Category: Adaptations

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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.

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Angel: The Hollower


By Christopher Golden, Hector Gomez & Sandu Florea (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-163-7

These days a ingenuous girl loving an undead bloodsucker is so trite and overused it is a subject of parody and jest, but not so long ago the concept was relatively fresh and enticing…

For an entire generation, their first brush with the idea came courtesy of a landmark TV show. Buffy the Vampire Slayer began her charismatic career after a clueless cheerleaderValley Girl teen suddenly turned into an indomitable monster-killer: latest winner of an unpredictable mystic/genetic lottery which transformed unsuspecting mortal maids into human killing machines and martial arts masters…

The cult series and its assorted media spin-offs refocused the zeitgeist and, since Dark Horse Comics’ clever, witty graphic interpretation is what interests me most, here’s a look at one of their earliest sidebar projects.

Once the company secured the strip licensing rights, they began generating an engaging regular series, a welter of original graphic novels, spin-offs, specials and numerous miniseries.

Buffy Summers lived in the small California hamlet of Sunnydale on the edge of a paranormal portal to the Nether Realms dubbed The Hellmouth, where she and a small band of friends battled devils, demons and every sort of horror inexorably drawn to the area and whom/what/which all considered humanity an appetiser and planet Earth an irresistible eldritch “fixer-upper” opportunity.

With Rupert Giles, scholarly mentor, father-figure and Watcher of all things unnatural, Buffy and her “Scooby Gang” began making the after-dark streets of Sunnydale safe for the oblivious human morsels, aided by an enigmatic stud-muffin referring to himself as Angel…

Eventually he was revealed as a good vampire – one who possessed a soul – and he and the Summers girl fell in love. Sadly that broke the spell which made a tragic hero and instead unleashed the diabolical vampire he had been – the red-handed Angelus who had turned Europe into his personal charnel house for nearly two centuries.

Although Angel was eventually restored thanks to the intervention of Buffy and Co, he had briefly carved a savage swathe through town – ghastly even by Sunnydale’s standards – and was left burdened with a double dose of paralysing guilt and faced every night the vigilant, fearful suspicions of his human allies…

Angel eventually won his own TV franchise, but long before that he had graduated from romantic interest/arch enemy into his own 3-issue tryout miniseries. Angel: The Hollower was released from May to July 1999 and detailed how, even after reverting to exquisite evil before being redeemed again, his past would always be there to haunt him…

This British Titan Books edition commences with an Introduction by scripter Christopher Golden (and ends with a light-hearted interview with original series cover-artist Jeff Matsuda) before the action opens with ‘Cursed!’ by Golden, Hector Gomez & Sandu Florea (originally seen in anthology Dark Horse Presents #141, March 1999) wherein the Brooding Bad Boy regales Buffy with the horrific events that followed his rebirth as a bloodsucker in Ireland circa 1753.

That handy origin recap concluded, the main event – set during the TV show’s third season – kicks off in present-day San Francisco where a pair of vampires is attacked by a monstrous 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 to…

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 “date” ends Angel is jumped by a band of fangers and sees a girl he slaughtered and “turned” over a century past…

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…

In a flashback, the scene 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 and immune to all threat or challenge.

However, soon after turning Catherine, Angelus was confronted by starving, terrified vampires fleeing from some unimaginable horror that actually preyed on bloodsuckers…

Back in the now, Catherine reminds her sire of the cost the last time the creature manifested and warns him the thing has undoubtedly tracked her to Sunnydale…

At last convinced, Angel agrees to a truce and prepares to battle the thing again. Unfortunately this is something he cannot share with Buffy…

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 tentacled horror that prefers vamps to human meals…

Watcher archives reveal a chilling scenario. 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 killers…

Engaged in the hunt, Buffy however can’t shift a nagging and unworthy notion: if the Hollower sucks out the vampire part of Angel, will she be left with a normal human lover…?

