué pasa? Quoi?
Script © 1990 Martin Powell. Artwork © 2006 Patrick Olliffe. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Lord of the Flies – The Graphic Novel


By William Golding, adapted and illustrated by Aimée de Jongh (Faber & Faber)
ISBN: 978-0-571-37425-0 (HB/Digital edition)

In 1954, after many disappointments, one philosophy teacher, sailor (and Royal Navy D-Day veteran), actor and musician finally sold his first novel. Strangers from Within was a reaction to R. M. Ballantyne’s Christian-centric children’s classic The Coral Island, seen through the lens of a sensitive school teacher who had seen man at his very worst and was recuperating during the earliest era of a growing Cold War.

The book was knocked back many times before one editor at Faber – Charles Monteith (who liked and published Samuel Beckett, John Osborne, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, P. D. James, Philip Larkin and Alan Bennett and so many, many more gifted individuals) – saw something there and decided to have a punt…

As Lord of the Flies, the book hit the shelves and steadily grew to become one of the most revered, beloved and inspirational stories of all time and one that has literally reshaped social thought and opinion. In this 70th anniversary year, the book will be re-issued in an exclusive deluxe hardback edition, but its status as milestone and groundbreaker deserved more. Thus award-winning graphic novelist Aimée de Jongh (The Return of the Honey Buzzard, Days of Sand) was commissioned to create this adaptation and visual synthesis to celebrate the initial publication. The result is truly remarkable…

Golding went on to write more amazing books – such as The Inheritors, The Free Fall, Pincher Martin, The Double Tongue, and Booker Prize winner Rites of Passage, and was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature, and it’s very likely this pictorial treat will garner a few more glittering citations and prizes…

You may not have read it, but sheer cultural osmosis means you already know Lord of the Flies to some degree.

A plane carrying a large group of pre-adolescent British schoolboys crashes into the Pacific Ocean and a number of survivors make the arduous swim to a desolate but lush mountainous island. Shocked, stunned and starving, the ineffectual gaggle initially unite to find food and water and quickly evolve processes and systems to stay alive. A reflection of their schoolboy experiences soon divide the group into leaders and followers, as much by confusion and inertia as ambition or duty. The search for sustenance and means of rescue is constantly marred by a growing unease that their prison harbours monsters…

All too soon oppressive regulation and the nascent rules of conduct and governance – like only speaking at gatherings when holding the “Conch shell” – creates entrenched opposing viewpoints, factionalism and inevitably escalating violence…

Adaptor de Jongh magnificently captures the dichotomy of a paradise that is also hell and the inexorable mounting pressure upon narrative beacons Ralph, Piggy, Simon and Jack Merridew as the drama unfolds…

This superb creation is not a substitute for the three film adaptations, many stage and radio plays or the novel itself: it’s just another sublime opportunity of accessing a milestone tale in an increasingly and regrettable post-literate era where direct visual information has largely augmented if not yet replaced the semantic and semiotic processing of prose. It is, however, just as compelling and evocative as Golding’s world-shaking masterpiece and you really need to read both. I don’t have the conch of speaking anymore, so it’s up to you to choose which you do first…

Lord of the Flies © William Golding 1954. Adaptations and illustrations © Aimée de Jongh 2024. All rights reserved.
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Simply Unmissable …10/10

Posted on

Speed Racer Classics


By Tatsuo Yoshida, translated by Nat Gertler (Now Comics)
ISBN: 0-70989-331-34 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

During the 1960s when Japanese anime was first starting to appear in the West, one of the most surprising small screen hits in America was a classy little cartoon series entitled Speed Racer. It first aired on Japan’s Fuji Television from April 1967 to March 1968;  52 high velocity episodes that steered into US homes mere months after. Back then nobody knew the show was based on and adapted from a wonderful action/science fiction/sports comic strip created in 1966 by manga pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida for Shueisha’s Shōnen Book periodical.

The comic series was itself a recycled version of Yoshida’s earlier racing hit Pilot Ace.

