Category: Adventure

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Walt Kelly’s Our Gang volume 1


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

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Roy Crane’s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips volume 3 1938-1940


By Roy Crane with Leslie Turner (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-529-7 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The comics industry evolved from newspaper strips and these circulation-boosting pictorial features were, until relatively recently, utterly ubiquitous, hugely popular with the public and regarded as invaluable by publishers who used them as an irresistible sales weapon to guarantee consumer loyalty, increase sales and ensure profits. Many a scribbler became a millionaire thanks to their ability to draw pictures and spin a yarn.

It’s virtually impossible for us to today to understand the overwhelming power of the comic strip in America (and the wider world) from the Great Depression to the end of World War II. With no television, broadcast radio far from universal and movie shows at best a weekly treat for most folk, household entertainment was mostly derived from the comic sections of daily and especially Sunday Newspapers. The Funnies were the most common recreation for millions who were well served by a fantastic variety and incredible quality. From the very start humour was paramount… that’s why we call them “funnies” or “comics”, after all. From these gag and stunt beginnings, blending silent movie slapstick, outrageous antics, fabulous fantasy and vaudeville shows, came a thoroughly unique entertainment hybrid: Royston Campbell Crane’s Wash Tubbs.

Debuting on April 21st 1924 Washington Tubbs II was a comedic gag-a-day strip not entirely dissimilar from confirmed family favourite Harold Teen (by Crane’s friend and contemporary Carl Ed). Tubbs was a diminutive, ambitious young shop clerk when the strip began, but gradually he moved into mock-heroics, then through harm-free action into full-blown, light-hearted rip-roaring adventures with the introduction of pioneering he-man, moody swashbuckling prototype Captain Easy in the landmark episode for 6th May, 1929.

As the tales became increasingly more exotic and thrill-drenched, the globe-trotting little dynamo clearly needed a sidekick who could believably handle the combat side of things, and thus in the middle of a European war Tubbs liberated a mysterious fellow American from a jail cell and history was made. Before long the mismatched pair were inseparable comrades; travelling the world, hunting treasure, fighting thugs and rescuing a bevy of startlingly comely maidens in distress…

The 2-fisted, bluff, completely capable and utterly dependable, down-on-his-luck Southern Gentleman was something not seen before in comics: a raw, square-jawed hunk played straight rather than the buffoon or music hall foil of such classic serials as Hairsbreadth Harry or Desperate Desmond. Crucially, Crane’s seductively simple blend of cartoon exuberance and compelling page-design was a far more accessible and powerful medium for action story-telling than the static illustrative style favoured by artists like Hal Foster (just starting to make waves on the new Tarzan Sunday page).

While we’re thinking of Edgar Rice Burroughs, it’s difficult to re-read the phrase “Southern Gentleman” these days without pausing to consider how much of that term originally denoted chivalric do-gooder, rather than Defender of Slavery, to most readers. Frankly, I’m not sure Crane gave a moment’s thought to political or social implications, although his heroes never made any distinction between races and treated all characters equally, even back then. Their only motivations were getting rich honestly and helping folks in trouble. These stories come from a long time ago, so just read along with a sense of historical perspective, please…

Tubbs and Easy were easily as exotic and thrilling as the Ape Man but rattled along like tempestuous Sailor Man Popeye, full of vim, vigour and vinegar, as attested to by a close look at the early work of the would-be cartoonists who followed the strip with avid intensity: Floyd Gottfredson, Milton Caniff, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and especially young Joe Shuster…

After a couple of abortive attempts starring his little-guy hero, Crane bowed to the inevitable and created a full colour Sunday page dedicated to his increasingly popular hero-for-hire. Captain Easy debuted on 30th July 1933, in madcap, two-fisted exploits (originally) set before his first fateful meeting with Tubbs.

The third terrific tome of a stupendous 4-volume set covers May 22nd 1938 to December 15th 1940 and opens with a Foreword by Rick Norwood contrasting storylines in Daily and Sunday iterations whilst re-presenting a number of Crane’s illustrated articles on life in Mexico, after which R.C. Harvey’s Introduction provides some historical context and speculates on a potential real-life inspiration for the enigmatic Captain. There’s also a long-overdue appreciation of the artist’s friend, silent partner and eventual successor in ‘Easy Does it… And So does Leslie Turner’. Initially hired to provide Crane time and breathing room from the punishing seven day a week deadlines, from 1937 Turner increasingly took responsibility for the Sunday strip after the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicate ordered Crane to drop his cherished full-page experimental designs.

When he first began the Sunday page in 1933, Crane’s creativity went into overdrive: an entire page and sharp vibrant colours to play with had clearly stirred his imagination. The results were wild visual concoctions which achieved a timeless immediacy and made each instalment a unified piece of sequential art. The effect of the pages can be seen in so many comic and strips since – even in the works of such near-contemporaries as Hergé and giants-in-waiting like Charles Schulz. The pages were a clearly as much of a joy to create as to read but the commercial argument ran that the company couldn’t sell a feature which client periodicals were unable to cut-up and reformat to suit their own needs. In 1943 the former assistant inherited the black-&-white Daily feature after Crane quit NEA to produce his creator-owned Buz Sawyer strip for William Randolph Hearst’s King Features syndicate.

Once Crane was gone, Turner took Wash & Easy into ever more comedic regions, crafting the strip until his retirement in 1969 after which other writers and artists carried the Captain until the feature was ended in 1988. But that’s largely immaterial as here the superb high-adventuring is seen in its absolute prime…

As seen in Roy Crane’s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips volume 2, after a spectacular string of solo adventures the solitary soldier of fortune at last met Tubbs whilst jugged in a jail cell in a Ruritanian European kingdom. He had been framed in an espionage plot. Risking life and diminutive limb to save his pal, Wash also rescued sultry spitfire Ruby Dallas who promptly entangled them in her own unfortunate tale of woe. Witness to a murder in America, she had been on the run ever since because the killer was a prominent millionaire with too much to lose. Once the trio escaped murderous cutthroats, slavers and assassins, they soon settled his hash…

The story picks up here with the lads again looking for jobs and passage home. Opportunity knocks in the form of an animal collector in need of a crew, but when his tiger gets loose on the boat everybody jumps overboard. Washing up on the isolated island of Koolyhow where an American entomologist and his female assistant are hunting the legendary doodle-bug, the boys sign on as helpers. They are soon embroiled in burgeoning madness gripping local governor Sergeant Major Gaspe Shalayli, and further complicating matters is a lost temple full of ancient treasures and a cute furry creature called a Swink. The gluttonous little anteater takes a shine to Wash and has a capacity for finding trouble or creating chaos exponentially greater than his new owner’s…

With bugs and Swink – christened “Bennie” – the triumphant Americans reach Singapore only to be targeted by grifters Sadie and Dipper, who believe their latest marks have the temple jewels (actually confiscated by the local government). Tricking their way onto the flying boat carrying Wash and Easy home, the crooks cause a crash leaving Sadie and our heroes stranded on a desolate island inhabited by the extremely civilised descendants of piratical bandits. The place is a utopian paradise with only one rule: nobody ever leaves…

Of course Easy, Wash & Bennie do, in a stolen sail boat which promptly starts sinking, leaving the voyagers in dire straits. They’re almost saved by a passing vessel but the pirates aboard The Typhoon gleefully ignore their plight and sail on…

Frantically bailing, they reach land just as Cap’n Robbins sinks and plunders a trading ship. Once again in hot water, Wash & Easy rescue Mona Milson – stranded survivor of a previous shipwrecking – and return her to her grateful father on yet another Pacific paradise, only to find the furious Robbins waiting for them. He’s just agreed to transport the old gent, his family and, most importantly, his life savings to Honolulu…

Unable to dissuade old man Milson, the boys book passage with him and Mona and, after days of outrageous hijinks as the voracious and disaster-prone Bennie makes life hell for the pirates, expose and capture the villains. With reward money in their pockets Wash & Easy (and the Swink) finally get back to America and begin a search for gainful employment which highlights a return to gag-filled short stories. The ever-ravenous Swink is a popular sensation, prompting his owners to buy a travelling medicine show truck. Whilst touring the country they discover the elixir they’re peddling has genuine restorative powers whilst encountering a succession of conmen, women, thieves, scheming women, bandits and determinedly marriage-minded women – some of whom even steal the fabulous, potentially invaluable Bennie. A martyr to crazy, hungry critters, Wash improbably inherits a hippo named Kittie.

It’s just one disaster after another…

Feeling they’ve outlived their welcome Wash & Easy go adventuring again, accidentally ending up in Peru, where dauntless Mary Lancaster is searching for her lost father. She enlists their help to enter the forbidden Lost Canyon region where they discover not only the missing archaeologist but a lost race of Indians who still practise human sacrifice. The humans only escape by trading their lives for Bennie, but as they make their forlorn way back to civilisation, the indomitable Swink catches up to them, having proved too smart for the Andeans. Packing the Lancasters off home, but too short of funds to accompany them, our heroes are soon clapped in jail for vagrancy, where they meet magician, ventriloquist and escapologist “the Great Plunkett”: an inveterate prankster who joins them as stowaways on a steamer back to the USA. Once there, Plunkett’s gift for opening safes makes him a target for opportunistic mobsters – until his new friends step in…

Big changes were underway at this time and Turner was increasingly yielding the focus on his titular stars to explore an array of new and returning supporting characters – presumably to allow Crane more leeway, if not exclusivity – on Tubbs and Easy. However with January 21st 1940’s episode, the boys were back, as Easy became a freelance spy-hunter/crimebuster in a nation progressively, inevitably marching towards war. The tone was still light and humorous, but the writing was on the wall…

After stopping spies, Easy tracked down escaped convict Killer Beck, exposed the murder of a Chinese servant and captured America’s Most Wanted female-impersonating conman. That led to his being hired to safeguard a new aviation weapon from a veritable army of foreign agents and the diabolical Mata Hari Z-1. Defeating her led to Easy and Wash being marooned in a vast jungle of cactus in the Western American desert where they stumbled onto a gang of ruthless counterfeiters before tackling train-stealing gunrunners in Mexico.