Fast and furious, this tale of two cities and times is a solid supernatural thriller big on action and intriguingly presented. Definitely prescribed for anybody suffering a surfeit of lovestruck face-suckers and kissypoo predators – which last really should know better at their age…
Angel ™ & © 2000 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Video Classics volume 1: The Adventures of Mighty Mouse / Video Classics volume 1: More Adventures of Mighty Mouse

By various (Malibu Graphics)
ISBNs: 0-944735-22-3 & 0-944735-06-1

The animated cartoon legend who became Mighty Mouse started out as a Superman parody from the Paul Terry animation studio (known as Terrytoons) in 1942. “The Mouse of Tomorrow”, launched his crusade against cat-on-mouse crime after fleeing from marauding moggies and taking refuge in a Supermarket. Whilst there, exposure to Super Soap and consumption of Super Soup, Super Celery and Super Cheese transformed him into a peewee powerhouse clad in a dangerously litigation-attracting blue-&-red, caped outfit.

Super Mouse was a huge hit for Terrytoons and spawned a welter of cartoon shorts. However after the seventh in 1943 the name changed to Mighty Mouse (with the earlier animations re-dubbed by 1944 to eradicate any trace of the original. The studio produced more than ninety features between 1942 and 1961…

The Rodent Avenger also survived a closet-full of costume changes before settling on the vibrant red and yellow outfit of his television years and (in anticipation of today’s constant revamping of heroic motives) almost as many origins, but the one that eventually stuck in the comicbooks was that he was a mysterious foundling baby in a basket and raised by an elderly couple in the deep, dark woods…

Such a screen smash naturally spawned a successful comicbook career. His first outing came in Timely’s (Marvel Comics as was) Terrytoons #38, November 1945, with creative contributions from Stan Lee, Jim Mooney, Mike Sekowsky and Al Jaffee. The Magnificent Mus Musculus then sprang into his own solo title for four issues until Timely lost the lucrative license to St. John/Pines Publications in 1947.

Generating a host of issues, giants and specials (including one of the industry’s earliest 3D comics) throughout the 1950s, eventually Western Publishing’s Gold Key imprint secured the rights at the end of the decade, carrying on the cute crusade until 1968.

The reason for the comic’s longevity – other than the fact that it offered simple, fun and thrilling action for younger readers – was simple.

In 1955 the fledgling CBS television network bought out Paul Terry, transferring his entire pantheon to the flickering silver screens of a nation about to go home entertainment crazy. Mighty Mouse and the animator’s other movie theatre stars (especially anarchic smart-mouthed double-act Heckle and Jeckle, the Talking Magpies) were soon early TV sensations, with kids subsequently pushing their comicbooks sales through the roof…

As you are probably aware, Mighty Mouse has come and gone from our TV screens a multitude of times since then…

This brace of cheap-&-cheerful monochrome samplers from 1989 gathers the tantalising contents of a few of those mid-1950s yarns, regrettably with nothing definite in the way of creative credits, but fascinating to cartoon as well as comics aficionados, because of the intriguing fact that many of Terry’s key animation studio artists moonlighted on illustrating the strips.

Thus with art (possibly) by Connie Rasinski, Art Bartsch, Carlo Vinci and the legendary Jim Tyler plus scripts (potentially) by Tom Morrison – storyman at Terrytoons and the on-screen speaking voice of Mighty Mouse – these slim tomes offer a stunning example of just how kids comics aren’t done anymore… but should be.

What you need to know: the extremely sensible and hardworking mice live harmoniously in prosperous Mousetown (or sometimes Terrytown), their happy lives only occasionally blighted by attacks from mean and nasty cats…

Video Classics Volume One opens with a handy, informative historical introduction feature ‘The World’s Mightiest Mouse’ by Jim Korkis, before the wondrous whimsy commences with ‘Tunnels of Terror’ (from Mighty Mouse Comics #36, December 1952) wherein worst of all feline felons The Claw has had his inventive associate Professor Ohm construct a deadly burrowing device dubbed the Land Submarine to raid the overly complacent rodent population.

