Cartoon Network 2-in-1: Ben 10 Alien Force/The Secret Saturdays


By many and various
(DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2878-1

The links between kids’ animated features and comicbooks are long established and, I suspect, for young consumers, indistinguishable. After all, it’s just adventure entertainment in the end…

DC’s Cartoon Network imprint is arguably the last bastion of children’s comics in America and has produced some truly magical homespun material (such as Tiny Titans, Batman: Brave and the Bold or Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!) as well as stunning interpretations of such television landmarks as Scooby Doo, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and others.

This particular dynamic and fast-paced parcel of thrills gathers a brace of contemporary kids’ TV sensations in back-to-back exploits taken from monthly periodical Cartoon Network Action-Pack (issues # 26-42) and opens with the further adventures of a boy who becomes a one-man alien legion of extraterrestrial champions with the mere flick of a wrist…

Ben Tennyson was a plucky kid who could become ten different alien super-heroes by activating a fantastic device called the Omnitrix. At first the young boy clandestinely battled fantastic foes with his eccentric Grandpa Max and obnoxious cousin Gwen but by the time of these tales Ben is a teenager, having retired for a few years before again taking up the mantle of planetary protector.

He is also well on the way to becoming a global household name and has his own power-packed teen posse including Gwen, reformed super bad-boy Kevin Ethan Levin and romantic interest/techno-ninja Julie Yamamoto, all whilst struggling to master the far more powerful Ultimatrix device…

In short complete tales (following a handy guide to the cast and checklist of alien alternates which Ben can morph into) the reluctant hero, his hyper-charged avatars and BFFs tackle a continual stream of world-shaking threats and typical teen traumas beginning with ‘The New Order’ by Matt Wayne & Rob Haynes, wherein Kevin’s car is stolen.

The sweet ride is packed with advanced alien tech and only Gwen’s skill in manipulating “manna” or magic enables them to track it to old enemies the Forever Knights, servants of elitist primal race the Highbreed. Cue big, big fight…

Another fact-page, this time delivering the details on the Highbreed and their devoted servants the Forever Knights and insidiously cloaked infiltrators dubbed DNAliens is followed by ‘Bad Boy’ (Charlotte Fullerton, Mike Cavallaro & Mike DeCarlo) wherein Kevin seems to return to his evil ways by impersonating Ben. It’s all a ploy to fool DNAliens, but nobody thought to tell Gwen that…

‘A Blast from the Past’ (Fullerton & Min. S. Ku) sees a Space cop’s overeager son attempt to arrest Kevin only to accidentally uncover a very real hidden menace, whilst ‘A Brief Mystery of Time’ by the same creative team finds Ben stuck in a deadly time loop until sometimes ally Professor Paradox offers a few useful if unusual hints…

‘Double Trouble’ reintroduces Ben’s evil doppelganger Albedo, who has devised a perfect way to reactivate his own Omnitrix and finally replace the hero – or so he thinks – whilst in ‘Ship Shape’, a small gift from Ben to Julie causes big trouble after her alien mecha-pet suddenly goes wild and Ben’s planned ‘Lazy Day’ (Amy Wolfram & Ku) goes horribly wrong after Gwen reminds him of an appointment with a covert colony of DNAliens…

Robbie Busch, Cavallaro & DeCarlo then reveal a sweet trap for the young heroes at the local Ice Cream emporium, courtesy of a de-frocked Forever Knight who was their ‘Soda Jerk’, Jason Hall & Ku describe how ‘The Past is the Key to the Future’ when a long-dormant Highbreed doomsday bomb activates and Ben has to travel five years back in time to when he first became a hero to uncover the means of deactivating it – without being seen by his earlier self – before the Ben 10 bits conclude with Jake Black & Ku’s ‘Backcountry Battleground’ wherein a snowboarding holiday turns into a catastrophic confrontation when Ben, Gwen and Kevin unearth a DNAlien installation threatening all of Earth…

The second half of the bifurcated blockbuster is dedicated to a family of clandestine crypto-zoologists covertly discovering and protecting Earth’s hidden beasts of fact and fable against all threats and menaces as The Secret Saturdays.

“Doc” (don’t call him Solomon) and Drew Saturday are members of a hidden society called The Secret Scientists, dedicated to protecting the Earth from hidden threats both ancient and modern, unravelling mysteries, and saving lost and undiscovered species from human encroachment and exploitation.

When not in their hidden base and wildlife preserve they travel the globe with their precocious son Zak – who has an un explained psychic ability to connect with “cryptids” – and rescued creature-comrades gorilla-cat Fiskerton, genetically augmented dragon Komodo and pterosaur Zon, unravelling the unknown and battling hostile foes and forces.

Most notable among those are villainous TV crypto-zoologist V.V. Argost, beast-hunting mercenary Van Rook and Piecemeal, a dastardly and depraved culinary cove obsessed with and dedicated to eating the rarest creatures in the world…

The show was created by Jay Stephens and premiered in October 2008, framed very much in the mould of classic 1960s Hanna-Barbera adventure animations such as Jonny Quest and the Herculoids, beginning here with ‘The Cannibal Curse’ written and inked by Stephens with pencils by Scott Jeralds in which the family travel to Fiji to accept a ceremonial apology from the descendants of natives who ate Doc’s great, great, great grandfather, only to encounter Dakuwaqa, possibly a “living fossil” dunkleosteus but certainly not a genuine immortal shark god…? But they could be wrong…

Brandon Sawyer & Mike Manley take the clan to the Russian Steppes for ‘Crying Wolf!’ in search of Kalmakian snakes, but Zak and Fiskerton’s unconventional appearance soon has the natives screaming “Wawkalak!” However even though Fisk certainly isn’t the fabled Russian werewolf, the inevitable bandits hassling the town certainly have some uncanny creature in their thrall…

‘Way Past Bedtime’ (John Rozum, Jeralds & Manley) sees Zak, Fisk and Komodo try to escape their babysitter Abby Grey, only to be taken on a wild excursion to a lost sepulchre by the compulsive and tempestuous tomb-raider. In the crypt they encounter a fantastic watch-beast and the murderous Van Hook, looking for a lost artefact…

‘Sticks and Stones’ (Rozum, Will Sweeney & Manley) finds Zak, Fisk and Komodo trying to retrieve a replica artefact they’ve accidentally lost in the preserve beneath the Saturday base. Unfortunately Argost is also after it and he’s brought a pet peril of his own. To make things perfect, that’s when the storm and flash-floods hit…

By the same team, ‘The Storm that Shook Japan’ found the entire family investigating a devastated town with anthropoid ally Professor Mizuki. However the depredations of the tree-dwelling giant Lightning-Thunder-Birds are as nothing compared to the humans who have been wilfully clear-cutting their ancient forests, after which Komodo steals the spotlight in ‘Escape from Weird World’ when the canny dragon is stolen by Argost’s manservant Munya, only to orchestrate a mass breakout from his critter Colditz, whilst the entire reunited family encounter terror and cruel misunderstanding in Italy after an old shepherd dies and flocks begin disappearing. Only Doc’s uncanny perspicacity prevents a huge tragedy by unravelling the ancient mystery of the Guardian of ‘The Cave of the Cacus’…