More short yarns bracket a concerted re-lightening of mood as the lads are hired by arrogant, flighty heiress and aspiring film star Honey Darling who uses them to stage dangerous, headline-grabbing stunts, before they’re hired to recover a yacht and rescue the passengers after the Captain loses control of it in a rigged card game. The mission goes slightly awry and leaves the boys, heiress Ginger Nelson, her chaperone aunt and some of the more nefarious crewmen shipwrecked. Amongst the saved luggage is the 12th biggest diamond in the world.

… And then the murders start happening…

Nevertheless Easy & Tubbs again save the day, but on returning stateside, the surly Soldier of Fortune is made the basis of a bet between two wealthy men. One wagers that any man can be made afraid, but the other believes Easy disproves the notion. Of course, neither has asked him to participate, and after the hero is tricked into a haunted house the trouble really begins as the mountaintop dwelling is invaded by bandits wanting their perfect hideout back…

After discovering the only thing that frightens Easy, this compelling cartoon carnival ends with the heartwarming tale of newsboy Buddie Burns who turns his passion for detecting into a successful anti-crime campaign – with a little help from a certain South’un Gen’leman…

Also included here are examples of original artwork and this colossal luxury hardback compilation (pages 380 x 270mm) even offers an extra colour tear-sheet plus a full hand-coloured page by Crane, used by print processors as a guide to produce finished instalments.

This volume also heralds the irrepressible humour which Turner would increasing bring into the feature and the stories – although still action adventures – abound with breezy, light-hearted banter, outrageous situations, hilarious slapstick and outright farce: a sure-fire formula modern cinema directors plunder to this day.

Captain Easy was the grandfather of Indiana Jones, Flynn (the Librarian) Carsen and Jack (Romancing the Stone) Cotton, clearly setting the benchmark for all of them. Happily, Crane’s rip-snorting, pulse-pounding, exotically racy adventure trailblazer fell into hands every bit as talented and the huge pages in this stupendous chronicle, crackling with fun and excitement, provide the perfect stage from which to absorb and enjoy the classic tale-telling of another sublime master raconteur.

This is storytelling of impeccable quality: unforgettable, spectacular and utterly irresistible. These tales rank alongside the best of Hergé, Tezuka, Toth and Kirby and unarguably fed the imaginations of them all as they still should for today’s comics creators. Now that you have the chance to experience the strips that inspired the giants of our art form, how can you possibly resist?
Captain Easy strips © 2012 United Feature Syndicate, Inc. This edition © 2012 Fantagraphics Books, all other material © the respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.

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Osama Tezuka’s Original Astro Boy volume 9


By Osamu Tezuka, translated by Frederik L. Schodt (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-56971-792-9 (tank?bon PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

From beginning his professional career in the late 1940s until his death in 1989, Osamu Tezuka generated an incomprehensible volume of quality work which transformed the world of manga and how it was perceived in his own country and, ultimately, across the globe. Devoted to Walt Disney’s creations, he performed similar sterling service with Japan’s fledgling animation industry. The earliest stories were intended for children but right from the start Tezuka’s expansive fairy tale stylisations harboured more mature themes and held hidden pleasures for older readers and the legion of fans growing up with his masterworks…

The “God of Comics” was born in Osaka Prefecture on November 3rd 1928, and suffered from a severe illness as a child. The doctor who cured him inspired the lad to study medicine, and although Osamu began drawing professionally whilst at university in 1946, he persevered with college and qualified as a medical practitioner too. Then, as he faced a career crossroads, his mother advised him to do the thing which made him happiest. He never practiced as a healer but the world was gifted with such masterpieces as Kimba the White Lion, Buddha, Black Jack and so many other graphic narratives. Working ceaselessly over decades, Tezuka and his creations inevitably matured, but he was always able to speak to the hearts and minds of young and old equally. His creations ranged from the childishly charming to the distinctly disturbing such as The Book of Human Insects.

Tezuka died on February 9th 1989, having produced more than 150,000 pages of timeless comics; created the Japanese anime industry and popularised a uniquely Japanese graphic narrative style which became a fixture of global culture.

These monochrome digest volumes (173 x 113 mm in the physical world and any size you like if you read them digitally) present – in non-linear order – revised exploits of his signature character, with the emphasis firmly on fantastic fun and family entertainment…

Tetsuwan Atomu (literally “Mighty Atom” but known universally as Astro Boy due to its dissemination around the world as an animated TV cartoon and one of post-war Japan’s better exports) offers spectacular, riotous, rollicking sci fi action-adventure starring a young boy who also happens to be one of the mightiest robots on Earth.

The series began in 1952 in Shōnen Kobunsha and ran until March 12th 1968 – although in later years Tezuka returned to add to the canon often, both in comics but in also in other media such as the newspaper strips. Over that period, Astro Boy spawned the aforementioned global TV cartoon boom, starred in comic book specials and featured in games, toys, movies, collectibles and the undying devotion of generations of ardent fans.

Tezuka frequently drew himself into his tales as chorus and commentator, and in later revisions and introductions often cited how stifling he found the restrictions of Shōnen comics; specifically, having to periodically pause a plot to placate the demands of his audience by providing a blockbusting fight every episode. That’s his prerogative: most of us avid aficionados have no complaints…

Tezuka and his production team were never as wedded to close continuity as any fan. They constantly modified stories and artwork in later collections, so if you’re a purist you are just plain out of luck. Such tweaking is the reason this series of collections seem to skip up and down the publishing chronology. The intent is to entertain at all times so stories aren’t treated as gospel and order is not immutable or inviolate.

It’s just comics, guys, and in case you came in late, here’s a little background to set you up.

In a world where robots are ubiquitous and have won (limited) human rights, brilliant Dr. Tenma lost his son Tobio in a traffic accident. Grief-stricken, the tormented genius used his position as head of Japan’s Ministry of Science to build a replacement. The android his team created was one of the most groundbreaking constructs in history, and for a while Tenma was content. However, as his mind re-stabilised, Tenma realised the unchanging humanoid was not Tobio and, with cruel clarity, summarily rejected the replacement. Ultimately, the savant removed the insult to his real boy by selling the robot to a shady dealer…

One day, independent researcher Professor Ochanomizu was in the audience at a robot circus and realised diminutive performer “Astro” was unlike the other acts – or indeed, any artificial being he had ever encountered. Convincing the circus owners to part with the little robot, the Prof closely studied the unique creation and realised just what a miracle had come into his hands…

Part of Ochanomizu’s socialization process for Astro included placing him in a family environment and having him attend school just like a real boy. As well as providing friends and admirers the familiar environment turned up another foil and occasional assistant in the bellicose and highly skilled form of Elementary School teacher Higeoyaji (AKA Mr. Mustachio)…

The wiry wonder’s astonishing exploits resume after the now traditional ‘A Note to Readers’ – explaining in prose why one thing that hasn’t been altered is the depictions of various racial types in the stories. The author was also keen on combining all aspects of his creation into one overarching continuity delivered as a cartoon prelude, so these ruminations promptly give way to an epic action adventure doused with humour and social satire as our plucky android Pinocchio stumbles into a vast global conspiracy and becomes an unwitting pawn and courier of a robot doomsday device in ‘The Secret of the Egyptian Conspirators’ (originally seen between April and August 1969 in Shōnen Magazine). With an abundance of contemporary spy fiction tropes and themes in play Astro is trapped in a deadly war when the nation of Egypt falls under the spell of a robotic Cleopatra and her creator and sets about restoring their ancient empire. Bizarrely, behind the scheme is fiendish inventor Baribari – an old acquaintance and enemy of someone extremely close to Astro Boy, but that unknown connection does not impede the cosmic kid’s attempts to redeem Cleopatra whilst battling a battalion of giant robot beast and monuments, as well as the rival’s vile opportunistic human forces, leading to more tragedy and loss for the lonely manmade boy…

Follow-up fable ‘The Invisible Giant’  ran in Shōnen Magazine from May to July 1961, and by Tezuka’s own admission was heavily inspired by George Langelaan’s short story The Fly as first published in Playboy (June 1957) before becoming a sci fi classic and motion picture franchise from 1958 onwards. Here however the teleportation device maguffin results from an intense rivalry between scientists: venerable, irascible Dr. Woods and glory-seeking upstart B.S. Hanabusa. When the latter’s creation malfunctions, failing to rematerialize assorted animals and manifesting a ghastly ethereal poltergeist, Astro and his human pal Shibukagi are caught up in the duel of wills, embroiled with hitman Killer 0000 and targeted by corrupt 3D TV exec Nada and his murderous thugs.

However, when Astro uncovers the true story of the amalgamated horror stalking the city and what Woods and Nada are planning, he finds the path to justice a lot clearer than anticipated… especially with Mr. Mustachio lending his martial art muscle to the gang war erupting in the streets. Even when Nada kidnaps Ochanomizu, the robot boy and his eerie ally have a plan to save the day and produce a notional win for the good guys…

After that frenetic globe girdling and otherworldly outing, moodier adventure ‘Cobalt’ (Shōnen Magazine, June-September 1954) reintroduces a duplicate Astro Boy, built in the midst of an atomic crisis after the original robot hero of Japan goes missing on a mission. Forced to speed up his creation of Astro Boy’s successor, Professor Ochanomizu cuts some corners, but with a nuclear deadline fast approaching, realises that all Cobalt needs to do is find Astro and let the real hero save everyone…

With incredible and deadly locales, fantastic beasts and an unsuspected villain behind the crisis, that proves to be easier said than done, but in the bitter end the substitute proves he’s more than the sum of his parts…

To Be Continued…

Breathtaking pace, outrageous invention, slapstick comedy, heart-wrenching sentiment and frenetic action are hallmarks of these captivating comics constructions: perfect examples of Tezuka’s uncanny storytelling gifts, which still deliver a potent punch and instil wide-eyed wonder on a variety of intellectual levels. The melange of marvels is further enhanced here by an older, more sophisticated tone and the introduction of political and social commentary, proving Astro Boy to be a genuine delight for all ages.
Tetsuwan Atom by Osama Tezuka © 2002 by Tezuka Productions. All rights reserved. Astro Boy is a registered trademark of Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd., Tokyo Japan. Unedited translation © 2002 Frederik L. Schodt.
This book is printed in the traditional western ‘read-from-front-to-back’ format.