Claw isn’t worried about Mighty Mouse either, as he’s laid a trap for the Mouse of Tomorrow, using the beautiful Mitzi Mouse as bait…

Unfortunately for the conniving cats, even undermining a mountain and dropping it on the big-eared champion isn’t enough to ensure victory…

From Mighty Mouse Comics #73, May 1957, ‘False Alarm’ reveals how a rare day off is spoiled when meowing miscreants broadcast fake distress calls to distract the fast-flying hero whilst they steal everything in Mousetown, after which The Claw returns in ‘Mail Robbery’ (Mighty Mouse Comics #31, March 1952), stealing the post, a host of jewels and poor old Mitzi – until you know who blazes in to Save the Day…

Of course not all cats are evil. When a wicked witch kidnaps a black kitten to use in her magic spells the Meteoric Muridae is more than willing to risk the sinister perils of ‘Goblin Grove’ (Mighty Mouse Comics #73, again) to rescue little Junior…

This initial vintage collection concludes in spectacular fashion with a tale from The Adventures of Mighty Mouse #13 (July 1957) as the Claw uses a shrinking ray to diminish our hero to bug size. Of course even as a ‘Pint-Sized Protector’ the Mouse of Tomorrow is utterly unbeatable…

Volume Two also opens with a cracking Korkis introduction as ‘What a Mouse!’ reveals more lost pop culture lore before an epic 5-chapter saga sees a hundred foot tall cat menace the mice in ‘A Visitor from Outer Space’ (Mighty Mouse Comics #36, December 1952). When the Rocketing Rodent intervenes he ends up marooned on the creature’s home planet Pluto but still manages to overcome impossible odds and return in time to Save the Day…

No, I’m not being redundant here: in the cartoons the characters always broke into song and Mighty Mouse always warbled his personal signature tune “Here I Come to Save the Day” whilst pummelling perfidious poltroons and menacing monsters…

‘Fake Cake’, also from Adventures of Mighty Mouse Comics #13 offers a one page example of why chaotic crows Heckle and Jeckle were so well regarded, after which ‘A Visit from Aunt Prudy’ (MMC #73, again) exposed feline felon Ripper‘s most cunning con, when Mighty Mouse’s long-lost and very prim relative turned up and enjoined him to remember that nice mice never indulged in fisticuffs…

Adventures of Mighty Mouse Comics #13 then proves the merit of those magpies of mayhem with a vacuum cleaner caper dubbed ‘In the Bag’ before a kitty coterie of kidnappers operate a foolproof ploy to capture innocent mice in ‘Magnet Dragnet’ from the same issue. Foolproof yes – but not Mighty Mouse proof…

The all-ages action then ends with the Mouse of Tomorrow lending the Elves of Terrytown a helping paw before being ‘Caught in a Web’ (Mighty Mouse Comics #31, March 1952) by the merciless misanthrope Sam Spider. Never fret though: nothing is mightier than furry justice…

Once upon a time, comics for young kids were a huge and important component of the publishing business. Even if that isn’t the case anymore, surely there are enough old gits like me – and parents prepared to offer their offspring something a little bit different from the brain-blitzing modern fare of computers and TV cartoons – to warrant a revival and new comprehensive compilation of such wonderful, charm-filled nostalgic delights?

Any takers?
© 1989 Malibu Graphics, Inc.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Uninvited Guests


By Andi Watson, Dan Brereton, Hector Gomez & Sandu Florea (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-140-3

Having conquered television, Buffy the Vampire Slayer began a similar campaign with her monthly comicbook, launched in 1998 and offering smart, sassy tales which perfectly complimented the funny, action-packed and Tres Hip onscreen entertainment.

Following an original graphic novel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Dust Waltz) the character 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 solo exploits were substantially supplemented by many short stories in the company’s showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents and other venues.