The all-ages adventure ends on a rather gruesome and grisly note with Rozum, Jeralds & Manley’s ‘Meal Worms’ as the search for invisible skyfish in Mexico results in another nasty encounter with ghastly gourmand Piecemeal and the first sighting of a terrifying species of atmospheric jellyfish…

Despite being ostensibly aimed at TV kids, these mini-sagas are wonderful old-fashioned comics thrillers which no self-respecting fun-fan should miss: accessible, entertaining, well-rendered yarns for the broadest range of excitement-seeking readers, making this terrific tome a perfect, old fashioned delight. What more do you need to know?
™ and © 2010 Cartoon Network. Compilation © 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

OZ: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz


By L. Frank Baum, adapted by Eric Shanower & Skottie Young (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2921-9 (hb)          978-0-7851-2922-7 (tpb)

We all know the story of The Wizard of Oz – or at least the bare bones of it harvested to make the admittedly stunning 1939 film – but the truth is there’s a vast amount from that legendary 1900 novel by jobbing journalist and prolific author Lyman Frank Baum that remained unfilmed, and this superb and faithful adaptation by rabid fan Eric Shanower and artist Skottie Young rectifies and redresses those glaring tinseltown omissions and alterations with stunning skill and mesmerising charm.

As superb an illustrator as author, Shanower himself produced five original graphic novels set in Baum’s magic kingdom (The Enchanted Apples of Oz, The Secret Island of Oz, The Ice King of Oz, The Forgotten Forest of Oz, and The Blue Witch of Oz between 1986 and 1992, recently compiled into one scintillating chronicle as Adventures in Oz) as well as a new prose work, short stories and contributions to various academic and critical volumes on Baum and his creations.

In 2009 Marvel began producing a sequence of miniseries by Shanower and Skottie Young faithfully adapting Baum’s original texts, and the first 8-part classic has been collected as both a premier hardcover and trade paperback edition that will delight and astound both veteran and completely fresh readers.

Much of the familiar skeleton is there. Dorothy and her little dog Toto are spirited away from dreary, flat Kansas by a cataclysmic cyclone in the family house which, after many hours in the air, dumps the pair in a fantastic land of rolling hills and glorious vistas.

Under the fallen domicile is a dead witch and the blue-clad Munchkins who populate the place couldn’t be happier.

When the Good Witch of the North appeared, she explains that Dorothy has done a great thing, but she cannot help the little girl return home to her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. Nobody has ever heard of Kansas, but perhaps the great and terrible Wizard of Oz could help. Dorothy and Toto are advised to follow the Yellow Brick Road to his City of Emeralds in the centre of Oz, and since the girl’s cheap boots were hardly up to the journey, it’s pretty lucky she was awarded the Silver Shoes of the deceased Hag…

She walked for a long time, feted everywhere by happy, witch-free folks and eventually encountered a scarecrow in a field of corn. He wasn’t much different from the ones at home except that he winked at her and struck up a conversation…

The straw man was uncomfortable and Dorothy extricated him from his uncomfortable position stranded on high with a pole up his back, after which they discussed her plight and the Wizard’s ability to do anything. After relating how he was made the Scarecrow, hoping the green sage could provide him with brains, asked the little lass if he could accompany her to the City of Emeralds…

Their route took them through a darkly wooded area overgrown with trees and as night was falling, Dorothy wanted to stop. The Scarecrow saw a cottage deep in the trees and although it was scary and abandoned they planned to rest there. However, whilst looking for water they heard eerie screams and followed them to a tin woodman immobile and rusting…

Once the little girl had used a handy oilcan to liberate him the Woodsman related a tragic – and gruesome – tale of cursed love and an enchanted axe which that turned an enamoured young man, piece by piece, into an unfeeling kettle without a heart.

Perhaps the Wizard could provide one if he joined them on their quest…?

As they journeyed onwards together through the seemingly endless forest Dorothy’s provisions began to run out and they were attacked by a fearsome and magnificent lion. As Toto bravely defended his mistress, the King of Beasts made to devour the dog and angry Dorothy slapped the savage beast’s face.

The predator crumbled into tears and shared his own tale of woe: a life built on bluff and the permanent terror that all the forest creatures currently afraid of him might discover that the Lion was far more scared of them. He too joined the party for Oz…

As they proceeded on their way they encountered and conquered many perils together: huge gorges cutting across the road, savage sabre-toothed Kalidahs, a huge river and a field of toxic poppies.

It was here that the Lion, Toto and Dorothy fell into an unshakable sleep, but luckily the Tin Woodman saved the life of a Field-mouse who happened to be the Queen of the mice. and in gratitude she bade all her millions of subjects to carry the slumberers to safety after which she gave Dorothy a whistle that could summon aid from the mice should she ever again need it.

Eventually they reached pleasant countryside where all the houses were painted green and at long last saw the high green wall of the City of Emerald…

After much shilly-shallying each postulant was granted an audience with the Wizard, who looked alarmingly different to each one of them and said they could only achieve their heart’s desires if they performed one little task – killing the deadly Wicked Witch of the West…

With no other choice the questors set off for the Land of the Winkies, defeating talking wolves, savage crow armies and killer bees before succumbing to an attack by flying monkeys which dismembered the Scarecrow and the Woodman and saw the Lion and Dorothy dragged off as slaves.

The feisty child’s life was one of terrible drudgery until the Witch stole one of the magic silver shoes and Dorothy threw a bucket of scrub-water over her…

With the Witch dead, the jubilant and liberated Winkies rebuilt the Woodman and reassembled the Scarecrow so that the triumphant adventurers could begin an epic Pilgrimage back to Oz and their promised rewards.

But their trials and tribulations were far from over…

And that’s barely past the half-way point in this astoundingly captivating book which is incontrovertibly the very best adaptation yet of one of the world’s greatest tales.

Shanower’s adaptation provides a far darker, more naturalistically vivid and far edgier atmosphere – after all, this was a story originally written at a time when it was still okay to frighten children or make them feel sad, and the grim facts of harsh life weren’t covered up unnecessarily – whilst Skottie Young’s gloriously stylised and vibrant interpretation is a wonder to behold, capturing idyllic fields of pastoral wonder, strange peoples, fantastic magic, scary beasts and spectacular events with supreme aplomb, all perfectly enhanced by the sensitive colour palette of Jean-Francois Beaulieu and Jeff Eckleberry’s deft calligraphy.