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T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Classics volume 5


By Wally Wood, Steve Skeates, Jerry Siegel, Ralph Reese, Dan Adkins, Mike Sekowsky, George Tuska, Frank Giacoia, John Giunta, Ogden Whitney, Chic Stone & various (IDW)
ISBN: ?978-1-63140-182-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-62302-754-4

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The meteoric lifespan and output of Tower Comics is one of the key creative moments in American comic book history. The brief, bombastic saga of The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves was a benchmark of quality and sheer fun for fans of both the then-still-reawakening superhero genre and that era’s spy-chic obsession. In the early 1960s, the Bond movie franchise was going from strength to strength, with blazing action and heady glamour totally transforming the formerly low-key and seedy espionage genre. The buzz was infectious: soon a Man like Flint and Matt Helm were carving out their own piece of the action as television shanghaied the entire bandwagon with the irresistible Man from U.N.C.L.E. (premiering in September 1964), bringing the whole shtick into living rooms across the planet.

Veteran Archie Comics editor Harry Shorten was commissioned to create a line of characters for a new distribution-chain funded publishing outfit – Tower Comics. He brought in creative maverick Wally Wood, who called on some of the biggest names in the industry to produce material in the broad range of genres the company demanded; as well as T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and its spin-offs Undersea Agent, Dynamo and NoMan, there was a magnificent anthology war-comic Fight the Enemy and wholesome youth-comedy Tippy Teen.

Samm Schwartz & Dan DeCarlo handled the funny stuff – which outlasted everything else – whilst Wood, Larry Ivie, Len Brown, Bill Pearson, Steve Skeates, Dan Adkins, Russ Jones, Gil Kane, Ditko and Ralph Reese contributed scripts for themselves and the industry’s other top talents to illustrate on the adventure series. With a ravenous appetite for super-spies and costumed heroes growing in comic-book popularity and amongst the general public, the idea of blending the two concepts seemed inescapable…

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 appeared with no fanfare or pre-publicity on newsstands in August 1965 (with a cover off-sale date of November, so many, many, many happy returns team!). Better yet, all Tower titles were in the beloved-but-rarely-seen 80-page Giant format, offering a huge amount of material in every issue. All that being said these tales would not be so revered if they hadn’t been so superbly crafted. As well as Wood, the art accompanying the compelling, subtly more mature stories was by some of the greatest talents in comics: Reed Crandall, Gil Kane, George Tuska, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Ayers, Joe Orlando, Frank Giacoia, John Giunta, Ogden Whitney, Steve Ditko and more, as well as budding stars like Ralph Reese, Steve Skeates and Dan Adkins…

For those who came in late: When philanthropic benevolent supergenius Professor Emil Jennings perished in an assault by forces of the mysterious Warlord, late-arriving UN troops salvaged some of his greatest inventions. These included a belt that increased the density of the wearer’s body until it became as hard as steel; a cloak of invisibility and a brain-amplifier helmet. These uncopiable prototypes were divided between several agents: the basis of a unit of super-operatives to counter the increasingly bold attacks of multiple global terror threats such as the aforementioned Warlord. First chosen was affable, honest, but far from brilliant file clerk Len Brown. To the astonishment of everyone who knew him, he was assigned the belt and codename Dynamo.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent NoMan was previously decrepit Dr. Anthony Dunn who chose to have his mind transferred into an android body and then gifted with the invisibility cape. If his artificial body was destroyed, Dunn’s consciousness could transfer to another android body. As long as he had a spare ready, he could never die. The helmet went to John Janus: a seemingly perfect UN employee and mental and physical marvel. He easily passed all the tests necessary to wear the Jennings helmet. Sadly, he was also a double agent: the Warlord’s mole poised to betray T.H.U.N.D.E.R. at the earliest opportunity. All plans went awry once he donned the helmet and became Menthor as the device awakened his mind’s full potential, granting him telepathy, telekinesis and mind-reading powers, but also drove all evil from his mind. Such was the redemptive effect that Janus actually gave his life to save his comrades: an event which astounded readers at the time…

Guy Gilbert was leader of crack Mission: Impossible style T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad and asked to beta-test an experimental super-speed suit. As Gung-ho Lightning he proudly did so, even if every use of the hyper-acceleration gimmick shortened his life-span. As the concept grew and the niche universe expanded other augmented agent appeared – such as human fighter jet Raven and subsea spin-off U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. Agent (AKA Davy Jones of the United Nations Department of Experiment and Research Systems Established at Atlantis…

This penultimate collection re-presents the compelling contents of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents#12-14 and Dynamo #4 (cover dated April to June 1967) – with the incomparably cool concept and characters going from strength to strength as a spirit of eccentric experimentation and raucous low comedy increasingly manifested in the wake of the defeat of the Warlord (part of a subterranean race intent on world conquest) and rise of independent supervillains, sinister crime cabals S.P.I.D.E.R. and O.G.R.E. or political foes like China’s Red Star…

As always the action opens with a Dynamo solo tale as ‘Strength is Not Enough’ by an unknown scripter, Steve Ditko, Dan Adkins & Wally Wood sees S.P.I.D.E.R. unleash a petty thug transformed into human weapon able to outpower the hero. Sadly, Rocky Stone loved to fight but had a conscience, and when he learned from Dynmao that his rebuild left him with only days to live he sought to make amends on his own terms. Fighting fire with fire was a persistent theme then, as Lightning battled a super-fast ‘Speed Demon’ unleashed by S.P.I.D.E.R.’s Nazi-trained mad scientist Herr Doktor in a rapidly unfolding romp by Steve Skeates, Mike Sekowsky & Frank Giacoia while android avenger NoMan faces ‘The Rock’ (John Giunta & Giacoia): a seemingly unkillable madman with the ability to vitrify his victims and petrify buildings…

Lightning quits using the speed augmenter and returns to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent squad in a tense thriller by Skeates, Mike Sekowsky & Giacoia, but the act is merely a ploy to locate ‘The Road to Spider HQ’ after which flying agent in Craig Lawson suits up in his heavily armed augmented flight-costume to crush another neo-Nazi revival in Manny Stallman’s politically-charged battle bonanza ‘The Raven Battles the Storm Troopers of Xochimilco’ …

Behind a Wally Wood cover for Dynamo #4, ‘The Maze’ (Wood & Dan Adkins) sees the strongman undergo terrifying psychologically reinforcement prior to being beamed to another world to face aliens that have previously probed Earth after which Ralph Reese, Joe Orlando, Adkins & Wood reveal the teething of a voice-controlled Thunderbelt in ‘The Secret Word is…’, before Reese & Chic Stone depict the awful monkeyshines of ‘Dynamo’s Day Off’ and the seductive power of returned foe The Iron Maiden who uses her wiles and stuff to turn the super-agent into ‘The Weakest Man in the World’…

The fun expands and concludes with a tale of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent Weed (a character Wally Wood regarded as his “spirit animal”) as ‘Once Upon a Time’ (Wood & Ditko) sees the seedy spook reinterpret state secrets and the final battle with the Iron Maiden as an expurgated fairy tale for the kids he’s babysitting…

The big spy bubble was bursting by this point and the spin-off titles had all folded by the time T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #13 was released. The anthological line up continued as always however, and opens here with Adkins & Wood’s ‘ “A” Bullet for Dynamo’ as a handheld atom bomb launcher is stolen by a S.P.I.D.E.R. infiltrator and only Len Brown has any chance of averting ultimate armageddon…

Jerry Siegel & Ogden Whitney then had NoMan seemingly ‘Escape From Destiny’ when a bizarre accident implants his consciousness in a human body. Sadly, conscience and sense of duty ruin his dreams of real life before Steve Skeates and Stone unite to pit Lightning against evil duplicates in ‘The Quick and the Changing’ and the entire T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents cadre unites against a villain using ‘The Black Helmet’ once used by Menthor in a titanic tussle by Reese, Wood & George Tuska. The issue ends with an unused U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. Agent short by Skeates & Paul Reinman. Evil android duplicates also infest this fishy tale as Davy Jones and assistant Skooby inadvertently invade ‘The Second Atlantis’ and foils a dastardly plot to replace all their friends and allies…

Sporting a Gil Kane Raven cover, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #14 opens with Ditko & Wood & Adkin’s ‘Dynamo vs Andor! Return Engagement’: another spectacular bravura battle between the agent and a misunderstood modern Prometheus.

Long ago the Warlords stole a human baby and spent decades turning the waif into a biological superman devoid of sentiment or compassion. Sadly, they lost all control of the living weapon once he met fellow mortals. Since their defeat, the pitiful misfit’s attempts to rejoin mankind are constantly thwarted and derailed. Here, his latest sanctuary – a hippy commune – is taken over by S.P.I.D.E.R. until he single-handedly repels them and in retaliation they orchestrate a clash with their other nemesis Len Brown…

Lightning’s campaign against disguise master Mock-Man intensifies in return match ‘To Fight is to Die’ by Skeates & Stone and ends with the hero the loser, after which S.P.I.D.E.R. also score a win by reprogramming NoMan and making him an operative ‘On the Other Side’ (Skeates & Giunta) before Kane writes and illustrates ‘Darkly Sees the Prophet’ wherein Raven confronts a rabble rousing, clairvoyant demagogue who is far more than he seems before the entire gang reassembles to save New York and the UN building from terrifying weapons platform ‘The Fist of Zeus’ (anonymous & George Tuska).

With stories all shaded in favour of fast pace, knowing wit, sparse dialogue, explosive action and breathtaking visuals, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was decades ahead of its time and informed everything in Fights ‘n’ Tights comics that came after it. These are truly timeless comic classics which improve with every reading, so do yourself a favour and add these landmark super-sagas to your collection.
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Classics volume 5 © 2015 Radiant Assets, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks volume 18


By Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Jim Starlin, Ross Andru, Keith Pollard, Sal Buscema, Scott Edelman, John Byrne, Mike Esposito, Bob McLeod, Frank Giacoia, Jim Mooney, John Romita Jr., & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0028-1 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peter Parker was a smart yet alienated kid when he was bitten by a radioactive spider during a school science trip. Developing astonishing arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – the boy did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night, the cocky teen didn’t lift a finger to stop him. When Parker returned home he learned that his beloved guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, finding, to his horror, that it was the self-same felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help others…

Since that night he has tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them.

