Adaptations – Page 13 – Now Read This!

August 15, 2016August 13, 2016

Tarzan Archives: The Joe Kubert Years volume 2

By Joe Kubert with Hal Foster, Frank Thorne & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-416-6

The early 1970s were the last real glory days of National (now DC) Comics. As they slowly lost market-share to Marvel they responded by producing controversial and landmark superhero material, but their greatest strength lay, as it always has, in the variety and quality of its genre divisions. Mystery and Supernatural thrillers, Science Fiction, Romance, War and Kids’ titles remained powerful attractions and the company’s eye for a strong licensed brand was as keen as ever.

A global multi-media phenomenon, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan had long been a comicbook mainstay of Dell/Gold Key/Whitman, and when DC acquired the title they rightly trumpeted it out, putting one of their top Artist/Editors, Joe Kubert, in charge of the immortal Ape-man’s monthly exploits.

After decades as Whitman staples, total licensing of ERB properties was transferred to DC – not just Tarzan and his extended family, but also the author’s pioneering science fantasy characters – with DC wisely continuing the original numbering.

Tarzan #207 was the first: an April 1972 cover-date, and the series stormed on until #258 in February 1977. Thereafter Marvel, Malibu, Dark Horse and Dynamite extended the Jungle Lord’s comicbook canon in sporadic sorties to recapture the sales and popularity of the 1950sâ€¦

The latter days of the Gold Key run had suffered ever since Russ Manning left the title to draw the syndicated newspaper strip, and even the likes of Doug Wildey were unable to revive the comic’s success in the face of constantly rising costs and a general downturn in sales across the market. DC’s continuation of the franchise premiered in a blaze of publicity at the height of a nostalgia boom and was generally well-received by fans.

DC pushed the title in many places and formats (such as bookstore digest collections and the gloriously oversized Tabloid Editions) and adapted other properties such as John Carter of Mars, Pellucidar and Carson of Venus in their own features and titles

This second superb hardcover archive collection (also available in digital formats) re-presents material from Tarzan #215-224 (December 1972 to October 1973) and opens with fond reminiscences and grateful thanks to fellow artist Frank Thorne in Kubert’s Introduction.

The pictorial wonderment kicks off with a classic visual treat as ‘The Mine!’ incorporates material originally seen in classic 1930s Sunday newspaper strips (by Hal Foster & George Carlin) embedded in an original tale by Kubert.

Joe’s intent was to adapt all 24 Tarzan novels – writing, illustrating and even lettering the stories, with the brilliant Tatjana Wood handling the colours – interspersing them with new and original tales. However the workload, coupled with his other editorial duties, was crippling.

As with Tarzan #211, here he was again compelled to combine original with vintage to detail how the Ape-Man is captured by slavers and pressed into toil deep in the bowels of the earth for a sadistic mine owner.

Naturally, Tarzan soon chafes at enforced servitude and quickly leads a savage workers’ revolt to overturn and end the corporate bondage…

Issue #216 took another route to beating deadlines with old pal Frank Thorne pencilling Kubert’s script for ‘The Renegades’, leaving hard-pressed Joe to ink and complete the story of a murderous raid which wipes out a Red Cross mission.

Investigating the atrocity, Tarzan discovers the â€œmaddened savagesâ€ responsible are actually white men masquerading as natives; stealing supplies for a proposed expedition to plunder a lost treasure vault. When he catches the culprits, Tarzan’s vengeance is terrible indeedâ€¦

‘The Black Queen!’ is an all-Kubert affair wherein the Jungle Lord almost saves a man from crocodiles. Acceding to the ravaged victim’s last wish, Tarzan then travels to his distant homeland and overturns the brutal regime of tyrannical Queen Kyra who rules her multicultural kingdom with whimsy, ingrained prejudice and casual crueltyâ€¦

The equally selfish choices of American millionaire tycoon Darryl T. Hanson blights his family as his search for ‘The Trophy’ decimates the fauna of Tarzan’s home and leads to a clash of wills and ideologies which can only end in tragedyâ€¦

With Tarzan #219, Kubert began an epic 5-issue adaptation of ERB’s sequel novel The Return of Tarzan. It opens in Paris as the unacknowledged son of vanished Lord Greystoke tries to adapt to his new life as a civilised man of leisure.

One night his natural gallantry draws him to the side of a woman screaming for help and he is attacked by a gang of thugs. After easily thrashing the brigands he is astounded to find her accusing him of assault and simply bounds effortlessly away from the gendarmes called to the disturbance.

This entire trap has been engineered by a new enemy; Russian spy and Ã©migrÃ© Nikolas Rokoff and his duplicitous toady Paulvitchâ€¦

The rightful heir to the Greystoke lands and titles silently stood aside and let his apparently unaware cousin William Cecil Clayton claim both them and the American Jane Porter, after Tarzan rescued her from attacking apes in the jungle. Missing her terribly, Tarzan then chose to make his own way in the human world beside new friend and French Naval Officer Paul D’Arnot.

(You could catch up by reading our review of Tarzan Archives: The Joe Kubert Years Volume One, but I’m sure you’d far rather see the book itself or even the original novelâ€¦).

In the course of his urbane progression, Tarzan had exposed the Russian cheating at cards to blackmail French diplomat Count De Coude and had earned himself a relentless, implacable foe forever. When Rokoff subsequently tried to murder Tarzan, the vile miscreant agonisingly learned how powerful his jungle-bred enemy wasâ€¦

With physical force clearly of no use, Rokoff’s latest plan is to put the Ape-Man through a ‘Trial by Treachery’; manufacturing â€œevidenceâ€ that Tarzan is having an affair with the Comte’s wife. Once more, however, the civilised monster underestimates his target’s forthright manner of dealing with problems and is savagely beaten until he admits to the plot and clears the innocent woman’s nameâ€¦

With news of Jane’s impending marriage to William Clayton, Tarzan seeks to ease his tortured mind with action and the next chapter sees him travel to Algeria where, sponsored by the grateful, ashamed Count, he begins working for the Secret Service in Sidi Bel Abbes, ferreting out a traitor in the turbulently volatile French colonyâ€¦

His hunt soon leads him to a likely traitor and brutal battle with Arab agent provocateurs, but things start to turn his way after he liberates a dancing slave who is the daughter of a local sheik.

When word of Jane comes from D’Arnot, Tarzan throws himself even more deeply into his tasks and falls into another ambush organised by Rokoff. This time his ‘Fury in the Desert’ seems insufficient to his needs until his newfound friend the Sheik rides to his rescueâ€¦

The intrigue continues to unfold in ‘Return of the Primitive’ as Tarzan finally uncovers a link between Rokoff and the espionage at Sidi Bel Abbes. Job done he is then posted to Capetown and aboard ship meets voyager Hazel Strong, a close friend of Jane’s who reveals the heiress had never forgotten her tryst with the Ape-Man.

Unable to watch Jane enter into a loveless marriage, Hazel took off on an ocean cruiseâ€¦

The story rocks Tarzan’s mind, but not so completely that he fails to notice Rokoff is also aboard and murderously dogging his footsteps. This time however the Russian is properly prepared and that night the Ape-Man vanishes from the shipâ€¦

Rokoff’s act of assassination is a purely pyrrhic victory. Soon after reaching Capetown the villain insinuated himself into the Clayton wedding party but when their yacht’s boilers explode next morning, he, Hazel, William Clayton, Jane and her father are left adrift in a lifeboatâ€¦

Tarzan meanwhile, has survived being tumbled overboard and spent days swimming hundreds of miles. He now washes up on the same beach his parents were left upon decades ago. Staggering inland, he finds himself in the cabin his father built before being stolen and adopted by Kala the She-Ape.

John Clayton is forgotten, for fate has brought Tarzan homeâ€¦

A man changed by his time amongst other men, the Jungle Lord instinctively saves a native warrior from certain death and is astonished to find himself declared chieftain of the noble Waziri tribe.

â€¦And off the coast, a lifeboat filled with dying travellers spots land and wearily sculls towards a welcoming beach in the heart of primeval forestsâ€¦

Revelling in his newfound status, popularity and freedom, Tarzan enquires about the fabulous jewelled ornaments of his new friends and learns of an incredible lost metropolis. Soon he is curiously journeying to ‘The City of Gold’ where he encounters debased, degenerate beast-men led by a gloriously beautiful Queen.

La is high priestess of forgotten Atlantean outpost Opar, but can barely control her subjects enough to allow the perfect specimen of manhood to escape to safety. Both she and Tarzan know they are destined to meet againâ€¦

Refusing to be cheated of their sacrifice, the bloodthirsty Oparian males search far into the jungle and soon encounter the Clayton yacht survivors. When the primitives attack the human strangers and carry off Jane, Rokoff shows his true colours, leaving William to die. This callous act also inadvertently clears the path for Tarzan to finally claim his inheritance and reunite with Janeâ€¦

All the Jungle Lord has to do is break back into Opar, save his one true love from ‘The Pit of Doom!’ and escape the wrath of jealous Queen Laâ€¦

That mission accomplished, he and Jane return to the beach in time to witness William’s dying confession and accept the succession to the estates and title of Lord Greystokeâ€¦

This captivating compilation concludes with an original adventure seeing Tarzan rescue a beautiful maiden from attacking apes and discovering she is a messenger from La, who is in peril of her lifeâ€¦

In Opar another insurrection by the Beast Men has left the Queen imperilled by her subjects and threatened by a gigantic mutant whom she tearfully reveals is her sibling in ‘Death is My Brother!’ With no choice Tarzan regretfully battles the dim brute and proves to the insurgents that his wrath is greater than their maliceâ€¦

Supplemented by Creator Biographies of Burroughs and Kubert, this tome is another masterpiece of comics creation and total adventure triumph which no lover of the medium or fantasy fan can afford to be without.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan Â® The Joe Kubert Years Volume Two Â© 1972, 1973, 2006 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All rights reserved. Tarzan Â® is owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., and used by permission.