Also included are Shanower’s impassioned introduction ‘Blame it on Toto’, Baum’s original dedication from 1900 accompanied by a superb illustration of Dorothy and Toto by Young, a complete cover gallery of the miniseries, including variants by Shanower himself and J. Scott Campbell, an overview of the novels, theatrical productions and films and a stunning sketchbook section featuring working drawings and designs for Dorothy, The Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, The Good Witch of the North, Toto, Winged Monkeys, The Wizard of Oz and The Wicked Witch of the West. All capped off by a behind-the-scenes feature on how the covers and colour pages were processed and assembled

If you’ve seen the films and cartoons you only think you know Oz. Start reading these magnificently lush and luxurious comics adaptations and learn the truth – and while you’re at it, don’t forget to read Baums’s (unabridged) prose masterpieces too; you can even read them for free, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

Win, the Wise and Powerful, has Spoken…
© 2008, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sundiata, the Lion of Mali – A Legend of Africa


Retold by Will Eisner (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-332-6 (hb), 978-1-56163-340-2 (pb)

It is pretty much accepted today that Will Eisner was one of the pivotal creators who shaped the American comicbook industry, with most of his works more or less permanently in print – as they should be. Active and compellingly creative until his death in 2005, Eisner was the consummate storysmith and although his true legacy is making comics acceptable fare for adult Americans, his mastery and appeal spanned the range of human age and he was always as adept at beguiling the young as he was enchanting their elders…

William Erwin Eisner was born on March 6th 1906 in Brooklyn and grew up in the ghettos. They never left him. After time served inventing much of the visual semantics, semiotics and syllabary of the medium he dubbed “Sequential Art” in strips, comicbooks, newspaper premiums and instructional comics, he then invented the mainstream graphic novel, bringing maturity, acceptability and public recognition to English language comics.

From 1936 to 1938 he worked as a jobbing cartoonist in the comics production hothouse known as the Eisner-Eiger Shop, creating strips for both domestic US and foreign markets. Using the pen-name Willis B. Rensie he created and drew opening instalments for a huge variety of characters ranging from funny animal to historical sagas,

Westerns, Detectives, aviation action thrillers… and superheroes – lots of superheroes …

In 1940 Everett “Busy” Arnold, head honcho of the superbly impressive Quality Comics outfit, invited Eisner to take on a new challenge. The Register-Tribune newspaper syndicate wanted a 16-page weekly comicbook insert for the Sunday editions and Eisner jumped at the opportunity, creating three series which would initially be handled by him before two of them were delegated to supremely talented assistants. Bob Powell inherited Mr. Mystic and distaff detective Lady Luck fell into the capable hands of Nick Cardy (then still Nicholas Viscardi) and later the inimitable Klaus Nordling.

Eisner kept the lead feature for his own, and over the next twelve years The Spirit became the most impressive, innovative, imitated and talked-about strip in the business. However, by 1952 he had more or less abandoned it for more challenging and certainly more profitable commercial, instructional and educational strips, working extensively for the US military in manuals and magazines like Army Motors and  P*S, the Preventative Maintenance Monthly, generally leaving comicbooks behind.

After too long away from his natural story-telling arena Eisner creatively returned to the ghettos of Brooklyn where he was born and he capped a glittering career by inventing the mainstream graphic novel for America, bringing maturity, acceptability and public recognition to English language comics.

In 1978 a collection of four original short stories in strip form were released as a single book: A Contract With God and Other Tenement Stories. All the tales centred around 55 Dropsie Avenue, a 1930’s Bronx tenement, housing poor Jewish and immigrant families. It changed the American perception of cartoon strips forever. Eisner wrote and drew a further 20 further masterpieces, opening the door for all other comics creators to escape the funnybook and anodyne strip ghettos of superheroes, funny animals, juvenilia and “family-friendly” entertainment. At one stroke comics grew up.

Eisner was constantly pushing the boundaries of his craft, honing his skills not just on the Spirit but with years of educational and promotional material. In A Contract With God he moved into unexplored territory with truly sophisticated, mature themes worthy of Steinbeck and F. Scott Fitzgerald, using pictorial fiction as documentary exploration of social experience.

If Jack Kirby was the American comicbook’s most influential artist, Will Eisner remains undoubtedly its most venerated and exceptional storyteller. Contemporaries originating from strikingly similar Jewish backgrounds, each used comic arts to escape from their own tenements, achieving varying degrees of acclaim and success, and eventually settling upon a theme to colour all their later works. For Kirby it was the Cosmos, what Man would find there, and how humanity would transcend its origins in The Ultimate Outward Escape. Will Eisner went Home, went Inward and went Back, concentrating on Man as he was and still is…

Naturally that would make him a brilliant choice to illustrate primal folktales and creation myths from our collective past and this stunning, slim yet over-sized tome (288 x 224mm) again proves his uncanny skill in exhibiting the basic drives and passions of humanity as he lyrically recounts a key myth of West Africa.

The historical Sundiata Keita brought the Mandinka People out of bondage and founded the Mali Empire in the 13th century AD and is still celebrated as a staple of the oral tradition handed down by the tribal historians, bards and praise-singers known as “Griots”.

Rendered in a moody, brooding wash of sullen reds, misty greys and dried out earth-tones, the tale begins; narrated by the Great Gray Rock, foundation stone of the world.

Once only the beasts were masters of Africa, but when people came they sought to rule the land instead. The consulted the ghosts of Good and soon became the masters of the beasts and the land.

However Evil ghosts also lurked and once ambitious and greedy Sumanguru, King of Sasso had conquered all he could see yet still seethed with dissatisfaction, the Gray Rock of Evil accosted him…

Sasso was a poor, arid country and when the wicked stone offered the king dark magical powers to conquer all the surrounding lands, Sumanguru eagerly accepted. Soon all the neighbouring nations were smouldering ruins as the Sasso warriors and their mad lord’s control of the elements demolished all resistance.

Still Sumanguru was not content and, when a trader brought news of a rich, fertile land settled by peaceful gentle people, the king wanted to rule them too. The unctuous merchant also related how Nare Famakan, wise king of Mali, had recently passed away, leaving eight youthful healthy sons and a ninth who was weak and lame…

Ignoring the rock of Evil’s advice to beware the “frog Prince”, Sumanguru led his mighty armies against Mali, unaware that the double-dealing trader, denied a reward due to the mad king’s parsimony, had warned the nine princes that the warriors of Sasso were coming.

Lame little Sundiata also wished to defend his land, but his brothers laughed and told him to stay home, trusting to their superior tactics to repel the invasion. Indeed, their plans were effective and the battle seemed to go their way until Sumanguru summoned an eldritch wind to destroy the army of Mali and added the defeated land to his possessions.

Gloating, he mocked Sundiata but ignoring the advice of the Gray Rock of Evil allowed the frog prince to live…

As the unstoppable, insatiable Sumanguru ravaged every tribe and nation, an aged shaman showed Sundiata how to overcome his physical shortcomings. Years passed and the boy learned the ways of the forests and grew tall and mighty. Now a man, he prepared for vengeance and when Sumanguru heard and tried to have him killed he fled and rallied an army of liberation.

On the eve of battle an uncle revealed Sumanguru’s one mystic weakness to Sundiata and the stage was set for a spectacular and climactic final confrontation before, as will always happen, Evil inevitably betrayed itself…

Epic and intensely moving, this is a superb all-ages fable re-crafted by a master storyteller, well-versed in exploring the classic themes of literature and human endeavour, whilst always adding a sparkle and sheen of his own to the most ancient and familiar of tales.

A joy not just for Eisner aficionados but all lovers of mythic heroism.
© 2002 Will Eisner.All rights reserved.