By the time of the tales in this 18th fabulous full-colour hardcover compendium/eBook of web-spinning adventures the wondrous wallcrawler was a global figure and prime contender for the title of the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero. Spanning June 1978 to May 1979 whilst chronologically re-presenting Amazing Spider-Man # 181-192 and excerpts from Annual #12, the transformative tales are preceded by appreciative appraisal and reminiscence from writer/editor Marv Wolfman in his Introduction ‘Amazing Not Quite Adult Spider-Man’ before the action kicks off with #181’s sentiment-soaked recapitulation of all Parker has endured to become who he now is. Crafted by Bill Mantlo and artists Sal Buscema & Mike Esposito, ‘Flashback!’ not only acts a jumping on point but also sets up a major change unfolding over the upcoming months, before soap opera shenanigans and the era’s tacky silliness converge as Marv Wolfman takes up the typewriting, artisans Ross Andru & Esposito reunite and Spidey learns motorised mugger ‘The Rocket Racer’s Back in Town!’

The techno-augmented thief is embroiled in a nasty extortion scheme too, which impacts fast fading, hospitalised May Parker and burst into full bloom in #183…

After finally proposing to Mary Jane Watson, Peter is swifty distracted by more mechanised maniacs (courtesy of a subplot building the role of underworld armourer The Tinkerer) as Bob McLeod inks ‘…And Where the Big Wheel Stops,  Nobody Knows!’ with Rocket Racer getting his just deserts and MJ giving Peter an answer he wasn’t expecting…

Old girlfriend and current stranger Betty Brant-Leeds returns with a dying marriage and nostalgic notions next, making Parker’s social life deeply troubling as he prepares to graduate college. Meanwhile, JJ Jameson has another fringe science secret to hide and Peter’s student colleague Phillip Chang reveals a hidden side of his own when Chinese street gangs target him for their flamboyant new lord in ‘White Dragon! Red Death!’, leading to a martial arts showdown with the wallcrawler playing backup in ASM #185’s ‘Spider, Spider, Burning Bright!’ Happily, the ferocious fiery furore is fully finished by the time second feature ‘The Graduation of Peter Parker’ highlights the Parker clan’s big day and reveals why and how it all goes so terribly wrong…

At this time a star of (1970s) live action television, Spider-Man’s adventures were downplaying traditional fantasy elements as Keith Pollard became penciller for #186. ‘Chaos is… the Chameleon!’ sees the devious disguise artist seeking to discredit the webslinger even as DA Blake Tower works to dismiss all charges against him, and is followed by a moody tale of lockdowns and plague as Spider-Man and Captain America unite to stop the voltaic villain inadvertently using ‘The Power of Electro!’ (Wolfman, Jim Starlin & McLeod) to trigger a biological time bomb…

Ruthlessly violent thugs are on the rampage next as ASM #188 depicts ‘The Jigsaw is Up!’ (Pollard & Esposito) after the river party cruise Peter, his pals and increasingly insistent Betty are enjoying is hijacked. Jameson’s secret then gets out to inflict ‘Mayhem by Moonlight!’ in a sharp two-part shocker limned by John Byrne & Jim Mooney. Exploited by malign and dying science rogue Spencer Smythe, Jonah is abducted by his own monster-marked son John leaving the wallcrawler ‘In Search of the Man-Wolf!’ Forced to witness the supposed death of his child at his worst enemy’s hands leads to a savage confrontation with Smythe’s Spider-Slayer robots in ‘Wanted for Murder: Spider-Man!’ (#191 by Pollard & Esposito) before all Jonah’s debts are paid and another death results after Spidey and Jonah are inescapably bound to the same bomb and granted ‘24 hours Till Doomsday!’ ….

Also included in this hefty tome are Byrne’s cover to Amazing Spider-Man Annual #12 as well as the framing sequence to the reprint it contained as drawn by star in waiting John Romita Jr. and veteran Frank Giacoia and the contents of the all-Spiderman ‘Mighty Marvel Comics Calendar 1978’, with art from Romita Sr., Al Milgrom, Jack Kirby, John Verpoorten, Paul Gulacy, Pablo Marcos, Larry Lieber, Giacoia, John Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, Gil Kane, George Pérez, Andru & Esposito and Byrne, plus original art, promo material from F.O.O.M. #18 (June 1978), house ads, and a Kane/Joe Rubinstein pin-up from Marvel Tales #100.

With covers throughout by Kane, Andru & Esposito, Ernie Chan, Pollard, Giacoia, Starlin, Dave Cockrum, Terry Austin, Byrne, McLeod, Milgrom, these yarns confirmed Spider-Man’s growth into a global multi-media brand. Blending cultural veracity with superb art, and making a dramatic virtue of the awkwardness, confusion and imputed powerlessness most of the readership experienced daily resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, especially when delivered in addictive soap-styled instalments, but none of that would be relevant if Spider-Man’s stories weren’t so utterly entertaining. This action-packed collection relives many momentous and crucial periods in the wallcrawler’s astounding life and is one all Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatics must see…
© 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Spirou & Fantasio volumes 14 & 16 – The Comet and the Clockmaker and The Z Rises Again


By Tome & Janry with Carlos Rocque and Stuf, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-404-5 (Album PB/Digital edition Clockmaker)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-441-0 (Album PB/Digital edition Z Rises Again)

These books include Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Apparently, there’s no time like the present!

Spirou (whose name translates as “squirrel”, “mischievous” and “lively kid” in the language of the Flemish Walloons) was created by French cartoonist François Robert Velter – AKA “Rob-Vel” – for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis. The evergreen youngster in red was a response to the success of Hergé’s Tintin at rival outfit Casterman. In the beginning, the character Spirou was a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (an in-joke reference to Dupuis’ premier periodical Le Moustique) whose improbable adventures with pet squirrel Spip evolved into astounding and often surreal comedy dramas.

The other red-headed boy adventurer premiered on April 21st 1938 in an 8-page tabloid (in (French and/or Dutch) magazine bearing his name to this day. Fronting a roster of new and licensed foreign strips – Fernand Dineur’s Les Aventures de Tif (latterly Tif et Tondu) and US newspaper imports Red Ryder, Brick Bradford and Superman – Le Journal de Spirou expanded exponentially, adding Flemish-edition Robbedoes on October 27th 1938, boosting page counts and adding action, fantasy and comedy features until it was an unassailable, unmissable necessity for continental kids. His likeness and exploits fuelled mountains of merch, public acclaim, statues and civic art and in 2018 he got his own theme park.

Spirou and chums helmed the magazine for most of its life, with many notable creators building on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin, who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939. She was aided by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943, when Dupuis purchased all rights to the feature. Thereafter comic strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (“Jijé”) carried it until 1946 when his assistant André Franquin inherited the entire affair. Gradually, the new auteur retired traditional short gag vignettes in favour of longer adventure serials, introducing a wide returning cast. Ultimately, Franquin created his own milestone character. Phenomenally popular animal Marsupilami debuted in 1952’s landmark yarn Spirou et les héritiers, swiftly evolving into a scene-stealing regular and eventually one of the most significant stars of European comics.

Jean-Claude Fournier succeeded Franquin: overhauling the feature over nine stirring serial adventures between 1969-1979 by tapping into a rebellious, relevant zeitgeist in tales of drug cartels, environmental concerns, nuclear energy and repressive regimes. By the 1980s, the series seemed stalled; three different creative teams alternated on the serial: Yves Chaland, Raoul Cauvin & Nic Broca, and Philippe Vandevelde writing as “Tome” & illustrator Jean-Richard Geurts – AKA Janry. These last reverently referenced the revered and adored Franquin era: reviving the feature’s fortunes over 14 wonderful albums between 1984-1998. On their departure the strip diversified into parallel strands: Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and guest-creator specials A Spirou Story By…

Later teams and guests to tackle the wonder boys include Lewis Trondheim, Jean-Davide Morvan & Jose-Luis Munuera, Fabien Vehlmann & Yoann, Benoît Feroumont, Emile Bravo, Jul & Libon, Makyo, Toldac & Tehem, Guerrive, Abitan & Schwartz, Frank le Gall, Flix and many more. By my count that brings the album count to approximately 92 if you include specials, spin-offs series and one-shots, official and otherwise. Happily, in recent years, even some of the older vintages have been reprinted in French, but there are still dozens that have not made it into English yet. Quelle sodding horreur!

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since October 2009, initially concentrating on bringing Tome & Janry’s superb pastiche/homages of Franquin before dipping into the original Franquin oeuvre and latterly adding tales by some of the bunch listed above.

On January 3rd 1924, (belated bon anniversaire!) Belgian superstar André Franquin was born in Etterbeek. Drawing from an early age, he began formal art training at École Saint-Luc in 1943. When the war forced the school’s closure a year later, he found work as an animator at Compagnie Belge d’Animation in Brussels. There he met future bande dessinée superstars Maurice de Bevere (Lucky Luke-creator “Morris”), Pierre Culliford/Peyo (creator of The Smurfs) and Eddy Paape (Valhardi, Luc Orient). In 1945 everyone but Culliford signed on with Dupuis, and Franquin began his career as a jobbing cartoonist/illustrator. He produced covers for Le Moustique and scouting magazine Plein Jeu and, throughout those early days, was (with Morris) trained and mentored by Jijé. At that time main illustrator at Le Journal de Spirou, Jijé turned the youngsters and fellow neophyte Willy Maltaite – AKA Will (Tif et Tondu, Isabelle, Le jardin des désirs) – into a creative bullpen known as the La bande des quatre. This “Gang of Four” promptly revolutionised Belgian comics with their engaging “Marcinelle school” style of graphic storytelling.

Jijé handed Franquin all responsibilities for the flagship strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriquée, (LJdS #427, June 20th 1946) and the eager beaver ran with it for two decades, enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every episode, fans would meet startling new characters like comrade/rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor The Count of Champignac. Spirou & Fantasio were globe-trotting troubleshooting journalists, endlessly expanding their exploits in unbroken four-colour glory. They travelled to exotic places, uncovering crimes, capturing the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of extraordinary arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Zantafio. Along the way Franquin premiered one of the first strong female characters in European comics – competitor journalist Seccotine (Cellophine in current English translations).