August 10, 2016August 13, 2016

Tarzan on Film

By Scott Tracy Griffin (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-0-85768-568-1

Soon after the publication of Tarzan of the Apes in 1912, the character – thanks in no small part to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ acumen as a self-promoter – became a multi-media sensation and global star.

Many sequels followed; a comic strip arrived in 1929, followed by a radio show in 1932 and the Ape-Man inevitably carved out a solid slice of the comicbook market too once the industry was firmly established. However, the earliest and most effective promotional tool – one which took on a life of its own – was Tarzan’s frequent forays into the world of celluloid.

This impressive coffee-table art-book, released to coincide with the latest long-awaited movie, offers an eye-popping blend of intimate background, biographies and a critical overview, supplanted by hundreds of production stills, candid photos and – most welcome to art lovers – movie posters and promotional artwork from each theatre release.

Compiled and written by author and historian Scott Tracy Griffin (Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration), the book catalogues the history of the filmic franchise by focusing on every film and each actor to play the Ape-Man and his mate Jane, as well as finding room to spotlight the most memorable villains, glamorous femme fatales, supporting characters and even that purely filmic innovation Cheetah.

Affording equal importance to the large and small screen iterations – live-action or animated – the history lesson begins after an Foreword from past-Tarzan Casper Van Dien and traces the iconic, world-famous Jungle Lord from Elmo Lincoln in 1918’s Tarzan of the Apes (one of the first six films ever to gross more than a million dollars) through to today’s The Legend of Tarzan, with Alexander SkarsgÃ¥rd delivering the â€œvictory cry of the Great Bull-Apeâ€â€¦

There’s even a tantalising section on the â€œOriginal Kidsâ€ CGI series Tarzan and Jane forthcoming from Netflixâ€¦

This magnificently monolithic epic (224 pages and 262 x 23 x 333 mm) hardback volume is liberally illustrated with photographic stills and promo art, and also includes examples of Bob Kline’s production art and storyboards, model sheets and stills from the glorious Filmation Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle Saturday morning cartoon show from 1976-1984.

For the technically-minded and those of a completist bent there’s also a full list of The Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, including Tarzan Feature Films, Movie Serials, TV Movies and Series and thematically-linked Additional Films plus Acknowledgements and a copious catalogue of suggested Further Readingâ€¦

It seems that whatever your vintage, there’s a nostalgia-drenched Tarzan waiting (mine is Ron Ely who starred as both TV and movie Man-Ape from 1966-1970) to spark old memories and foster fresh thrills and this is just the book to get those primal juices flowing.

Tarzan on Film is both intriguing and pretty: enticing and genuinely informative enough to keep any fan happy. If it’s not too soon for the â€œCâ€ word it might well be this years first suggestion for giant-sized end-of year stocking-stufferâ€¦
Tarzan Â® & Â© 2016 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All images Â© 2016 Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., Warner Bros, or Walt Disney Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

August 8, 2016August 7, 2016

Dr. Who – The Eleventh Doctor volume 1: After Life

By Al Ewing, Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, Boo Cook & various (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-385-7

Doctor Who was first seen on black-&-white TV screens on November 23^rd 1963 in the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’. Less than a year later his decades-long run of adventures in TV Comic began with issue #674 and the premier instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’. Throughout the later Sixties and early 1970’s, strips appeared in Countdown (later re-titled TV Action) before shuttling back to TV Comic.

On 11^th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says 17^th) Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly, which evolved into a monthly magazine in 1980 and has been with us under various names ever since.

All of which only goes to prove that the Man from Gallifrey is a hero with an impressive pedigree and hard to kill in any mediumâ€¦

In recent years the strip division of the Whovian mega-franchise has roamed far and wide and currently rests with British publisher Titan Comics who have sagely opted to run parallel series starring the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth incarnations of the trickily turbulent Time Lord.

These tales starring the Matt Smith incarnation comprise the first five issues of the 2014 monthly comicbook; set just after the Time Lord restarted our imploding universe and saw his companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams married and settled down.

Naturally, the gregarious Galloping Gallifreyan is soon in the mood for a little company, as seen in ‘After Life’ scripted by Al Ewing (Captain America and the Mighty Avengers, Loki: Agent of Asgard) and Rob Williams (Cla$$war, Thanos) illustrated by Simon Fraser (Nikolai Dante, Lilly MacKenzie).

She wasn’t dead, but Alice Obiefune‘s life seemed to end after her mother passed way. Things started falling apart and Library Assistant Alice was drifting head-first into a bleak grey world of sucking depression.

Everything changed in an instant when a weird rainbow dog/dragon/thingie raced down the High Street, followed by a strange beanpole man in tweed jacket and bowtie. Barely pausing for breath, he somehow got her to help him chase it.

They would have caught it too, if he hadn’t seen something sinister at the edge of his vision and run into a lamppostâ€¦

He then vanished, leaving Alice breathless and bewildered, but popped back a little later when she was safely back in her memory-blighted house. He said she seemed sad and made teaâ€¦

Alice was suitably impressed by the incredible TARDIS, but couldn’t help thinking the strange self-confessed alien seemed lonelyâ€¦

Eager to show off, The Doctor gave her the guided tour of his incredible ship, but Alice kept thinking about the rainbow critter and soon the Doctor was too. Kharitite Joy Beasts home in on negative emotion and bulk up on the mass and energy they generate. However it got there, a miserable, avaricious, angry place like London was no place to leave one wandering aboutâ€¦

The proof of that occurred when they tracked it to the Houses of Parliament in time to stop a riot becoming a bloodbath. Happily The Doctor had a rather good idea about how to calm down the overwhelmed Kharititeâ€¦

With new Companion firmly onboard, the roaming wonderment continues in a jaunt to Rokhandi. What was supposed to be a visit to the most beautiful planet in the universe is spoiled when the TARDIS materialises in a cheap and shoddy global theme parkâ€¦

‘The Friendly Place’ (Ewing & Fraser) is crass, artificial and toxically anodyne but its not long before The Doctor and Alice uncover a sinister presence lobotomising troublemakers, vandals and people who refuse to be happy. With typical rebellious zeal the Time Lord and the Library Assistant challenge the massed delight of the customers and soon uncover a rapacious scheme by corporate powerhouse ServeYouIncâ€¦

Moreover – thanks to the oddities of temporal mechanics – they meet for the very first time an old enemy who despises them for all their past/future meddlingâ€¦

Security Chief August Hart is happy to share the secret of the alien wish-granting thing they’ve used to pacify and lobotomise troublesome visitors, but when he makes it enter the Gallifreyan’s mind, the result is not what the moneymen were expectingâ€¦

In fact that brief cerebral contact will have repercussions up and down the timelineâ€¦

Blithely unaware, the time travellers think it’s â€œjob doneâ€ and hurtle home. However, in 1930 Mississippi a most ominous Talent Scout is trading potential fame for relative inconsequentials. The wishes he grants are on behalf of ServeYouInc, but ‘What He Wantsâ€¦’ (Williams & Fraser) is largely unknown.

He’ll probably get it though, since an ensorcelled Doctor has succumbed to the effects of the corporation’s wishing-entity and become just another of his beguiled slaves. Hopefully Alice and before-he-was-famous Rock Legend John Jones can help bluesman guitar god Robert Johnson work with the consciousness of the TARDIS to save the day and the worldâ€¦

Some secrets of ServeYouInc and the initial clash with August Hart are then exposed in ‘Whodunnit?’ by Ewing & Boo (Elephantmen, Judge Dredd) Cook, as the charming chrononauts – sucked in by an impending paradox – accidentally arrive at a commercial alien science station in the far future where a years-long conspiracy has boiled over into tragedyâ€¦

Something has breached the station and is attacking the staff, plundering their minds and leaving them in comasâ€¦

Naturally, nothing is truly as it seems and despite the best efforts of jumped-up, gun-happy temporary Security Chief Hart, the shocking truth about what has been going on in the name of science and profit is exposed when The Doctor, Alice and Jones meet an incredible creature drawn to ‘The Sound of Our Voices’â€¦

Smart, warm, edgy and subtly hilarious, this premier volume comes with loads of bonus material such as short comedy strips by AJ and David Leach, Marc Ellerby’s sitcom featuring assorted Pond Life, behind-the-scenes production photos and a vast gallery of alternate and variant covers (photographic, digitally manipulated, painted and/or drawn) by the likes of Fraser, Alice X. Zhang, Rob Farmer and Verity Glass.