This particular UK Titan Books edition – with depiction and delineation from Hector Gomez & Sandu Florea – features more stories set during TV Season 2 and collects issues #4-7 of the Dark Horse comicbook, scripted by Andi Watson who also provides an endearing illustrated Introduction before opening with a minor seasonal sensation…

‘White Christmas’ finds 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-denting overtime when she discovers her boss Mr. Richter spending all his idle moments in the Big Freezer summoning infuriating ice imps and giant killer Frost Elementals…

Having survived that cataclysmic Yule duel relatively unscathed, the Scooby Gang – Willow, Cordelia, Oz, Xander and Buffy – look forward to a ‘Happy New Year’ party, until dusty, crusty Lore Librarian (and Buffy’s supernature tutor) Giles discovers a gigantic hell-hound raiding his book stacks and the crazy kids are set 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 life…

Xander found himself obsessed with pretty transfer student Cynthia in ‘New Kid on the Block Part 1’ (co-written with Dan Brereton), with his pathetic, fawning, drooling attentions cruelly mocked by his best friends – and rightly so….

His infantile ardour is hardly halted when the girls decide to have a slumber party even though he’s not invited. Determined not to miss out (and certainly not creepy at all), the hapless idiot decides to sneak into the night of nail varnish, romcoms and pink pyjamas but is horrified to discover that he’s not the only intruder…

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’, but after driving off the monster party-crashers, confers with noble vampire boyfriend Angel and realises that even though able to move around in daylight, Cyn might not be all she seems…

With covers by Gomez, Randy Green, Rick Ketchum, Arthur Adams and Joyce Chin, this is a stunning, enchanting mix of post-ironic Archie Comics hijinks and madcap magical martial arts mysteries, this batch of early Buffy yarns are pure, light-hearted rollercoaster thrills, spills and chills no comics fan could resist

Uninvited Guests is an easily accessible romp even if you’re not familiar 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 ™ & © 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Crash Test Demons


By Andi Watson, Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-199-8

Soon after securing her status as a certified media sensation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer won her own monthly comicbook in 1998, with smart, suspenseful, action-packed yarns (in her own monthly series and fully supplemented by spin-off miniseries and short stories in showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents) which perfectly complemented the sensational, groundbreaking and so crucial TV show.

This slim and sinister compilation (I’m once more featuring the British Titan Books edition which features stories set during the third TV Season) continues an extended storyline which pitted the eclectic “Scooby Gang” against ambitious narcissistic psycho-killer vampire Selke and her new breed of modified demonic thralls.

The ongoing ‘Bad Blood’ saga is written as ever by Andi Watson and illustrated by newcomers Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel, with this volume collecting issues #13-15 (of the monthly Buffy the Vampire Slayer from September-November 1999).

As well as the usual wealth of covers, pinups and photos by Richards, Dave Stewart, Bennett, Jeff Matsuda & John Sibal, this chronicle also includes as bonus an interview with the Brazilian penciller, stuffed with his character designs and many un-inked pages of glorious art.

In case you’re a stranger to this dimension: Buffy Summers was an addle-pated cheerleader Valley Girl and total waste of teen protein until she inexplicably turned into a hyper-strong, impossibly durable monster-killer.

She learned – after being accosted by an old codger from a secret society of Watchers – that she was the most recent recipient of a meandering mystic lottery which transformed mortal maids into living death-machines for all things supernatural: a Slayer.

Moving with her recently divorced mom to the small California hamlet of Sunnydale, located on the edge of a arcane portal dubbed The Hellmouth, Buffy made a few close friends and, with her newest cult-appointed mentor Rupert Giles, proceeded with her never-ending war on devils, demons and every predatory species of terror inexorably drawn to the area…

Following a handy “previously page”, the wise-cracking action kicks off with ”Delia’s Gone’ as formerly disfigured and depleted vampire Selke pays a visit to local 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 – and bears a grudge…

Nobody knows that she has found a plastic surgeon with a passion for alchemy and no morals at all. Dr. Flitter has taken up Selke’s cause, restoring and improving her with the promise of immortality as his oft-postponed reward.

