Category: Adaptations

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The Star Wars


By George Lucas, J.W. Rinzler, Mike Mayhew & Rain Beredo (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78329-498-5

I’m sure we all know the modern mythology of Star Wars and its mindbendingly expansive continuity to a greater or lesser extent. The problem with any such monolithic achievement is an eventual loss of spontaneity and freshness, but now true disciples and occasional dabblers alike have another, new-old strand to follow…

In September 2013 Dark Horse Comics began a 9-issue adaptation (#0-8) of George Lucas’ 1974 original draft for a science fiction movie romp of epic scope, expanded and interpreted by scripter Jonathan W. Rinzler, illustrator Mike Mayhew and colour-artist Rain Beredo, which offered fans of both the franchise and action comics another bite from a very different cherry.

Sadly, what most die-hards will want is to seek out the similarities and differences but, as tempting as that is, I’d like to concentrate on what makes this a good graphic novel and leave the cinematic nitpicking to those more adept and so inclined…

If you had somehow come from another planet and picked up The Star Wars, what you would have is a grandiose space-opera thriller with quite a few similarities to Frank Hebert’s epochal Dune saga and redolent of Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, jam-packed with valiant champions fighting a last-ditch rearguard action against an oppressive, tyrannical Empire which wants to run everything…

The warriors called Jedi-Bendu whose martial skills carved out a benevolent galactic coalition are in decline, hunted near to extinction by a rival cult known as the Knights of Sith. As the martial sects waged their war, the nature of politics changed and a new, rapacious government sought to consolidate a league of voluntarily participant systems into an overweening monument to iron-handed control.

On the fourth moon of Utapau aged, ravaged Kane Starkiller is training his sons in the all-but lost martial arts of Jedi-Bendu when the hunters who have eradicated almost all of his kind appear. When the family heroes finally escape the trap they are reduced to only Kane and his elder son Annikin…

Heartbroken, they head for Aquilae, unaware that their homeworld has been targeted by the New Empire. The autonomous system is the last free star kingdom, all others having capitulated to pressure and been absorbed into the burgeoning governmental/commercial juggernaut.

The Emperor, Governor Hoedaack and taciturn General Vader don’t expect too much trouble with this last campaign, but tribunal member Vantoss Coll believes otherwise. He knows Aquilae’s planetary defences are commanded by the mythic Jedi-Bendu Luke Skywalker…

It won’t be enough. Skywalker has the ears of King Kayos and Queen Breha but their parliament is riddled with cowards, appeasers and outright traitors like Count Sandage…

When the attack comes it is in the form of a colossal, moon-sized space-station and Skywalker’s forces are overwhelmed, even with the help of the recently returned Kane and Annikin and a desperate warning from Aquilae’s top agent Clieg Whitsun who arrives moments before the first shattering assault.

With hell about to rain down Skywalker orders Annikin to collect and protect wayward heir Princess Leia whilst he leads the planet’s space forces against the encroaching death star. During the battle two argumentative imperial droids, Artwo and Threepio, eject from the station and meet up with Annikin and Leia in the deep deserts below.

With Kayos murdered, Sandage happily capitulates and orders Skywalker to surrender, but the old soldier refuses…

With Captain Whitsun in tow he absonds, choosing to save the young Princes Biggs and Windy by getting them off-planet. Intending to link up with Annikin at distant Gordon Spaceport where his old alien smuggler pal Han Solo lurks, their flight is harried by faceless waves of white armoured troopers but the real trouble starts when despicable Vader reluctantly accepts the advice and aid of formidable Sith legend Prince Valorum…

After a stunning and non-stop procession of increasingly brutal fights – and with their numbers tragically reduced by the death of two valiant stars – the surviving fugitives get off-planet and make it to primitive frontier world Yavin where Skywalker and Annikin find not only danger and betrayal but an unlikely turncoat ally and a potential game-changing army of bellicose giant beasts called Wookies…

Of course it’s all far more complex and intriguing than that, with young love, dastardly betrayals, tragic sacrifice, plentiful comedy moments and above all astounding, rocket-paced action to carry readers along, and lovers of blaster-blazing action will be well served by the raw energy and lovely artwork.

It would appear that there is an inexhaustible demand for stories from “A Galaxy Far, Far Away…” but this time as another tale of noble rebels and dastardly Empires unfolds the big difference is that you don’t really know what’s coming next. If you’re a movie maven you could call it an alternate universe yarn if you wanted to, but this is a book no lover of great comics will want to miss.
The Star Wars and Star Wars © 2014 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All rights reserved. Used under authorisation. Text and illustrations for Star Wars are ©, 2013, 2014 Lucasfilm

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The Secret Service: Kingsman


By Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons and Matthew Vaughn with Andy Lanning & Angus McKie (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78116-703-8

We Brits know everything about the spy-game and think we’ve probably seen it all, from Bond to Smiley, Harry Palmer to Johnny Worricker and Spooks to Carry On Spying.

So it’s not often we get a look at a fresh take, but that’s what’s on offer here as comicbook legends Mark Millar & Dave Gibbons team up with film director/producer Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass, Stardust, Layer Cake, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) to update the genre in a wickedly sly, cynically funny and irreverential thriller which nevertheless harks back to the glory-days of the “great game” of gentlemanly cloak-and-dagger as it was called when were still an empire, as well as the swinging superspy sagas of the 1960s and 1970s…

The original 6-issue miniseries The Secret Service was released as part of Millarworld’s unfailing hit-factory deal with Marvel Comics’ Icon sub-imprint, and this slick, sharp and wickedly tongue-in-cheek pastiche mixes all the favourite trappings and spectacle of big budget movie blockbusters with an archly satisfying class-war aesthetic that finds full expression following the traditional all-action opening attention-grabber, which finds actor Mark Hamill (almost) saved from abduction by an armed gang by an unlucky British secret agent…

The scene then switches to the urban wasteland of Peckham where Gary Unwin – known to his no-hoper wannabe-gangsta pals as “Eggsy” – is again at odds with the cheap thug who’s shacked up with his mum.

Dean is a former soldier. He’s also a bully and a brute: a typical South London Chav who thinks he’s hard and takes it out too often on Gary and his little brother Ryan as well as their long-suffering mother Sharon.

No wonder the jobless, shiftless teen spends all his time playing computer games, doing drugs, nicking cars and making mischief with his mates. Tonight is no exception, except for the part where the hapless joyriders crash their purloined ride and end up in police cells…

Meanwhile in the swank part of town, two movers-&-shakers in Intelligence are discussing a wave of mysterious abductions: actors from Star Wars, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek have all disappeared, as have scientists, sporting legends and other notables. There is clearly some major scheme afoot…

Jack London (I gather they’ve changed his name in the film version) is a self-made man. He escaped his lowborn origins and remade himself into a suave, sophisticated international man-of-mystery and Great Britain’s top operative: the spy who never fails. Nobody does it better. He’s also Sharon’s brother and is once again forced to apply his influence to save his nephew from the consequences of his actions…

He’s had to step in before but he swears it’s the last time and, after an unpleasant confrontation, determines to get Gary out of the toxic environment he escaped from decades ago…

As a mass wedding in Hawaii is turned into a bloodbath by a mysterious mastermind’s hi-tech secret weapon, in Peckham Uncle Jack is telling Eggsy the unbelievable truth. He gets a chance to prove his outrageous claims when Dean’s loutish cronies pick a fight…

Jack, plagued with guilt for neglecting his shameful family, then offers his nephew a chance to better himself by joining the Secret Service training program that made him one of the deadliest men alive…

The boy jumps at the chance to get away and is soon an outcast amongst the cream of Britain’s posh-boy private school and military college recruits, doggedly learning unarmed combat, ballistics, weapons training, tactics, computer science, seduction techniques, languages, piloting any vehicle and every skill and trick needed to keep the world safe from invasion and subversion…

Despite his background and lack of social skills Gary thrives – and even excels – in many of the less salubrious exercises (such as killing drug-dealers on a live fire exercise) even as Uncle Jack returns to his mystery kidnapping case. He slowly makes progress across the world, tracking a certain mad young billionaire with dreams of saving the planet from the plague of humanity. Doctor James Arnold is also extremely keen on preserving his childhood heroes from the Armageddon he’s about to trigger…

At precisely the wrong moment Gary drags Jack back to London again. When the pauper student overhears his well-meaning but privileged comrades condescending and pitying him, Eggsy steals Jack’s gadget-laden, weaponised sports car and goes for an explosive drunken joyride with his real mates from the estate.