If you’re a fan of the small screen Time Lord, this book might well make you an addict to both. After Life is a glorious treat for casual readers, a fine additional avenue for devotees of the TV show to explore and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our art-form to anyone minded to give comics a proper goâ€¦
BBC, Doctor Who (word marks, logos and devices) and Tardis are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. BBC logo Â© BBC 1996. Doctor Who logo Â© BBC 2009. Tardis image Â© BBC 1963. First edition April 2015.

July 27, 2016July 25, 2016

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus volume 4

By Andi Watson, Christopher Golden, Daniel Brereton, Joe Bennett, Hector Gomez, Cliff Richards, Jason Minor & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-968-0

It’s the height of summer here and with â€œSeen-it Seasonâ€ well under way and nothing but old movie blockbusters and sundry other reruns flooding the TV ether, I’ve decided to join in the lazy, short-sighted scheduling process with a few comics compilations starring venerable franchise stars. At least the entertainment quality of these golden oldies is guaranteed and there are no ads to fast forward throughâ€¦

Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted as a motion picture starlet, but found her home after migrating to the small screen. After securing her status as a certified media sensation, she won her own comicbook in 1998, with smart, suspenseful, action-packed yarns exploding out of a monthly series, graphic novels, spin-off miniseries and short stories in showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents – all complementing the sensational, groundbreaking and so culturally crucial TV show.

Buffy Summers resides in the California hamlet of Sunnydale, built over a paranormal portal to the Nether Realms dubbed The Hellmouth. Here, she and a small band of buddies battle devils, demons and all sorts of horrors inexorably drawn to the area: most of whom/what regard humanity as a succulent appetiser and Earth an irresistible eldritch â€œfixer-upperâ€ opportunity.

With Rupert Giles, scholarly mentor, father-figure and Watcher of all things unnatural, Buffy and her â€œScooby Gangâ€ sought to make the after-dark streets of Sunnydale safe for the largely-oblivious human morsels, ably abetted and occasionally aided by an enigmatic undead stud-muffin called Angelâ€¦

Collected in this fourth of seven supremely scintillating Omnibus editions (and mirroring events on the show’s third season) are the pertinent contents of Dark Horse Presents #141, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #9-11, 13-15, 17-20 and 50, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Annual 1999, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Wizard #Â½, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel #1-3, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lover’s Walk and Angel #1-3: collectively spanning 1999-2002 and all re-convened for your delectation as a chronological continuity rather than in original publishing order: well-nigh 400 pages of full-colour mystery, merriment and mystical martial arts mayhem.

As recapitulated in original series Editor Scott Allie’s Introduction, although stories were created in a meandering manner up and down the timeline, this Omnibus series offers them in strict chronological continuity orderâ€¦

Launching the sundown action is an ambitious 10-issue epic which ran intermittently through the first two years of the monthly comic. ‘Bad Blood’ was written by Andi Watson and illustrated by Joe Bennett & Rick Ketcham and latterly Cliff Richard & Joe Pimentel, opening with a rare romantic moment. Buffy and recently-restored undead lover Angel are in the local cemetery where they are interrupted by a new type of threat. However this particular monster is too quick to be seen and apparently consumes corpses rather than living fleshâ€¦

Meanwhile, in a dingy alley formerly beautiful vampire Selke seethes. Even though her kind cast no reflections, she knows her previous clashes with the Slayer have destroyed not only her strength but also her sublime allureâ€¦

Even as Buffy’s mom idly considers cosmetic surgery to bolster her fading youth, Selke accosts plastic surgeon Dr. Flitter, offering the challenge of a lifetime and unchanging, undead eternal life in return. Obsession with appearances seems to be epidemic in Sunnydale and when Buffy is approached by talent scout Lana she seriously considers a proposal to become a model. If only it doesn’t cut into her Slaying scheduleâ€¦ oh, and school of courseâ€¦

Whilst Giles was busy researching the elusive thing that eats cadavers, Ma Summers has regained her equilibrium and decides against going under the knife – which was lucky since Flitter has taken up Selke’s offer to restore her. However, as his normal procedures don’t work, he’s resorting to old books of magic for a solution, and is keeping the impatient nosferatu complacent by feeding her his other clientsâ€¦

Buffy has prepared to battle what Giles calls â€œGhoulsâ€ but faces a far worse, emotional, battering from the other models on her first day at work. Selke, meanwhile, fooling herself that Flitter’s efforts are working, has tried to recruit vampire allies from the town’s new undead overlord Rouleau and been utterly humiliatedâ€¦

Later that night as Angel and the Slayer finally eradicate the ghoul gang, furious Selke puts her increasingly arcane cosmetologist on warning: succeed soon or die horriblyâ€¦ Issue #11 continued exploring themes of looks and sexual politics after sleazy musician Todd Dahl hits town with his band and starts looking for impressionable babes to bed.

After the Slayer forcefully turns him down, Todd brags that he has bagged Buffy and goes on to insult and rebuff more-than-willing teen witch Amy. All too soon, the repulsive love-rat is treated to a scary look at the other side of the bed when he suddenly transforms into ‘A Boy Named Sue’â€¦

Flitter meanwhile has intercepted a grimoire intended for Giles’ lore library and deduced a way to heal Selke and even hype-up the strength of her own bite-created offspring. Unfortunately, it involves preying upon other vampires to get the raw ingredientsâ€¦

The direly dangerous process succeeds and a fully restored, resplendent, deadlier than ever Selke triumphantly puts her plans into play. Soon everyone who ever crossed her will pay and pay and pay in blood and tormentâ€¦

The wise-cracking action resumes with the formerly disfigured and depleted Selke paying a return visit to undead gang-boss Rouleau. The last time he saw – and spurned – her, she was a pathetic, mutilated bag of scars and bile, but now she is both beautiful and overwhelmingly powerful. She also bears a grudgeâ€¦

Her pet plastic surgeon has discovered a passion for alchemy to supplement his total lack of morals. Flitter has completely taken up Selke’s cause, restoring and improving her but, since normal scientific procedures don’t work, is stuck with scouring books of magic for a solution. Although his researches turned up a way to turn vampire blood into a super-steroid for Selke and her â€œoffspringâ€, now she and her newly-minted children of the night must hunt not only humans for food, but vampires for fuelâ€¦

Selke, though, is obsessed only with making the Slayer sufferâ€¦

Meanwhile, in a vain semblance of normal teen life, the Scooby Gangsters Cordelia, Oz, Xander and Buffy coach brainy, nervous Willow for an upcoming televised inter-school quiz show. Things start to come unglued when Selke incidentally consumes Sunnydale High’s resident nerd Lyle and Cordy, desperate to change her bimbo image, steals a magic charm from Giles and becomes a voracious consumer of facts. Sadly, there’s no off-switch and her brain quickly begins to overloadâ€¦

Selke’s Ã¼ber-vamps are also making mischief with Buffy and Angel finding them almost impossible to destroyâ€¦

Now nocturnal civil war breaks out between Selke’s squad and the town’s regular fangers. Night patrols are crazily broken up by vampires constantly attempting to capture and drain each other, and things take a bleak turn when deadly demon lovers Spike and Drusilla return, keen on turning the mounting chaos to their own decadently amused advantageâ€¦

Soon, their unique talents for obtaining information have led them to the secret of the â€œbad bloodâ€, with Selke and Flitter still oblivious to the new threat to their schemes. The cosmetic alchemist has now discovered a way of mystically cloning their own â€œDark Slayerâ€ to take care of Buffy, and Selke wants one right now!

Sadly Flitter’s first attempts are all woefully inadequate and promptly discardedâ€¦ even the one which was still sort-of aliveâ€¦

Buffy’s daylight problems are insane. Sleazy Todd spread very nasty rumours about her before he temporarily turned into a girl, but now he’s male again he’s fallen desperately in love with the girl he wronged. His misplaced passion and rekindled conscience cost him dearlyâ€¦

Events reach crisis point as the war between leeches escalates. On a rare night off from slaying, Buffy hits one of Selke’s pack with her mom’s (stolen) car and is subsequently ambushed by the whole mob. Even as she impossibly stakes them all, in a hidden lab, Flitter decants his masterpiece – a Summers simulacrum physically identical to and apparently far superior to The Slayer. This sorcerous clone will relentlessly hunt down and slaughter the originalâ€¦

Accursed by daylight lives approximating normality, Willow, Cordelia, Oz, Xander and Buffy are forced to join in school-type activities by building a float for an upcoming parade. Angel, meanwhile, has captured one of Selke’s new ‘Roid Rage Vamps and started obtaining answers in a manner most un-heroicâ€¦

On the midnight streets, Buffy is ambushed by her duplicate and, after a blistering battle, loses. Elsewhere Selke, unaware that a new faction has sabotaged her modified blood supply, gorges herself on the foul brewâ€¦

After disposing of Buffy’s body down a handy manhole, the doppelganger attempts to infiltrate the Scooby Gang, but although she has the Slayer’s memories, her attitudes are seriously skewed. For instance, her knowledge of fashion now rivals Cordie’sâ€¦

Tensions rise as the clone starts to degrade. Born of Bad Blood, she casts no reflection and can’t see her face, but once she notices the flesh of her shoulder coming off she heads straight back to Doc Flitterâ€¦

The cosmetic alchemist has already discovered that someone has adulterated his buckets of blood and Selke is completely out of control when the clone arrives, leaking from many lesions. None of them are aware that, deep below Sunnydale’s streets, Buffy is slowly recuperating, assisted by a shambling earlier prototype previously discarded by Flitter.