However, since his normal scientific procedures didn’t work, he resorted to books of magic for a solution where his researches turned up a way to turn vampire blood into a super-steroid for Selke and her “offspring”. Now she and her newly-minted children of the night hunt not only humans for food, but vampires for fuel…

Moreover she is still obsessed with making the Slayer suffer…

Meanwhile, in a vain semblance of normal teen activities, the Scooby Gang – 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 to become a voracious consumer of facts. Sadly there’s no off-switch and ‘Delia’s brain quickly begins to overload…

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

‘Love Sick Blues’ sees a nocturnal civil war break out between Selke’s squad and the town’s regular fangers. Buffy’s night patrols are crazily broken up by vampires constantly attempting to capture and drain each other, but things take a bleak dark turn when deadly demon lovers Spike and Drusilla return, keen on turning the chaos to their own decadently amused advantage…

Soon their unique talents for obtaining information have led them to the secret of “bad blood”, but Selke and Flitter are oblivious to the new threat to their schemes. The cosmetic alchemist has discovered a way of mystically cloning their own “Dark Slayer” to take care of Buffy, and Selke wants one right now!

Sadly Flitter’s first attempts are woefully inadequate and promptly discarded… even the one that was still sort-of alive…

Even Buffy’s daylight problems are insane. Sleazy, lusty Todd once 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 his life…

Events reach crisis point in ‘Lost Highway’ as the war between leeches escalates, whilst 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…

To Be Continued…

Engaging, witty, darkly light and fluffy, this fast and furious fists-flying action extravaganza rockets along at a breakneck pace, capturing the smart, intoxicating spirit of the TV show. Although this is only the middle section of the Bad Blood epic, the yarns here are all easily accessible even if you’re unfamiliar with the vast backstory, making this one more terrific thriller 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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Iron Man 2: Public Identity


By Joe Casey, Justin Theroux, Barry Kitson, Ron Lim & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4858-6

With new Superhero and 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 we die-hard print addicts.

Thus, through the safe lens of enough time passed and all hype deflated, here’s a slim tome designed as one of many combination tie-in and prequels to the second Iron Man film.

Public Identity was a 3-part miniseries from April and May 2010 starring the filmic iteration of the Marvel characters, scripted by Joe Casey and Justin Theroux with art from Barry Kitson, Ron Lim, Tom Palmer, Victor Olazaba, Stefano Gaudiano & Matthew Southworth, which added nuance and background to the tale of Tony Stark’s very visible battle against rival arch-technocrat Justin Hammer and a whip-wielding maniacal amalgam of comicbook veterans Crimson Dynamo and Whiplash…

This compilation also includes a triptych of short back-up vignettes starring some of the supporting cast in solo adventures originally published as the one-shot Iron Man 2: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. plus a selection of text, art and photo-features culled from the promo magazine Iron Man 2 Spotlight.

At the conclusion of the first film Tony Stark had just revealed to the frantic media that he was the incredible Armoured Avenger and ‘No Reason’ takes up from there, before flashing back decades to when munitions magnate Howard Stark first moved into researching the astounding potential of ARC reactor technology with Soviet scientist Anton Vanko. ARC, you’ll recall, is the overwhelming power source which keeps son Tony alive and fuels his high-tech super-suit…

In the now the self-exposed son is revelling in the celebrity his admission has garnered, as old comrade James Rhodes and all his other close friends can only watch and worry. The government – and especially the Military – want the power of Iron Man under their explicit control and are applying increasing pressure to the hedonistic playboy to get their way…

Grudgingly, to prove he’s still in control, Tony accepts a military reconnaissance job to insurgent-plagued Al Kut, but naturally goes off mission when he sees lives being lost…