Now the super-agent is forced to take extreme measures to sort him out…

Gary wakes up in Colombia with nothing but his underwear and is told he has 24 hours to return to Britain. The Resource Test is the final stage of an agent’s training and is make or break: neither the agency nor his uncle will have anything to do with him if he fails…

He passes with flying colours, and even destroys a drug cartel in the process, leading Jack to take him on as an apprentice, offering style tips and a chance for a palate-cleansing final confrontation with Dean and his mates in Peckham before setting off together to foil Dr. Arnold’s deadly scheme.

…And that’s when it all goes terribly wrong, leaving Gary to cope with imminent world collapse all on his own…

The film was in production simultaneously with the creation of the original six-issue miniseries with Millar, Vaughn and illustrator Gibbons (aided by inker Andy Lanning and colourist Angus McKie) frequently cross-fertilising and amending the print and movie iterations to produce a stunningly clever, outrageously rip-roaring, high-octane read which will astound all us paper-jockeys and no doubt be satisfactorily mirrored in the upcoming filmic extravaganza.

But why wait? Grab some popcorn, hit your favourite chair and experience all the thrills, spills and chills you can handle right now just by picking up this fabulous action comics classic in the making…
© 2012, 2013, 2014 Millarworld Limited, Marv Films Limited and Dave Gibbons Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde volume 2: The Young King and The Remarkable Rocket


Adapted by P. Craig Russell & various (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-771-3

P. Craig Russell began his illustrious career in comics during the early 1970s and came to fame young with a groundbreaking run on science fiction adventure series Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds.

Although his fanciful, meticulous, classicist style was joyously derived from the great illustrators of Victorian and Edwardian heroic fantasy, and the craftsmanlike visual flourishes of Art Nouveau was greatly at odds with the sausage-factory deadlines and sensibilities of the mainstream comicbook industry, the sheer power and beauty of his work made him a huge draw.

By the 1980s he had largely retired from the merciless daily grind, preferring to work on his own projects (generally adapting operas and plays into sequential narratives) whilst undertaking the occasional high-profile Special for the majors – such as Dr. Strange Annual 1976 (totally reworked and re-released as Dr. Strange: What Is It that Disturbs You, Stephen? in 1996) or Batman: Robin 3000.

As the industry grew up and a fantasy boom began, he returned to comics with Marvel Graphic Novel: Elric (1982), further adapting prose tales of Michael Moorcock’s iconic sword-&-sorcery star in the magazine Epic Illustrated and elsewhere.

Russell’s stage-arts adaptations had begun appearing in 1978: first in the independent Star*Reach specials Night Music and Parsifal and then from 1984 at Eclipse Comics where the revived Night Music became an anthological series showcasing his earlier experimental adaptations; not just operatic dramas but also tales from Kipling’s Jungle Books and other literary classics.

In 1992 he began adapting the assorted Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde – a mission he continues to date, and this second volume (now in its third printing) deftly balances a tale of magnificent, pious allegorical wonderment with a wry and hilarious concealed yet concerted attack on conceit and self-aggrandisement packed with examples of the devastating, so-quotable epigrams which made the author so briefly the most popular man in London Society…

The Young King was originally published in 1891, one of the quartet of stories in A House of Pomegranates, (Wilde’s second book of stories for children) and here adaptor Russell utilises all his skills to staggering effect.

When the old king falters, the grandson he refused to acknowledge (due to the scandal of a Princess’ forbidden liaison) is plucked from the obscurity of a shepherd’s croft and made heir to the kingdom.

At first the crude, impoverished lad is beguiled and besotted by the sheer beauty of the Court and his new Station, but as his coronation approaches and he sinks into idolatry over the impossible, incomprehensible fineness of his vestments and symbols of office, the bedazzled 16-year-old dreams three dreams.

In them he sees three visions of the toil, privation, hardship and, too frequently, deaths the common folk paid for his Crown, Robe and Sceptre, and something changes within him.

Discarding all his finery, he dons his shepherd rags, picks up his crook and places a circlet of briars upon his brow. Then walking to the Cathedral, he draws scorn, derision and worse from the townsfolk, soldiers and nobility who decry the ingrate seeking to bring shame to a proud kingdom…

The miraculous, messianic ending to this stunningly realised parable is ably counter-pointed by a somewhat jollier – if wickedly barbed – offering.

Rendered in a more animated and fantastical manner, The Remarkable Rocket appeared in Wilde’s original 1888 collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales and begins with the betrothal of a young Prince to an exotic Princess.

As part of the festivities, a huge banquet and Grand Ball was to be concluded with a spectacular fireworks display: a spectacle the intended bride had never before experienced.

As the preparations began, in the palace gardens the assorted Roman Candles, Catherine Wheels and other pyrotechnics began to discuss their upcoming big night, one particularly obnoxious rocket increasingly monopolizes the conversation. Pompous, self-important, supercilious and unconscionably rude, he brags so much and babbles so long that he reduces himself to tears and is so sodden that when the big moment comes he is utterly incapable of igniting and completely misses the show.

Damp and disconsolate, he is discarded and lies unspent and obstreperous in the gardens having learned nothing. When a frog, dragonfly and duck try to engage him in conversation, Rocket again reverts to his abominable manner but things are about to change as two common boys pick him up to chuck on their campfire…

Gloriously rife with razor-sharp Wildean bon mots and ferociously barbed social criticism, this clever yarn still holds one final ironic tweak in the tale…

The brace of brilliant adaptations in this award-winning (a Harvey for Best Graphic Album and an Eisner for Best Artist) book signalled another high point in the artist’s splendid career, and on first release in 1994 displayed another milestone in the long, slow transition of an American mass market medium into a genuine art form.

Most importantly this and the other volumes in the series are incredibly lovely and irresistibly readable examples of superb writing (so go and read Wilde’s original prose tomes too!) and sublime examples of comics art their very best.

Now that it’s finally back in print, you simply must avail yourself of this masterful confection…
© 1994 P. Craig Russell. All rights reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Food Chain


By Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, Doug Petrie, Jamie S. Rich, Tom Fassbender, Jim Pascoe, Christian Zanier, Cliff Richards Ryan Sook & others (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-315-5

Having conquered television, Buffy the Vampire Slayer began a similar crusade with the far harder-to-please comicbook audiences. Launched in 1998 and offering smart, sassy tales to accompany the funny, action-packed and mega-cool onscreen entertainment, the saga began in an original graphic novel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Dust Waltz) before debuting as a monthly series.

She quickly became a major draw for publisher Dark Horse – whose line of licensed comicbook successes included Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Aliens and Predator – and her exploits were regularly supplemented by short stories in company showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents and other venues.