As Angel sneaks in and destroys the reservoir of augmented blood, the raging, oblivious Selke orders the duplicate to fetch Buffy’s body and prove she’s deadâ€¦

The gory carnival of chaos cataclysmically concludes when the clone confronts the Slayer and her earliest incarnation in the sewers, whilst above ground Willow and Giles examine â€œBuffy’sâ€ blood on a discarded parade costume and uncover the awful truthâ€¦

When Selke sees the decimation wrought by Angel, she goes berserk; her form rapidly mutating into monstrosity, just as the long-awaited procession begins through Sunnydale. Her depredations are interrupted by the battered but victorious Buffy who spectacularly re-emerges to destroy Selke and end the Bad Blood menace forever. However, in the shadows, deadly demon lovers Spike and Drusilla fade from sight, taking new toy Dr. Flitter with themâ€¦

A selection of Short Stories comes next, beginning with ‘Bad Dog’ by Doug Petrie, Ryan Sook & Tim Goodyear from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Annual 1999. It depicts how the Slayer, whilst hunting for reluctant werewolf Oz on one of his â€œwildâ€ nights, encounters a nasty young sorcerer determined to turn himself into a god at gal-pal Willow’s expenseâ€¦

‘Hello Moon’ – written by Daniel Brereton & Christopher Golden, with art by Bennett & Jim Amash – was the first of three tales from Dark Horse Presents #141: a thoughtful vignette wherein Buffy instinctively attacks a monster on the beach only to realise she has much in common with her target.

The beleaguered fish-man also bears the weight of unwelcome responsibility for his endangered race. No sooner have these two champions made their peace, however, than a band of roving vamps attacksâ€¦

From the same source, ‘Cursed!’ by Golden, Hector Gomez & Sandu Florea then sees brooding Bad Boy Angel guiltily regaling Buffy with the horrific events he perpetrated following his rebirth as a bloodsucker in Ireland circa 1753â€¦

Watson, David Perrin & Florea round out the DHP #141 appearances with a glimpse at Giles’ early career as a supernatural investigator tackling a nasty case of bodysnatching, resurrectionism, reanimation and ‘Dead Love’â€¦

‘Stinger’ – by Golden, Gomez & Florea – comes from promo premium Wizard #Â½ – detailing how Xander’s attempts to save Willow from a bullying stalker lead to a clash with a fear-feeding scorpion-thingâ€¦

From Buffy #50, Andi Watson contributes hilarious change-of-pace gag strip ‘Mall Rats’ after which Golden & Eric Powell expose ‘Who Made Who’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lover’s Walk) with Spike and Dru’s notoriously â€œopenâ€ relationship going through one of those spiralling phases that always results in jealousy, spite and mass-slaughterâ€¦

Angel eventually spun off into his own TV series, but from the start was a big enough draw to earn his own comicbook title. Angel: The Hollower was a 3-issue miniseries (May-July 1999) and detailed how, even after reverting to exquisite evil before being redeemed again, his past would always haunt himâ€¦

It begins in present-day San Francisco where a pair of vampires is attacked by a monstrously tentacled horror. Veteran vamp Catherine barely escapes with her unlife and, having seen the horror before, knows there’s only one being she can turn toâ€¦

Back in Sunnydale, Buffy and Angel have resumed their after-dark partnership, even though Giles and the rest of her in-the-know friends are still wary of the recently re-redeemed night-stalker. However, once their monster-killing â€œdateâ€ ends, Angel is jumped by a band of fangers and sees once more a girl he slaughtered and â€œturnedâ€ over a century pastâ€¦

Although their sworn enemy, his undead captors treat Angel with kid gloves. Catherine only wants to talk, and she wants to talk about ‘The Hollower’ â€¦

A flashback turns to Vienna in 1892 where Angelus and his pack-mates Spike and Drusilla were amongst many vampires preying on the populace in complete security; oblivious of and immune to all threat or challenge.

However, soon after turning Catherine, Angelus was confronted by starving, terrified vampires fleeing some unimaginable horror that actually preyed on bloodsuckersâ€¦

Back in the now, Catherine reminds her sire of the cost the last time the creature manifested and warns him it has undoubtedly tracked her to Sunnydaleâ€¦

Convinced, Angel agrees to a truce and prepares to battle the thing again. Typically he considers this something he cannot share with Buffyâ€¦

In end-of-the-century Austria the first fight against the Hollower unsatisfactorily stalled with only a few undead survivors, whilst now in Sunnydale Angel secretly consults eldritch expert Giles and learns the truth about the beast. He also discovers that, blithely unaware, Buffy is already hunting a huge, subterranean tentacle-horror that prefers vamps to human mealsâ€¦

Watcher archives reveal a chilling scenario. Everybody knows vampires are actually human corpses with the departed soul replaced by a reanimating demon, using blood to fuel the composite creature. The Hollower, however, sucks out those demonic riders and ingests them. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, except once it’s full – about 3,000 demons is its limit – the horror explosively regurgitates them and the partially digested devils will infect the nearest LIVING body.

If the Hollower succeeds in satiating itself in vampire-infested Sunnydale and subsequently pops, most of the town’s mortal souls will suddenly become rabid, blood-crazed killersâ€¦

Despite being fully engaged in the hunt, Buffy can’t shift a nagging, tempting and unworthy notion: if the Hollower sucks out the vampiric part of Angel, will she be left with a normal human loverâ€¦?

Whatever the outcome, the Hollower has to be stopped at any and all costsâ€¦

The manic mystic mayhem then concludes with a comicbook postscript to the Season 3 TV finale as ‘Graduation Day’ (by Petrie, Jason Minor & Curtis Arnold, from Buffy #20) simultaneously follows Angel as he heads for his new mission in Los Angeles and stays in Sunnydale with Buffy when a demon who feeds on lost hope targets both monster-hunters at once, eager to destroy them both at their lowest emotional ebbâ€¦

Supplementing this compilation of mystic madness are Title Page and Cover Galleries with material from Jeff Matsuda, Jon Sibal, J. Scott Campbell, Alex Garner, Liquid! & Guy Major to complete the eerie excitement experience.

Visually compelling, winningly constructed and racing along at hell-for-leather pace, this arcane action fearfully funny fright-fest is utterly engaging even if you’re not familiar with the vast backstory: a creepy chronicle as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as every dedicated devotee.

Moreover, in the era of TV binge-watching, with the shows readily available on TV and DVD, if you aren’t a follower yet you soon could – and should – beâ€¦
Buffy the Vampire Slayer â„¢ & Â© 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

July 23, 2016July 22, 2016

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Jungle Tales of Tarzan

ByMartin Powell & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-63008-248-2

Jungle Tales of Tarzan was the sixth prose novel release, published in 1919 after monthly serialisation in prestigious pulp Blue Book Magazine between September 1916 and August 1917.

The content is a series of twelve loosely connected episodes, wherein the young Lord of the Jungle confronts various cognitive and physical stages in his own development. They are all set after the foundling’s ape foster-mother Kala was killed and before that first fateful meeting with Jane Porter and introduction to human civilisation.

The stories have been adapted in whole or in part by most of the American comics publishers who have released Tarzan material – Gold Key, Charlton, Marvel, DC and Malibu Comics – as well as by quintessential Tarzan illustrator Burne Hogarth in one of the industry’s earliest graphic novels.

In 2015 – anticipating this year’s movie release – current license-holder Dark Horse Comics released an all-new adaptation of the complete text, scripted by Martin Powell (Scarlet in Gaslight, Alien Nation), designed by Diana Leto and individually illustrated by a broad swathe of differently-styled artists.

Following author Robin Maxwell’s Introduction ‘Back to the Jungle’, the adaptations begin with ‘Tarzan’s First Love’ (painted by Leto) detailing how the adolescent Ape-Man was increasingly drawn to fetching young She-Ape Teeka. Incomprehensibly, no matter what he did, the young maiden just wasn’t interested in her ardent, hairless admirerâ€¦

A brutal and epic clash between the local tribesmen responsible for Kala’s death and the jungle legend highlights the uncanny bond between the seldom-seen but terrifying white ghost and mighty elephant Tantor, who proves valiant and true following ‘The Capture of Tarzan’ (delineated by Pablo Marcos, Diego RondÃ³n & Oscar Gonzalez), whilst Lowell Isaac’s interpretation of ‘The Fight for the Balu’ shows wistful sensitivity and potent fury as childhood friends of Tarzan become incomprehensibly aggressive after the birth of their first baby. They soon change their tune after a leopard attacksâ€¦

Will Meugniot deftly details the constantly-questioning outsider’s search for ‘The God of Tarzan’ after overdosing on his dead father’s books and suffering a brain-expanding religious experience, whilst ‘Tarzan and the Native Boy’ – illustrated by Nik Poliwko – sees him experience paternal yearnings. After abducting a small child and learning of both guilt and folly, the Ape-Man earns his first arch-enemy by spoiling greedy fetish-man Bukuwai‘s scam to impoverish little Tibo‘s distraught motherâ€¦

Steven E. Gordon explosively renders the return match when ‘The Witch Doctor Seeks Vengeance’; trying – and failing – to feed little Tibo to hungry hyenas before Jamie Chase details ‘The End of Bukuwai’ as the vile witchman finally captures the â€œtree devilâ€ Tarzan and learns that jungle vengeance is far worse than anything he could conceive ofâ€¦

‘The Lion’ (Terry Beatty) explores Tarzan’s eccentric sense of humour as the Lord of the Apes acquires an entire skin of Numa the lion and learns from his anthropoid subjects a painful lesson about practical joking, after which Mark Wheatley turns in a lush and spectacularly effective interpretation of much-adapted fantasy ‘The Nightmare’.