In an admirable example of good practise, Franquin mentored his own apprentice cartoonists during the 1950s. These included Jean Roba (La Ribambelle, Boule et Bill), Jidéhem (Sophie, Starter, Gaston Lagaffe) and Greg (Bruno Brazil, Bernard Prince, Zig et Puce, Achille Talon), who all worked with him on Spirou et Fantasio. In 1955, a contractual spat with Dupuis led to Franquin signing up with rivals Casterman on Le Journal de Tintin, where he collaborated with René Goscinny and old pal Peyo whilst also creating raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon. Franquin quickly patched things up with Dupuis and returned to LJdS, subsequently co-creating Gaston Lagaffe (AKA Gomer Goof) in 1957, but was still obliged to carry on those Casterman commitments too…

From 1959, writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem began regularly assisting Franquin, but by 1969 the master storyteller had reached his Spirou limit. He quit, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him. Later creations include fantasy series Isabelle, illustration sequence Monsters and bleak adult conceptual series Idées Noires, but his greatest creation – and one he retained all rights to on his departure – was Marsupilami, which – in addition to comics – has become a megastar of screen, plush toy store, console and albums.

Plagued in later life by bouts of depression and cardiac problems, Franquin passed away on January 5th 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics. The payout for all that good practise can be enjoyed here as we review hopefully happier if undoubtedly weirder days as,via the vagaries of publishing (almost as byzantine as time travel in its own way) we encounter a continued story annoyingly broken up for English readers due to an adventure published out of sequence…

Spirou & Fantasio volume 14 – The Comet and the Clockmaker

Serialised in 1984, Tome & Janry’s L’Horloger de la comète was their 4th tale together, running in Le Journal de Spirou  #2427-2448 before becoming the 36th S&F album in February 1986). In it, the valiant lad and his inseparable pal are foolishly left housesitting the wonder-packed chateau of their inspirational boffin buddy: mushroom-mutating magician Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas, comte de Champignac AKA Count Champignac… and someone else who turns 75 this year…

In the course of the evening, the lads use the installed telescope to track a comet across the sky but are distracted by a ship crashing into the lawn. Inside it is a time traveller who is also the Count’s descendant Aurélian de Champignac. Accompanied by his faithful pet Snuffeller Timothy, Aurélian has come on a mission of extreme importance, one crucially linked throughout history by the comet’s regularly returning appearances. Sadly, his task – to gather plants and reseed the barren world of tomorrow – is made more dangerous by unsuspected and extremely sinister seeming pursuers from beyond his own lifeless era, intent on keeping the future’s status quo intact…

And then the new allies are off, triggering alarms and military responses all over the world as they head for deepest, greenest Palombia, land of lunacy and the Marsupilami. Of course, everything goes wrong and before long our dauntless saviours are not only lost in the green hell but also in time. Fetching up in Portuguese-colonised climes circa 1531 anno Domini, the regreening of Earth seems destined to fail when they crash smack in the middle of a native resistance to European expansion and an internal power-grabbing insurrection amongst the invaders. But then…

If you’re fussy, the Zordolt story which breaks up the narrative flow (volume 15: Shadow of the Z) was reviewed here, so if it makes you more comfortable stop now, go read that and return here once that affirms your particular or preferred take on reality.

Spirou & Fantasio volume 16 – The Z Rises Again

In Europe, L’Horloger de la comète was promptly followed in Le Journal de Spirou #2487-2508 by Le réveil du Z which in September 1986 became the 37th collection. A wry, satirically-charged notional sequel to Franquin’s 1960 yarn Z is For Zorglub, it sees a kind of return for the pompous, conflicted Bond-style supervillain…

Back in their present, Spirou & Fantasio strive to return to their regular lives only to discover that although they have had enough of time travel, it has not had enough of them. Scorned, derided and disbelieved at home and the editorial office, our unruly investigators are suddenly kidnapped to 2062 by Aurélian de Champignac’s assistant So-Yah, where Zorglub Junior is using his ancestor’s mind-bending technologies and mastery of Champignac’s time travel techniques to become ruler of the world…

Happily, the Count has a plan to foil the ascendant tyrant, so all Spirou & Fantasio – with Timothy the Snuffeller – have to do is liberate Aurélian from the forbidding timeless citadel where the villain’s army of ruthless Zorglmen are holding him captive until their war of chronal conquest is won…

… Oh and probably destroying the giant Zorglock device enslaving every mind and directing every life on Earth might be beneficial too…

Fast-paced, wry, edgily-barbed, compellingly convoluted and perfectly blending helter-skelter excitement with keen suspense and outrageous slapstick humour, The Z Rises Again is a terrific romp to delight devotees of easy-going adventure and a perfect counter to the riotous eco-adventure that precedes it. Read together, they comprise a superbly wild sci-fi ride any fan of the genre or just good storytelling will adore. Easily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with the beguiling style and seductively wholesome élan that make Asterix, Lucky Luke and Tintin so compelling, these are enduring tales from a long line of superb exploits, as deserving to be a household name as much as those series.
Original editions © Dupuis, 1986 by Tome & Janry. All rights reserved. English translations 2018, 2019 © Cinebook Ltd.

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Scorchy Smith: Partners in Danger


By Noel Sickles (Nostalgia Press)
ISBN10: 0-87897-029-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

This is a big year for comics and strip anniversaries. Here’s one of the very best; but good luck and deep pockets to you if you decide to act on my fervent recommendations…

For one of the most influential and well-regarded comics strips of all time, aviation feature Scorchy Smith is also one of the most enigmatic and unreachable. A surprisingly long-lived proposition running in total from March 17th 1930 to December 30th 1961, the strip took off in the heyday of adventure comics and employed a pretty impressive roster of story-makers – officially ten in total including Bert Christman (The Sandman), Frank Robbins (Johnny Hazard) and George Tuska (Buck Rogers). However, it achieved its zenith in the mere three years pioneering cartoon visionary Noel Sickles steered its course.

Noel Douglas Sickles (January 24, 1910-October 3, 1982) had a very short and barely acknowledged career as a newspaper cartoonist. He worked as a jobbing illustrator in the features department of the Associated Press – an organisation that provided top-rated news items but only cheap (if high-quality) filler material such as cartoons, ads, comic strips, recipes, horoscopes, puzzles: All the pages a local newspaper might need but couldn’t afford to produce themselves…

In 1934 Sickles took over the inexplicably popular aviation strip Scorchy Smith from animator & political cartoonist John Terry, after the creator/originator contracted rapid-acting terminal tuberculosis. The publishers required Sickles to emulate Terry’s style, which Sickles diligently did (with his first credited strip on April 2nd 1934) until Terry’s death. At that point he was invited to make the strip his own and – a driven experimenter – he replaced Terry’s scratchy, cross-hatched, intensely feathered methods with a moody impressionism that used volume, solid blacks and a careful manipulation of light sources to tell his tales. He also traded standard proscenium arch layouts for impressionistically styled (if not actually expressionistic), cinematic composition which made backgrounds and scenery an integral part of the story-telling process.

An exceedingly straight action/drama serial about a pilot for hire based on the public persona of Charles Lindbergh, the high-flying exploits of named star Scorchy Smith catalogue the travels of a stout hearted, valiant Knight of the Skies, complete with trusty sidekick, “Heinie”, flying about and Doing Good. That’s it.

Sickles famously never worked to a plan when writing the strip, he just made it up as he went along to avoid boring himself. For an extended exploration of his chimeric art process you should read R C Harvey’s Meanwhile…: a superb biography of Sickles’s friend and studio-mate Milton Caniff, who sat across from the innovator taking notes and making his own inspired style revolutions…

Stories abound that the two frequently collaborated. Certainly, Caniff admitted to helping out with deadlines and story-polishing, but the bold visuals were always the product of a driven and dedicated seeker of artistic truths. The Chiaroscurist style developed by Sickles was adopted by Caniff, although he largely eschewed the lavish use of photomechanical dot-screens Sickles applied to create different flavours of Black in his monochrome masterpieces.

Reprinted in this slim tome are three thrillers from that brief period. ‘Lafarge’s Gold’ (10th October 1935 – January 30th 1936), ‘New York, N. Y.’ (January 31st 1936 – March 18th 1936) and ‘Desert Escape’ (March 19th 1936 – August 14th 1936) all come from the very end of Sickles’ strip career, with a pretty girl swindled out of a goldmine, big-city conmen, and Tuaregs and the Foreign Legion providing admittedly lacklustre narrative maguffins. However, the bravura vivacity and artistic flair employed by Sickles to tell these tales elevate the B-movie plots into breathtaking high art drama by the sheer magnificence of the drawing and design.

Over his tenure, the great experimenter pushed the minor strip’s syndication to over 250 papers, so he asked for a raise. When he was refused, he quit, with his last episode published on October 24th 1936. Noel Sickles left the restricted and drudge-work world of newspaper strips, chasing the greater challenge of higher education. He eventually settled into the more appreciative and challenging magazine illustration field, making new fans in the Saturday Evening Post, Life and Readers Digest. His few months in narrative story-telling changed our entire industry, not so much with what he did, but by the way he did it and who he shared his discoveries with. He is an unsung immortal, and his brief output deserves a commemorative, retrospective collection more than any other creator that I can think of. Until the precious few previous collections are rereleased – and preferably in digitised formats – lost gems like this will have to suffice.
© 1936 The A. P.

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The Adventures of Buck Danny volume 1: Night of the Serpent


By Francis Bergése, colours by Frédéric Bergése translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 987-1-905460-85-4 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Happy 78th Birthday flyboys…

Adding more sophisticated modern spin to period-set stories

Buck Danny premiered in Le Journal de Spirou in January 1947 and continues soaring across assorted Wild Blue Yonders to this day. The strip describes the improbably long yet historically significant career of the eponymous Navy pilot and his wing-men Sonny Tuckson and Jerry Tumbler. It is one of the world’s last aviation strips and a series which has always closely wedded itself to current affairs, from the Korean War to Afghanistan, the Balkans to Iran…

The US Naval Aviator was created by Georges Troisfontaines whilst he was Director of Belgian publisher World Press Agency and realised by Victor Hubinon before being handed to multi-talented scripter Jean-Michel Charlier, then working as a junior artist. Charlier’s fascination with human-scale drama and rugged realism had been first seen in such “true-war” strips as L’Agonie du Bismark (The Agony of the Bismarck – published in LJdS in 1946). Charlier and René Goscinny were co-editors of Pistolin magazine from 1955-1958 and subsequently created Pilote in 1959. When they, with fellow creative legend Albert Uderzo, formed the Édifrance Agency to promote the specialised communication benefits of comic strips, Charlier continued to script Buck Danny and did so until his death. Thereafter his artistic collaborator Francis Bergése (who first replaced Hubinon in 1978) took complete charge of the All-American Air Ace’s exploits, on occasion working with other creators such as Jacques de Douhet.