This commodious UK Titan Books compilation features stories spanning 1999 and 2000 – set during Seasons 3 and 4 of the TV show – including issues #12, 16 and 20 of the regular title, a couple of yarns from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Annual 1999 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lovers’ Walk plus the Dark Horse/Wizard co- published Buffy/Angel #½: a period which saw Buffy’s noble vampire lover Angel set up shop in his own spin-off series –both small screen and printed…

What You Need to Know: Buffy Summers was a hapless Californian cheerleader Valley Girl until the night she inexplicably turned into a hyper-strong, impossibly durable monster-killer. Accosted by a creepy old coot from a secret society of Watchers she discovered that she had become a “Slayer” – the most recent recipient of an ancient geas which transformed selected mortal maids into living slaughter-machines of all things undead, arcane or uncanny.

After little trouble in Los Angeles she moved with her mom to the deceptively quiet hamlet of Sunnydale, but Buffy quickly and painfully discovered that her new hometown was situated on the edge of an eldritch gateway known to all the unhallowed as The Hellmouth…

Enrolling at Sunnydale High, Buffy made some friends and, tutored by new Watcher Rupert Giles, conducted a never-ending war on devils, demons and every shade of predatory supernatural species inexorably drawn to the area…

The stories re-presented here span Buffy’s horrific Graduation Day and eventual transition to the local college (complete with a new boyfriend – federal/military spook-buster Riley Finn) but open with a few High School escapades such as ‘Food Chain Part 1’ (by Christopher Golden, Christian Zanier & Andy Owens from Buffy #12 where it was originally seen under the title ‘A Nice Girl Like You’) as new student Sandy inexplicably gets involved with bad boy Brad Caulfield and his gang.

No one in the “Scooby-Gang” (Willow, Xander, Cordelia and werewolf Oz) can understand what she sees in the local louts… until Buffy uncovers Sandy’s true nature and her nasty habit of feeding on the energy of young folk…

Golden, Tom Sniegoski, Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel then detail ‘The Latest Craze’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Annual 1999) wherein an avaricious old enemy introduces demonically addictive toy “pets” to the impressionable Sunnydale kids. However, the wickedly adorable “Hooligans” are not only moonlight kleptomaniacs but have a sinister agenda all their own…

From the same source, by Doug Petrie, Ryan Sook & Tim Goodyear comes ‘Bad Dog’ wherein the Slayer, whilst hunting for Oz on one of his bad (i.e. full moon) nights, encounters a nasty young sorcerer determined to turn himself into a god at Willow’s expense, after which ‘Food Chain Part 2‘ (Buffy #16 by Golden, Zanier, Marvin Mariano, Draxhall Jump, Curtis P. Arnold, Jason Minor & Owens) reveals how Brad is still connected to the demonic Sandy’s monstrous master and killing in his name…

Set in the aftermath of the pivotal Graduation Day episode, ‘Double Cross’ (#20, by Petrie, Minor & Arnold) follows Angel as he heads for his new mission in LA and stay-at-home Buffy when  a demon who feeds on lost hope targets both monster-hunters simultaneously, eager to destroy them both at their lowest ebb…

A bright change of pace follows as trainee witch Willow and new partner Tara go hunting for a rare magical flower and stay in a haunted Bed-&-Breakfast. ‘Punish Me with Kisses’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lovers’ Walk by Jamie S. Rich & China Clugston-Major) sees the young lovers futilely trying to placate and exorcise a married couple who had been quarrelling for most of the century since their deaths…

The special also provided ‘One Small Promise’ by Tom Fassbender & Jim Pascoe, with art by Richards & P. Craig Russell, in which Buffy and Riley have a thoroughly entertaining spat which a band of roving vampires mistakenly assume might put them off their staking game…

Wrapping things up is ‘City of Despair’ from Buffy/Angel #½ (Fassbender, Pascoe, Richards & Owens) wherein Angel and Buffy – although separated by hundreds of miles – are united in an extra-dimensional arena after their souls are stolen to take part in a demon’s gladiatorial game…

This is one more splendidly accessible assemblage of arcane action and furious phantasm fighting, even for those unfamiliar with the extensive back history: another self-contained chronicle of creepy carnage and witty wonderments as easily enjoyed by the newest neophyte as any confirmed connoisseur.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ™ & © 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Steed and Mrs. Peel volume 1: A Very Civil Armageddon


By Mark Waid, Caleb Monroe, Steve Bryant, Will Sliney, Yasmin Liang & Chris Rosa (Boom! Studios/Titan Books)
ISBN: 987-1-60886-306-8

Generally when I write about the Avengers here we’re thinking about an assembled multitude of Marvel superheroes, but – until the recent movie blockbuster stormed the world – for most non-comics civilians that name usually conjured up images of dashing heroics, old world charm, incredible adventure and bizarrely British festishistic attire.

It’s easy to see how that might lead to some consumer confusion…

The (other) Avengers was/were an incredibly stylish and globally popular crime/spy TV show made in Britain which glamorously blended espionage with arch, seductively knowing comedy and deadly danger with elements of technological fantasy from the 1960s through to the beginning of the 1980s. A phenomenal cult hit, the show and its sequel The New Avengers is best remembered now for Cool Britannia style action, kinky quirkiness, mad gadgetry, surreal suspense and the wholly appropriate descriptive phrase “Spy Fi”.

The legacy of the series is still apparent in many later hit shows as The Invisible Man (both TV spy iterations), Chuck, the new Mission: Impossible movies and even Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Enormously popular all over the globe – even Warsaw Pact Poland was crazy for Rewolwer i melonik (or A Revolver and a Bowler Hat) – the show gradually evolved from a gritty crime/vengeance thriller entitled Police Surgeon in 1961 into a paragon of witty, thrilling and sophisticated adventure lampoonery with suave, urbane British Agent John Steed and dazzlingly talented amateur sleuth Mrs. Emma Peel battling spies, robots, criminals, secret societies, monsters and even “aliens” with tongues very much in cheeks and always under the strictest determination to remain cool, dashingly composed and exceedingly eccentric…

The format was a winner. Peel, as played by (Dame) Diana Rigg, had been a replacement for landmark character Cathy Gale – the first hands-on fighting female in British television history – who left the show in 1964 to become Bond Girl Pussy Galore in the movie Goldfinger. However Rigg’s introduction took the show to even greater heights of success and recently bereaved actress Emma Peel’s huge popularity with viewers cemented the archetype of a powerful, clever, competent woman into the nation’s psyche and forever banished the screaming, eye-candy girly-victim to the dustbin of popular fiction.

Rigg left in 1967 (she married James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and another feisty female was found in the person of Tara King (Linda Thorson) to carry the series to its demise in 1969. Its continued popularity in more than 90 countries eventually resulted in a revival during the late 1970s. The New Avengers saw glamorous Purdey (Joanna Lumley) and brutishly manly Gambit (Gareth Hunt) acting as partners and foils to the agelessly debonair and deadly Steed…

The show has remained a hugely enticing cult icon. There was a rather ill-conceived major motion picture in 1998, and in 2007 America’s TV Guide ranked the TV iteration the 20th Top Cult TV Show Ever. During its run and beyond, the internationally adored series spawned toys, games, collector models, a pop single and stage show, radio series, posters and books and all the myriad merchandising strands that inevitably accompany a media sensation.

Naturally, as a popular British Television program these Avengers were no stranger to our comics pages either.

Following an introductory strip starring Steed & Gale in listings magazines Look Westward and The Viewer plus the Manchester Evening News (September 1963 to the end of 1964), legendary children’s staple TV Comic launched its own Avengers strip in #720 (October 2nd 1965) with Emma Peel firmly ensconced. This serial ran until #771 (September 24th 1966) and the dashing duo also starred in the TV Comic Holiday Special, whilst a series of young Emma Peel adventures featured in June & Schoolfriend.

The feature then transferred to DC Thomson’s Diana until 1968 whereupon it returned to TV Comic with #877, depicting Steed and Tara King until 1972 and #1077.