Woefully disdainful of stifling protocol or American Military objectives, Stark kicks butt and posts footage with the world’s media, uncaring of the toes he’s stepping on…

Meanwhile in the Land of the Free and the padded invoice, Justin Hammer is unveiling his latest multi-billion dollar death machine to General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, a career soldier who wants kill-power like Iron Man’s, but free of the insubordinate or free-thinking, conscience-plagued playboy adventurer…

In the past, Howard Stark is appalled to discover his friend Anton stealing ARC secrets, and dejected when the far-from contrite technologist is deported by Federal agents. Years pass and his boy Tony endures abuse and neglect from his troubled dad, leading to some fateful decisions…

Tony is still making poor choices in the present, blowing off business meetings to defuse traps and abandoned tech scattered throughout Afghanistan by the enigmatic Ten Rings organisation and even US forces. Rhodes, meanwhile, is with General Ross, deeply disturbed that the untested Hammer weapon is going straight into action with an unprepared live pilot on a dangerous covert and unsanctioned mission…

The op goes disastrously wrong. The Pentagon overrules the overtly hostile Ross and Rhodey begs Tony to intervene. Congolese Army units have shot down the Hammer craft and captured the American pilot, but the guerrillas are no match for Iron Man who pulls off a spectacular rescue without harming a single Congolese soldier in the undertaking…

However, when Stark delivers the wounded airman to Ross, the Thunderbolt is furious that a global symbol of American superiority refused to shoot back and prepares to take matters into his own hands…

And as the son of Anton Vanko completes his own Arc reactor and prepares to take vengeance on the Stark family, in the shadows Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. begin their own subtle moves to move in on Iron Man…

As the comicbook conclusion segues into the film, this book shifts into stealth mode with three Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. solo mini-thrillers all scripted by Casey, beginning with arch manipulator Fury in ‘Who Made Who’ (rendered by Tim Greene) which sees the Golden Avenger barnstorm into a S.H.I.E.L.D./Navy SEAL operation against the mysterious Ten Rings cabal, opening the bidding in a bizarre war of nerves between the controlling spymaster and the ferociously free-spirited hero who – for now – still owns Iron Man…

Then ‘Just off the Farm’ – with art from Felix Ruiz – shows Agent Coulson under fire but never pressure as he solves a minor personnel problem and field-tests his latest recruit, even as ‘Proximity’, illustrated by Matt Camp, details how lethal femme fatale Black Widow inserted herself into Stark’s company and positioned herself for her spectacular movie debut…

The text features lead with ‘Silver Screen Style’ wherein comics artist and movie production consultant Adi Granov reveals secrets of both print and screen iterations, complete with lashings of pictures including reinterpreted Classic Covers and pages of Extremis Armour Designs.

Chris Arrant then discusses ‘Iron Man vs. Whiplash’ with screenwriters Marc Guggenheim and Brannon Braga, and ‘#1 With a Bullet’ by Dugan Trodglen explores the role and history of superspy Black Widow.

Thereafter epic comics saga ‘Iron Man Disassembled’ is highlighted by scripter Matt Fraction and interviewer Jess Harold before ‘Iron Man: Lightning in a Bottle’ finds John Rhett Thomas debating the classic revival of the Steel-Shod Sentinel with 1980s creators David Michelinie and Bob Layton, before Arrant chats with Warren Ellis about his take on Iron Man in ‘Armor Wars 2.0’.

Presumably as a preamble to the then-upcoming team movie, this section concludes with a stirring stroll down memory lane as ‘The Armored Avenger’ pinpoints “Eight of Iron Man’s Definitive Moments” with the Mighty Avengers, as compiled by Dugan Trodglen.

Also including a cover gallery by Granov and Salvador Larroca, this terse, explosive action package is a fine, fun comics read which should also act as an enticing interface for converting metal movie mavens into dedicated followers of funnybook fiction.
© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.