The original title Mach GoGoGo was a torturously multi-layered pun, playing on the fact that boy-racer Gō Mifune – more correctly Mifune Gō – drove the supercar “Mach 5”.

“Go” is the Japanese word for five and a suffix applied to ship names whilst the phrase Gogogo is the usual graphic sound effect for “rumble”. All in all, the title means “Mach-go, Gō Mifune, Go!” which was adapted for US screens as and its assumed simpleton viewers Go, Speed Racer, Go!, initially running from 1967 and for decades in syndicated reruns…

In 1985 Chicago-based Now Comics took advantage of the explosion in comics creativity to release a bevy of full-colour licensed titles based on popular nostalgic icons such as Astro Boy, Green Hornet, Fright Night and the TV cartoon version of Ghostbusters, but started the ball rolling with new adventures of Speed Racer. Gosh, I wonder who owns the rights to all those great comics and if we’ll ever see them revived in modern collections?

The series was a palpable hit and in 1990 the company released this stunning selection of Yoshida’s original stories in a smart monochrome edition graced with a glorious wraparound cover by Mitch O’Connell. It was probably one of the first manga books ever seen in US comic stores. Although the art was reformatted for standard comic book pages the stories are relatively untouched with the large cast (family, girlfriend, pet monkey and all) called by their American TV nomenclature/identities, but if you need to know the original Japanese designations and have the puns, in-jokes and references explained, there are many Speed Racer websites to consult and there have been many more translated collections in familiar tankōbon style editions…

Pops Racer is an independent entrepreneur and car-building genius estranged from his eldest son Rex, a professional sports-car driver. Second son Speed also has a driving ambition to be a pro driver (we can do puns too, just so’s you know) and the episodes here follow the family concern in its rise to success, peppered with high drama, political intrigue, criminal overtones and high octane excitement (whoops!: there I go again)…

The action begins with ‘The Return of the Malanga’ as – whilst competing in the incredible Mach 5 – Speed recognises an equally unique vehicle believed long destroyed when running this same gruelling road-race. The plucky lad becomes hopelessly embroiled in a sinister plot of remote-controlled murder and vengeance after learning that the driver of the resurrected supercar crashed and died under mysterious circumstances years ago. Now, the survivors of that tragic incident are perishing in a series of fantastic “accidents”; are these events the vengeance of a restless spirit or is an even more sinister force at work?

In ‘Deadly Desert Race’ the Mach 5 is competing in a trans-Saharan rally when Speed is drawn into a personal driving duel with spoiled Arab prince Kimbe of Wilm. When a bomb goes off, second son Racer is accused of attempting to assassinate his rival and must clear his name and catch the real killer by traversing the greatest natural hazard on the planet whilst navigating through an ongoing civil war: a spectacular competition climaxing in a blistering military engagement…

After qualifying for the prestigious Eastern Alps Competition, our youthful road ace meets enigmatic Racer X: a masked driver with countless victories, a shady past and a hidden connection to the Racer clan before ‘This is the Racer’s Soul!’ reveals the true story of Pops’ conflict with Rex Racer when criminal elements threaten to destroy everything the inventor stands for.

After the riveting race action and blockbusting outcome, this volume concludes with a compelling mystery yarn as – in ‘The Secret of the Classic Car’ – Speed foils the theft of a vintage vehicle by organised crime before being sucked into a nefarious scheme to obtain at any cost a lost secret of automotive manufacture hidden by Henry Ford. When the ruthless thugs kidnap Speed, Pops catapults into action just as the gang turns on itself with the saga culminating in a devastating and insanely destructive duel between rival super-vehicles…

These are delightfully magical episodes of grand, old-fashioned adventure, realised by a master craftsman, well worthy of any action fan’s eager attention, so even if this particular volume is hard to find, other editions and successive collections from WildStorm, DC and Digital Manga Publishing are still readily available.

Go, Fan-boy reader! Go! Go! Go!…
Speed Racer ™ & © 1988 Colour Systems Technology. All rights reserved. Original manga © Tatsuo Yoshida, reprinted by permission of Books Nippan, Inc.