Japan Inc. – an introduction to Japanese Economics


By Shōtarō Ishinomori, translated by Betsey Scheiner (University of California Press)
ISBN: 978-0-52006-289-4

It’s often been said, but bears repeating here: “Comics are an integral part of Japanese life”. There’s no appreciable difference to Eastern eyes between sequential pictures and prose, so it makes sense that such a medium should be used to educate and elucidate as well as entertain. After all the US military reached the same conclusion after WWII when they commissioned comics legend Will Eisner to design instruction manuals in strip form, and produce similar instructive material for Services magazines like P*S, the Preventative Maintenance Monthly, which even the least schooled G.I. could understand…

In late 1986 Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan’s analogue of the Wall Street Journal, commissioned manga star Shōtarō Ishinomori to adapt a serious economic text – Zeminaru Nihon keizai nyÅ«mon published by the newspaper – into a mass market comicbook. Manga Nihon keizai nyÅ«mon sold more than half a million copies in its first year…

Soon after, Securities and Investment companies were using strip brochures to explain the complexities of their latest stock market products and by the mid 1980s benkyō and jitsumu manga (“study comic” and “practical comic”) were an integral part of school and college libraries. Naturally, there were sequels to Manga Nihon keizai nyūmon…

Shōtarō Ishinomori (nee Onodera and Ishimori; January 25th 1938 – January 28th 1998) is officially the World’s most prolific comics artist. After his death the Guinness Book of Records posthumously recorded his 128,000+ pages – often generated at the rate of 200-300 pages a month! – the most ever produced by a single creator.

In 1955, when the boy was simply keen fan of Manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka, the God of Comics took the lad on as his assistant and apprentice, beginning with the iconic Tetsuwan Atomu – or Astro Boy to you and me…

Thereafter, until his death Ishinomori worked ceaselessly in Manga, Anime, Games and Tokusatsu (live action superhero shows such as Kamen Rider – a genre he practically invented) developing groundbreaking series such as Super Sentai, Cyborg 009, Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae, Ganbare!! Robokon and countless others.

There is a museum dedicated to his career in Ishinomaki, Miyagi and trains to and from the site are decorated throughout with his myriad cartoon creations.

Following a comprehensive and informative account on the development and growth of comics in Japan by Stanford University’s Peter Duus, this oddly engaging English-language edition reveals the way the Japanese perceived their own economy’s function and global position through the fictionalised lives of a small group of workers at the mythic conglomerate Toyosan Automobile Corporation and its affiliate the Mitsutomo Company.

The cast are idealised concepts of the nation’s business life: Kudo is a good and kind-hearted executive, always seeking to put profit in a social framework that benefits everybody, whilst his colleague and rival Tsugawa is a ruthless, go-getter to whom people are expendable and only the Bottom Line matters. Above them is wise manager Akiyama, with the women’s role exemplified by shy yet passionate Miss Amamiya, whilst young office junior Ueda portrays the verve, exuberance and inexperience of the next generation of Japan’s workers…

The elucidating episodes begin with ‘Trade Friction’ as in 1980 American car workers begin attacking imported Japanese cars. Ever hungry for a fast buck, the US motor industry lays off staff and attempts to force Washington into curtailing Japanese imports…

If the exporting nation is to maintain its growth, it may have to shift production to the USA and leave its own workers and subcontractors out in the cold. Soon there’s panic at Toyosan’s factory and the union is up in arms, but whilst Tsugawa has no problem with that, the ingenious Kudo is working on a plan to diversify and provide new jobs for the ordinary Japanese suffering under the outrageous US tactics…

‘Countering the Rise of the Yen’ sees the disparity in international exchange rates threaten Imahama City as their crucial export trade crumbles. When Tsugawa seizes the opportunity to buy the place cheap and turn it into a Mitsutomo amusement park, once more Kudo interferes, seeking a way to keep all the citizens of the district fully employed whilst delivering a sound lesson on the way to balance family life and duty to the company…

Geo-political affiliations and the ever-shifting balance of power in rogue states comes under scrutiny in ‘Industrial Structure’ when a Middle-Eastern country seeks to revive a secret industrial process and past alliance with Mitsutomo. The shady deals that were struck in the pursuit of guaranteed resources offer huge potential profit but a concomitant risk of disastrous political and financial fall-out if the scheme is exposed. Of course Tsugawa and Kudo and their respective mentors Toda and Akiyama are in the thick of things in a chapter dramatically illustrating how changes in international political climate reshape Japan’s industrial structure…

The nation’s welfare system is tested in ‘Deficit Finance’ as Ueda’s aged grandmother comes to visit and Japan’s social services are scrutinised by Tsugawa and Kudo, who learn the advantages and drawbacks of government-led initiatives whilst both learning some hard-hitting historical lessons about the last (in their case 1965) Recession…

‘A Monetary Revolution’ describes the inexorable global banking de-regulation of the 1970s and 1980s as Tsugawa visits London following the “suicide” of an Italian banker and falls into a hornet’s nest of trouble by involving Mitsutomo in a “Fi-Tech” scheme (covert financial speculation between banks, usually achieved by mutually monkeying with the proposed profit margin) that involves the Vatican’s Mafia-run Financial House… Anybody else positively dizzy with déjà vu…?

When it all comes bubbling to a head it’s only Kudo’s swift thinking and sharp dealing that turns an unmitigated catastrophe into a business triumph, after which the ‘Epilogue’ neatly sums up the subtly effective lessons learned throughout the book and depicts our cast as the look forward to what might lie ahead

Using a stylish soap-opera and captivatingly effective scenario to put a personal face on history – or indeed Global Finance in this case – is a technique the modern film industry has used for decades, with fictionalised accounts of historical figures and events as far-ranging as The King’s Speech to Flight 93 to Shakespeare in Love leading a vital veracity to even the most fanciful proceeding, and it works magnificently here whilst the subplots (sex, political intrigue, bribery, espionage, blackmail, sacrificing family life for the job and, of course, the war between prosperity and personal honour) all work perfectly to put a human frame to what might seem dry and dusty lecturing

Whilst not to everyone’s taste, this book certainly shows how emphatic and powerful a tool comics can be, whilst to my mind it has a far more lasting dramatic appeal than many of its contemporary money-worshipping entertainments such as Dallas, Dynasty or Wall Street…

One interesting point about this book is the perceptible subtext and open undercurrent describing a general mistrust of all politicians – shadings that most British scholarly texts are keen and careful to disguise at all costs. US President Ronald Reagan is constantly depicted as either a buffoon or a conniving demon but he gets off lightly compared to Japanese officialdom, from the lowliest local administrator or union rep all the way to the highest statesmen in the land…

Here the words and pictures don’t prevaricate: Business Good, Politicians Bad…

And on that I couldn’t possibly comment…

© 1988 the Regents of the University of California. © 1986 Shōtarō Ishinimori, reprinted by permission of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc.

The Gods from Outer Space: Descent in the Andes


Inspired by the works of Erich von Däniken and freely interpreted by Alfred Górny, Arnold Mostowicz & Rosińskiego Bogusław Polch and translated from the German edition by Michael Heron (Methuen)
ISBNs: 0-416 87-150-X

In the West, Poland isn’t known for generating graphic novels or albums, although there has always been a thriving comics culture and many Polish creators have found fame in far-off lands.

