Category: Adventure

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DC Finest: Hawkman volume 1 – Wings Across Time


By Gardner F. Fox, Bob Haney, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson, Howard Purcell, Carmine Infantino & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-250-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Here’s another stunning compilation from the DC Finest line: full colour chronolgically curated collections delivering “affordably priced, large-size (generally around 600 pages) paperback collections” of past glories. Whilst concentrating on the superhero pantheon, there are and will also be assorted genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia.  

Sadly, none of these comics classics are available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope and keep on whining…

Not all passions are romantic: mine is to finally have all old comics forever available in curated editions. These astoundingly engaging Silver Age tales are another joyous moment of past glories revisited highlighting one of the most effective and enduring romantic crime-busting, world-saving partnerships in comics…

With a superhero revival in full swing by 1961, Editorial mastermind Julius Schwartz turned to resurrecting one of DC’s most visually arresting and iconic Golden Age characters. Once again eschewing mysticism for science fiction (the original Hawkman was a reincarnated Egyptian prince murdered by a villainous priest who just kept coming back…), Schwartz picked scripter Gardner F. Fox who had created the Golden Age great and matched him with artist Joe Kubert to construct a new and contemporary hero for the Jet/Space Age.

This titanic tome at last gathers in full colour the works and deeds of the Winged Wonders as first seen in The Brave and the Bold #34-36 & 42-44 & 51; The Atom #7; Mystery in Space #87-90 and Hawkman #1-11: cumulatively spanning February/March 1961 to December 1965/January 1966.

Katar Hol and Shayera Thal are police officers on their own planet of Thanagar. The married couple have travelled to Earth from the star system Polaris in pursuit of a spree-thief named Byth who assaulted a scientist and stole a drug bestowing the ability to change into anything. Thus the scene was set in ‘Creature of a Thousand Shapes!’ which graced The Brave and the Bold #34 (cover-dated February/March 1961) back when the title was a try-out vehicle like Showcase. Disappointments aside, the origin yarn is a spectacular work of graphic magic, with the otherworldly nature of the premise rendered captivatingly human by the passionately emphatic, moody expressiveness of Kubert’s art. It is a minor masterpiece of comic storytelling, and still a darned good read.

The high-flying heroes returned in the next issue, now “temporarily” stationed on Earth to study Terran police methods. In ‘Menace of the Matter Master’ they defeat a plundering scientist who has discovered a means to control elements and indulge in super-larceny, before ‘Valley of Vanishing Men’ takes our fully-integrated visitors from another world to the Himalayas to unlock the astounding and ironic secret of the Abominable Snowmen. Last shot in the try-out session, B&B #36 sees them defeat modern day wizard Konrad Kazlak in ‘Strange Spells of the Sorcerer!’ and, soon after, save Earth from another Ice Age whilst outwitting ‘The Shadow Thief of Midway City!’

With the 3-issue audition over, the publishers sat back and waited for the fan letters and sales figures… and something odd happened: fans were vocal and enthusiastic, but the huge sales figures that previously accompanied such reactions just weren’t there. It was inexplicable. The quality of the work was plain to see on every page, but somehow not enough people had plunked down their dimes to justify an ongoing Hawkman series.

A year later DC tried again. The Brave and the Bold #42 (June/July 1962) featured ‘The Menace of the Dragonfly Raiders’ which found Katar & Shayera returning to Thanagar just in time to encounter a bizarre band of alien thieves and the sinister hand of their oldest foe. Here was superhero action in a fabulous alien locale and the next issue maintained the exoticism – at least initially – before Hawkman and Hawkgirl returned to Midway City to defeat a threat to both worlds – ‘The Masked Marauders of Earth!’.

One last B&B issue followed (#44, October/November 1962) with two splendid and delightful short tales. ‘Earth’s Impossible Day!’ focused on Shayera’s desire to celebrate a holiday tradition of Thanagar before eerie doomsday thriller ‘The Men who Moved the World’ unearthed a lost civilisation and the return of Earth’s original occupiers seeking to move back again…

And then the Hawks vanished again. It certainly looked like this time the Schwartz magic had stumbled if not faltered. It was not, however, the end of the saga. Convinced he was right, Schwartz retrenched. Enjoying some success with his latest revival and mindful of the response when he had teamed Flash with Green Lantern in the summer of 1962, the editor had writer Fox include the Winged Wonder in The Atom #7 (cover-dated June/July 1963). An interplanetary thriller illustrated by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson, ‘The Case of the Cosmic Camera!’ is a rocket-paced invasion rollercoaster ranging from the depths of space to Earth’s most distant past, where this new, clean-limbed version of the Avian Avenger clearly found fan-favour. In 1963 Hawkman returned! Again!

Mere months later, and dated November, Mystery in Space #87 had the Pinioned Paladin in action on the cover. The anthologogical sci fi standard had been the home of interstellar adventurer Adam Strange since #53, so now Schwartz moved his Winged Wonders into a plausible back-up slot and even bestowed occasional cover-privileges. Still beguilingly written by Fox, Kubert’s dark gritty art was superseded by the clean, graceful illustration of Anderson. Crime caper ‘The Amazing Thefts of the I.Q. Gang!’ dealt with a unexpected repercussion of an Adam Strange thriller and was followed a month later by ‘Topsy-Turvy Day in Midway City!’… a whimsical flourish as the cosmic couple’s devotion and Thangarian wedding customs lead to the capture of Terran bank bandits…

With the management now on board, guest appearances to maximise profile were easier to find. Hawkman returned to The Brave and the Bold with #51 (December 1963/January 1964) to team with Aquaman and face the ‘Fury of the Exiled Creature’ in a quirky tale of monsters, magic and mayhem in sunken Atlantis written by Bob Haney and illustrated by the criminally neglected Howard Purcell. Back in Mystery in Space #89 the ‘Super-Motorized Menace!’ proved the highest tech motor cycle is still no match for ancient weapons and alien  advantages…

These brief, engaging action pieces paled before the majesty and ambition of MiS #90 which delivered a full length epic uniting teaming the Hawks and Adam Strange in a legendary End-of the-World(s) epic. Illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Anderson, ‘Planets in Peril!’ was the last Hawkman back-up. From the next month, and after three years of trying, Hawkman soared into his own title.

Cover-dated April/May 1964, Hawkman #1 is a gem by Fox & Anderson. Two of the most visually arresting chracters in comics, the Hawks also boasted one of the most subtle and sophisticated relationships in the business. Like Sue & Ralph Dibney (Elongated Man and wife) Katar & Shayera are equal partners, and both couples were influenced by the Nick & Nora Charles characters of the Thin Man movies. Like those progenitors, the interplay of the Hols at home or at work is always rich in humour and warmth. In ‘Rivalry of the Winged Wonders’ – and whilst accommodatingly recapping their origins for newcomers, the couple decide to turn their latest case into a contest – Hawkgirl (eventually more appropriately called Hawkwoman) will use Thanagarian super-science to track and catch a band of thieves, whilst Hawkman limits himself to Earth techniques and tools to solving the crime.

This charmingly witty yarn is balanced by action thriller ‘Master of the Sky Weapons’ as recentlt resurrected ancient Mayan warrior Chac threatens Earth with disinterred alien super weapons. The the second issue stuck with star-stuff as the ‘Secret of the Sizzling Sparklers!’ offered an action-packed thriller of transdimensional invasion before closing with ‘Wings across Time!’: a mystery revolving around the discovery of the flying harness of legendary figure Icarus.