Here starving, curious Tarzan steals and gorges on elephant meat from the native village. The resultant food-poisoning takes him on a hallucinogenic journey never to be forgotten and almost costs his life when he can no longer tell phantasm from actual foeâ€¦

Crafted by Sergio Cariello, Patrick Gama & Dave Lanphear, ‘The Battle for Teeka’ features an epic clash as the new mother is stolen by a rival ape pack and Tarzan must lead his people into a full-on war to save herâ€¦

‘A Jungle Joke’ (TomÃ¡s M. Aranda) sees an unrepentant Tarzan revive his hilarious Numa masquerade to bedevil the local natives; taking the place of an actual lion the savages plan to torture, before this legendary lexicon concludes in metaphorical triumph with Carlos ArgÃ¼ello limning an epic struggle after an eclipse blankets the jungle and ‘Tarzan Rescues the Moon’â€¦

With a bonus section highlighting Darren Bader’s cover art and additional illustrations by Bader, Thomas Floyd, Louis Henry Mitchell, Steve Price & Thomas Yeates, Jungle Tales of Tarzan is a delicious treat for both Ape-Man aficionados and devotees of the comics arts in all their multi-various styles.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Jungle Tales of Tarzan Â© 2015 Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. All rights reserved. Tarzan â„¢ and Â® Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. and used by permission.

July 9, 2016July 8, 2016

Dr. Who: The Tenth Doctor volume 1: Revolutions of Terror

By Nick Abadzis, Elena Casagrande, Arianna Florean & various (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-384-0

Doctor Who first materialised through our black-&-white television screens on November 23^rd 1963 in the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’. Less than a year later his decades-long run in TV Comic began with issue #674 and the premier instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’. Throughout the later Sixties and early 1970’s strips appeared in Countdown (later retitled TV Action) before shuttling back to TV Comic.

On 11^th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says 17^th) Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly, which became a monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) and has been with us under various names ever since.

All of which only goes to prove that the Time Lord is a comic hero with an impressive pedigreeâ€¦

In recent years the strip portion of the Whovian mega-franchise has roamed far and wide and currently rests with British publisher Titan Comics who have sagely opted to run parallel series starring the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth incarnations of the tricky and tumultuous Time Lord.

Scripted by the ever-excellent Nick Abadzis (Hugo Tate, Children of the Voyager, The Amazing Mr. Plebus, Laika) and illustrated by Elena Casagrande (Suicide Risk, Star Trek, X Files) & Arianna Florean – with art assistance from Luca Lamberti, Michele Pasta, Annapaolo Martello, Giorgio Sposito & Paolo Villanelli – these tales comprise the first five issues of the 2014 monthly comicbook and are set at the conclusion of the Fourth Season starring David Tennant, just after he lost his cherished (time) travelling Companion Donna Nobleâ€¦

‘Revolutions of Terror’ opens in picturesque Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where the locals are gearing up for Halloween and the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Gabriella Gonzalez is less than joyous. A talented creative type, she wants to go to art school but her father is keeping her home to help in his restaurant and run his latest side-venture – a Laundromat. He is letting her go to night college thoughâ€¦ but only to study accountancy and book-keepingâ€¦

When the washing machines all go crazy and spin out of control that day, prospective brother-in-law Hector is quick to pass on the blame to her, so Gabriella is feeling pretty annoyed and despondent. When the weird British-sounding guy turns up at the Castillo Mexicano for breakfast she barely notices him, what with grandma suddenly seeing ghosts and Hector being accosted by a demonâ€¦

Strange sights and uncanny apparitions continue throughout the day and Sunset Park is in no mood for celebrations as Gabby takes the subway to class, but when the train is attacked by monsters the weird Brit is there to fight the thing off with a buzzing blue flashlightâ€¦

Soon introductions are made and â€œThe Doctorâ€ has introduced her to an uncanny new universe she never believed possibleâ€¦ and one that might soon be ending thanks to an invasion by toxic-emotion devourers called The Silent. They are â€“ apparently – voracious weaponised Cerebravores from another planetâ€¦

As she ingeniously holds the terrors at bay in the Laundromat, the Doctor visits their origin-world and, once he’s gained the knowledge he needs, returns with a plan to defeat them. Sadly it depends completely on Gabby’s artistic gifts and her family’s good moodâ€¦

Nevertheless global doom is averted, and the Doctor is preparing to slope off when Gabriella makes her big pitch to go with himâ€¦

Agreeing to just one quick trip, the Time Lord takes his new guest to the Pentaquoteque Gallery of Ououmos, one of the greatest collections of ‘The Arts in Space’ but, as Gabby’s cartoon strip journal shows, it’s much more of a pant-wetting scary adventure than a dry museum visitâ€¦

A driven artistic soul, Gabriella is naturally intoxicated with everything, but the real show-stopper is her introduction to puissant Zhe Ikiyuyu‘s block transfer sculptures: a rare discipline which can manifest solid objects by mathematically manipulating Quantum Foam Harmonics through singing or chantingâ€¦

However the rapt fascination quickly turns into more terrified running after the Doctor takes her to Zhe’s private moon where they discover the compulsive creative artist has taken the ultimate step in her art and the creations now run the roostâ€¦

This racy, pacy, superbly authentic and in-touch little tome comes with a bunch of bonus material such as humorous strip extras by A. J, David Leach, Emma Price & Rachel Smith and a vast gallery of Gallifreyan alternate and variant covers (photographic, digitally manipulated, painted and/or drawn) by the likes of Casagrande, Alice X. Zhang, Rob Farmer, Warren Pleece and Verity Glass. Also on offer is a behind-the-scenes peek at ‘Designing Gabby’ making this a splendid slice of comics magic starring an incontestable bulwark of British Fantasy.

If you’re a fan of only one form, this book might make you an addict to both. Revolutions of Terror is a fabulous treat for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for devotees of the TV show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics a proper goâ€¦
BBC, Doctor Who (word marks, logos and devices) and Tardis are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. BBC logo Â© BBC 1996. Doctor Who logo Â© BBC 2009. Tardis image Â© BBC 1963. First edition April 2015.

July 7, 2016July 6, 2016

Tarzan Archives: The Joe Kubert Years volume 1

By Joe Kubert with Burne Hogarth (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-404-3

Soon after first publication in 1912 Tarzan of the Apes became a multi-media sensation and global star. More novels and many movies followed; a comic strip arrived in 1929, followed by a radio show in 1932 and the Ape-Man inevitably carved out a solid slice of the comicbook market too once the industry was firmly established.

Western Publishing were a big publishing and printing outfit based on America’s West Coast, rivalling DC and Marvel at the height of their powers. They specialised in licensed properties and the jewels in their crown were all the comics starring the Walt Disney and Warner Brothers cartoon characters.

The publishers famously never capitulated to the wave of anti-comics hysteria that resulted in the crippling self-censorship of the 1950s. Dell Comics – and latter imprints Gold Key and Whitman – never displayed a Comics Code Authority symbol on their covers. They never needed toâ€¦

Dell also sought out other properties like movie or newspaper strip franchises, and would become inextricably associated with TV adaptations once the small screen monopolised modern homes.

In 1948 Dell produced the first all-new Tarzan comicbook. The newspaper strip had previously provided plenty of material for expurgated reprint editions until Dell Four Color Comic #134 (February 1947).

This milestone featured a lengthy, captivating tale of the Ape-Man scripted by Robert P Thompson – who wrote both the Tarzan radio show and aforementioned syndicated strip â€“ with art by the legendary Jesse Marsh.

Marsh & Thompson’s Tarzan returned with two further tales in Dell Four Color Comic #161, cover-dated August 1947. This was a frankly remarkable feat: Four Colour was a catch-all umbrella title that featured literally hundreds of different licensed properties – often as many as ten separate issues per month – so such a rapid return meant pretty solid sales figures.

Within six months the bimonthly Tarzan #1 was released (January/February 1948), beginning an unbroken run that only ended in 1977, albeit by a convoluted routeâ€¦

After decades as Whitman staples, licensing of Edgar Rice Burroughs properties was transferred to DC – not just Tarzan and his extended family, but also fantasy pioneers John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar and others – with the new company continuing the original numbering.

Tarzan #207 had an April 1972 cover-date and the series carried on until February 1977 and issue #258. From then on Marvel, Malibu and Dark Horse extended the jungle Lord’s comicbook canonâ€¦

The early 1970s were the last real glory days of National/DC Comics. As they slowly lost market-share to Marvel, they responded by producing controversial and landmark superhero material, but their greatest strength lay – as it always had – in the variety and quality of its genre divisions.