In 1966 there was a one-off, large-sized UK comicbook from Mick Anglo Studios whilst in America, Gold Key’s Four-Color series published a try-out book in 1968 using recycled UK material under the rather obvious title John Steed/Emma Peel – since Marvel had already secured an American trademark for comics with the name “Avengers”…

There were also a number of wonderful, sturdily steadfast hardback annuals for the British Festive Season trade, beginning with 1962’s TV Crimebusters Annual and thereafter pertinent TV Comic Annuals before a run of solo editions graced Christmas stockings from 1967-1969 plus a brace of New Avengers volumes for 1977 and 1978.

Most importantly, Eclipse/ACME Press produced a trans-Atlantic prestige miniseries between 1990 and 1992. Steed & Mrs. Peel was crafted by Grant Morrison & Ian Gibson with supplementary scripting from Anne Caulfield.

That tale was reprinted in 2012 by media-savvy publishers Boom! Studios and acted as a kind of pilot for the current iteration under review here. The adventures of Steed and Mrs. Peel Ongoing began soon after and this initial compilation – collecting issues #0-3 from August to December 2012 – form a worthy reintroduction for the faithful and happily accessible introduction for notional newcomers as the dedicated followers of felons return for another clash with memorable TV antagonists The Hellfire Club.

These baroque bounders appeared in the TV episode ‘A Touch of Brimstone’ and so warped the maturing personalities of young Chris Claremont and John Byrne that they later created their own version for a comicbook they were working on – the Uncanny X-Men…

The drama here opens in ‘A Very Civil Armageddon: Prologue’ (written by Boom! chief creative guru Mark Waid and illustrated by Steve Bryant) as, back in the style-soaked Swinging Sixties, our heroes are called upon to investigate ‘The Dead Future’ and how an active – albeit murdered – agent can seemingly age decades overnight.

The situation reminds Mrs. Peel of the mind-bending, lethally effective fun-and-games perpetrated by the insidious Hellfire Club and its now-defunct leader the Honourable John Clever Cartney…

Further inquiries take them to the latest incarnation of the ancient Gentleman’s Club where the futurist Ian Lansdowne Dunderdale Cartney disavows any knowledge of the matter or his dad’s old antisocial habits. In fact the current scion is far more absorbed with the World of Tomorrow than the embarrassing peccadilloes of the past. However it’s all a trap and whilst Emma is attacked by a killer robot maid Steed is ambushed – only to awaken as an old man 35 years later in the year 2000AD!

Forever undaunted, the temporarily separated Derring-Duo refuse to believe the improbable and impeccably strike back individually to uncover the incredible answer to an impossible situation…

The main feature, by Waid and Caleb Monroe with art from Will Sliney, then sees ‘London Falling’ as the long-dreaded nuclear Armageddon finally happens, leaving Steed, Peel and a swarm of politicians, Lords and civil servants as the only survivors in a battered atomic bunker beneath a utterly devastated Houses of Parliament.

The shattered, shaken remnants of Empire and Civilisation are astounded to discover that the only other survivors are ghastly atomic mutants and a coterie of exceptionally well-stocked and fully prepared members of the Hellfire Club…

‘Life in Hell’ finds the former foes joining forces and combining resources, but Steed and Peel are convinced that something is “not kosher”. For one thing former members of once-important political committees and knowledgeable generals keep disappearing, but most importantly Ian Cartney and his deplorable sister Dirigent are now known to be masters of their father’s dark arts of illusion, trickery and brainwashing…

Steed rumbles to the nature of an audaciously cunning Psy-Ops espionage scheme almost too late as Emma is once again transformed into a ferocious, whip-wielding bondage nightmare in the concluding instalment ‘Long Live the Queen’. Of course, a good spy, like a boy scout, is always prepared and the dapper detective cleverly turns the tables on his foes just in time for a rollicking, explosively old-fashioned comeuppance…

Wry, arch and wickedly satisfying, this opening salvo in the reborn franchise is a delight for staunch fans and curious newcomers alike and this volume also includes a vast (28) covers and variants gallery by Joseph Michael Linsner, Phil Noto, Joshua Covey & Blond, Mike Perkins & Vladimir Popov and Drew Johnson to astound the eyes as much as the story assaults the senses…

© 2013 StudioCanal S.A. All rights reserved.

OK. All clued in?

Would you like to own this book without paying? If so then this is your chance.

All you have to do is enter this piffling little contest and trust to luck…

It’s free and absolutely anybody can join in. You can enter as many times as you want but there’s only one prize and my word is final in every instance.

Below are three multiple choice questions. Simply send your best guesses using Leave a Reply and we’ll pull a correct entry out of our digital bowler hat on December 1st.

Do Not Text, Tweet, Telephone or Telepath us. Just append the name of the lucky person you want to receive the prize with the three letters of your divination in the review’s comment section and we’ll take it from there.

Please do not send us your address. If you win we’ll contact you and ask for where you want the book sent.

Unless you’re residing at the ends of the Earth (in which case the parcel may take a little longer to arrive) the winner should have this treasured possession in time for Christmas, even with British post-privatised post practises…

Ready… Set… Go!

  1. The Avengers were known by what title in Poland?
    1. A Revolver and a Bowler Hat.
    2. Hard Hat and Leather Boots.
    3. Umbrellas and Kicks.
  2. Mrs Peel was Steed’s second karate-kicking female fighting partner. Who preceded her?
    1. Sue Storm.
    2. Tara Tempest.
    3. Cathy Gale.
  3. Patrick MacNee & Honor Blackman produced an infamous Avengers spin-off novelty pop single in 1964. What was it called?
    1. These Boots Are Made for Kicking.
    2. Have some Madeira, M’Dear.
    3. Kinky Boots.

Good luck one and all…

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The James Bond Omnibus volume 005


By Jim Lawrence & Yaroslav Horak (Titan Books)
ISBN: 987-0-85768-590-2

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Traditional Licence To Thrill… 8/10

There are sadly very few British newspaper strips to challenge the influence and impact of classic daily and Sunday “funnies” from America, especially in the field of adventure fiction. The 1930’s and 1940’s were particularly rich in popular, not to say iconic, creations. You would be hard-pressed to come up with home-grown household names to rival Popeye, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Flash Gordon or Steve Canyon, let alone Terry and the Pirates or the likes of Little Lulu, Blondie, Li’l Abner, Little Orphan Annie or Popeye and yes, I know I said him twice, but Elzie Segars’s Thimble Theatre was funny as well as thrilling, constantly innovative, and really, really good.

What can you recall for simple popularity let alone longevity or quality in Britain? Rupert Bear? Absolutely. Giles? Technically, yes. Nipper? Jane? The Perishers? Garth?

I hope so, but I doubt it.

The Empire didn’t quite get it until it wasn’t an empire any more. There were certainly very many wonderful strips being produced: well-written and beautifully drawn, but that stubborn British reserve just didn’t seem to be in the business of creating household names… until the 1950’s.

Something happened in ‘fifties Britain – but I’m not going to waste any space here discussing it. It just did.

In a new spirit that seemed to crave excitement and accept the previously disregarded, comics (as well as all entertainment media from radio to novels) got carried along on the wave. Eagle, the regenerated Dandy and Beano, girls’ comics in general: all shifted into creative high gear, and so did newspapers. And that means that I can go on about a graphic collection with proven crossover appeal for a change.

The first 007 novel Casino Royale was published in 1953 and subsequently serialised in the Daily Express from 1958, beginning a run of paperback book adaptations scripted by Anthony Hern, Henry Gammidge, Peter O’Donnell and Kingsley Amis before Jim Lawrence, a jobbing writer for American features (who had previously scripted the aforementioned Buck Rogers) came aboard with The Man With The Golden Gun to complete the transfer of the Fleming canon to strip format, thereafter being invited to create new adventures, which he did until the strip’s ultimate demise in 1983.