Like so many artists involved in aviation storytelling, Bergése (born in 1941) started young with both drawing and flying. He qualified as a pilot whilst still a teenager, enlisted in the French Army and was a reconnaissance flyer by his twenties. At age 23 he began selling strips to L’Étoile and JT Jeunes (1963-1966), after which he produced his first aviation strip – Jacques Renne for Zorro. This was followed by Amigo, Ajax, Cap 7, Les 3 Cascadeurs, Les 3 A, Michel dans la Course and many more. Bergése worked as a jobbing artist on comedies, pastiches and WWII strips until 1983, when he won the coveted job of illustrating globally syndicated Buck Danny with 41st yarn ‘Apocalypse Mission’.

Bergése even found time in the 1990s to produce episodes of a European interpretation of British icon Biggles before finally retiring in 2008, passing on the reins (control? Joystick? No definitely not that last one) to illustrators Fabrice Lamy & Francis Winis and scripter Frédéric Zumbiehl. Thus far – with Zumbiehl, Jean-Michel Arroyo & Gil Formosa all taking turns at the helm – the franchise has notched up 60 albums and a further 10 spin-off tomes…

Like all the Danny tales, this premier Cinebook edition is astonishingly authentic: a breezy and compelling action thriller originally published in 2000 as Buck Danny #49: La nuit du serpent – with colouring by son Frédéric – and blending mind-boggling detail and technical veracity with good old fashioned blockbuster adventure…

At Kunsan Airbase, South Korea a veteran US flier goes on dawn border patrol only to be hit by an uncanny light which blinds him and apparently negates all his F-16’s guidance systems. Despite best efforts, the jet crashes in the De-Militarized Zone with the North Koreans claiming a flagrant breaking of the truce… and huge publicity coup. Strangely though, downed Colonel Maxwell is still missing. The Communists don’t have him and the pilot’s tracking devices indicate he’s still out there somewhere: lost in the No Man’s land between North and South.

America’s military swings into action, resolved to rescue their man, clean up the mess and allow the Reds neither tangible nor political victory. Danny, Tumbler and Tuckson are at a Paris air show when they get the call and are soon en route to Korea for a last-ditch face-saving mission. However, as the trio prepare to join the covert rescue mission, evidence emerges, casting doubt on the authenticity of the alleged super-weapon. Meanwhile, missing man Maxwell has stumbled into a fantastic secret under the DMZ…

Fast-paced and brimming with tension and spectacular action, this is a classically conceived and constructed thriller which effortlessly plunges the reader into a delightfully dizzying riot of intrigue, mystery and suspense before its captivating conclusion.

The Adventures of Buck Danny is one long and enthralling tour of duty no comics fan, adrenaline-junkie or armchair Top Gunner can afford to miss. Bon chance, mes braves…
© Dupuis, 2000 by Bergése. English translation © 2009 Cinebook Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Captain America Epic Collection volume 6: The Man Who Sold the United States (1974-1976)


By Steve Englehart, Jack Kirby, John Warner, Tony Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Marv Wolfman, Frank Robbins, Sal Buscema, Herb Trimpe, Vince Colletta, Frank Giacoia, D. Bruce Berry, Joe Giella, Mike Esposito, Frank Chiaramonte Barry Windsor-Smith John Romita, John Verpoorten, Dan Adkins, John Byrne, Joe Sinnott, Marie Severin, Charley Parker, Bob Budiansky, Paty Cockrum, & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4873-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s customary – right here at least – to end our year with bit of timey-wimey extrapolation and conjecture, or celebrate an anniversary. However, due to the parlous state of global existence, I’ve instead opted for political pontificating. I decided that with the horror of the next four years barely begun, it’s time to stand tallish and make a sly whiny statement and see who even notices…

Created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby in an era of ferocious patriotic fervour and carefully-manipulated idealism, Captain America was a dynamic and exceedingly bombastic response to the horrors of Nazism and the threat of Liberty’s loss.

He quickly lost focus and popularity once hostilities ceased: fading away as post-war reconstruction began. He briefly reappeared after the Korean War: a harder, darker sentinel ferreting out monsters, subversives and the “commies” who lurked under every American bed. Then he vanished once more until the burgeoning Marvel Age resurrected him just in time to experience the Land of the Free’s most turbulent and culturally divisive era. Here the Star-Spangled Avenger was in danger of becoming an uncomfortable symbol of a troubled, divided society, split along age lines and with many of the hero’s fans apparently rooting for the wrong side. Now into that turbulent mix crept issues of racial and gender inequality…

Cap had quickly evolved into a mainstay of the Marvel Revolution during the Swinging Sixties but lost his way somewhat after that, except for a glittering period under writer Steve Englehart. Eventually however, in the middle of the decades, that enlightened voice-of-a-generation scribe also moved on and out. Meanwhile, after nearly ten years drafting almost all of Marvel’s successes, Jack Kirby had jumped ship to arch-rival DC in 1971, creating a whole new mythology, dynamically inspiring pantheon and new way to tell comics stories. Short term though, cowardly editorial practices and lack of support had convinced him that DC was no better than Marvel for men of vision. Eventually, he accepted that even he could never win against any publishing company’s excessive pressure to produce whilst enduring micro-managing editorial interference.

Seeing which way the winds were blowing, Kirby exploded back into the Marvel Universe in 1976 with a signed promise of free rein to concoct another stunning wave of iconic creations – licensed movie sensations such as 2001: a Space Odyssey (and – so very nearly – seminal TV paranoia-fest The Prisoner); Machine Man; Devil Dinosaur and The Eternals. He was also granted control of two of his previous co-creations – firmly established characters Black Panther and Captain America to do with as he wished…

His return was much hyped at the time but swiftly became controversial since his intensely personal visions paid little lip service to company continuity: Jack always went his own bombastic way. Whilst those new works quickly found many friends, his tenure on those earlier inventions drastically divided the fan base. Kirby was never slavishly wedded to tight continuity and preferred, in many ways, to treat his stints on Cap and the Panther as creative “Day Ones”. That was never more apparent than for the Star-Spangled Sentinel of Liberty…

This resoundingly resolute rabble rousingly rambunctious sixth full-colour Epic Collection re-presents Captain America and the Falcon #180-200 and 1976’s colossal Marvel Treasury Special: Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, cover-dated December 1974 to August 1976: spanning and neatly wrapping up the post-Englehart period and revealing how, when Kirby came aboard as writer, artist and editor, he had big plans for the nation’s premiere comicbook patriotic symbol in the year of its 200th anniversary…

At this time the US was a nation reeling from loss of idealism caused by Vietnam, Watergate and the (then partial) exposure of President Richard Nixon’s crimes. The general loss of idealism and painful public revelation that politicians are generally unpleasant – and even potentially ruthless, wicked exploiters – kicked the props out of most Americans who had an incomprehensibly rosy view of their leaders. Thus, Cap’s exposing a conspiracy reaching into the halls and backrooms of government to undemocratically seize control of the country by deceit and criminal conspiracy (sounds like sheer fantasy these days, doesn’t it?) was extremely controversial but compellingly attractive in those distant, simpler days. Now after doing what was necessary, the idealistic hero could no longer be associated with a tarnished ideal…

Previously: the Sentinel of Liberty had become a lost symbol in and of a divided nation. Uncomfortable in his red, white and blue skin but looking to carve himself a new place in the Land of the Free he is also unable to  abandon the role of do-gooder. When Steve Rogers is convinced by Avenging comrade Hawkeye that he could still serve his country and people even if he can’t be a star-spangled representative of America, it sparks a life-changing decision in opening tale ‘The Coming of the Nomad!’ Sadly, survivors of the sinister Serpent Squad (Cobra and The Eel) return with psychotic Princess Python in tow and maniac nihilist Madame Hydra murderously assuming the suddenly vacant leader’s role as a new Viper. When Rogers – as Nomad, “the Man Without a Country” – tackles the ophidian villains, he battles ineptly and fares badly but still stumbles across a sinister scheme by the Squad and Sub-Mariner’s arch-nemesis Warlord Krang. That subsea tyrant – in the thrall of ancient evil force the Helmet of Set – seeks to raise a sunken continent and restore an ancient civilisation in ‘The Mark of Madness!’ Elsewhere at the same time, former partner Sam Wilson/The Falcon is ignoring his better judgement and training determined young Roscoe Simons to become the next Captain America…

A glittering era ended with #182 as artist Sal Buscema moved on and newspaper-strip star Frank Robbins came aboard for a controversial run, beginning with ‘Inferno!’ (inked by Joe Giella). Whilst Nomad successfully mops up the Serpent Squad – despite well-meaning police interference – Sam and Cap’s substitute Roscoe encounter the Sentinel of Liberty’s greatest enemy with fatal consequences. The saga shifts into top gear as ‘Nomad: No More!’ (Frank Giacoia inks) sees shamed, grief-stricken Rogers once more take up his star-spangled burden after the murderous Red Skull simultaneously attacks the hero’s loved ones and dismantles America’s economy by defiling the banks and slaughtering the financial wizards who run them.