As far as I can glean, this pithy, quirky science fiction speculation is the first of only four volumes to make a break across the borders and only then because of the notorious celebrity name attached to the project…

Once upon a time the ludicrous theories of Swiss author, convicted conman and fraudster Erich Anton Paul von Däniken captured the public imagination with his postulate that aliens had visited Earth in human prehistory and reshaped the destiny of our ancient ancestors.

Although mostly discredited these days, that tantalising kernel of an idea still persists in many places; and how different life might be if the imaginative and inventive writer had simply done what he should have with such a great notion and just made a cracking science fiction epic out of his “researches”…

Happily others have done just that and the result is a quirky yet enticing intergalactic generational saga that resulted in a mini-phenomenon in Poland which spread, despite it being the height of the Cold War, through Germany and thus on to a number of other nations in at least a dozen different languages.

In 1977, Alfred Górny, a publisher in the People’s Republic of Poland specialising in sports and tourism, contacted his counterparts at West German non-fiction outfit Econ Verlag with a proposition for creating a new and mutually profitable cartoon album series.

Górny wanted to produce the series in Poland and had lined up the superb Grzegorz RosiÅ„ski to draw it. Unfortunately the artist quit before the job began, instead accepting the job of illustrating sci fi barbarian series Thorgal for Jean Van Hamme in the prestigious French comic Tintin, after which the nation’s most prolific and popular comics artist, Jerzy Wróblewski (producer of over sixty albums and series including ‘Risk’, ‘Underground Front’ and ‘Captain Zbik’ between 1959 and his death in 1991: sadly there’s little chance of any of us seeing those state-sponsored Cold War classics these days, though) stepped in before dropping out.

Górny and scripter Arnold Mostowicz then settled on newcomer RosiÅ„skiego BogusÅ‚aw Polch – who later won a measure of international renown for sci fi/political/private eye thriller Funky Koval – to delineate their epic, if meandering, saga of alien civil war, primeval strife and the birth and destruction of a primordial lost civilisation as well as most of our world’s myths, legends and religions.

When finances and resources in the Warsaw Pact nation began to evaporate, Econ Verlag took on the international syndication responsibilities and the infamous strip took on a life of its own.

The result was eight original albums. ‘LÄ…dowanie w Andach’ (Landing in the Andes), ‘Ludzie i potwory’ (Men and Monsters), ‘Walka o planetÄ™’ (The struggle for the planet), ‘Bunt Olbrzymów’ (Giants’ Mutiny); ‘ZagÅ‚ada Wielkiej Wyspy’ (Great Island’s Doom), ‘Planeta pod kontrolÄ…’ (The Planet Under Control), ‘Tajemnica Piramidy’ (The Mystery of the Pyramid) and ‘Ostatni Rozkaz’ (the Last Command). The series was even rebound in two huge compilation volumes for Polish consumption: true collector’s items these days…

In 1978 British publisher Methuen Children’s Books (who also published Herge’s Tintin at the time) picked up the English language rights for the first four books and released them – complete with spurious fringe-science trimmings – to a largely unimpressed public.

Now, with time having stripped away the ludicrous faux facts and messianic furore underpinning the tales, I want to examine what is actually a pretty impressive and entertaining piece of speculative fiction dressed in a workmanlike and rather enthralling no-nonsense art style that will delight fans of illustrated storytelling…

The adventure begins millennia ago with Descent in the Andes, as a colossal flying saucer carrying hundreds of scientists from Delos in the Sagittarius Nebula establishes orbit above Earth.

The crewmen are all amnesiac, having had their memories wiped to better survive the rigours of a nine-year hibernation. Greeted by mission leader Ais and her subordinates Chat and Roub – an “Academy of Wise Rulers” – the space voyagers are swiftly re-educated; re-learning that the Great Brain of Delos has dispatched them all to find a new world, since their home planet is on the verge of annihilation. Moreover, although the voyagers have slept for nearly a decade, on Delos a thousand years have passed…

After a heated but fruitless debate about the possibilities of returning home, the men resolve to carry out their mission and colonise the blue planet below, using their incredible science to create a sub-species of themselves able to thrive on the alien world and propagate the culture and civilisation of Delos.

Once that is achieved the great ship will move on, finding more suitable worlds and repeating the procedure…

The Earth is a wilderness with abundant flora and fauna, teeming with potentially hostile micro-organisms, but the first explorers to make planet-fall discover that the true threat comes from lethal apex predators. Moreover, one of the apelike indigenous species has begun to make and master stone tools…

Tensions are high on the orbiting ship and Chat and Roub are increasingly at odds. Soon after a first land-base is established, the latter foments mutiny and forcibly attempts to make Ais his bed-mate. Not for the first time, the commander ponders the Great Brain’s wisdom in placing only one woman on the ship…

The colonists decide to create a labour force by domesticating the smart apes and chief scientist Zan discovers that they possess a close affinity to Delosian biology. With a little tinkering perhaps the primitives will be able to continue the legacy of Delos…

The mission begins to further unravel when the lonely, over-worked crewmen discover the primitives’ skill in fermenting alcohol and lapse into undisciplined fighting and cross-species fraternisation…

When Ais steps down hard on the drunken malcontents, Roub, who advocates scrubbing the mission and moving permanently to the welcoming world below, sees his chance to further undermine her. A crisis breaks when the fuel for the aerosondes – planetary transport shuttles – mysteriously runs critically low. Chat discovers and kills a saboteur at work and denounces Roub, but before they can come to blows a startling message announces the arrival of a second ship from Delos…

Meanwhile Zan’s experiments on the native females have concluded and his findings indicate that for the mission to succeed he will have to directly reconfigure the ape-beings’ genetic make-up, a step Ais is reluctant to consider…

As she and Chat supervise the construction of a vast landing field and base in a desolate mountainous region, complete with huge landing symbols carved directly into the terrain, Roub, determined to stay and control the new world, foments open rebellion. Intent on destroying the orbiting ship and forcing his people to settle on Earth, Roub rockets into space, with the determined Ais in hot pursuit. An horrific duel ensues and, driving him off the vessel, she follows the traitor back to Earth where Chat tracks him to his final fate in the deadly beast-filled jungles…

The colonists’ troubles are not over. The second expedition, under the command of Beroub, had set up operations on a far-distant continent, but when he unexpectedly arrives at the Nazca base, the leader of the back-up colony is dying from some unknown contagion. As Ais and Zan prepare to investigate, the master scientist notices that the natives are terrified, fleeing from some unseen, unsuspected phenomenon.