Mystery and Supernatural, Romance, War and Kids’ titles remained strong or even thrived and the company’s eye for a strong brand was as keen as ever.

Tarzan had been a mainstay of Dell/Gold Key, and a global multi-media phenomenon, so when DC acquired rights they justifiably trumpeted it out, putting one of their top creators in sole charge of the legendary Ape-Man’s monthly exploits, as well as generating a boutique bunch of ERB titles in a variety of formats.

The DC incarnation premiered in a blaze of publicity at the height of a nostalgia boom and was generally well received by fans. For many of us, those years provided the definitive graphic Tarzan, thanks solely to the efforts of the Editor, publisher and illustrator who shepherded the Ape-man through the transition. They were all the same guy: Joe Kubert.

Kubert was born in 1926 in rural Southeast Poland (which became Ukraine and might be Outer Russia by the time you read this). At age two his parents took him to America and he grew up in Brooklyn. According to his Introduction his earliest memory of cartooning was Hal Foster’s Tarzan Sunday stripsâ€¦

Joe’s folks encouraged him to draw from an early age and the precocious kid began a glittering career at the start of the Golden Age, before he was even a teenager. Working and learning at the Chesler comics packaging â€œShopâ€, MLJ, Holyoke and assorted other outfits, he began his close association with National/DC in 1943. A canny survivor of the Great Depression he also maintained outside contacts, dividing his time and energies between Fiction House, Avon, Harvey and All-American Comics, where he particularly distinguished himself on The Flash and Hawkman.

In the early 1950s he and old school chum Norman Maurer were the creative force behind publishers St. Johns: creating evergreen caveman Tor and launching the 3D comics craze with Three Dimension Comics.

Joe never stopped freelancing, appearing in EC’s Two-Fisted Tales, Avon’s Strange Worlds, Lev Gleason Publications & Atlas Comics until in 1955 when, with the industry imploding, he took a permanent position at DC, only slightly diluted whilst he illustrated the contentious and controversial newspaper strip Tales of the Green Berets from 1965 to 1968. From then on he split his time drawing Sgt. Rock and other features, designing covers and editing DC’s line of war comicbooks.

And then DC acquired Tarzanâ€¦

This first fabulous hardcover archive (also available in digital formats) collects the lead stories from Tarzan #207-214 (April-November 1972); a tour de force of passion transubstantiated into stunning comic art, with Kubert writing, illustrating and lettering. Moreover, the vibrant colours in this epic re-presentation is based on Tatjana Wood’s original guides, offering readers a superbly authentic and immersive experience whether you’re coming fresh to the material or joyously revisiting a beloved lost time.

The only disconcerting things about this stellar compilation are the cover reproductions, which appear in all their iconic glory but manipulated to remove DC’s trademark logos. The mightiest force in the modern jungle is still Intellectual Property lawyersâ€¦

The tense suspense begins with an adaptation of first novel Tarzan of the Apes and opens with a safari deep in the jungle. A pretty rich girl is driving her white guide and native bearers at a ferocious pace as she desperately hunts for her missing father.

When a bronzed god bursts into view battling a panther, she watches aghast as human impossibly triumphs over killer cat and then beats his chest whilst emitting an astounding scream. As the terrifying figure vanishes back into the green hell the girl’s questions are grudgingly answered by the old hunter who relates a legend he has heardâ€¦

‘Origin of Tarzan of the Apes’ depicts how, following a shipboard mutiny, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke and his wife Lady Alice are marooned on the African coast with all their possessions, including the vast library of books and Primers intended for their soon to be born babyâ€¦

Against appalling odds they persevered, with Greystoke building a fortified cabin to shelter them from marauding beasts, especially the curious and savage apes which roam the region. Despite the birth of a son, eventually the jungle won and the humans perished, but their son was saved by a grieving she-ape who adopted the baby to replace her own recently killed â€œBaluâ€â€¦

The ugly, hairless boy thrived under Kala‘s doting attentions, growing strong but increasingly aware that he was intrinsically different. He only discovered the how and why after years of diligent effort: through sheer intellectual effort and the remnants of his father’s books and papers, Tarzan learned to read and deduced that he was a M-A-Nâ€¦

The tale within a tale continues in ‘A Son’s Vengeance: Origin of the Ape-Man Book 2’ as the boy rises to prominence amongst his hirsute tribe and through imagination and invention masters all the beasts of his savage environment. Eventually a brutal, nomadic tribe of natives settle in the area and Tarzan has his first contact with creatures he correctly identifies as being M-E-N like himâ€¦

The new situation leads to the greatest tragedy of his life as a hunter of M’Bonga’s tribe kills beloved, devoted Kala and Tarzan learns the shock of loss and overpowering hunger for revengeâ€¦

Issue #209 revealed how civilisation finally caught up with Tarzan as ‘A Mate For the Ape-Man: Origin of the Ape-Man Book 3’ saw him meet and save American Jane Porter, her elderly father and his own cousin.

Just as had happened years earlier, these unlucky voyagers were marooned by mutineers. Discovering John Clayton’s cabin, the castaways find the lost peer’s diary, which is of especial interest to William Clayton, the current Lord Greystoke. As tensions rise and humans die, Tarzan takes his golden haired mate deep into the impenetrable verdureâ€¦

Both tales conclude neatly and tantalisingly in ‘Civilisation: Origin of the Ape-Man Book 4’ as innately noble Tarzan returns Jane to her fiancÃ© William Clayton in time for the westerners to be rescued by French Officer Paul D’Arnot.

When the dashing Lieutenant is captured and tortured by M’Bonga’s tribesmen, Tarzan rescues him and nurses the Frenchman back to health. In return the officer teaches him to speak the human languages that up until that moment he could only read and write inâ€¦

By then however the navy vessel and saved souls have all sailed away, each carrying their own secrets with themâ€¦

With no other options, lovelorn Tarzan agrees to accompany D’Arnot back to civilisation. The eternal comrades eventually settle in Paris with Tarzan practically indistinguishable from other menâ€¦

Even today ‘Origin of the Ape-Man’ is still the most faithful adaptation of ERB’s novel in any medium: potent and evocative, fiercely expressive, a loving and utterly visceral true translation of the landmark saga.

Kubert’s intent was to adapt all 24 Burroughs novels and intersperse them with short, complete tales, but the workload, coupled with his other editorial duties was crippling. To buy some time #211 combined old with new as ‘Land of the Giants’ partially adapted and incorporated Don Garden & Burne Hogarth’s newspaper strip tale ‘Tarzan and the Fatal Mountain’: Sunday strip pages #582-595 which had originally ran from May 3^rd to August 2^nd 1942 (you can see that saga in al its uncut glory by tracking down Tarzan versus the Barbarians (Complete Burne Hogarth Comic Strip Library volume 2).

Here a battle with crocodiles dumps Tarzan in a lost valley where giant natives are being persecuted by deformed, diminutive outworlder Martius Kalban who hungers for the secrets of their prodigious size and strength. Even after gaining his dark desire, Kalban finds himself no match for the outraged Ape-Manâ€¦

‘The Captive!’ is a latter-day exploit, beginning a run of yarns based on the short stories comprising ERB’s book Jungle Tales of Tarzan. Here the relationship between Ape-Man and the elephants is explored with each saving the other from the ever-present threat of the hunters of M’Bongaâ€¦

The Jungle Tales reworkings continue with ‘Balu of the Great Apes’ as childhood friends of Tarzan becomes incomprehensibly aggressive after the birth of their first baby and this first astounding compilation ends with ‘The Nightmare’ as starving Tarzan steals and gorges on meat and drink from the native village. The resultant food-poisoning takes him on a hallucinogenic journey he will never forget and almost costs his life when he can no longer tell phantasm from genuine threatâ€¦

Supplemented by full Creator Biographies of Burroughs and Kubert, this tome is a masterpiece of comics creation no lover of the medium or fantasy fan can afford to be without.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan Â® The Joe Kubert Years Volume One Â© 1972, 2005 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All rights reserved. Tarzan Â® is owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., and used by permission.

July 2, 2016July 1, 2016

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus volume 3

By Andi Watson, Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, Joe Bennett, Hector Gomez, Christian Zanier, Cliff Richards, Jason Pearson & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-885-0

Although debuting as a motion picture starlet, Buffy the Vampire Slayer only really found her high-kicking feet after migrating to the small screen. Soon after securing her status as a certified media sensation, she won her own comicbook (in 1998), with smart, suspenseful, action-packed yarns exploding out of a monthly series, graphic novels, spin-off miniseries and short stories in showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents – all complementing the sensational, groundbreaking and so culturally crucial TV show.

Buffy Summers lives in small California hamlet Sunnydale, built over a paranormal portal to the Nether Realms dubbed The Hellmouth. Here, she and a small band of buddies battle devils, demons and all sorts of horrors inexorably drawn to the area and all regarding humanity as an appetiser and planet Earth an irresistible eldritch â€œfixer-upperâ€ opportunity.