Beginning in the chillingly evocative ‘Cap’s Back!’ (art by Herb Trimpe, Giacoia & Mike Esposito), rampaging through the utterly shocking ‘Scream of the Scarlet Skull!’ (Sal Buscema, Robbins & Giacoia), it all climaxes in ‘Mindcage!’ (with additional scripting by John Warner and art by Robbins & Esposito) wherein our titular hero’s greatest ally is apparently revealed as his enemy’s stooge and slave. As the Red Skull, in all his gory glory, gloatingly reveals that his staggeringly effective campaign of terror was as nothing to his ultimate triumph, we learn that the high-flying Falcon has been his unwitting secret weapon for years. The staunch ally was originally cheap gangster “Snap” Wilson, radically recreated and reprogrammed by the Cosmic Cube to be Captain America’s perfect partner; and a tantalising, ticking time bomb waiting to explode…

Captain America and the Falcon #187 opens on ‘The Madness Maze!’ (Warner, Robbins & Frank Chiaramonte) with the Skull recently-fled and a now-comatose Falcon in custody of superspy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. Abruptly, the Star-Spangled Avenger is abducted, snatched by by a mysterious flying saucer and latterly attacked by alchemical androids employed by a rival espionage outfit, culminating in a ‘Druid-War’ (Warner, Sal B & Colletta), before Tony Isabella, Robbins & Chiaramonte put Cap into an ‘Arena For a Fallen Hero!’ where deception, psychological warfare and unarmed combat combine into a risky shock therapy to kill or cure the mind-locked Sam Wilson. However, just as the radical cure kicks in, an old foe takes over S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying HQ in ‘Nightshade is Deadlier the Second Time Around!’ (Isabella, Robbins & Colletta). Once she’s defeated, the past crimes of forcibly-reformed Snap Wilson are reviewed and judged in an LA courtroom in climactic wrap-up ‘The Trial of the Falcon!’ (Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Robbins & D. Bruce Berry): proffering a predictable court ruling, a clutch of heroic cameos and a bombastic battle against the sinister Stilt-Man – hired by mob bosses to ensure Snap’s silence on his gangland activities…

Narrative decks cleared, CAatF #192 delivered an ingenious, entertaining filler written by outgoing editor Marv Wolfman, illustrated by Robbins & Berry, wherein Cap hops on a commercial flight back to the East Coast and finds himself battling deranged psychiatrist Dr. Faustus and a contingent of mobsters on a ‘Mad-Flight!’ thousands of feet above New York. With all plots safely settled, the stage was set for the return of Cap’s co-creator: returning with a bombastic fresh take that would take the Sentinel of Liberty into regions never before explored…

It begins with Captain America and the Falcon #193, offering the opening salvo in an epic storyline leading up the immortal super-soldier’s own Bicentennial issue (sort of). Gone now was all the soul-searching and breast-beating about what the country was or symbolised: The USA is in peril and its sentinel was ready to roar into action…

Inked by fellow veteran Frank Giacoia ‘The Madbomb’ exposes a ‘Screamer in the Brain!’ as a miniscule new weapon is triggered by unknown terrorists, reducing an entire city block to rubble by driving the populace into a mass psychotic frenzy. Experiencing the madness at close hand, Cap and the Falcon are swiftly seconded by the US government to ferret out the culprits and find a full-scale device hidden somewhere in the vast melting pot of America…

‘The Trojan Horde’ introduces plutocratic mastermind William Taurey who intends to correct history, unmaking the American Revolution and restoring a privilege-ridden aristocracy upon the massed millions of free citizens. Using inestimable wealth, a cabal of similarly disgruntled billionaire elitists (what a ree-dicalus ideah!), an army of mercenaries, slaves cruelly transformed into genetic freaks and other cutting-edge super-science atrocities, the maniac intends to forever eradicate the Republic and plunder the resources of the planet. Thank every god you know that it couldn’t happen today…

Moreover, when he is finally elevated to what he considers his rightful place, the first thing Taurey intends to do is hunt down the last descendent of Colonial-era hero Steven Rogers: a rebel who had killed Taurey’s Monarchist ancestor and allowed Washington to win the War of Independence. Little does he suspect the subject of his wrath has already infiltrated his secret army…

Inked by D. Bruce Berry, in ‘It’s 1984!’ Cap & Falcon get a firsthand look at the kind of fascistic world Taurey advocates, battling their way through monsters, mercenaries and a mob fuelled by modern mind-control and pacified by Bread & Circuses, before ultra-spoiled elitist Cheer Chadwick takes the undercover heroes under her bored, effete and patronising wing. Sadly, even she can’t keep her new pets from being sucked into the bloody, brutal Circus section of the New Society, where American loyalists are forced to fight for their lives in ultra-modern gladiatorial mode in the ‘Kill-Derby’, even as the US army raids the secret base in Giacoia inked ‘The Rocks are Burning!’ Soon, the Patriotic Pair realise it has all been for nought since the colossal full-sized Madbomb is still active: carefully hidden somewhere else in their vast Home of the Brave…

The offbeat ‘Captain America’s Love Story’ then takes a decidedly different and desperate track as the Bastion of Freedom must romance a sick woman to get to her father – the inventor of the deadly mind-shattering device – after which ‘The Man Who Sold the United States’ accelerates to top speed for all-out action as the hard-pressed heroes race a countdown to disaster with the Madbomb finally triggering by ‘Dawn’s Early Light!’ for a spectacular showdown climax that truly  surpasses all expectation.

This compilation compellingly concludes with a once in a lifetime special event. Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles was originally released (on June 15th 1976) as part of the nationwide celebration of the USA’s two hundredth year. One of Marvel’s tabloid-sized “Treasury Format” (80+ pages of 338 x 258mm dimensions) titles, it took the Star-Spangled Avenger on an incredible excursion through key eras and areas of American history. An expansive, panoramic and wildly iconic celebration of the memory and myth of the nation, this almost abstracted, deeply symbolic 84-page extravaganza perfectly survives reduction to standard comic dimensions, following Captain America as cosmic savant – and retrofitted Elder of the Universe The Contemplator – Mister Buda propels the querulous hero into successively significant slices of history. Enduring a blistering pace of constant change, Cap encounters lost partner Bucky during WWII, meets Benjamin Franklin in Revolutionary Philadelphia and revisits the mobster-ridden depression era of Steve Roger’s own childhood as ‘The Lost Super-Hero!’.

In ‘My Fellow Americans’, Cap confronts Geronimo during the Indian Wars and suffers the horrors of a mine cave-in, before ‘Stop Here for Glory!’ finds him surviving a dogfight with a German WWI fighter ace, battling bare-knuckle boxer John L. Sullivan, resisting slavers with abolitionist John Brown, and observing both the detonation of the first Atom Bomb and the Great Chicago Fire. ‘The Face of the Future!’ even sees him slipping into the space colonies of America’s inevitable tomorrows, and segueing into pure emotional fantasy by experiencing the glory days of Hollywood, the simple joys of rural homesteading and the harshest modern ghetto, before drawing strength from the nation’s hopeful children…

Inked by such luminaries as Barry Windsor-Smith, John Romita Sr., Herb Trimpe and Dan Adkins, the book length bonanza comes peppered with a glorious selection of pulsating pin-ups.

With covers throughout by Gil Kane, Kirby, Giacoia, Esposito, Joe Sinnott, Ron Wilson, John Romita (Sr.), Sal Buscema &John Verpoorten, this supremely thrilling collection also has room for a selection of bonus treats beginning with the Kane & Esposito cover for reprint title Giant-size Captain America #1 (1975); relevant Cap & Falcon pages from Mighty Marvel Calendar for 1975 ((July, by John Romita); the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page announcing the King’s return in all October issues, and assorted house ads. Also on view are extracts and articles from company fanzine F.O.O.M. #11, September 1975; an all-Kirby issue declaring – behind a Byrne/Joe Sinnott cover – that “Jack’s back!”. Material includes ‘The King is Here! Long Live the King!’, ‘Kirby Speaks!’, stunning artwork from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alex Boyd’s appreciation ‘The Once and Future King!’, Charley Parker’s ‘The Origin of King Kirby’, ‘Kirby’s Kosmik Konsciousness’ and a caricature from the wonderful Marie Severin.

Also on show are cover roughs and un-inked pencils to delight art fans and aficionados, as well as original page art by Kirby inked by Giacoia & Windsor Smith.

King Kirby’s commitment to wholesome adventure, breakneck action and breathless wonderment, combined with his absolute mastery of the medium and unceasing quest for the Next Big Thrill, always make for a captivating read and this stuff is amongst the most bombastic and captivating material he ever produced. Fast-paced, action-packed, totally engrossing Fights ‘n’ Tights masterpieces no fan should ignore and, above all else, fabulously fun tales of a true American Dream and a perfect counterpoint and exemplar to the moodily insecurity of the Englehart episodes that precede them here. Despite the odd cringeworthy story moment (I specifically omitted the part where Cap battles three chicken-themed villains for example, and still wince at some of the dialogue from this forthright and earnest era of “blaxsploitation” and emergent ethnic awareness), these tales of matchless courage and indomitable heroism are fast-paced, action-packed, totally engrossing fights ‘n’ tights no comics fan should miss, and joking aside, their cultural significance is crucial in informing the political consciences of the youngest members of post-Watergate generation, and so much more so today…
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Showcase Presents Blue Beetle


By Len Wein, Joey Cavalieri, Paris Cullins, Gil Kane, Ross Andru, Don Heck & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5147-5 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The Blue Beetle premiered in Mystery Men Comics #1, released by Fox Comics and dated August 1939. The pulp-inspired hero was created by Charles Nicholas and possibly initially scripted by Will Eisner. “Charles Nicholas” was a shared pseudonym used by Chuck Cuidera (Blackhawk), Jack Kirby (everything) and Charles Wojtkowski (Blonde Phantom, Young Allies, Nyoka, Iron Corporal) with that last one generally attributed with inventing our remarkably resilient Azure Avenger.

The Cobalt Crimecrusher was inexplicably popular from the start: translating his comics venues into merchandise, a radio show and even a newspaper comic strip. Constantly traded and acquired by numerous publishers, BB survived the extinction of most of them: blithely undergoing many revisions to his origins and powers. By the mid-1950s he ended up at Charlton Comics, appearing sporadically in a few long-inventoried tales before seemingly fading away. However, that was only until the superhero resurgence of the early 1960s when Joe Gill, Bill Fraccio, Tony Tallarico and, latterly, neophyte scripter/devoted Golden Age acolyte Roy Thomas revised and revived the character. Technically, it resulted in a 10-issue run cover-dated June 1964 to 1966 (actually two separate 5-issue runs), but if you also check out our Action Heroes Archive review you’ll see that it wasn’t quite that simple…

Pulling together many disparate strands from previous incarnations, former cop and valiant troubleshooter Dan Garrett was reshaped into an archaeologist gifted with a mysterious and magical ancient Egyptian scarab recovered from lost tomb. This trinket would transform him into a lightning-throwing, flying superman whenever he touched the scarab and uttered the trigger phrase “Khaji Dha!”