With “Carter & Shiera Hall” established as archeologists at Midway City Museum and Earth’s crypto-history & -zoology offering constant story-inspiration, another criminal brain-teaser opened the third issue. However, scientific bandits proved less of a menace than ‘The Fear that Haunted Hawkman’ with inexplicable panic attacks, before ordinary thugs and an extraordinary alien owl converged to make our heroes ‘Birds in a Gilded Cage’. Hawkman #4 then opened with a tale destined to revolutionise DC comics. ‘The Girl who Split in Two!’ introduced legacy hero Zatanna, daughter of a magician who fought crime in the 1940s only to “mysteriously disappear”…

From the very first issue, and for over a decade, Zatarra was a hero in the Mandrake mould who fought evil in the pages of Action Comics. During the Silver Age, Gardner Fox had Zatarra’s young, equally gifted daughter search for the missing mage, systematcally teaming up with superheroes he was currently scripting (if you’re counting, those tales appeared in Hawkman #4, The Atom #19, Green Lantern #42, and the Elongated Man strip from Detective Comics #355). A very slick piece of backwriting latterly included the high-profile Caped Crusader via Detective #336 – ‘Batman’s Bewitched Nightmare!’. The saga concluded in Justice League of America #51’s ‘Z… As in Zatanna… and Zero Hour!’). The collected saga Zatanna’s Search is currently out of print but you can go here for our take on it…

This wide, long-running experiment in continuity proved there was a dedicated fanbase with a voracious appetite for experimentation and relatively deep pockets. Most importantly, it finally signalled an end of the period where DC heroes largely lived and battled in self-imposed worlds of their own.

Hawkman #4 back-up ‘The Machine that Magnetized Men!’ is another enthalling howdunnit  tale as the Pinioned Paladins use reason and deduction to defeat thieves who are impossible to touch. For the next issue ‘Steal, Shadow… Steal!’ was the first full-length thriller, wherein ruthless Shadow Thief Carl Sands returns seeking revenge, believing causing Earth’s next Ice Age to be an acceptable consequence of his schemes, whilst in #6, publishing fashion caught up with the Hawks…

Another epic, and one that turned DC’s peculiar obsession with gorillas into a classic adventure, ‘World Where Evolution Ran Wild!’ lures our heroes to fabled Illoral, where a scientist’s explorations and interventions have stretched Natural Selection to un-natural limits. Bold, brash and daft in equal amounts, this is a fabulous romp and seeing again the cover where Hawkman struggles for his life against a winged gorilla makes the adult me realise those DC chaps might have known what they were doing with all those anthropoid covers!

By issue #7 (April/May 1965) the world was gripped in secret agent fever as the likes of James Bond, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and a host of others snuck and sashayed across our screens. Comics were not immune,  even though spies had been a staple threat there for decades. Before Hawkman joined the gang, however, he had to deal with the rather mediocre threat posed by solar ray inspired criminal genius Ira Quimby and ‘The Amazing Return of the I.Q. Gang!’ As they were quickly returned to prison the Hawks faced the ‘Attack of the Crocodile-Men!’: a high-octane super-science thriller introducing C.A.W. – the Criminal Alliance of the World…

Another supremely captivating cover adorned #8, as the Hawks fought an ancient Roman Artificial Intelligence, built by not-so-mythical metalsmith Vulcan in ‘Giant in the Golden Mask!’, before defeating an alien Harpy who’d been buried for half a million years and promptly triggered a ‘Battle of the Bird-Man Bandits!’ as soon as she woke up…

Hawkman #9 saw The Atom as guest star when an old villain returned with a seemingly perfect revenge plan. Full-length super-thriller ‘Master Trap of the Matter Master!’ offered sheer superhero hi-jinks, after which #10 saw a playful Fox at his best in both ‘Hawkman Clips the Claws of C.A.W!’ This was another espionage drama with a delicious subplot as the Winged Wonder aids a sexy CIA agent with a big secret of her own – before solving ‘The Magic Mirror Mystery!’: a fair-play brainteaser with lots of high-flying action to balance the smart stuff.

This glorious volume closes with another superb full-length epic. Clearly designed as a so-fashionable “player on the other side”, ‘The Shrike Strikes at Midnight!’ leaving our heroes trailing a super-powered, winged bandit all over the world and on to the star system Mizar, in a gripping tale of crime, super-villainy, aliens, revolutions and even dinosaurs…

Although never the major player of his 1940s ancestor, Hawkman grew to be one of the most iconic characters of the second superhero boom, not just for the superb art but also because of a brilliantly sly, whimsically subtle writer with a huge imagination. These tales are comfortably familiar but also grippingly timeless. Thankfully, comics are a funny business; circumstances, tastes and fashions often mean that wonderful works are missed and unappreciated, but it aso means revivals are never too late. Don’t make the same mistake readers did in the 1960s. Whatever your age, read these astounding adventures and become a fan. It’s never too late.
© 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Beano and The Dandy: A Celebration of Dudley D. Watkins


By Dudley D. Watkins, R.D. Low & various (DC Thomson)
ISBN: 978-1-84535-818-1 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As the physical books I bought to commemorate this occasion still haven’t arrived yet, and none of them are available digitally, I’m celebrating the achievements of one of Britain’s greatest cartoonists with something you might have read before. So if I didn’t convince you then, here’s a another shot at what you see and what should be a compulsory text in Art, Sociology and History classes. Don’t make me repeat myself again…

Unlike any other artform, Comics is uniquely set up to create small gods. Initially low cost, mass-market and appearing with rapidity – occasionally over the course of decades – the works of some creators are instantly recognisable and generally prolific, and come to define the medium for generations of enthralled recipients. All generally defy exact duplication, despite being always heavily imitated by adoring adherents, since they possess an indefinable element that slavish imitation cannot capture: Osamu Tezuka, Hergé, Jack Kirby, Alex Raymond, Moebius, Steve Ditko and Charles Schulz are all instantly known. There are certainly a few others you’d like to add to that list.

Feel free.

My own candidate for ascension is Dudley Dexter Watkins…

A tireless and prolific illustrator equally adept at comedy and drama storytelling, his style more than any other’s shaped the postwar look and form of Scottish publishing giant DC Thompson’s comics output. Watkins (1907-1969) started life in Manchester and Nottingham as an artistic prodigy prior to entering Glasgow College of Art in 1924. Before too long he was advised to get a job at expanding, Dundee-based DCT, where a 6-month trial illustrating prose boys’ stories led to comic strip specials and some original cartoon creations. Percy Vere and His Trying Tricks and Wandering Willie, The Wily Explorer made him the only contender for both lead strips in a bold new project conceived by Robert Duncan Low (1895-1980).

Low began as a journalist for DC Thomson, rising via story scripting to Managing Editor of Children’s Publication and between 1921 and 1933 launched the company’s “Big Five” story papers for boys: Adventure, The Rover, The Wizard, The Skipper and The Hotspur. In 1936, he created the landmark “Fun Section”: an 8-page pull-out comic strip supplement for national newspaper The Sunday Post. This illustrated accessory – prototype and blueprint for every comic the company subsequently released – launched on 8th March. From the outset The Broons and Oor Wullie were the uncontested headliners.

Low’s shrewdest notion was to devise both strips as comedies played out in the charismatic Scottish idiom and broad unforgettable vernacular, supported by features such as Chic Gordon’s Auchentogle, Allan Morley’s Nero and Zero, Nosey Parker and other strips. These pioneering comics then laid the groundwork for the company’s next great leap. After some devious devising, in December 1937 Low launched DC Thomson’s first weekly all-picture strip comic. The Dandy was followed by The Beano Comic in 1938, and early-reading title The Magic Comic in 1939.

Low’s irresistible secret weapon in all of these ventures was Watkins. The indefatigable cartoon stalwart drew the Fun Section signature strips The Broons and Oor Wullie from the outset and – without missing a beat – added Desperate Dan (in The Dandy) to his weekly workload in 1937. Seven months later, placidly outrageous, subtly subversive social satire Lord Snooty became a big draw for freshly launched companion paper The Beano.

This stunning and luxurious hardback commemorative celebration was released to mark 50 years since Watkins’ death and – despite dealing with a rather solemn topic – is exuberantly joyous in tracing the man’s astounding career and output. No one could read this stuff and not smile, if not actually collapse in mirth.