Hypothesising the worst, the troubled technologist swiftly tricks Chat into returning to the orbiting saucer in the last working aerosonde, as Ais and Zan take wing in a jet-powered aeroglider piloted by Beraud’s pilot Eness, just as the ground erupts in a devastating volcanic eruption…

The entire colony is wiped out, Chat is trapped in space and Zan and Ais have no choice but to head for unknown peril on the distant continent dubbed Atlantis…

To Be Continued…

There’s a bucket-load of plot and plenty of action packed into this colourful, oversized (292x219mm) 52 page tome, and the comfortingly clunky but exceedingly effective art by Polch is beguilingly seductive and something no traditional science fiction connoisseur could resist. Maybe it’s time to revive this lost series and even go looking for a few more of those embargoed comics classics from the Land of the White Eagle…
© 1978 Econ Verlag GmbH, Dusseldorf. English translation © 1978 Methuen Children’s Books, Ltd.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula


By Bram Stoker & Fernando Fernández (Catalan Communications/Del Rey Books)
DLB: 18118-1984 (Catalan)    ISBN: 978-0-34548-312-6 (Del Rey)

Multi-disciplinary Spanish artist Fernando Fernández began working to help support his family at age 13 whilst still at High School. He graduated in 1956 and immediately began working for British and French comics publishers. In 1958 his family relocated to Argentina and whilst there he added strips for El Gorrión, Tótem and Puño Fuerte to his ongoing European and British assignments for Valentina, Roxy and Marilyn.

In 1959 he returned to Spain and began a long association with Fleetway Publications in London, producing mostly war and girls’ romance stories.

During the mid-1960’s he began to experiment with painting and began selling book covers and illustrations to a number of clients, before again taking up comics work in 1970, creating a variety of strips (many of which found their way into US horror magazine Vampirella), the successful comedy feature ‘Mosca’ for Diario de Barcelona and educational strips for the publishing house Afha.

Becoming increasingly experimental as the decade passed, Fernández produced ‘Cuba, 1898’ and ‘Círculos’ before in 1980 beginning his science fiction spectacular ‘Zora y los Hibernautas’ for the Spanish iteration of fantasy magazine 1984 which was eventually seen in English in Heavy Metal magazine as Zora and the Hibernauts’.

He then adapted this moody, Hammer Films-influenced version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the Spanish iteration of Creepy, before (working with Carlos Trillo) moving on to mediaeval fantasy thriller ‘La Leyenda de las Cuatro Sombras’, after which he created ‘Argón, el Salvaje’ and a number of adaptations of Isaac Asimov tales in ‘Firmado por: Isaac Asimov’ and ‘Lucky Starr – Los Océanos de Venus’.

His last comics work was ‘Zodíaco’ begun in 1989, but his increasing heart problems soon curtailed the series and he returned to painting and illustration. He passed away in August 2010, aged 70.

For his interpretation of the gothic masterpiece under review here, Fernández sidelined the expansive, experimental layouts and lavish page design that worked so effectively in Zora and the Hibernauts for a moodily classical and oppressively claustrophobic, traditional page construction, trusting to his staggering mastery of colour and form to carry his luxuriously mesmeric message of mystery, seduction and terror.

The story is undoubtedly a familiar one and the set pieces are all executed with astounding skill and confident aplomb as in May 1897 English lawyer Jonathan Harker was lured to the wilds of Transylvania and horror beyond imagining as an ancient bloodsucking horror prepared to move to the pulsing heart of the modern world.

Leaving Harker to the tender mercies of his vampiric harem, Dracula travelled by schooner to England, slaughtering every seaman aboard the S.S. Demeter and unleashing a reign of terror on the sedate and complacent British countryside…

Meanwhile, in the seat of Empire, Harker’s fiancée Mina Murray found her flighty friend Lucy Westenra fading from troublesome dreams and an uncanny lethargy which none of her determined suitors, Dr. Jack Seward, Texan Quincy P. Morris and Arthur Holmwood, the future Lord Godalming, seemed capable of dispelling…

As Harker strove to survive lost in the Carpathians, in Britain, Seward’s deranged but impotent patient Renfield began to claim horrifying visions and became greatly agitated…

Dracula, although only freshly arrived in England, was already causing chaos and disaster, as well as constantly returning to the rapidly declining Lucy. His bestial bloodletting prompted her three beaux to summon famed Dutch physician Abraham Van Helsing to save her life and cure her increasing mania.

Harker survived his Transylvanian ordeal, and when nuns summoned Mina she rushed to Romania where she married him in a hasty ceremony to save his health and wits….

In London, Dracula renewed his assaults and Lucy died, only to be reborn as a predatory child-killing monster. After dispatching her to eternal rest, Van Helsing, Holmwood, Seward and Morris, joined by the recently returned and much altered Harker and his new bride, determined to hunt down and destroy the ancient evil in their midst after a chance encounter in a London street between the newlyweds and the astoundingly rejuvenated Count…

Dracula however, had incredible forces and centuries of experience on his side and tainted Mina with his blood-drinking curse, before fleeing back to his ancestral lands. Frantically the mortal champions gave chase, battling the elements, Dracula’s enslaved gypsy army and the monster’s horrific eldritch power in a race against time lest Mina finally succumb forever to his unholy influence…

Although the translation to English in the Catalan version is a little slapdash in places – a fact happily addressed in the 2005 re-release from Del Rey – the original does have the subtly enhanced benefit of richer colours, sturdier paper stock and a slightly larger page size (285 x 219mm as opposed to 274 x 211mm) which somehow makes the 1984 edition feel more substantial.

This breathtaking oft-retold yarn delivers fast paced, action-packed, staggeringly beautiful and astoundingly exciting thrills and chills in a most beguiling manner. Being Spanish, however, there’s perhaps the slightest hint of brooding machismo, if not subverted sexism, on display and – of course – there’s plenty of heaving, gauze-filtered female nudity which might challenge modern sensibilities, but what predominates in this Dracula is an overwhelming impression of unstoppable evil and impending doom.

There’s no sympathy for the devil here – this is a monster from Hell that all good men must oppose to their last breath and final drop of blood and sweat…

With an emphatic introduction (‘Dracula Lives!’) from noted comics historian Maurice Horn, this is a sublime treatment by a master craftsman that all dark-fearing, red- blooded fans will want to track down and savour.
© 1984, 2005 Fernando Fernández. All rights reserved.

Dark Hunger


By Christine Feehan, adapted by Dana Kurtin, illustrated by Zid & Imaginary Friends Studios (Berkley)
ISBN: 978-0-42521-783-2

Hard though it might be for us to imagine, there are people who go months at a time – even longer in rare cases – without reading a comicbook or graphic novel. Unbelievably these sad unfortunates derive their regular fun-fixes from other forms of entertainment such as TV, movies or even prose stories, so it’s just as well that every so often a brave creator from that side of the tracks makes moves to cross-pollinate by turning their favoured medium of creative expression into something we panel-pushers are more at home with.

Christine Feehan is an extraordinarily prolific and successful author of romantic fantasies and paranormal thrillers. Since 1999 she has produced a wealth of novels, novellas and short-stories, many of them for five distinct series which – like the book under review here – often interact with each other.

Her “Carpathian” novels deal with a savage but noble subspecies of vampire who eschew killing their human “blood donors” and hunt their murderously traditional cousins, determined to eradicate the monstrous horrors to extinction.