The art on the feature was always of the highest standard. Initially John McLusky provided the illustration until 1966’s conclusion of You Only Live Twice and, although perhaps lacking in verve, the workmanlike clarity of his drawing easily coped with the astonishing variety of locales, technical set-ups and sheer immensity of cast members, whilst accomplishing the then-novel conceit of advancing a plot and ending each episode on a cliff-hanging “hook” every day.

He was succeeded by Yaroslav Horak, who also debuted on Golden Gun with a looser, edgier style, at once more cinematic and with a closer attention to camera angle and frenzied action that seemed to typify the high-octane 1960’s.

Titan books have re-assembled the heady brew of adventure, sex, intrigue and death into a series of addictively accessible monochrome Omnibus editions and this fifth compilation finds the creators on top form as they reveal how the world’s greatest agent never rests in his mission to keep us all free, safe and highly entertained…

The frantic derring-do and dark, deadly diplomacy commences with ‘Till Death Do Us Part’ which first ran in the Daily Express from July 7th to October 14th 1975. Solidly traditional 007 fodder, it found Bond assigned to kidnap/rescue Arda Petrich, the comely daughter of a foreign asset, and keep vital intelligence out of the hands of the KGB.

This pacy thriller is most notable more for the inevitable introduction of the eccentric gadgets which had become an increasingly crucial component of the filmic iteration than for the actual adventure, but there are still thrills and flesh aplenty on view.

Hard on the heels of that yarn is brief but enthralling encounter ‘The Torch-Time Affair’ (October 15th 1975 – January 15th 1976), wherein the hunt for a record of all Soviet subversion in Latin America leads to bodies on the beach, a mountain of lies and deceit, breathtaking chases on roads and through jungles, and an astonishingly intriguing detective mystery as Bond and female “Double-O” operative Susie Kew must save the girl, get the goods and end the villain.

But which one…?

‘Hot-Shot’ (January 16th – June 1st) finds the unflappable agent assisting Palestinian freedom fighter Fatima Khalid as she tries to clear the name of her people of airline atrocities committed by enigmatic Eblis terrorists. Their cooperative efforts uncover a sinister Indian billionaire behind the attacks before Bond recognises an old enemy at the heart of it all… Dr. No!

In ‘Nightbird’ (2nd June – 4th November) sporadic attacks by what appear to be alien invaders draw 007 into a diabolical scheme by a cinematic genius and criminal master of disguise apparently in search of military and political secrets and weapons of mass destruction. However a far more venal motive is the root cause of the sinister schemes and reign of terror…

Despite surreal trappings, ‘Ape of Diamonds’ (November 5th 1976 – January 22nd 1977) is another lethally cunning spy exploit as a deadly maniac uses a colossal and murderous gorilla to terrorise London and kidnap an Arab banker, leading Bond to a financial wild man determined to simultaneously destroy Britain’s economic prosperity and steal the Crown Jewels. Happily for the kingdom, Machiavellian Rameses had completely underestimated the ruthless determination of James Bond…

‘When the Wizard Awakes’ finds bad guys employing supernatural chicanery, when the body of a Hungarian spy – dead for two decades – walks out of his tomb to instigate a reign of terror that eventually involves S.P.E.C.T.R.E., the Mafia and the KGB until the British Agent unravels the underlying plot…

In 1977 the Daily Express ceased publication of the Bond feature and the tale was published only in the Sunday Express (from January 30th -May 22nd 1977). Later adventures had no UK distribution at all, only appearing in overseas editions. This state of affairs continued until 1981 when another British newspaper – the Daily Star – revived his career. Presumably, we’ll deal with those cases in another volume.

The first of those “lost” stories are included here, however, beginning with ‘Sea Dragon’, produced for European syndication: a maritime adventure with geo-political overtones wherein crazed billionairess and scurrilous proponent of “women’s liberation” Big Mama Magda Mather tried to corner the World Oil market using sex, murder and a deadly artificial sea serpent.

In ‘Death Wing’ Bond is needed to solve the mystery of a new and deadly super-weapon employed by the Mafia for both smuggling contraband and assassination. Despite a somewhat laborious story set-up, once the tale hits its stride, the explosive end sequence is superb as the undercover agent finds himself used as a flying human bomb aimed at the heart of New York City. His escape and subsequent retaliation against eccentric hit-man Mr. Wing is an indisputable series highpoint.

This astounding dossier of espionage exploits ends in ‘The Xanadu Connection’ (1978) as the daring high-tech rescue of undercover agent Heidi Franz from East Germany inexorably leads the super spy down a perilous path of danger and double-cross.

When Bond is tasked with safeguarding the wife of a British asset leading resistance forces in Russian Turkestan, the mission inevitably leads 007 to the Sino-Soviet hotspot where he is embroiled in a three-sided war between KGB occupation forces, indigenous Tartar rebels and their ancestral enemies of the Mongol militias led by insidious, ambitious spymaster Kubla Khan.

Deep in enemy territory with adversaries all around him, Bond is hardly surprised to discover that the real threat might be from his friends and not his foes…

Fast, furious action, masses of moody menace, sharply clever dialogue and a wealth of exotic locales and ladies make this an unmissable adjunct to the Bond mythos and a collection no fan can do without. After all, nobody does it better…
© 1975, 1977, 1977, 1978, 2013 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd/ Express Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Thunderbirds – the Comic Collection


By Alan Fennell, Scott Goodall, Frank Bellamy, John Cooper, Eric Eden, Graham Bleathman & various (Egmont)
ISBN: 978-1-4052-6836-3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: 10/10 because it just is.

Stand By For Frothing!
Growing up in 1960’s England was the best of all possible worlds for a comic lover. As well as US imports you were treated to some frankly incredible weekly publications, and market bookstalls sold second-hand comics for at least a third of their cover price. We also had some of the greatest artists in the world working on some of the best licensed properties around. A perfect example is the TV – primarily Gerry Anderson – anthology comic TV Century 21.

For British kids of a certain vintage – it varies from eighty to four and three quarters – the Anderson experience is a large and critical component of the DNA of childhood. The TV episodes, toys, bubblegum cards, movies and especially the comic strips all irresistibly evoke and re-manifest the thrill and fevered anticipation of juvenile ecstasy in the millions of kids who enjoyed the weekly rush of mind-boggling, mouth-watering adventure – even decades after the initial hit.

Thus this latest glossy compilation, collecting some of the greatest strips in comics history is probably going to leave a lot of people gurgling in delight as they revisit or – if they’re incredibly lucky – see for the first time a spectacular panorama of futuristic fantasy thrills, spills and chills.

TV Century 21 (the unwieldy “Century” was eventually dropped) was patterned after a newspaper – albeit from 100 years into the future – and this shared conceit carried avid readers into a multimedia wonderland as television and comics fed off each other.

The incredible illustrated adventures were often supplemented with colour stills taken from the shows and photos also graced all text features and fillers which added to the unity of one of the industry’s first “Shared Universe” products. Even the BBC’s TV “tomorrows” were represented in a full-colour strip starring The Daleks.

The first issue launched on January 23rd 1965, instantly capturing the hearts and minds of millions of children and further proving to British comics editors the unfailingly profitable relationship between TV shows and healthy sales.

Filled with high quality art and features, printed in gleaming photogravure, TV21 featured such strips as Fireball XL5, Supercar and Stingray as well as a strange series about a posh future lady spy and her burglar chauffeur.

In an attempt to be topical, the allegorically Soviet and terribly totalitarian state of Bereznik was used in many strips, acting as an overarching, continuity-providing bad guy. Behind numerous plots and outrages, the TomorrowTerrorState constantly schemed against the World Government (for which read “The West”) in an eerily advanced Cold War espionage scenario which augmented the aliens, aquatic civilizations, common crooks and cataclysmic disasters that threatened the general well-being of the populace.