Packed with brief commentary and visual extracts, the artist is revealed in excerpts and complete episodes chronologically curated to maximise his artistic development. Beginning with The 1930s, a selection of strips starring Oor Wullie and The Broons from The Fun Section is followed by a vintage full-colour Beano Book cover, before a feature on Desperate Dan leads inevitably to a tranche of wild cowboy antics in the best Dundee tradition. The system then repeats for Lord Snooty – and his Pals – and then forgotten almost-stars Wandering Willie the Wily Explorer and aforementioned Percy Vere and his Trying Tricks who share their brand of whimsy. Up until now, the majority of strips are monochrome, but the sequence starring Smarty Grandpa comes in the nostalgic two-colour style we all remember so fondly…

An introductory essay about The 1940s is followed by more of the same, but different; beginning with lost family favourite adventure series. Jimmy and His Magic Patch (latterly Jimmy’s Magic Patch) share the exploits of a wee nipper whose torn trousers were repaired with a piece of mystical cloth that could thereafter grant wishes and transport the wearer to other times and fantastic realms. Here Watkins got to impress with authentic imagery of pirates and dinosaurs, while a two-tone tale from an annual took Jimmy to Sherwood Forest and a meeting with Robin Hood…

Apparently Watkins could handle anything, as seen by a selection of book covers that follow – The Story of Kidnapped, The Story of Treasure Island and The Story of Robinson Crusoe – and illustrated general knowledge pages Cast Away!, Wolves of the Spanish Main and Soldiers’ Uniforms & Arms 1742-1755 which precede complete Jacobite adventure strip Red Fergie’s “Army”.

Once upon a time, comics offered illustrated prose yarns too, and a literary legend was a fan favourite when Watkins did the pictures. ‘Gulliver – the Paraffin Oil Plot’ has splendidly stood the test of time and neatly segues into a hefty section of strips starring the evergreen Lord Snooty and his Pals and Desperate Dan, before Biffo the Bear debuts in full colour, beginning with his premier on January 24th 1948 and including three more captivating outings. The decade closes with another prose Gulliver treat in ‘Baron Bawler’s Blackout’…

A true golden age, The 1950s section opens with Oor Wullie derivative Ginger (from The Beezer), another full-colour cover-star copiously represented and followed by fellow mischief-maker Mickey the Monkey out of The Topper, after which Lord Snooty and his Pals get the text & picture treatment for an extended (possibly Annual or summer special?) lark, and Desperate Dan & Biffo the Bear star in multi-hued shorts trips, after which ‘The Tricks of Tom Thumb’ – another classical adventure yarn – sets the scene for a veritable flurry of strips starring Biffo & Dan to see the decade out.

Venerable Lord Snooty and his Pals open The 1960s, with Desperate Dan quickly following, before more full-colourful Mickey & Ginger strips lead into what was probably the artist’s preferred material. Watkins was a committed man of faith, creating illustrated Bible tracts in his spare time, and always eager to (decorously) promote his beliefs. Here – in full colour – are a brace of theological adventure strips beginning with ‘David’ and his notorious battle, supplemented by ‘The Road to Calvary’ which lead into a rousing clan romp in the prose-&-picture yarn of English-trouncing Scots rebel Wild Young Dirky…

Ending the festival of fun, with a lump in the throat, is the Biffo strip that formed the cover of Beano #1423 (25th October 1969). Watkins had soldiered on in unassailable triumph for decades, drawing some of the most lavishly lifelike and winningly hilarious strips in comics history, and died at his drawing board on August 20th 1969. The page he was working on was completed by David Sutherland, who adds his own gracious homily to the piece.

For all those astonishingly productive years, Dudley D. Watkins had also unflaggingly crafted a full captivating page each of Oor Wullie and The Broons, as well as his church tracts and periodical commitments. His loss was a colossal blow to the company. DC Thomson reprinted old episodes of both strips in the newspaper and the Annuals for seven years before a replacement was agreed upon, whilst The Dandy reran Watkins’ Desperate Dan stories for twice that length of time.

DCT’s publications have always played a big part in Britain’s Christmas festivities and are still a cornerstone of our cultural bulwarks, so let’s revel in the Good Old Days of comics via this lovingly curated tribute to Scotland’s greatest cartoon artisan.
© DCT Consumer Products (UK) Ltd. 2020.

Hugo Pratt also died today in 1995. If you want to learn about him, our most recent review of his magic can be found here.

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Eagle Classics: Harris Tweed – Extra Special Agent


By John Ryan (Hawk Books -1990)
ISBN: 978-0-94824-822-1 (album TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Happy anniversary Eagle!

The son of a diplomat and irrefutably a died-in-wool True Gent, John Ryan was born in 1921, served in Burma and India during WWII and – after attending the Regent Street Polytechnic (1946-48) – took up a teaching post as assistant Art Master at Harrow School from 1948 to 1955. It was during this time that he began contributing strips to comics such as Girl and a newfangled but soon to be legendary weekly comic…

On April 14th 1950, Britain’s grey, post-war gloom was partially lifted with the first issue of a glossy new comic that literally shone with light and colour. Mesmerised children were soon understandably enraptured with the gloss and dazzle of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, a charismatic star-turn venerated to this day, as well as a plethora of strips illustrating some of their favourite radio shows.

Eagle was a tabloid sized paper with full photogravure colour inserts alternating with text and a range of other comic features. Tabloid is a big page and you can get a lot of material onto each one. Deep within, on the bottom third of a monochrome folio was an 8-panel strip entitled Captain Pugwash, the story of a Bad Buccaneer and the many sticky ends which nearly befell him. Ryan’s quirky, spiky style also lent itself to the numerous spot illustrations required every week. Pugwash, his harridan of a wife and the useless, lazy crew of the Black Pig ran until issue #19 when the feature disappeared. This was no real hardship as Ryan had already begun writing and illustrating new feature Harris Tweed – Extra Special Agent which began as a full page (tabloid, remember – an average of 20 panels a page, per week) since #16 (cover-dated July 28th 1950).

Tweed ran for three years as a full page. Then in 1953 it dropped to a half-page strip and deftly repositioned as a purely comedic venture. For our purposes and those of the book under review, it’s those first three years we’re thinking of even if the only decent illustration I could find comes from the 1959 Eagle Annual…

Harris Tweed was a bluff and blundering caricature of the military “Big Brass” Ryan had encountered during The War. In gentler times, the bumbler with a young, never-to-be-named assistant known only as “Boy” solved mysteries and captured villains to general popular acclaim. Thrilling – and often eerily macabre – adventure blended seamlessly with sly yet cheerful schoolboy low comedy in these strips, since Tweed was in fact that most British of archetypes: a bit of a twit and a bit of a sham stumbling through a world of Thud & Blunder…

His totally undeserved reputation as detective and crime fighter par excellence, and his good-hearted yet smug arrogance – as demonstrated elsewhere by the likes of Bulldog Drummond, Dick Barton – Special Agent, or Sexton Blake – somehow endeared the arrogant, posturing buffoon to a young and impressionable public which would in later years take to its heart Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army and, more pointedly perhaps, Peter Sellers’ numerous film outings as Inspector Clouseau. Maybe most of those enthralled kids had an uncle or dad who buffaloed on about the war in just the same way…

Ryan’s art here is particularly noteworthy. Deep moody blacks and intense, sharp, edgy inking creates a constant mood of fever-dream intensity. There are anachronistic echoes and nuances of underground cartoons of more than a decade later, and much of the inevitable ‘brooding, lurking horror’ atmosphere found in the best works of Basil Wolverton. Ryan knew what kids liked and he delivered it by the cartload.

This too-slim, oversized (324 x 234mm x) paperback compilation is all that’s readily available these days, but surely in the era of electronic publishing, some enterprising fan with a complete Eagle collection can link up with a perspicacious publisher someway, somehow and produce a comprehensive compilation of the nation’s most self-lauded sleuth? I simply KNOW today’s TV crowd and dwindling but still-potent ancient 10-year-olds and their grandchildren would just lap him up….
Harris Tweed © 1990 Fleetway Publications. Compilation © 1990 Hawk Books.