After another brief sojourn in comic book limbo, Garret (note the different spelling, it varies from issue to issue, but we’ll stick to double “r”, double “t”, okay?) resurfaced as Steve Ditko took on the concept, tweaking it to construct a fresh new, retooled hero. This one started as a back-up feature in Captain Atom #83 (November 1966) before graduating to his own solo title. Ted Kord was a troubled scientist with mystery and undisclosed tragedy in his past, as well as an unspecified connection to Garrett. In fact, he was the police’s prime suspect in the academic’s disappearance and possible murder…

The Ditko version was sublime but short-lived: an early casualty when the Sixties Superhero boom reversed and horror again ruled the newsstands, Charlton’s “Action Hero” experiment was gone by the close of 1968, leading a long line of costumed champions into limbo and clearing the decks for a horror renaissance.

Time passed and reading tastes changed again. After the cosmos-consuming Crisis on Infinite Earths re-sculpted DC’s universes in 1986, a host of stars and even second stringers got floor-up rebuilds to fit them for a tougher, uncompromising, straight-shooting, no-nonsense New American readership of the Reagan era. In the intervening years, DC had pursued an old policy: acquiring characters and properties of defunct publishers. A handful of Charlton buy-outs had featured in Crisis and now Captain Atom, The Question and two Blue Beetles seamlessly slotted into the new DCU, ahead of the rest of the lost contingent…

Primarily scripted and steered by Len Wein (Swamp Thing, New X-Men, Batman, almost everything else), this massive monochrome compilation gathers the entire 24-issue run of Blue Beetle volume 6 (cover-dates June 1986 through May 1988) plus a superb crossover origin/restated backstory from Secret Origins (volume 2) #2, originally released as a vanguard to the series. Sans preamble, a steady diet of light-hearted swashbuckling begins with Len Wein, Paris Cullins & Bruce D, Patterson’s ‘Out from the Ashes!’ wherein a Chicago office building burns down. Suddenly, above the roaring flames a giant mechanical bug floats into view and from it plunges rookie hero Blue Beetle. He is desperate but determined to help the beleaguered firefighters… but not with the conflagration. His target is deranged super-arsonist Firefist, but the glorified acrobat’s tricky gadgets seem to be no match for the heavily armoured foe’s ferocious firepower. Barely escaping with his life, Beetle takes some comfort from the fact that even if he didn’t stop the bad guy or save the skyscraper, he has rescued an imperilled fireman…

In the aftermath, the masked man heads back to work: revealed to us as junior genius Ted Kord who has just (most reluctantly) assumed control of his tyrannical father’s technological innovations and manufacturing business. Ted doesn’t like business but loves inventing, which is why he spends as much time as possible with the company’s quirky thinktank geniuses Jeremiah Duncan, Melody Case and Murray Takamoto. Now he learns the company is sitting on a discovery of Earth-shattering importance. What Ted doesn’t know is that someone nefarious and extremely close wants it, or that far, far away someone has broken into the crypt on Pago Island where Ted’s mad scientist uncle Jarvis Kord killed Dan Garrett – the original Blue Beetle. An archaeological rival, Conrad Carapax is seeking the fabled something that cost his competitor his life…

Suddenly, Firefist attacks again and the neophyte hero rushes off to challenge him. The woefully one-sided battle gets serious in ‘This City’s Not for Burning!’ as the arsonist almost kills our hero again, forcing Ted to get smart and investigate where and why; not how. Despite catastrophic collateral their final clash leads to victory of sorts but leaves the hero open to betrayal from within his trust circle and targeted by a major supervillain seeking the modified wonder element Promethium undergoing modifications in Kord Inc’s labs…

Also adding to Ted’s woes and generally amping up tensions is slowly circling – and rapidly spiralling – cop Lt. Max Fisher who cannot shake the conviction that the glib scientist in his sights knows something about the Garret disappearance…

With Firefist apparently dead, two separate evil masterminds amp up their plans with the disguised janitor at affiliate/partner S.T.A.R. Labs convincing career criminal Farley Fleeter to revive his old gang The Madmen to attack Kord Inc. in BB #3’s ‘If This Be Madness…!’ As the melee is interrupted by the handily close-by Blue Beetle, corporate machinations and untrustworthy trusted friends all further their own treacherous schemes against Ted, allowing one of those villains in the shadows to make a move, revealing ‘The Answer is Alchemy!’ Here old Flash-foe Al Desmond/Mr. Element/Doctor Alchemy steals the hotly contested Promethium sample to reenergise his failing, matter-reshaping Philosopher’s Stone, but the battle to reclaim it is wild and violent, and against all odds the Beetle triumphs…

With a plethora of soap opera subplots in place, the tales assume a more action-driven shape and pace in the Azure Avenger’s first team up. ‘Ask the Right Question!’ introduces DC’s remodelled iteration of Ditko’s other, Other, OTHER immortal creation – albeit prior to his reinvention by Denny O’Neil & Denys Cowan. As up-&-coming masked mobster The Muse organises Chicago’s disparate gangs into an army a well-dressed but faceless vigilante in a powerplay to seize control from reigning Don Vincent Perignon. After the customary introductory confusion-clash Beetle and Question (AKA investigative journalist Vic Sage) set about dismantling the organisation and usurpation in ‘Face-Off!’ (BB #6) and blockbusting, Dell Barras-inked conclusion ‘Gang War!’

A delightful sentiment-soaked divertissement comes in BB #8 as ‘Henchman!’ sees Ted Kord reject job applicant and former criminal minion Ed Buckley, inadvertently driving him back to lawlessness and a position with evil genius The Calculator: a tragic mistake that the hero is happy to pay for when reformed-&-honest Ed subsequently saves the Beetle’s life…

The other lurking super-villain reveals himself at last in #9 & 10 as ‘Timepiece!’ (Cullins & Barras art) and sequel ‘Time on his Hands!’ (Chuck Patton & Barras) – both tie-ins to crossover event Legends. They see America’s superheroes outlawed by Presidential decree as part of New God Darkseid’s plan to destroy the very concept of heroism. As Ted’s conscience and desire to save innocents compete, another close friend falls foul of time bandit Chronos, and he suits up to settle the matter with the villain, law or no law. Meanwhile elsewhere, the Kord Promethium project has advanced to a point where it’s ready to be stolen by more lurking fiends, whilst on Pago Island, Carapax has uncovered a terrifying menace…

Guest-starring the New Teen Titans (Nightwing, Cyborg, Wonder Girl, Starfire, Jericho & Changeling/Beast Boy) ‘Havoc is… the Hybrid’ (#11, Cullins & Barras) sees deranged former Doom Patrol member Mento (Steve Dayton) unleash a personal pack of Promethium-mutated villains against the super-team with Blue Beetle caught as ‘Man in the Middle’ (co-scripted by Joey Cavalieri) before Wein, Cullins & Barras reveal the final fate of another unlucky unfaithful Kord collaborator in ‘Prometheus Unbound!’

Simultaneously, Carapax finally recovers and is subsumed by the maverick tech he accidentally unleashed. In BB #14 to Ted makes a momentous decision. Set on finally confronting Max Fisher about the death of Garrett, Ted is unaware that the cop is already facing ‘The Phantom of Pago Island!’ after travelling to the atoll and meeting a monster which promptly slaughters his entire party. Resolved to deal with Fisher, Blue Beetle arrives in time to join him ‘In Combat with… Carapax!’ (pencilled by Ross Andru) with both escaping believing the killer robot gone for good. As they form a tenuous new relationship with Fisher increasingly exploiting the fact that he knows Kord is a superhero, another manic supervillain (Catalyst) and megalomaniacal business competitor (Klaus Cornelius) lurk in the wings, kidnapping Jeremiah Duncan for info on Kord’s business secrets…

In ‘Anywhere I Hang my Head is Home!’ – art by Andru & Danny Bulanadi – cop and vigilante unite to catch a ruthless “Skid Row Slasher”, before Fisher oversteps by picking targets for the Beetle, even as the gallant hero is battling new masked menace Overthrow in #17’s ‘The Way the Brawl Bounces!’ (Cullins & Bulanadi) before and inevitably the original Blue Beetle returns to reclaim his mantle in ‘…And Death Shall Have No Dominion’ (all Cullins art): a grim and brutal clash with a shocking sting in the tale.

Exposing criminality and deceptions at S.T.A.R. Labs, Ted hunts a potential heir of Dan Garrett and clashes with a bizarre mechanoid organism in #19’s ‘A Matter of Animus!’ (as Andru & Bulanadi begin a sustained run), prompting a trip to Kord’s middle east facility as ‘Iran Scam!’ (another company crossover event component – this time for Millennium) reveals how a close enemy is actually an agent for ancient alien cabal the Manhunters, in a sly cover for a worthy pop at how women are oppressed under the Ayatollahs. It’s counterbalanced and leavened by purer superheroics in follow-up Millennium chapter ‘If This Works, It’ll Be a Miracle!’ (BB #21) wherein Ted and Justice League International take on a nest of Manhunters.

Crisis successfully averted, Ted is blindsided by vengeful Chronos who traps the Blue Beetle millions of years in the past before Kord turns the tables on him in #22’s ‘A Question of Time!’ (Andru, Gil Kane & Bulanadi art) before returning to now and a second episode with the Madmen in ‘Don’t Get Mad, Get Even!’ (Don Heck & Bulanadi). Now the series abruptly terminates on a cliffhanger as – in the midst of battling Carapax again – Ted’s dad Thomas Kord reclaims “his” company from the son and heir who’s ruining it in ‘If At first, You Don’t Succeed…!’

With the solo series ended, Ted made a welcome home as a beloved but underestimated comedy foil in various Justice League iterations, whilst this book closes on that promised origin yarn ,as seen in Secret Origins #2. Crafted by Wein & Kane, ‘Echoes of Future Past!’ spectacularly traces valiant Dan Garrett’s life, career and ultimate sacrifice in a bravura masterclass on superheroism as a humble college professor becomes a divinely chosen wonder man saving Earth from undead giant mummies, corrupt governments, scientific madmen, supervillains and worse before paying the final price and inspiring a lineage of heroes…

With covers by Cullins Patterson, Barras, Terry Austin, Patton, Andru, Bulanadi, Steve Bové, Dick Giordano, Mike Mignola, Chris Wozniak, Keith S. Wilson, Garry Leach, Gil Kane & Ricardo Villagran this bold bonanza of Fights ‘n’ Tights delights is a book no superhero lover should miss – unless DC finally get around to giving one of comics’ grandest brands the archive treatment he/they deserve…
© DC 1986, 1987, 1988, 2015, DC Comics All Rights Reserved.