Although Thunderbirds did not premiere on TV until September of that year (with Frank Bellamy’s incredible strip joining the comic’s line-up in January 1966 with #52) Lady Penelope and Parker (subtitled as and promising “Elegance, Charm and Deadly Danger”) had been running since issue #1.

The aristocratic super-spy was promoted to her own spin-off, top-class photogravure publication in January 1966 – just as Anderson’s newest creations launched into super-marionated life: their comics exploits becoming the big draw in the already unmissable TV21.

All that is further explained in an expansive ‘Introduction’ before the procession of weekly wonderment – two staggeringly intoxicating pages every seven days! – begins in this massive (290 pages, 297x222mm) full-colour luxury hardback.

It all begins with the thirteenth adventure, which ran from #141-146 (30th September to November 4th 1967, scripted by Scott Goodall and illustrated by Frank Bellamy) and details how an avaricious madman intends splitting Persia in two with ‘The Earthquake Maker’.

The unforgettable alien invader story ‘Visitor from Space’ (#147-154) follows, with one of the most memorable monsters in comics history stealing the show on every page, after which ‘The Antarctic Menace’ (6th January-17th February 1968, #155 to 161) begins a brand new year with the same tried and true thrills as the Tracy boys are called in to save the day after the Australia-Antarctica highway is sabotaged!

‘Brains is Dead’ (#162-169, running until 13th April) features the skulduggery of the sinister Hood in a deadly game of industrial espionage, after which artist Graham Bleathman provides a captivating glimpse at those longed-for technical details with double-page cutaway spreads and single page strip sequences ‘Thunderbird 1 Technical Data’, ‘Launch Sequence: Thunderbird 1’, ‘Launch Sequence: Thunderbird 2’ and ‘Thunderbird 2 Technical Data’.

The suspenseful strip stories resume with ‘The Space Cannon’ (Goodall & Bellamy, from TV21 #170-172 April 20th to May 4th 1968) as the team have to stop a continually firing neutron cannon that’s crashed into the Thames, whilst follow-up yarn ‘The Olympic Plot’ by Howard Elson & Bellamy (#173-178) finds the great games – held in the crater of Vesuvius – disrupted not only by a lake of fire but also a madman digging up a pirate treasure hidden since the 17th century…

TV21 #184-187 (27th July-17th August 1968) offered ‘Devil’s Crag’ (Goodall & Bellamy) and saw International Rescue save a lost schoolboy; a spectacular visual extravaganza that belies its deceptively simple plot, after which ‘The Eiffel Tower Demolition’ (#188-191) goes dreadfully wrong and Scott and Virgil find themselves endangered by thieves and saboteurs…

Bleathman returns with more pictorial top secrets in ‘Specifications of Thunderbird 3’, ‘Launch Sequence: Thunderbird 3’, ‘Launch Sequence: Thunderbird 4’ and ‘Specifications of Thunderbird 4’ after which Goodall & Bellamy expose ‘The Nuclear Threat’ (TV21 #192-196, 21st September-19th October 1968) of an out-of-control drone ferrying atomic weapons to their intended deep sea dumping ground, whilst the ‘Hawaiian Lobster Menace’ (#197-202) outrageously reveals a plot to turn tasty crustacean treats into explosive anti-personnel weapons…

‘The Time Machine’ (December 7th 1968 to January 11th 1969) used by Jeff and Scott Tracy malfunctioned in a most unfortunate manner, whilst from #209-217 a more domestic disaster saw ‘The Zoo Ship’ which foundered off Tracy Island lead to crewmen trapped aboard ship and savage beasts loose on shore with our harried heroes trying to save lives whilst keeping their secrets safe from the ever insidious Hood…

Bleathman has more artistic innovations to display in ‘Specifications of Thunderbird 5’, ‘The Construction of Thunderbird 5′, ‘This is Tracy Island’ and ‘Tracy Island’ giving us all the detail and data we desire before ‘City of Doom’ (Goodall as “Spencer Howard” & Bellamy from #218-226, 22nd March to May 17th) finds a top secret, ultra-futuristic Andean science metropolis endangered by a wild nuclear reaction…

Scripted by Goodall or (perhaps John W. Jennison?), ‘Chain Reaction’ ran in TV21 and TV Tornado #227-234, May 24th-12th July 2069) wherein the Tracy team had to stop an out of control 50,000-ton space freighter from impacting in the middle of San Francisco – and that’s just the start of an epic calamity which threatened to destroy the entire Pacific Rim…

There’s a big jump here to October 1968 for ‘The Big Bang’ by Geoff Cowan & John Cooper, possibly explained by the fact that once Bellamy left the strip, his cruelly underrated replacement rendered the strip in black and white. When Fleetway revived the Anderson franchise in the early 1990s the comics featured artwork from TV21 supplemented with new original material from another generation of fans and creators, but as Thunderbirds was far and away the biggest hit, some of Cooper’s strips were reprinted with the artist at last getting the chance to colour his efforts.

Thus this, his second original yarn from TV21 & Joe 90 #5-8 (25th October-15th November 1969), involving smuggled diamonds and a boy trapped on a building both sinking and about to explode…

The endeavours of the Tracy clan then conclude with ‘The Mini Moon’ (Richard O’Neill & Cooper (TV21 & Joe 90 #22-28, 21st February to April 4th 1970) as a roving planetoid menaces Earth and Brains, Alan and Gordon have to blow it up while it’s still far enough away to pose no extinction-level threat…

Happily there’s still plenty for fans to enjoy as, after Bleathman’s revelatory ‘The Secrets of FAB 1’ and Creighton-Ward Stately Home’, the adventures of Lady Penelope and her invaluable manservant Parker begin with ‘Mr. Steelman’ by Alan Fennell & Eric Eden. Originally seen in TV Century 21 #1-11, January 23rd to April 3rd 1965, this is a complex thriller involving espionage and a deadly robot, after which Bellamy handles ‘The Isle of Arran Riddle’ (#35-43, September 18th to November 13th 1965) wherein the Honourable Lady Creighton-Ward attempts to solve an ancient puzzle and inherit a fabulous ruby.

Eden returned for ‘The Vanishing Ray’ (#44-51) as the stately spy was mysteriously sent a torch that turned objects transparent, unaware that the wicked Hood was hot on its trail.

The deadly games end with ‘The Enemy Spy’, illustrated by the legendary Frank Hampson from the July 1965 Lady Penelope Summer Extra, wherein an idle glance at the TV news sets Her Ladyship on the trail of Bereznik’s top assassin…

But of course the real treasure is the phenomenal and unparalleled work of Frank Bellamy, whose fantastic design, drawing and painted colour (which holds up rather well here, despite the limitations of modern print technology to accommodate the subtleties of the photogravure process) steals the show – and usually one’s breath away!

The work of Bellamy and his successors are a cherished highpoint of British comic-making. Crisp, imaginative writing, great characters and some of the very best science-fiction art of all time make this a must-have book for just about anybody with a sense of adventure and love of comics. It doesn’t get better than this.
Thunderbirds ™ and © ITC Entertainment Group Limited 1964, 1999, 2013. Licensed by ITV Ventures Limited. All rights reserved.

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P. Craig Russell’s Opera Adaptations Hardcover Set


By P. Craig Russell & various (NBM)
Set ISBN: 978-1-56163-755-3
Vol. 1 ISBN: 978-1-56163-350-0
Vol. 2 ISBN: 978-1-56163-372-2
Vol. 3 ISBN: 978-1-56163-388-3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Startling, seductive and sublime… 10/10

Here’s a tremendous opportunity and irresistible bargain for aficionados of magnificent Art and Grand Spectacle…

P. Craig Russell began his illustrious career in comics during the early 1970s and came to fame early with a groundbreaking run on science fiction adventure series Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds. His fanciful, meticulous classicist style was derived from the great illustrators of Victorian and Edwardian heroic fantasy and was greatly at odds with the sausage-factory deadlines and sensibilities of the mainstream comicbook industry.