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Cannon


By Wally Wood & various, introduction by Howard Chaykin (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-702-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As with any historical perspective addressing popular mass-entertainments and evolving societies, a look back often finds uncomfortable material that can jar some modern sensitivities and set today’s collective hackles rising. That’s especially true of this lovely but confounding collection compiling seldom seen material by one of the industry’s greatest stars…

This is quite frankly a lovely book of beautiful work that I now find hard to recommend to a general audience. That’s more to do with how society has evolved rather than its admittedly always deeply flawed and often unsavoury content…

We all carry within us the seeds of our own destruction and probably none more so than troubled comics genius Wallace Allan Wood (June 17th 1927 – November 2nd 1981): one of the greatest draughtsmen and graphic imagineers our art form has ever produced. Woody was a master of every aspect of the business. He began his career lettering Will Eisner’s Spirit newspaper strip, readily moving into pencilling and inking as the 1940s ended and, ultimately into publishing. After years working all over the comic book and syndicated strip markets, as well as in book illustration, package-design and other areas of commercial art, he devised the legendary T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents franchise and even predated and anticipated the counter-culture’s Underground Commix phenomenon by launching in 1965s one of the first adult-oriented, independent comics: Witzend.

The troubled genius was frequently his own worst enemy. Woody’s life was one of addiction (guns, booze & cigarettes); traumatic relationships; tantalisingly close yet always inevitably frustrated financial security; illness and eventually, suicide. It was as if all the joy and beauty in his existence stayed on the pages and there was none left for real life.

Although during his time with EC Wood became the acknowledged, undisputed Master of Science Fiction art in America, he was equally adept, driven and accomplished in the production of all genres. He was a lusty man and was a pioneer of sexually explicit, ultra-violent (but always beautiful) and titillating comics where sex played a major role. Remember, even if everybody loves comics, it’s not always about superheroes and cosmic quests. Men like sexy comics and cartoons. I’m not saying that it’s right or proper to ogle women, but it is a sad fact of life and has made many publishers rich for centuries. This customer base especially likes looking at beautiful naked women and amongst so very many cartoonists over the decades, Wood was arguably the paramount exponent of the subgenre…

Remarkably and without in any way seeking to apologise for it, I can confirm that this gritty strip was made to entertain REAL-MEN!! It abounds with naked, nude, undraped and forcibly undressed women (and men, but not as many or as often as the women). Somehow less controversially it also heavily features mega violence, and both physical and psychological torture because that’s what the audience wanted. If you don’t believe me go and rewatch Goldfinger (1964) but this time watch and listen closely…

Cannon’s inbuilt misogyny is a feature not a bug with levels of abusive behaviour and conduct that seldom exceed those of any 1960-1970s Bond or Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie. There’s practically no gadgets either, but loads of fast flashy cars, planes and boats… and much sublimely rendered, awesomely accurate ordnance because that’s one thing your average GI or swabbie will spot instantly if fudged…

This cartoon series captures a moment in history that was deeply, deeply unfair to women, even if – for its time – the feature was uncharacteristically racially & socially diverse and most equitable in its treatment of African-American, Hispanic, Arabic and Asian guys. This was probably as much about the target readership – the desegrated but still mostly male US Military Service personnel – as Woody’s views on the Civil Rights movement. Wally was always utterly professional and diligent in all his work commitments and liberated from all editorial constraints, but his own experience gave the audience exactly what they wanted…

Following Howard Chaykin’s ‘Intro’ confirming the best and worst of the legends, the strip unfolds in one unbroken stream of non-stop blockbuster action heavily seasoned with geopolitical themes and contemporary headline fodder. It’s fitting to note here that Woody utilised and mentored dozens of guys who went on to their own notoriety. If you’re a fanatic, you’ll spot many of them – Pearson, Reese, Wenzel, Hama et al – as characters in the strip, but in-jokes aside, this one’s all about satisfying manly urges.

Guaranteeing sex, death and horror and NAKED WOMEN in almost every episode, Cannon by Wood and his ever-shifting studio ran from 1970-1973 in three separate editions of The Overseas Weekly: a tabloid specifically created and disseminated to US military personnel stationed overseas. He & Steve Ditko later recycled the character in an abortive indie publishing venture Heroes, Inc., which we’ll cover at the end.

John Cannon was a U2 pilot captured and tortured by the Red Chinese. Broken and turned into their assassin, he threw off the ministrations of their top brainwasher Madame Toy but suffered a psychological collapse that left him a relentless, emotionless living weapon pointed by the CIA at any target that needed killing.

His successes didn’t affect him at all but did make him a permanent target of the Chinese and Soviet governments. The latter tasked beautiful lethal killer Sue Smith to remove him by any means and at all costs, but her attempts were as frequent and futile as Toy’s, who doggedly and repeatedly seeks to recapture or kill him. Both curvaceous killers spent as much time shagging Cannon as shooting, stabbing, electrocuting, drowning, poisoning, bombing and running over the implacable agent.

Encountering and exterminating hundreds of spies Cold War spies and assassins, Cannon saves US-friendly middle-Eastern Ismiria from infiltration and insurrection; defends US ally Israel from subversion; shatters the schemes (and sleeper agent army) of Comrade Gorsk and saves Latin American San Sierra from both Red-backed rebels and the incumbent US-friendly fascist dictatorship. He even gets to save a few lives along the way, like his own Uncle Fred back in Iowa and charming conman/serial bigamist/accidental hitman Charles M. Fogarty…

At home, Cannon eradicates gangsters and spies as his conditioning begins to fade. No longer a reliable asset, he tries to retire to his old family home but trouble follows and the CIA soon re-recruit him. With Toy & Sue Smith perpetually hunting him and “cat-fighting” each other, Cannon even clashes with killer hippies in a murder commune and an ultra-conservative millionaire with his own private militia seeking to set the nation back on the Right path. John even has a couple of shots at true love and a Happy Ever After, but inevitably learns over and again that “women are just no damn good”…

Along the way he experiences every kind of action from scuba combat to aerial dogfights, and even battles a killer cyborg, He’s particularly adept at ferreting out leftover Nazis and dodges more than his fair share of atomic detonations. This is a strip very much of its time and for adults if not grown-ups, so like many of his audience, our hero even has to face up to the consequences of his actions when one paramour falls pregnant. The wedding is an utter disaster…

As much a document of art history as an expertly-targeted wank-book, Cannon comes with fascinating bonus features for comics fans, beginning a voluminous Appendix section with a brace of long lost cover paintings.

These augment the Roger Hill’s essay ‘The Overseas Weekly Discovery’ detailing the bizarre circumstance that led to the retrieval of the material forming this book, and compliments a

‘Letter by Wallace Wood’ exhorting how the industry must change. These are followed by the tamed down, general audience full-colour Cannon story by Wood & Ditko as seen by almost nobody in 1969’s Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon, and another similar but monochrome lost Wood & Ditko treat from Heroes, Inc. No. 2 (1976) once again kicking the stuffing out of stubborn Nazis by Wood & Ditko. The experience ends as it should with a fulsome and fair “Bio” of Wally Wood by J. David Spurlock.

Fast, furious and ferociously unreconstructed and sexist, this can be a hard read: one packed with pitfalls, but undeniably honest in its intent and delivery. If you like this kind of thing you’ll love it, and if you find it offensive, you’re still free enough for the moment to reject and not buy it. However, if you do feel the urge to condemn, do us all the courtesy of reading it first…
“Intro” © 2014 Howard Chaykin. “The Overseas Weekly Discovery” © 2014 Roger Hill. “Bio” © 2014 J. David Spurlock. Photos © Bhob Stewart & Paul Kirchner. All other contents © 2014 Wallace Wood Properties LLC. All rights reserved.

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Prince Valiant volumes 1-3 Gift Box Set


By Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1 68396-072-0 (boxed set)

Individual volume ISBNs: 978-1-60699-141-1 (HB vol. 1), 978-1-60699-348-4 (HB vol. 2), 978-1-60699-407-8 (HB vol. 3)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today, way back in 1892, a god of comics was born. His work will never die.