Collected here in the third of seven supremely scintillating Omnibus editions (and mirroring events on the show’s third season) are the contents of Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1-8, 12, 16, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Annual 1999, Dark Horse Extra #12-16 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Play with Fire – collectively spanning 1998-2004 – all re-presented for your delectation as a chronological continuity rather than in original publishing order: well-nigh 300 pages of full-colour mystery, merriment and mystical martial arts mayhem.

As recapitulated in series Editor Scott Allie’s Introduction, although the stories were created in a meandering manner up and down the timeline, this Omnibus series offers them in strict chronological continuity orderâ€¦

It all begins with the ‘Wu-Tang Fang’ (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1 by Andi Watson, Joe Bennett & Rick Ketcham) and starts following another tedious day at Sunnydale High School. Firm friends and comrades in adversity Willow, Xander and Buffy are blowing off steam at local club The Bronze when vampires attack.

The Slayer easily deals with the ill-conceived assault but afterwards is confronted by a mysterious oriental figure in a cloak and straw hat.

It disappears without incident but Xander, fed up with being saved by a girl and still reeling from an all-night kung fu movie marathon, enrols next day at a martial arts Dojo.

He soon painfully discovers his sensei is a bullying brute, even as Buffy and Giles are tracking a string of martial artists killed by vampiresâ€¦

The standard searches of the Library’s lore-books turn up a name: San Sui of the Xiang River – an ancient wandering warrior who challenged fighters to duels and drank their blood when they lostâ€¦

Courtesy of the mysterious stranger, Xander’s brutal teacher soon meets just such a fate, but San Sui is totally unprepared for Buffy, who takes out the stored resentment over all the extra training she’s been forced to endure on his smug, undead assâ€¦

‘Halloween’ (Watson, Bennett & Ketcham) then delightfully covers the annual arcane imbecility of Trick or Treating in Sunnydale; a night when vamps generally stay in, due to the hordes of happy people wandering about. This time, however, a pack of smart young dead things decide to stock up on tasty human titbits for their enforced staycationâ€¦

One of the abductees is scholarly stalwart Willow, snatched after storming out of an argument with her folks. Since, like most of the older high-schoolers, Buffy is stuck with chaperoning little kids on the night, nobody notices her BFF is missing until almost too lateâ€¦

Of course the Slayer does her thing and rescues her gal-pal in time, but after a ferocious, vamp-eviscerating battle, Buffy’s concern for Willow causes her to miss one demon who manages to flee with severe – but not undeath-threatening – injuries. That will prove a costly oversight in months to come as grudge-bearing Selke slowly regains her power and feeds a burning hatredâ€¦

Jumping up a month, #3 goes ‘Cold Turkey’: continuing in sinister Seasonal fashion as Buffy is tasked by her mother with producing the traditional and daunting Thanksgivings Day fest. Stuck with necessarily late-night shopping in-between school and Slayer-ing, she and Giles are increasingly obsessing over that missing fourth Halloween human-hoarderâ€¦

Selke is hiding out and recuperating via the most degrading and disgusting means, but when she spots her hated enemy picking up turkey ‘n’ trimmings at the soul-destroying All-Nite-O-Mart, the damaged and depleted devil decides to surprise the Slayer and speed her own recovery with a hot meal.

Not her best idea ever, but despite a blistering graveyard confrontation, the irrepressible Queen of the Damned again escapes with most of her scurvy skin intactâ€¦

‘Dance with Me’ by Christopher Golden, Hector Gomez & Sandu Florea was produced for TV-Guide (November 21-27, 1998) and details The Slayer’s brief and final encounter with a boy who used to pester her at school functions. He’s a lot more forceful as a vampire, but still strikes out one last timeâ€¦

Watson, Gomez & Florea reunited for Buffy #4 as ‘White Christmas’ sees the Slayer strapped for cash and forced to work at the local Mall to make money for gifts and a new party dress.

However, as Sunnydale is situated on The Hellmouth and Buffy is a certified weirdness magnet, her shifts at The Popsicle Parlor inevitably lead to demon-destroying overtime when she discovers creepy boss Mr. Richter spending all his idle moments in the Big Freezer, summoning infuriating ice imps and giant killer Frost Elementalsâ€¦

Having survived that cataclysmic Yule duel relatively unscathed, the Scooby Gang – Willow, Cordelia, Oz, Xander and Buffy – look forward to a ‘Happy New Year’ complete with blood-free party, until dusty, crusty Lore Librarian Giles discovers a gigantic hell-hound raiding his book stacks and sets the crazy kids hot on its heels.

The trail leads to doomed, damned lovers, a guiltily romantic triangle and an ancient curse from witch-haunted Salem before the savage crescendo almost ends Willow’s lifeâ€¦

In ‘New Kid on the Block Part 1’ (co-written with Dan Brereton) Watson, Gomez & Florea depict Xander obsessing over pretty transfer student Cynthia with his pathetic, fawning, drooling attentions cruelly mocked by his best friends – and rightly soâ€¦.

His infantile ardour is hardly halted when the girls decide to have a slumber party. Resolved not to miss out even though he’s not invited (and certainly not creepy at all), the hapless idiot sneaks into the night of nail varnish, romcoms and pink pyjamas and is horrified to discover that he’s not the only unwelcome intruderâ€¦

Buffy, exhausted from staking a new band of bloodsuckers plaguing the town, is almost too late to save the day in ‘New Kid on the Block Part 2’. However, after driving off the monster party-crashers, she confers with noble vampire boyfriend Angel and realises that even though able to move around in daylight, sweet little Cyn might not be all she seemsâ€¦

‘Food Chain Part I’ by Golden, Gomez & Florea originated in Buffy #12 – where it was originally seen under the title ‘A Nice Girl Like You’ and revealed how new student Sandy inexplicably got involved with bad boy Brad Caulfield and his gang.

No one in the Scooby-Gang can understand what she sees in the local loutsâ€¦ until Buffy uncovers Sandy’s true nature and her nasty habit of feeding on the energy of young folkâ€¦

The same creative team produced ‘Play with Fire’ – a serialised saga gathered from promotional periodical Dark Horse Extra â€“ in which Willow’s growing facility with and dependency on witchcraft draws the gang into a clash with an earthbound ghost and his demonic abusersâ€¦

‘Food Chain Part II’ (from Buffy #16 by Golden, Christian Zanier, Marvin Mariano, Draxhall Jump, Curtis P. Arnold, Jason Minor & Andy Owens) then concludes the sorry saga, revealing how poor Brad is still connected to the demonic Sandy’s monstrous master and is now killing in his nameâ€¦

‘The Final Cut’ by Watson, Jason Pearson, Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel originated in Buffy #8, and details how a student horror movie being made in town masks a demonic entity dwelling in the celluloid and feeding off the young stars. It should never have put Buffy in the spotlightâ€¦

Golden, Tom Sniegoski, Richards & Pimentel then wrap up the monster-mashing madness by reporting ‘The Latest Craze’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Annual 1999) wherein an avaricious old enemy introduces demonically-addictive toy â€œpetsâ€ to the impressionable Sunnydale kids. However, the wickedly adorable â€œHooligansâ€ are not only magical moonlight kleptomaniacs but also have a sinister agenda all their ownâ€¦

Supplementing this compilation of mystic madness are copious photo, Title Page and Cover Galleries with material from Arthur Adams & Dave Stewart, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend & Guy Major, Joe Bennett, Chynna Clugston, Gomez, Randy Green, Ketcham, Joyce Chin, Owens, Zanier and Fabio Laguna to complete the eerie excitement experience.

Visually impressive, winningly constructed and proceeding at a hell-for-leather pace, this arcane action fearfully funny fright-fest is utterly engaging even if you’re not familiar with the vast backstory: a creepy chronicle as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as every dedicated devotee.

Moreover in this era of TV binge-watching, with the shows readily available on TV and DVD, if you aren’t a follower yet you soon could – and should – beâ€¦
Buffy the Vampire Slayer â„¢ & Â© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

June 28, 2016June 27, 2016

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: Burne Hogarth’s Lord of the Jungle

By Burne Hogarth with Robert M. Hodes & Skip Kholoff (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-537-5

Modern comics and graphic novels evolved from newspaper comic strips. These daily pictorial features were – until relatively recently – overwhelmingly popular with the public and highly valued by publishers who used them as a powerful tool to guarantee and increase circulation and profits. From the earliest days humour was paramount; hence our terms of usage â€œFunniesâ€ and, of course, â€œComicsâ€.

Despite the odd ancestor or precedent like Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs (comedic when it began in 1924, but gradually moving through mock-heroics to light-action to become a full-blown adventure serial with the introduction of Captain Easy in 1929), the vast bulk of strips produced were generally feel-good laughter-makers or occasional child-oriented fantasy.

The full blown dramatic adventure serial began on January 7^th 1929 with Buck Rogers and Tarzan which both debuted the same day. Both adapted pre-existing prose properties and their influence changed the shape of the medium forever. The 1930s then enjoyed an explosion of such fare, launched with astounding rapidity and success. Not just strips but actual genres were created in that decade which still impact on today’s comicbooks and, in truth, all our popular fiction forms. In fact, your comicbooks started as reprint compilations of such newspaper circulation-fodderâ€¦

In terms of sheer quality of art, the graphic narrative iteration of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels by Canadian commercial artist Harold â€œHalâ€ Foster were unsurpassed, and the strip soon became a firm favourite of the masses. Supplemented by movies, books, a radio show and ubiquitous advertising appearances, White God of the Jungle John Clayton, Lord Greystoke soon became a meta-character. Just like Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan became â€œrealâ€ to the world.