Amongst their many gifts are virtual immortality, shape-shifting, telepathy, flight, fantastic strength and speed and the power to manipulate lightning, but like all their kind they cannot abide sunlight…

Carpathians are an endangered species with few females, and if a male cannot find a “lifemate” he gradually withers; first losing the ability to see colour and experience emotion. Eventually all he can feel is the thrill of killing and he turns into a full, ravening undead vampire or commits suicide by “greeting the dawn”…

This intriguing manga-style tome from 2007 adapts the 14th Carpathian yarn and originally appeared as a text tale in the anthology Hot Blooded in 2004, describing how dedicated animal rights activist Juliette Sangria meets her ideal man whilst raiding a hidden testing facility deep in the heart of the jungle…

With her younger sister Jasmine, Juliette raids the high-security Morrison Laboratory intent on releasing the many endangered big cats held there, but the pair have no idea what other horrors the lab perpetrates until Juliette discovers a beautiful, exotic man chained in a cell…

Riordan De La Cruz has been a long-suffering prisoner of vampire and human scientists who run the lab, poisoned, tortured and humiliated until he considered ending his own immortal life. However, when the woman touches him he feels a burst of power and emotion. Viewing colours for the first time in ages, the Carpathian realises that somehow he has found his one and only: his lifemate…

In a fit of passion, he bites her and, refuelled by her blood, destroys the facility…

With Jasmine apparently still inside…

Flown to safety in his arms, Juliette’s heart and mind are reeling with the intensity of the inexplicable passion she feels for this sublime stranger, but as the night passes and Riordan explains his history, nature and powers she realises his absurd assessment is true; they are bonded for ever…

With the vampires in hot pursuit the couple flee and, of necessity, Riordan feeds on her again, before, to restore his beloved, sharing his own invigorating blood with her. However Juliette has a fantastic secret of her own and when Riordan burrows into the Earth at dawn she reverts to her animal form to search for her lost sister.

Juliette is a Were-Jaguar and her people do not marry. Their males are cruel brutes who beat and force themselves upon were-females they capture. Propagation is usually by rape and with Jasmine and her cousin Solange unaccounted for, Juliette is terribly worried. Whilst the physically comatose Riordan speaks to her telepathically, Juliette searches all day and when he comes to her at night they discover a partially destroyed hut where Were-women were recently held…

The trails lead in different directions and male Jaguar tracks are everywhere, but as they ponder how to proceed a Master Vampire attacks and Riordan is severely hurt driving it off. Giving her blood to save him, Juliette is aware that she is changing. Soon she will be unable to walk in daylight too…

As Riordan sleeps Solange appears, recounting that the were-males are holding Jasmine in a distant cave. Unable to tolerate the sun in human form, Juliette becomes a cat for the last time and with her ferocious cousin heads for a showdown…

The frantic Carpathian, psychically bonded to her, desperately urges Juliette to wait for sunset but they cannot and rush the assembled brutes. The alpha male rips Juliette’s throat out, and as she lies dying Riordan appears in a clap of thunder and wielding lightning like a whip…

To save his lifemate, the enraged hunter converts her fully, forcing the Jaguar-essence from her torn body but giving her the mystic arsenal of a full Carpathian. When they next emerge from the nourishing jungle Earth they will hunt together, determined to destroy forever the unholy alliance of humans, Were-men and the Master Vampire…

Despite being squarely aimed at the broadly female and teenaged Supernatural bodice-ripper market, this strange romance has strong thread of action and good steady pace underpinning it, so lads too will get a big charge from the book, whilst hopefully traditional prose readers tempted by the adaptation will be impressed enough by the clean, slick black and white visuals to give other graphic novels a go…
© 2004 Christine Feehan. All rights reserved.

Vic and Blood – the Chronicles of a Boy and his Dog


By Harlan Ellison & Richard Corben (St. Martin’s Press/NBM/IBooks)
ISBNs: NBM edition 978-0-31203-471-9   IBooks edition: 978-0-74345-903-7

Richard Corben is one of America’s greatest proponents of graphic narrative: a legendary animator, illustrator, publisher and cartoonist surfing the tumultuous wave of independent counterculture commix of the 1960s and 1970s to become a major force in pictorial storytelling with his own unmistakable style and vision. He is renowned for his mastery of airbrush and captivatingly excessive anatomical stylisation and infamous for delightfully wicked, darkly comedic horror and beguiling eroticism in his fantasy and science fiction tales. He is also an acclaimed and dedicated fan of the classics of gothic horror literature…

Always garnering huge support and acclaim in Europe, he was regularly collected in luxurious albums even as he fell out of favour – and print – in his own country.

This album adapts a short story by science fiction iconoclast Harlan Ellison which turned the medium on its head when first published in 1969, spawning an award-winning cult-film and perpetually dangling the promise of a full and expansive prose novel before the eager fans. Much of that intention is discussed in Ellison’s After Vic & Blood: Some Afterthoughts as Afterword which ends the 1989 edition…

I suspect I’ll be long dead by the time the nigh-legendary Blood’s a Rover novel is finally released but at least this stunning graphic novel gilds the apocalyptic lily by also adapting the author’s prequel and sequel novelettes to produce a tale with a beginning, a middle and an ending of sorts…

The post-apocalyptic milieu was one Corben would return to over and over again but it never looked better (if that’s not a grim contradiction in terms) than in the triptych of survivalist terror that begins here with ‘Eggsucker’ as genetically-engineered telepathic war-mutt Blood relates how he and his 14 year old human partner Vic (don’t call him “Albert”) survive on a daily basis amidst the shattered ruins of America after the final war.

Vic is a “solo”, unaffiliated to any of the assorted gangs that have banded together in the radioactive aftermath, scavenging and trading and never staying in one place too long. Blood has looked after him for years: faithful, valiant and protective. The dog has taught the lad everything, even how to speak properly…

After a booze-for-bullets swap goes hideously wrong the partners have a falling-out, but that only lasts until Vic stumbles into trouble again and Blood dashes to his rescue…

Next up is the pivotal tale ‘A Boy and his Dog’ wherein Vic and his canine mentor find a healthy and nubile girl from the sunken puritanical subterranean enclaves known as “Downunders” slumming amongst the ruins of civilisation.

Hungry for something other than rancid rations, Vic follows her and is forced to kill a number of other lustful hunters to possess the tantalising Quilla June Holmes, who bamboozles the horny lad with all her talk of love…

However, it’s all part of an elaborate trap and before long the born survivor is trapped by his own teenaged hormones in the parochial, backward-looking New Topeka underground refuge, destined to be the stud to sire a new generation of humanity for the aging and increasingly sterile Downunder men…

Of course nobody thought to ask the putative mares what they thought of the plan and Quilla June quickly rebels, helping Vic to kill her father and escape back to the dangerous freedom of the surface.

Up above faithful Blood has not fared well: slowly starving whilst waiting for Vic to sow his wild oats and return. He is near death when the fugitives reappear and only an act of true love can save him…

The saga-so-far concludes with a shocking surprise in ‘Run, Spot, Run’ as the increasingly acrimonious Vic and Blood squabble and fall out, whilst starvation, toxic food and savage ghosts torment them both, resulting in a momentary lapse of concentration which leads the pair into ghastly peril…

Fair Warning: many readers will probably feel short-changed by the cliff-hanging ending but there is a conclusion of sorts and the astounding power of the artwork should offset any potential feeling of unfulfilled drama.