Rightly reckoned one of the greatest comic strips of all time, the majestic, nigh-mythical saga of a king-in-exile who became one of the greatest warriors in an age of unparalleled heroes is at once fantastically realistic and beautifully, perfectly abstracted – an indisputable paradigm of adventure fiction where anything is possible and justice always prevails. It is the epic we all want to live in. However, on one thing let us be perfectly clear: Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant is not historical. It is far better and more real than that.

Possibly the most successful and evergreen fantasy creation ever conceived, Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur launched on Sunday 13th February 1937, a glorious weekly, full-colour window not onto the past but rather onto a world that should have been. It followed the tempestuous life of a refugee boy driven by invaders from his ancestral homeland of faraway Thule who persevered and, through tenacity, imagination and sheer grit, rose to become one of the mightiest heroes of the age of Camelot.

As depicted by the incomprehensibly gifted Foster, this noble scion would, over decades, grow to mighty manhood in a heady sea of wonderment: roaming the globe and siring a dynasty of equally puissant heroes whilst captivating and influencing generations of readers and thousands of creative types in all the arts. There have been films, cartoon series and all manner of toys, games and collections based on the feature – one of the few newspaper strips to have lasted from the thunderous 1930s to the present day (well over 4600 episodes and STILL counting) and, even in these declining days of newspaper cartooning, it still claims over 300 American papers as its home.

Foster produced the strip, one spectacular page a week until 1971 when, after auditioning such notables as Wally Wood and Gray Morrow, Big Ben Bolt artist John Cullen Murphy was selected to draw the feature. Foster carried on as writer and designer until 1980, after which he fully retired and Murphy’s son took over scripting duties. In 2004 Cullen Murphy also retired (he died a month later on July 2nd) but the strip soldiered on under the extremely talented auspices of artist Gary Gianni and writer Mark Schultz prior to Thomas Yeates settling in and conquering one more exotic land by making it onto the worldwide web.

The first three exquisite oversized hardback volumes (362 x 268mm) are happily still available as a monumental gift set nobody could resist. They reprint, in glorious colour spectacularly restored from Foster’s original printer’s proofs, the princely pristine Sunday pages cumulatively spanning February 1937 to 20th December 1942: six years of formative forays comprising an impressive saga which promised much and delivered so much more than anybody could have suspected during those dim, distant and dangerous days…

Volume 1 opens with editor Brian M. Kane’s informative picture/photo-packed potted history of ‘Harold Rudolf Foster: 1892-1982’, after which Fred Schreiber conducts ‘An Interview with Hal Foster’ as first seen in Nemo: The Classic Comics Magazine (1984). Additionally, after the Arthurian epic exploits of our quintessential swashbuckling hero, this initial tome is rounded off by Kim Thompson’s discourse on the many iterations of reprints over the years and around the world in ‘A History of Valiants’…

The actual action-packed drama commences in distant Scandinavia as the King of Thule, his family and a few faithful retainers dash for a flimsy fishing boat, intent only on escaping the murderous intentions of a usurper’s army. Their voyage carries them to the barbarous coast of Britain and into battle against bands of wild men before they secure a safe point in the gloomy fens of East Anglia. After many hard fights they reach an uneasy détente with the locals and settle into a harsh life as regal exiles. Prince Valiant is but 5 years old when they arrive, and his growing years in a hostile environment toughen the heir, sharpen his wits and give him an insatiable taste for mischief and adventure. He befriends a local shepherd boy and together their escapades include challenging the marauding ancient dinosaurs which infest the swamp, battling a hulking man-brute and bedevilling a local witch. In retaliation the hag Horrit predicts that Val’s life will be long and packed with incredible feats… but always tainted by great sorrow. All that, plus a constant regimen of knightly training and scholarly tuition befitting an exile learning how to reclaim his stolen kingdom, make the lad a veritable hellion…

Everything changes when his mother passes away. After a further year of intense schooling in the arts of battle, Valiant leaves the Fens, and makes his way in the dangerous lands beyond. Whilst sparring with his boyhood companion, he unsuspectingly insults Sir Launcelot who is fortuitously passing by. Although that noble warrior is sanguine about the cheeky lad’s big mouth, his affronted squire attempts to administer a stern punishment… and is rewarded with a thorough drubbing. Indeed, Launcelot has to stop the Scion of Thule from slitting the battered and defeated man’s throat. Moreover, although he has no arms, armour, steed or money, Valiant swears that he too will be a Knight…

Luck is with the Pauper Prince. After spectacularly catching and taming a wild stallion, his journey is interrupted by gregarious paladin Sir Gawain who shares a meal and regales the wide-eyed lad with tales of chivalry and heroism. When their alfresco repast is spoiled by robber knight Sir Negarth – who unfairly strikes the champion of Camelot – Val charges in. Gawain regains consciousness to find the threat ended, with Negarth hogtied and his accomplice skewered…

Taking Val under his wing, wounded Gawain escorts the lad and his prisoner to Camelot, although their journey is delayed by a gigantic dragon. Val kills it too – with the assistance of Negarth – and spends the rest of the trip arguing that the rogue should be freed for his display of gallantry. Val is still stoutly defending the scoundrel at the miscreant’s trial before King Arthur, and is rewarded by being appointed Gawain’s squire. Unfortunately, he responds badly to being teased by the other knights-in-training and soon finds himself locked in a dungeon whilst his tormentors heal and the remaining Knights of the Round Table ride out to deal with an invasion of Northmen…

Whilst the flowers of chivalry are away, a plot is hatched by scheming Sir Osmond and Baron Baldon. To recoup gambling debts, they capture and ransom Gawain, but have not reckoned on the dauntless devotion and ruthless ingenuity of his semi-feral squire. Easily infiltrating the bleak fortress imprisoning the hero, Valiant liberates his mentor through astounding feats of daring and brings the grievously wounded knight to Winchester Heath and Arthur…

As Gawain recuperates, he is approached by a young maiden. Ilene is in need of a champion and – over his squire’s protests – the still gravely unfit knight dutifully complies. Val’s protests might have been better expressed had he not been so tongue-tied by the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. The quest to rescue Ilene’s parents is delayed when an unscrupulous warrior in scarlet challenges them, intent on himself possessing the lovely maiden. Correctly assessing Gawain to be no threat, the Red Knight does not live long enough to revise his opinion of the wild-eyed boy who then attacks him…

Leaving Ilene and re-injured Gawain with a hermit, Valiant continues on alone to Branwyn Castle, recently captured by an “Ogre” who terrorises the countryside. Through guile, force of arms and diabolical tactics the boy ends that threat forever. This is an astonishing tour de force of graphic bravura no fan could ever forget. Aspiring cartoonist Jack Kirby certainly didn’t: he recycled Val’s outlandish outfit used to terrorise the Ogre’s soldiers into the visual basis for his 1972 horror-hero Etrigan the Demon…

Having successfully routed the invaders and freed Ilene’s family, Val begins earnestly courting the grateful girl, but his prophecy of lifelong misery seems assured, however, when her father regretfully informs him that she is promised to Arn, son and heir of the King of Ord. Even before that shock can sink in, Valiant is called away again. Ailing Gawain has been abducted by sorceress Morgan le Fey, who is enamoured of the knight’s manly charms…

When Val confronts her, le Fey drugs him with a potion and the Prince endures uncounted ages in her dungeon before escaping. Weak and desperate, he makes his way to Camelot and enlists Merlin in a last-ditch ploy to defeat the witch and save his adored mentor. In the meantime, events have progressed, and Val’s bold plans to win Ilene are derailed when invitations to her wedding arrive at Camelot. Initially crushed, the resilient youth determines to travel to Ord and challenge Prince Arn for her hand. Their meeting is nothing like Val imagined but, after much annoying interference, he and the rather admirable Arn finally engage in their oft-delayed death-duel, only to be again distracted when news comes that Ilene has been stolen by Viking raiders…

What follows is another unparalleled moment of comics magnificence as Valiant sacrifices everything for honour, gloriously falls to superior forces, wins possession of Flamberge (the legendary Singing Sword which is brother to Excalibur), is captured and then reunited with Ilene… only to lose her again to the cruellest of fates…

After escaping from the Vikings and covering himself with glory at the Lists in Camelot – although he doesn’t even realise it – the heartsick, weary Prince returns to his father in the melancholy Anglian fens, again encountering ghastly Horrit and nearly succumbing to fever. When he recovers months later, he has a new purpose: he and his faithful countrymen will travel to Thule and rescue the nation from the cruel grip of usurper Sligon. Unfortunately, during the preparations, Valiant discovers his region of Britain has been invaded by Saxons and is compelled by his honour to race to Camelot and warn Arthur first…

To Be Continued…


Volume 2 reprints perfectly-restored Sunday pages from January 1st 1939 to 29th December 1940, following Sir Gawain’s extremely capable squire as he rushes to warn Camelot of invasion by rapacious Saxons via vast Anglian Fens. Here Thule’s Royal Family have hidden since being ousted from their Nordic Island Kingdom by the villainous usurper Sligon. After a breathtaking battle which sees Saxons repulsed and the battle-loving boy-warrior knighted upon the field of victory, Valiant begins a period of globe-trotting. This carries him through the fabled lands of Europe just as the last remnants of the Roman Empire are dying in deceit and intrigue.