By the 1980s he had largely retired from the merciless daily grind, preferring to work on his own projects (generally adapting operas and plays into sequential narratives) whilst undertaking the occasional high-profile Special for the majors – such as Dr. Strange Annual 1976 (totally reworked and re-released as Dr. Strange: What Is It that Disturbs You, Stephen? In 1996) or Batman: Robin 3000.

As the industry grew up and a fantasy boom began he returned to comics with Marvel Graphic Novel: Elric (1982), further adapting Michael Moorcock’s iconic sword-&- sorcery star in the magazine Epic Illustrated and elsewhere.

Russell’s stage-arts adaptations had begun appearing in 1978: first in the independent Star*Reach specials Night Music and Parsifal and then from 1984 at Eclipse Comics where the revived Night Music became an anthological series showcasing his earlier experimental adaptations; not just operatic dramas but also tales from Kipling’s Jungle Books and others.

In 2003 Canadian publisher NBM began a prodigious program to collect all those music-based masterpieces into The P. Craig Russell Library of Opera Adaptations: first as the luxurious clothbound hardcovers under discussion here and eventually in more affordable trade paperback albums.

Now all three of the sturdy originals are available again as a lavish economical shrink-wrapped set no fan of the comic arts could possibly resist.

Completed in 1990, the first huge volume (300 x210mm) features an epic rendering of Mozart’s lush fairytale romance The Magic Flute (from Emanuel Schikaneder’s libretto) wherein valiant if lackadaisical Prince Tamino and his unwelcome but supremely practical bird-catcher sidekick Papageno are tricked by the Queen of Night into rescuing her daughter Pamina from the wicked sorcerer Sarastro.

To aid them she gave the Prince a Magic Flute and the oafish dullard a set of enchanted bells, but she had not told them the true nature of the victim or their opponents…

A glorious panorama of love, betrayal, duplicity, enchantment and comedy – and dragons! – this is a fabulous example of the artist’s visual virtuosity.

Volume 2 is comprised of shorter works, beginning with the aforementioned Parsifal, realised from the Second Act of Richard Wagner’s opera, with a script adapted by long-term collaborator Patrick C. Mason, who also provides an Introduction and erudite commentary.

The work is the earliest represented in the collection and still contains stirring remnants of Russell’s action-hero style as the pure and heroic knight (a “germanised” version of Camelot’s Sir Percival in quest of the Holy Grail) finds the doughty and beautiful seeker undertaking ‘His Journey’, facing the seductive wiles of the debased siren Kundry and her Flower-Maidens in ‘His Temptation’ before eventually achieving ‘His Victory’ over malign magic and the weaknesses of the flesh…

Letitia Glozer’s Introduction to Songs by Mahler precedes two powerful evocations of ferocious imagination as ‘The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow’ (with a script by Mason) and the idyllic Arcadian pastel dreamscape of ‘Unto This World’ bemuse the reader until the opening of dark fairytale horror with ‘Ariane & Bluebeard’.

As revealed in Olivier Messiaen’s Introduction, Maurice Maeterlinck’s poem became a stunning symbolist opera scored by Paul Dukas, and Russell’s adaptation maintains the philosophical underpinnings whilst deftly telling of a township in revolt as the brutal lord of the manor brings his sixth bride to his castle.

The peasants are determined that the killer will not destroy another maiden but strong-willed Ariane has her own opinions and will determine her own fate…

Russell himself provided the Introduction for the final work in this volume. ‘The Clowns’ is crafted in stark and memorable monochrome, eschewing the vibrant colours of the previous pieces for a horrific interpretation of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci – a play-within-a-play of the new “Verismo” school of operatic storytelling which abandoned fantasy for tales of ordinary people and tawdry, sordid realism.

Pencilled by Galen Showman over Russell’s layouts and under the master’s inks and tones, it concerns a band of travelling players, who find that close proximity breeds boredom not fidelity, and proves that sinful passions indulged cannot help but lead to jealousy and murder…

The wide-eyed full colour wonderment wraps up in the third P. Craig Russell Library of Opera Adaptations, which features Pelleas and Melisande, Salome, Ein Heldentraum and Cavalleria Rusticana.

Mason’s informative Introduction to Maeterlinck’s masterpiece of forbidden love and familial injustice (as set to music by Claude Debussy) precedes a superb adaptation by Russell and scripter Barry Daniels, which relates how gruff widower Prince Golaud finds a strange, forlorn young woman whilst out hunting and, smitten with the sad, beautiful creature, marries her. He was supposed to wed distant Princess Ursula whose alliance might have saved the impoverished and slowly starving kingdom…

Melisande doesn’t really care. She seems to carries a mysterious secret within that manifests as a quiet compliance. She only really appears to display any passion for life after her new husband’s brother Prince Pelleas returns to court. As the two young people spend time together, Golaud is wracked with growing suspicion and when his bride loses her wedding ring the scene is irretrievably set for tragedy…

Scripted by Mason again, ‘Ein Heldentraum’ (A Hero’s Dream) is a short piece completed for this volume, visualising a bleak Lied or Art Song by German composer Hugo Wolf – a minor epic of fantastic imagination with just the hint of a potential happy ending.

That can’t be said of the next tale. ‘The Godfather’s Code’ is also new: a cruel, grim tale of death and broken promises taken from the Cavalleria Rusticana (rustic or peasant’s chivalry) by Pietro Mascagni from the libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci as originally adapted from a play and short story written by Giovanni Verga.

It was the first great example of the Verismo opera and is also one of Russell’s most effective adaptations.

Depicted in the bright, vivid colours of an Italian Easter, the story concerns vivacious Lola who revels in the first flowering of a new romance, even as fallen woman Santuzza desperately seeks the man for whose attentions she gave her virtue and now stands excommunicated by the Church and damned by her own conscience…

The outcast kneels in prayer outside the chapel, hungry for a glance of her adored Turridu, but she knows in her heart he has abandoned her for his first love.

When at last he arrives, the cad discards her whilst hypocritical Lola mocks. Thus Santuzza is driven to do the unpardonable: tell proud carter Alfio what his wife and best friend do whilst he works away from home…

The grandeur and tragedy all concludes with the biblical horror story of ‘Salome’ transformed from Oscar Wilde’s play into Richard Strauss’ opera of “shocking depravity” and thus perfect meat for comics cognoscenti.

In ancient Judea, the Tetrarch Herod rules by the grace of Rome, in a Court of utter decadence and indulgence. His wife is the debauched wanton Herodias, but lately even she has paled in the King’s eyes as her daughter Salome has blossomed.

The queen’s every blandishment is useless as her husband becomes more and more obsessed with the virginal sixteen year old…

Have grown up in the most debased place on world Salome is under no illusions as to Herod’s attentions or intentions, but her mind is preoccupied by the strident prisoner pent in the hole beneath the palace floor. Jokanaan condemns everything about the Court and warns all who hear of the messiah to come, heedless of the danger to himself. He is also exceedingly beautiful, as wilful Salome discovers when she forces a besotted guard to let him out so that she can see him. The precocious child has never met anyone who did not want her and John the Baptist’s indifference enflames her. The prophet is someone worthy of her body and chastity so she throws herself at him, but is roundly rejected.

Her passions aroused and rebuffed, the furious, confused girl decides to do anything she must and give everything she is if it will punish her tormentor…

The astounding strips and stories contained here are an indisputable high point in the long, slow transition of an American mass market medium into a genuine art form, but they are also incredibly lovely and irresistibly readable examples of comics on their own terms too.