This superb collection was re-released in 2003 by IBooks in a celebratory edition which also contained the original short-stories in prose form as well as added extras such commentaries and The Wit and Wisdom of Blood.

Corben’s unique vision captures the weary, doom-laden atmosphere, charged hunger and despondent denouement of the original with devastating effect and this seminal, seductive work is undoubtedly a true classic of the Day-After-Doomsday genre. The artist’s sublime acumen in depicting humanity’s primal drives and the grim gallows humour of the situation has never been bettered than with these immortal stories. This is a book no comics or horror fan should be without.
Artwork © 1987 Richard Corben. “Eggsucker” © 1977 Harlan Ellison. “A Boy and his Dog” © 1969 The Kilimanjaro Corp. “Run, Spot, Run” © 1980 The Kilimanjaro Corp. Adapted versions © 1987 The Kilimanjaro Corp. Colour & cover © 1989 NBM.

Edgar Allan Poe – The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales of Horror


Adapted by Richard Corben & Rich Margopoulos (Catalan Communication/Del Rey)
ISBNs: Catalan signed hb 0-87416-013-8   Del Rey pb 978-0-34548-313-3

Richard Corben is one of America’s greatest proponents of graphic narrative: a legendary animator, illustrator, publisher and cartoonist surfing the tumultuous wave of independent counterculture commix of the 1960s and 1970s to become a major force in pictorial storytelling with his own unmistakable style and vision. He is renowned for his mastery of airbrush and captivatingly excessive anatomical stylisation and infamous for delightfully wicked, darkly comedic horror and beguiling eroticism in his fantasy and science fiction tales. He is also an acclaimed and dedicated fan of the classics of gothic horror literature…

Always garnering huge support and acclaim in Europe, he was regularly collected in luxurious albums even as he fell out of favour – and print – in his own country. This collection gathers a number of adaptations of works by Godfather of eerie fantasy Edgar Allan Poe, first seen in issues of Creepy magazine between 1974-1975 and in Pacific Comics’ A Corben Special in 1984.

This superb hardback Catalan collection was re-released in 2005 in softcover by prose publisher Del Rey Books in July 2005.

The terror commences with the moody monochrome madness of ‘The Oval Portrait’ (from Creepy #69, February 1975 and adapted by writer Rich Margopoulos, as were all the Warren originated stories here) wherein the wounded survivor of a duel breaks into an abandoned chateau to recover and falls under the sinister spell of a beguiling painting and seductive journal…

‘The Raven’ is a fully airbrushed, colour phantasmagoria from Creepy #67 (December 1974) which perfectly captures the oppressive majesty of the classic poem, as is the next macabre vignette wherein the focus shifts to ancient Greece and the inevitable approach of death amongst the warriors at a funeral: a wake tainted by an invisible ‘Shadow’ (Creepy #70 April, 1975).

The obvious and worthy star turn of this tome is the artist’s own adaptation of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, created for the comicbook A Corben Special in May 1984 and here expanded and reformatted for the larger, squarer page of this European album.

Traveller Edgar Arnold is trapped in the bilious swamp where the ancestral seat of the ancient Usher clan is slowly dissolving into the mire that surrounds it.

The tainted blood of the melancholic master Roderick and his debauched clandestinely closeted, sumptuously seductive, deranged sister Madeline proves certain to extinguish the family long before the dank Earth reclaims the crumbling manse, but if it doesn’t Roderick is determined to expedite matters himself.

Madeline however, has other dreams and desires and is not above using her unique charms to win her objectives…

Corben – with the assistance of colourists Herb & Diana Arnold – perfectly captures the trenchant, doom-laden atmosphere, erotic charge and cataclysmic denouement of the original and this seminal, seductive work is undoubtedly one of the very best interpretations of this much-told and retold tale.

The artist’s sublime acumen in depicting humanity’s primal drives has never been better exemplified than with these immortal stories and this is a book no comics or horror fan should be without.
© 1974, 1975, 1984, 1985 1993 Richard Corben and Richard Margopoulos. All rights reserved.

Captain Eo – Eclipse 3-D special

(The official 3-D comic book adaptation of the George Lucas 3-D musical motion picture directed by Francis Coppola)

By Tom Yeates (Eclipse)
No ISBN; ASIN: B00071AU66

With all this foofaraw and tarradiddle about 3D at the moment I thought I’d shamelessly cash in by reminding fans about the multi-dimensional comics venture Eclipse, Disney, the King of Pop and an absolute swarm of high-profile creative types worked on in this weird but undeniably spectacular item from the 1980s.

Speaking charitably, this is a comics adaptation of the 17-minute science fiction film designed to be shown in “4-D” (then cutting edge stereoscopic cinematography combined with in-theatre special effects such as teeth-rattling rigged seats, smoke, lasers and explosions) at Disney theme-parks around the world.

However, what you had in those theatres and pre-Imax venues (the film ran from 1986 into the 1990s and was briefly reinstated when Michael Jackson died in 2009) is a straight but incredibly expensive (apparently $30 million to produce at a cost-per-screen-minute of $1.76m) music video: a puff-piece, song-and-dance mini-musical designed to emulate and recapture the buzz the Thriller promo generated around the world – complete with a brace of songs and killer formation dance numbers – substituting star-ships for graveyards and cute aliens for zombies.

The film’s creative credits are formidable: produced by George Lucas, it was choreographed by Jeffrey Hornaday and Jackson, photographed by Peter Anderson, produced by Rusty Lemorande and written by Lemorande, Lucas & Francis Ford Coppola, who directed. Anjelica Huston played the villain…

Let’s talk about the 30-page comic…

The less than stellar Captain Eo and his anthropomorphically engaging crew of robots and cuddly extraterrestrials are tasked with delivering a gift to the ghastly tyrant Supreme Leader on her dystopian hell-world, a task complicated by their chummy ineptitude and her tendency to turn all visitors into trash cans and torture projects…

When Eo and Co. are seized, the ultra-cool hipster sees something decent buried within the evil queen and after defeating her Whip Warriors in highly stylised combat transforms her into a thing of serene beauty with the redemptive power of a perfectly choreographed interpretative rock-dance number…

Tom Yeates’ staggeringly beautiful art makes the very best of the weak story and derivative characters – even if he did have to draw an entire seven-page big musical closer – and whether you see the 3D package formatted by the genre’s guru Ray Zone as the blockbusting 432x282mm (or 17inches by 11 for all you Imperial Stormtroopers out there) tabloid format available at the theme parks and theatres or the regulation comicbook issue distributed to stores, if you can work the glasses you’re in for a visual treat of mind-blowing proportions. There was talk of a straight, monochrome non-3D version too but if it exists I’ve never seen it.

Gloriously flamboyant, massively OTT, but as great a piece of drawing as came out of the over-egged Eighties, Captain Eo is a truly intriguing book that might just grab any jaded reader who thinks there’s nothing new or different left to see…
Published by Eclipse Comics August 1987. Captain Eo ™ and © 1987 The Walt Disney Company. All rights reserved.