Firstly, Val revisits Thule and restores his father to the throne, narrowly escaping the alluring wiles of a conniving beauty with an eye to marrying the Heir Apparent. Quickly bored with palaces, peace and plenty, the roving royal wildcat then encounters a time-twisting pair of mystical perils who show him the eventual fate of all mortals. Sobered but not daunted, he makes his way towards Rome, where he will become unwittingly embroiled in the manic machinations of the Last Emperor, Valentinian. Before that, however, Val is distracted by an epic feat that would have struck stunning resonances for the readership at the time. With episode #118 (14th May 1939) Val joins the doomed knights of mountain fortress Andelkrag, who, alone and unaided, hold back the assembled might of the terrifying hordes of Attila the Hun: a terror who is currently decimating the civilisations of Europe and now marshals his forces to wipe out its last vestige.

With Hitler & Mussolini hogging headlines and Modern European war seemingly inevitable, Val shares the Battle of Decency and Right against untrammelled Barbarism. His epic struggle and sole survival comprise one of the greatest episodes of glorious, doom-fated chivalry in literature…

After the fall of the towers of Andelkrag, Valiant makes his way onward to diminished Rome, picking up a wily sidekick in the form of cutpurse vagabond Slith and is once more distracted and delayed by dastardly Huns. The indomitable lad resolves to pay them back in kind, gathering dispossessed victims of Hunnish depredations and forging them into a resistance army of guerrilla-fighters: the Hun-Hunters. Thereafter he liberates vassal city Pandaris, driving back the invaders and their collaborator allies in one spectacular coup after another.

Valiant eventually reunites with equally action-starved Round Table companions Sir Tristram and Sir Gawain to make further fools of the Hun, who have lost heart after the death of their charismatic leader Attila (nothing to do with Val, just a historical fact). When Slith falls for a warrior princess, the Knights leave him to a life of joyous domesticity and move ever on…

An unexpected encounter with a giant and his unconventional army of freaks leads to the heroes inadvertently helping a band of marshland refugees from Hunnish atrocity, before establishing the nation-state of Venice. Then, at long last – and after a side-trip to the fabulous city of Ravenna – the Courtly trio cross the fabled Rubicon and plunge into a hotbed of political tumult. Unjustly implicated in a web of murder and double-dealing, the knights barely escape with their lives and split up to avoid pursuit. Tristan heads back to England and a star-crossed rendezvous with comely Isolde, Gawain takes ship for some fun in Massilia and Valiant, after an excursion to the rim of fiery Vesuvius, boards a pirate scow for Sicily and further adventure.

To Be Continued…


Volume 3 of the most successful and evergreen fantasy creation ever conceived offers the Sunday pages from January 5th 1941 to 20th December 1942, but only after erudite foreword ‘Modestly, Foster’ by Dan Nadel. The illustrated action opens in the shadow of flaming Vesuvius as Val’s vessel is attacked by self-proclaimed Sea-King Angor Wrack. Even the ferocious warrior-prince’s martial might is insufficient against insurmountable odds and the young Lord is captured and enslaved, his fabled Singing Sword confiscated by the victorious pirate.

Thus begins an astonishingly impressive chapter in the hero’s history. Val becomes a galley slave, escapes and washes up, starving and semi-comatose on the lost shores of the Misty Isles. Delirious, he glimpses his future wife Queen Aleta when she re-provisions his boat before casting him back to the sea’s mercies. The Misty Isles are secure only because of their secret location and the noble girl has broken a great taboo by sparing the shipwrecked lad. Replenished but lost, Val drifts helplessly away but resolves that one day he will discover again the Misty Isles and the enigmatic Aleta…

Eventually he is picked up by more pirates, but overwhelms the captain and takes charge. Finding himself in the island paradise of Tambelaine courting the daughters of the aged King Lamorack, Val encounters Angor Wrack again, but fails to recover the Singing Sword, precipitating an extended saga of maritime warfare and spectacular voyaging across the Holy Land from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The vendetta results in both Angor and Val being taken by Arab slavers, but the Prince nobly allows Wrack to escape whilst he battles Bedouin hordes…

Enslaved in Syria, even Val’s indomitable will and terrifying prowess are insufficient to his need so he seduces his owner’s daughter to effect an escape, only to stumble into a marital spat between the region’s greatest necromancer and his tempestuous bride.

Reaching Jerusalem, Val finally regains his beloved sword and settles his scores with Angor Wrack before determining to return to the hidden Misty Isles, but once again falls afoul of the pirates infesting the region. After incredible hardships, he is reunited with Aleta before fate drags them apart once more. Despondent, he departs alone – but not for long though, as on reaching Athens Val meets far-larger-than-life Viking raider Boltar: a Falstaff-like rogue and “honest pirate”. Together they rove across the oceans to the heart of the African jungles. On securing a huge fortune, their Dragonship reaches Gaul and Val is finally reunited with Gawain, and, after settling a succession of generational feuds between knights and defeating a seductive maniac, the paladins at last return to Britain courtesy of Boltar. This is just in time to be dispatched by Arthur to the far North. The King needs to scout Hadrian’s Wall and see if it can still keep belligerent Picts out. Unfortunately, libidinous Gawain abandons Val and the lad is captured by Caledonian wild-men and their new allies – a far nastier breed of Vikings intent on conquering England…

Tortured nigh unto death, the Prince is saved by the ministrations of Julian – a Roman warrior who has seemingly safeguarded the wall for centuries. And when he is recovered, Prince Valiant begins to inflict a terrible and studied revenge upon his tormentors…

To Be Continued…

Rendered in an astoundingly lovely panorama of glowing images, Prince Valiant is a lyrical juggernaut of stirring action, exotic adventure and grand romance; blending realistic fantasy with sardonic wit, and broad humour with unbelievably dark violence. Here closing text feature ‘Too Violent for American Dog Lovers’ reveals censored panels and changes editors around the world inflicted upon the saga during this period.

Beautiful, captivating and utterly awe-inspiring, Foster’s magnum opus is a World Classic of storytelling, something no adventuresome fan can afford to be without.

Volume 1: All comics material © 2009 King Features Syndicate except Tarzan page, © 2009 ERB Inc. All other content and properties © 2009 their respective creators or holders.
Volume 2: © 2009 King Features Syndicate. All other content and properties © 2009 their respective creators or holders.
Volume 3: © 2011 King Features Syndicate. All other content and properties © 2011 their respective creators or holders. All rights reserved throughout.
Gift Set © 2017 King Features Syndicate. Published by Fantagraphics Books.