This collection is a grand spectacle all lovers of picture storytelling would be crazy to miss.
© 1977, 1978, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1990 1998, 2004, 2013 P. Craig Russell. All rights reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Pale Reflections


By Andi Watson, Doug Petrie, Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-236-6

Having conquered television, Buffy the Vampire Slayer began a similar crusade with the far harder to please comicbook audiences. Launched in 1998 and offering smart, sassy tales to accompany the funny, action-packed and mega-cool onscreen entertainment, the series began in an original graphic novel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Dust Waltz) before debuting in a monthly series.

She quickly became a major draw for publisher Dark Horse – whose line of licensed comicbook successes included Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Aliens and Predator – and her exploits were substantially supplemented by a profusion of short stories in the company’s showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents and other venues.

Scripted primarily by Andi Watson, this particular UK Titan Books edition – with depiction and delineation from Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel – features stories set during TV Season 3 and re-presents issues #17-19 (January through March 2000), as well as a delicious and timely morsel first seen in Dark Horse Presents #141, March 1999.

Check your facts here: Buffy Summers was a gormless charm-free cheerleaderValley Girl until the night when she inexplicably turned into a hyper-strong, impossibly durable monster-killer.

After being stalked by a creepy old coot from a secret society of Watchers she discovered that she was the most recent recipient of a millennial mystic curse which transformed mortal maids into living death-machines to all things undead arcane or uncanny: a Slayer.

Moving with her mom to typical California hamlet Sunnydale, Buffy then learned her new hometown was located on the edge of an eldritch gateway known to the unhallowed as The Hellmouth.

Enrolling at Sunnydale High Buffy made some friends and, schooled by new Watcher Rupert Giles, conducted a never-ending war on devils, demons and every shade of predatory supernatural species inexorably drawn to the area…

This slim supernal compilation at last concludes ‘Bad Blood’ – an extended storyline which pitted the daring, darling “Scooby Gang” against ambitious, narcissistic psycho-killer vampire Selke and her new breed of modified demonic thralls.

When vain Selke’s face was ruined in battle she naturally sought out a plastic surgeon. Dr. Flitter took up her cause, restoring and improving the vampire with the promise of immortality as his oft-postponed reward.

However, since scientific procedures didn’t work, he resorted to magic and his researches found a way to turn vampire blood into a super-steroid for Selke and her chosen brood. Now she and her newly-minted children of the night hunt not only humans for food, but other vampires to provide the raw ingredients of the Bad Blood serum…

Despite a rather full dance card, however, Selke cannot forget what Buffy did and is increasingly obsessed with making the Slayer suffer…

Selke’s über-vamps are also making much mischief, and Buffy and recently restored undead lover Angel are finding them almost impossible to destroy…

As a nocturnal civil war breaks out between Selke’s squad and the town’s “normal” vampires, Selke urges Flitter to use the blood to make a Slayer antipersonnel weapon – a sorcerous clone designed to hunt down and slaughter the original…

The saga picks up in ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ as 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-heroic…

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

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 rivals Cordie’s…

Tensions rise in ‘She’s No Lady’ 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 Flitter…

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 under Sunnydale 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 dead…

The gory carnival of chaos concludes in ‘Old Friend’ as the clone confronts the Slayer and her earlier incarnation in the sewers, whilst above ground Willow and Giles examine “Buffy’s” blood on a discarded parade costume and uncover the awful truth…

When Selke sees the decimation wrought by Angel, she goes berserk, body 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 destroys Selke and ends the Bad Blood menace forever.

However in the shadows, deadly demon lovers Spike and Drusilla fade from sight, taking their new toy Dr. Flitter with them…

Supplemented by the usual wealth of photos and covers by Jeff Matsuda, John Sibal, Randy Green & Andy Owens, this chronicle also includes ‘Killing Time’ – a short adventure by Doug Petrie, Richards and Pimentel wherein three sulky Goth girls manifest chronal ravager Ragginor and the Slayer has to defeat the demon before all time ends…

Here is another superbly accessible magical fight-fest – even for those unfamiliar with the vast backstory: a creepy chronicle of short stirring sagas as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as by any dedicated devotee.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ™ & © 2000 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Captain America: the First Avenger


By Fred Van Lente, Luke Ross; Neil Edwards, Crimelab Studios & Daniel Green; Javi Fernandez; Andy Smith & Tom Palmer; Richard Elson & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5725-0

With new superhero comics-based Summer Movie Blockbusters now an annual tradition there’s generally a wealth of supplementary reading released to coincide, cash in on and tantalise all us die-hard print addicts. Thus, through the comfortable hindsight of time passed and all hype deflated, here’s a slim tome designed as a combination tie-in and prequel to the 2011 Captain America film…

Scripted by Fred Van Lente, First Vengeance was a 4-issue comicbook miniseries that actually began as 8 webcomic chapter teasers before bounding into paper physicality during April and May 2010. It concentrated on the cinematic iteration of the Star Spangled Avenger, infilling background, adding character and disclosing the secret history of the main players, opening with Chapter 1 (illustrated by Luke Ross and colourist Richard Isanove) as Captain America parachuted into Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1944, idly reminiscing about his tough childhood in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan two decades earlier as he drifted down amongst the shell-bursts and ack-ack fire.

After his mother died, sickly Steve Rogers went to an orphanage and was befriended by protective scrapper James Buchanan Barnes…

The second instalment (Neil Edwards, Crimelab Studios & Sotocolor) recalls later years as the frail art student struggled to join the military in the face of increasing war-tensions, even inducing boxing champ “Bucky” Barnes to teach him how to fight. Those painful memories are interrupted when the US super-soldier is ambushed by Germany’s equivalent – a stormtrooper in a massive lightning-throwing mechanical exo-skeleton…

Chapter 3 (Ross & Isanove again) continues that spectacular duel whilst flashing back to Berlin in 1934 to detail Adolf Hitler‘s first meeting with a man even crazier, more fanatical and far deadlier than he…

Johann Shmidt was a Nazi scientist obsessed with elder gods, arcane lore and creating the Übermensch through interventionist science. After allying himself with the monstrous Heinrich Himmler, Shmidt proceeded to eradicate every obstacle to his unholy dream…

Javi Fernandez & Veronica Gandini produced the fourth episode – which continued the byplay between elucidating flashbacks and Cap’s combat against Nazi terror weapons – detailing how Shmidt co-opted willing German technologist Arnim Zola and coerced hostage Jewish biologist Abraham Erskine to further his schemes, whilst Ross & Isanove handled Chapter 5, exploring how pioneering industrialist and inventor Howard Stark created the Yankee hero’s invulnerable shield…

Chapter 6 (Andy Smith, Tom Palmer & Gandini) reveals how British spy Peggy Carter rescued Erskine from Shmidt, but not before the Nazi became the first recipient of the biologist’s prototype super-soldier serum… The saga then introduced the pan-national filmic version of the Howling Commandos as the comic prologue built to a spectacular end courtesy of Ross & Richard Elson, with the introduction of the ghastly Red Skull, the conclusion of Cap’s clash with Nazi science, an origin for the Howlers, the return of Bucky and the fateful meeting of a patriotic sad sack with the men who would transform him from 4-F failure to America’s ultimate fighting man…

To Be Continued in Captain America: The First Avenger…

This compilation also includes an interview with Van Lente from Captain America: Spotlight and a gallery of covers by Paolo Rivera, John Cassaday, Laura Martin & Tyler Stout.

This short, sweet, action package is a fine, fun comics read which certainly succeeds as an enticing appetiser for movie mavens and print fiends alike, offering the best of both worlds and delivering big bangs for your bucks…
© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.