Foster initially quit the strip at the end of the 10-week adaptation of the novel Tarzan of the Apes. He was replaced by Rex Maxon, but returned (at the insistent urging of Burroughs himself) when the black-&-white daily was expanded to include a lush, full colour Sunday page featuring original adventures.

Leaving Maxon to capably handle the Monday through Saturday progression of novel adaptations, Foster produced the epic Sunday page until 1936 (233 consecutive weeks) after which he momentously moved to King Features Syndicate to create his own strip landmark and weekend masterpiece. Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur launched on February 13^th 1937 and is still with us today.

Once the four month backlog of material he had built up was gone, Foster was succeeded by a precociously brilliant 25-year old artist named Burne Hogarth (1911-1996): a young graphic visionary whose superb anatomical skill, cinematic design flair and compelling page composition revolutionised the entire field of action/adventure narrative illustration.

The galvanic modern dynamism of the idealised human figure in today’s comicbooks can be directly attributed to Hogarth’s pioneering drawing and, in later years, his dedicated efforts as an educator.

When Hogarth in turn left the strip he found his way into teaching (he co-founded – with Silas H. Rhodes – the Cartoonist and Illustrators School for returning veterans which evolved into the New York School of Visual Arts) and also authored an invaluable and inspirational series of art textbooks such as Dynamic Anatomy and Dynamic Figure Drawing which influenced generations of aspiring artists.

In the early 1970s Hogarth was lured back to the leafy domain of legendary Lord Greystoke, producing â€“ with co-writer Robert M. Hodes and lettering assistant Skip Kholoff – two magnificent volumes of graphic narrative in the dazzling style that had captivated audiences more than thirty years previously. Recently both were bundled into a magnificent hardback edition by Dark Horse (also available digitally through Kindle and ComiXology) as a magnificent tribute to Hogarth’s mastery.

Tarzan of the Apes is a strong candidate for the title of first Graphic Novel. Originally released in 1972, it stunningly adapts the first half of ERB’s groundbreaking popular classic in large bold panels, vibrantly coloured, accompanied by blocks of Burroughs’ original text. The electric visuals leap out at the reader in a riot of hue and motion as they recount the triumphant, tragic tale of the orphaned scion of British nobility raised to puissant manhood by the Great Apes of Africa.

The saga follows his life as cub of loving she-ape Kala, his rise to prominence amongst his hirsute tribe and how he masters all the beasts of his savage environment. The mighty, brilliant foundling – through intellect alone and the remnants of his father’s papers – learns to read and deduces that he is a Man, but still inflicts brutal vengeance on the human tribesmen responsible for killing beloved, devoted Kala before submerging himself in the ways of the tribe.

The adaptation ends just prior to the arrival of the white woman who will reshape Tarzan’s destiny foreverâ€¦

Four years later Hogarth returned to his subject, but instead of completing his bravura interpretation of Tarzan of the Apes he instead produced an adaptation of the short tales which formed the composite novel Jungle Tales of Tarzan.

That book was a series of episodes reminiscent of Kipling’s â€œJust Soâ€ stories, set before the first fateful meeting with Jane Porter and the Ape-Man’s introduction to civilisation. Instead it related how and when the Lord of the Jungle confronted various cognitive stages in his own intellectual and physical development.

If that sounds dry, it’s not. Burroughs was a master storyteller and his prose crackles with energy and imagination. With this book he was showing how the Ape-man’s intellectual progress was a metaphor for Man’s social, cerebral and even spiritual growth from beast to human. He also never forgot that people love action and broad belly-laughs.

Hogarth was also an acclaimed intellectual and the four tales he adapted here afforded him vast scope to explore his cherished perfect temple that was the Ideal Man. The flowing organic compositions he created for his Jungle Tales of Tarzan are strengthened by the absence of colour, allowing the classicism of his line-work to create stark divisions of form and space that contribute to the metaphysical component of his subject.

The monochrome magic begins with ‘Tarzan’s First Love’ with the adolescent finding himself increasingly drawn to fetching young She-Ape Teeka. However, no matter what he did, the young maiden just wasn’t interested in her ardent, hairless admirerâ€¦

Next to enthral is a savage tale of comradeship as the human befriends mighty elephant Tantor who proves valiant and true following ‘The Capture of Tarzan’ by the local tribesmen responsible for Kala’s death, after which ‘The God of Tarzan’ sees him overdose on his dead father’s books and suffer a brain-expanding religious experienceâ€¦

The drama ends here in a riot of phantasmagoria as young Tarzan steals spoiled, cooked meat from the native villagers and endures ‘The Nightmare’.

Don’t let my effusive verbiage deter you, folks: you don’t need a dictionary to enjoy this work; all you need are eyes to see and a heart to beat faster. This is all vital, violent motion, stretching, leaping, running, fighting, surging power and glory: guaranteed to give indolent comic lovers all the thorough cardio-vascular work-out they’ll ever need…

Edgar Rice Burroughs was a genius at engaging the public’s collective imagination, whilst Hogarth was an inspired and inspirational artisan who, as well as gradually instilling his pages with ferocious, unceasing action, layered his works with subtle symbolism. Heroes looked noble, villains suitably vile and animals powerful, beautiful and deadly. Even vegetation, rocks and clouds looked spiky, edgy and liable to attack at a moment’s noticeâ€¦

This compilation is a vivid visual masterwork: a coiled-spring tension of vigorous vitality and explosive action and dream come true for every generation of dedicated fantasists to enjoy.

Magnificent, majestic, awe-inspiring, crucial comics entertainment.
Â© 1972, 1976, 2014 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All rights reserved. Tarzan Â® is owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., and used by permission.

June 22, 2016June 21, 2016

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

By Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, adapted by Tony Lee and Cliff Richard (Titan Books edition)
ISBN: 978-184856-694-1

Here’s something short, sharp and shocking to tide over all horror-lovers and devotees of the dark during the long, tedious sun-filled summer months.

In 2009, at his Editor’s urging, writer Seth Grahame-Smith rewrote Jane Austen’s immortal 1813 tale of fashionably practical romance, blending it with elements of zombie apocalypse and martial arts fiction.

It became something of a literary sales sensation, starting a mini-genre of its own and has been latterly augmented by a prequel, sequel and interactive e-Book. On its way to becoming the Next Big Thing in popular films, it was also adapted as a rather intriguing graphic novel in 2010.

Optioned by Del Rey/Random House, the project was delegated to British scripter Tony Lee (Starship Troopers, Wallace and Gromit, Dr. Who, Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars) and Brazilian illustrator Cliff Richard (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman, New Thunderbolts) who together translated the rather copious and mesmerising verbiage into pictorial narrative perfectionâ€¦

A Word of Warning: read the original 1813 novel.

Just do.

How can you have got to your age without achieving some degree of literary accomplishment? It’s already funny and charming and bitingly savage, even before the addition of spin-kicks, massed musketry and marauding undead flesh-eatersâ€¦

In 19^th century Britain a plague besets the land. The unquiet dead – variously described as the â€œStrickenâ€, â€œDreadfulsâ€, â€œZombiesâ€ or â€œUnmentionablesâ€ by genteel folk of good breeding – roam the land, infecting and eating the populace as well as livestock and sundry other living creatures.

This tedious inconvenience is well managed by militias, the army and many young folk who have scrupulously studied battle tactics and esoteric fighting arts from the cradleâ€¦ even the womenâ€¦

However, in bucolic Hertfordshire at Netherfield Park, a real crisis is developing: Mrs. Bennet has five daughters of marriageable age; at least one of whom simply must make a suitable entrance into society if the family home is to be preserved and maintainedâ€¦

Tragically, although Elizabeth, Jane, Mary, Catherine (Kitty) and Lydia are polished and accomplished in maidenly virtues, they are far too enamoured of their proficiency in oriental modes of combat to adequately apply themselves to impressing the splendid gentleman of means Mother wishes them to impress.

Most distracting and distressing of all is stalwart Mr. Bennet, who fritters away all his time seeking better ways to destroy the rapacious sufferers of the â€œstrange plagueâ€, rather than play proper host to the likes of dashing yet aloof Mr. Darcy or his associates such as gaudy Mr. Bingley and the objectionable Mr. Wickham as they pay their respects to his wayward daughtersâ€¦

And so it progresses, as the ultimate romantic connexion between Elizabeth and Darcy is perpetually delayed by the stringencies of hidebound etiquette; petty manoeuvrings of dowagers, aunt and rivals all keenly expanding their own social standing; whims of fate and the interminable, incessant attacks of the mindless, slavering walking dead infesting England’s highways and bywaysâ€¦

Although very much a one-trick pony in terms of plot and story, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is an astounding beautiful thing to look upon. Richard’s monochrome illustration is beguiling where it needs to be and stunningly effective in the plentiful fight scenes whilst Lee’s script successfully encapsulates the constant war between the daughters and their mother as she tries to marry them off to the family’s best social and financial advantage. He’s also pretty adept at wringing the irony and slapstick out of a sceneâ€¦

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