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DC Finest: Plastic Man – The Origin of Plastic Man


By Jack Cole, Gil Fox, Will Eisner, Reed Crandall, Al Bryant & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-065-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Jack Ralph Cole (December 14, 1914 – August 13, 1958) was one of the most uniquely gifted talents of American Comics’ Golden Age, crafting landmark tales in horror, true crime, war, adventure and especially superhero genres. His incredible humour-hero Plastic Man remains an unsurpassed benchmark of screwball costumed hi-jinks: frequently copied but never equalled. As the Golden Age faded, Cole could see the writing on the wall and famously jumped into gag and glamour cartooning, becoming a household name when his brilliant watercolour gags and stunningly saucy pictures began running in Playboy from the fifth issue. Ever-restless and innately unsettled, Cole eventually moved into the lofty realms of newspaper strips before, in May 1958, achieving his lifelong ambition by launching a syndicated newspaper strip, the domestic comedy Betsy and Me.

On August 13th 1958 at the moment of his biggest break he took his own life.

The unexplained reasons for his death are not as important as the triumphs of Cole’s artistic life and this captivating paperback (reprinting a rare hardback compilation from 2004) provides a fascinating insight into a transitional moment in his artistic development.

Without doubt – and despite great successes with other heroic characters as well as in the crime and horror genres – Cole’s greatest creation was the zany, malleable Plastic Man. He quickly grew from a minor B-character into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the Golden Age and seemed to be the perfect fantastic embodiment of the sheer energy, verve and creativity of that era when anything went and comics-makers were prepared to try out every outlandish idea…

This premier trade paperback collection reprints the Stretchable Sleuth’s astounding exploits from anthology title Police Comics #1-36 and Plastic Man #1-2, covering the period August 1941 to November 1944. These whacky exploits are unearthed and unleashed from a time when nobody really knew the rules. Creators, publishers and readers were prepared to try literally anything and, by sheer Darwinian processes, the cream of the crop always rose to the top…

The magic begins with a little added extra as most of these tales have retroactively been awarded titles; although most originally appeared without any. The debut and origin of Plastic Man happened in the middle of Police Comics #1, a brief but beguiling 6-pager introducing mobster Eel O’Brian, who is shot by a guard during a factory robbery. Soaked by a vat of acid and instantly, callously, abandoned by his partners in crime, Eel crawls away and is found by a monk who nurses him back to health and proves to the hardened thug that the world is not just filled with brutes and vicious chisellers all after a fast buck.

His entire outlook altered, and somehow now blessed with incredible malleability – he surmises it was the chemical bath mingling with his bullet wounds – Eel opts to put his new powers to use cleaning up the scum he used to run with. Creating the identity of Plastic Man he thrashes his own gang and begins his stormy association with the New York City cops…

Still written, drawn and lettered by Cole, in Police #2 ‘Dueling the Dope Smugglers’ sees Plas apply for a job with the cops, only to be told he can join up if he accomplishes the impossible task of capturing the notorious and slippery Eel O’Brian, currently the Most Wanted crook in eight states…

Ever wily, the Rubber-Band Man bides his time and wins the position anyway by cracking an international dope racket (that’s illegal narcotics, kids) stretching from Canada to Chinatown, whilst in #3’s ‘The Pinball Racket’ he fully capitalises on his underworld reputation and connections to bust up a nefarious mob led by a cunning crook with ears inside the Police Department itself.

The ‘Crime School for Delinquent Girls’ run by Madame Brawn pits the Silly Putty Paladin against a brutal babe intent on taking over the city mobs, and despite getting a thorough trouncing, she and her gang of gal gorillas are back for next issue, having turned her burly hand to a spot of piracy in ‘The Return of Madame Brawn.’ Police Comics #5 (December 1942) also marked a major turning point for Plastic Man, as with that issue he took the cover-spot away from fellow adventurer and failed superstar Firebrand; a position Plas would hold until costumed heroes faded from popularity at the end of the 1940s.

In PC #6 Plas’ burgeoning popularity was graphically reflected in a spookily murderous mystery in ‘The Case of the Disembodied Hands’, whilst in #7 – as Eel – he infiltrates and dismantles the massed forces of the ‘United Crooks of America!’ before #8 has the hero seriously outmatched but still triumphant when battling a colossal, city-crushing giant ‘The Sinister Eight Ball!’ and its decidedly deranged inventor. In #9 the yarns reached an early peak of macabre malevolence as Plastic Man foils a traitorous little mutant dubbed Hairy Arms in ‘Satan’s Son Sells Out to the Japs!’: a darkly bizarre thriller which embraces the hero’s meteoric rise by increasing the regular story-length from six to nine pages.

The carnival of cartoon grotesques continued in #10 as hayseed wannabe-cop Omar McGootch accidentally involves the Malleable Mystery-man in ‘The Cyclop Caper’, a Nazi plot to steal a new secret weapon, whilst #11 finds Plastic Man in mortal combat with the spirit of a 17th century London alchemist whose brain is unearthed and accidentally transplanted into a wounded spitfire pilot. Suddenly gaining incredible mystic powers and menacing mankind, ‘The Brain of Cyrus Smythe’ is still no match for the Pliable Powerhouse…

In Police #12 a desperate blackmailer joined forces with criminal astrologer ‘The Sinister Swami’, who predicts perpetual failure unless Plastic Man is killed, prior to Cole introducing his second most memorable character in #13’s ‘Presenting… the Man Who Can’t be Harmed’.

Despite himself, indolent felonious slob Woozy Winks accidentally saved a wizard’s life and was gifted in return with a gift of invulnerability: all the forces of nature henceforth shielding him from injury or death. Flipping a coin the oaf decided to get rich quick with his power. Unable to stop him, Plas appeals to his sentimentality and better nature and, once Woozy repented, was compelled to keep him around in case he strayed again…

Unlike Omar, Woozy Winks – equal parts Artful Dodger and Mr. Micawber, with the verbal skills and intellect of Lou Costello’s screen persona – would prove the perfect foil for Plastic Man: a lazy, venal, ethically fluid reprobate with sticky fingers who got all the best lines, possessed inexplicable charm and had a habit of finding trouble. It was the perfect marriage of inconvenience…

As stories jumped to 13 pages the new team were set on the trail of Eel O’Brian himself. PC #14 began the snipe hunt with ‘Oh, Plastic Man!’, but during the chase Woozy stumbled onto a slavery racket which soon foundered against his insane luck and Plastic Man’s ingenuity. In a hilarious twist Plas then let Woozy arrest him, but then escaped from under the smug cops’ very noses. When war scientists investigated Plastic Man and Woozy’s uncanny abilities in #15 it led to murder, a hot pursuit to Mexico City and almost a new Ice Age thanks to ‘The Weather Weapon’, whilst in #16 disgruntled Native Americans organised the ‘Revenge of the Chief Great Warrior’ and a movie cast succumbed one by one to a murderous madman in #17 before hilarious #18 revealed what happened after ‘The Drafting of Plastic Man’…

The shockingly intolerable dilemma of all branches of the Armed Services fighting to recruit him was only solved when the President himself seconded Plas to the FBI, where his first case – with Woozy stuck to him like human(ish) moss – saw the Stretchable Sleuth investigating ‘The Forest of Fear!’: a 15 page terror-tale involving a cabal of killers and an army of animated oaks. Police #20 celebrated opening of the ‘Woozy Winks Detective Agency’ as, with Plas temporarily laid up wounded, the rotund rascal took centre stage to solve a robbery in a frantically surreal extravaganza reminiscent of the screwball antics of the musical show/movie Hellzapoppin’ and the anarchic shtick of the Marx Brothers…

The strip just kept getting more popular, and regardless of resource rationing the next step was inevitable. Without doubt – and despite other comic book innovations and triumphs such as Silver Streak, Daredevil, The Claw, Death Patrol, Midnight, Quicksilver, The Barker and The Comet, as well as his uniquely twisted take on the crime and horror tales – Cole’s greatest creation was zany, malleable Plastic Man who exploded from minor back-up into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the Golden Age. Plas was the wondrously perfect fantastic embodiment of the sheer energy, verve and creativity in an era when anything went and comics-makers were prepared to try out every outlandish idea. Moreover he had a classic literary redemption arc and was funny as hell…

Plastic Man debuted in 1943, plopping onto newsstands on December 29th. The premier issue somehow circumvented shortages and government rationing gripping the country at this time, and publishers shaded their bets by giving it a long, Long, LONG shelf life. It was cover-dated February 1944 – but you won’t see any off sale date on the cover – and it was released through subsidiary company Vital Books, rather than as a straight addition to Quality Comics’ prestigious but officially restricted line.

Regardless of the name on the masthead, the mammoth, 64 page tome offered a quartet of stunning tales of humour, heroic hi-jinks and horror, beginning with cover-featured ‘The Game of Death’ in which Plas and his inimitable, generally unwanted assistant set upon the trail of an engrossing mystery and incredible threat posed by a rich man’s gambling club which concealed a sadistic death cult using games of chance to recruit victims – and new disciples. Said assistant was still a lazy slovenly slob, paltry pickpocket, and utterly venal, but he was slavishly loyal and just as blessed with invulnerability: all the forces of nature would henceforth protect him from injury or death – if said forces felt like it….

In ‘Now You See it, Now You Don’t’, the rotund rogue was involved with a goofy Professor and became the wrong guy to watchdog an invisibility spray. The boffin wanted to sell it to the Army but Japanese spies captured both the formula and Plastic Man, and dispatched them to Tokyo for disposal. Of course this simply allowed the Man of a Thousand Shapes to deliver such a sound and vicariously joyful thrashing to the “Dishonourable Sons of Nippon” that it must have had every American kid who saw it jumping for joy…

Cole then touched heartstrings with the tragic tale of ‘Willie McGoon, Dope’ as a hulking but gentle simpleton disfigured by neighbourhood kids became the embittered pawn of a career criminal. The duo’s terrifying crime-wave paralysed the city until Plas and Woozy stepped in. before the stunning solo package closed with ‘Go West Young Plastic Man, Go West’, as Woozy buys a gold mine from a guy in a bar and greedily gallops to Tecos Gulch to make his fortune. By the time Plas arrives to save him from his folly, the corpulent clown has already been framed for rustling and murder…

The pace and invention didn’t let up in monthly Police Comics and #21 featured conspiracy by a financial cabal attempting to corner the nation’s travel and shipping routes. Only one man can counter the impending monopoly but he is missing, seduced by the prognostications of a circus fortune teller. If Plas can’t rescue Sylvester Smirk from ‘The Menace of Serpina’ the country will grind to a standstill. In #22, ‘The Eyes Have It!’ pits Plas & Woozy against a child-trafficking human horror The Sphinx who exercises all his vile resources to regain possession of a little mute boy who has seen too much, before #23’s purportedly supernatural thriller sees the Stretchable Sleuth prove ‘The Ghost Train’ to be no such thing, but only a scam by a shareholder trying to buy up a rail line the Government needs for vital war work.

A rash of tire thefts (also severely rationed during war time) in PC #24 has a grotesquely  sinister purpose as gangsters and a mad scientist join forces to synthesise evil knock-offs of their greatest enemy. ‘The Hundred Plastic Men’ don’t pan out though and Woozy again steals the show – and sundry other items – when addiction to mystery stories leads him and Plas on a deadly chase to discover culprit and cause of #25’s ‘The Rare Edition Murders’.

Over and above his artistic virtuosity, Cole was an astonishingly adept writer. His regular 15-page cases were packed with clever, innovative notions, sophisticated character shtick and far more complex plots than any of his competitors. In #26’s ‘Body, Mind and Soul’ he starts with Plas’ FBI boss discovering his shady past, and builds on it as the exposed O’Brian agrees to take on three impossible cases to prove he really has reformed.

From there it’s all rollercoaster action as the Pliable Paladin rounds up brutish Slugger Crott, ferrets out the true identity of the city’s smartest mob boss and ends the depredations of a tragically cursed werewolf. The rotund rascal again took centre stage – and the cover – in #27 as ‘Woozy Winks, Juror’ hilariously endangered the very nature and sacred process of jurisprudence after being excluded from jury duty. After all, he only had a small criminal record and the impish imbecile was determined to serve, so when a sharp operator gives him a few tips, Woozy was so grateful that he decided to turn his voluminous coat…

The star-struck schmuck dominated again in #28 as Hollywood called and the Flexible Fed agreed to star in a film. However with Mr. Winks as his manager it was inevitable that Plastic Man’s movie would start with intrigue, sex and murder before ending as a furious fun-filled fiasco. Trailing America’s biggest tax-evader draws Plas to ‘Death in Derlin’s Castle’, as the FBI’s Odd Couple follow an absence of money to an historic pile and nefarious scheme with moody movie echoes of Citizen Kane and The Cat and the Canary. Police Comics #30 then offers outrageously odd and supremely surreal saga ‘Blinky Winks and Gooie Louie’ as Plas & Woozy endure incredible peril when ruthless butter-leggers begin supplying illicit spreads to the city’s dairy-deprived (rationing again) denizens. Even dedicated crime-busters like Winks find it hard to resist the lure of the lard, and when a creamy trail unfortunately leads to Woozy’s uncle Blinky, justice must be done. Of course, there are lots of hard-to-find foodstuffs to be found on a farm, but that’s just a happy coincidence…

Coner-dated June 1944, Police Comics #31 offers an outrageous examination of current affairs as the chameleonic cop investigates ‘The Mangler’s Slaughter Clinic’ wherein fit & healthy draft-dodgers go to get brutalised, broken and guaranteed certifiably unfit for active duty. The biggest mistake these canny crooks make is kidnapping Woozy and trying their limb-busting procedures on a man(like) protected by the forces of nature…

Police #32 details ‘The La Cucaracha Caper’ wherein ultra-efficient Plas is forcibly sent on vacation to give cops and FBI a break and time to process all the crooks the Ductile Detective has corralled. What no-one expected was the last gangsters left un-nabbed would also head south of the border to escape their nemesis (and Woozy) who soon find far more than Sun, Señoritas and Bullfights in a sleepy Mexican resort…

‘Plastic Man’s Rubber Armor’ headlined in #33 as a crazed saboteur stretches our hero’s resources and reason in his mad mission to destroy a vital prototype plane for the most implausible of reasons, which all neatly segues into Plastic Man #2 (August 1944), offering a quartet of brilliant gems, beginning with ‘The Gay Nineties Nightmare’, wherein Plas & Woozy trail the worst rats of the underworld to a hidden corner of America where they can’t be touched. Due to clerical errors, No Place, USA had been left off all official maps and huffily withdrew from the Union in the 1890s. The FBI can’t enforce justice there, but maybe two good men – or one and Woozy – can…

Satire is replaced by outrageous slapstick as mild-mannered Elmer Body became a man who could switch bodies in ‘Who’s Who’, using his newfound gift to experience all the joys and thrills his dull life had denied him. When Plas realises he couldn’t catch or hold the identity thief, all he could do was offer better candidates for possession…

In hot pursuit of Fargo Freddie, the stretchable sleuth accidentally chases the killer into a Mexican volcano, and, thinking the case closed heads home, unaware that a miraculous circumstance has transformed his target into ‘The Lava Man’. His resultant revenge rampage sets nations ablaze until Plas resorts to brains and not bouncy brawn. The issue closes with a tale of urban horror as Plas & Woozy are dispatched to a quiet hamlet where everyone’s been driven crazy – even the medics and FBI agents sent in to investigate – in ‘Welcome to Coroner’s Corners’…

An untitled tale in Police #34 introduces a well-meaning if screwball campaigner determined to end Plas’ maltreatment of malefactors by organising “Serena Sloop’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Criminals”. Sadly, the old biddy’s philanthropy takes a big hit after she actually meet the crooks she’s championed, whilst ‘The Confession of Froggy Fink’ in PC #35 threatens to tear the entire underworld apart: if Plas gets hold of it before so many concerned members of the mastermind’s gang do. Cue frantic chases, and lots of double-dealing back-stabbing cathartic violence…

We fold for now with #36 as a gang of brutal thieves hide out in the isolated but idyllic paradise of ‘Dr. Brann’s Health Clinic’, turning the unprofitable resort into a citadel of crime… until Plas &Woozy opt to take a rest cure themselves…

With stunning covers by Cole, Gil Fox, Will Eisner, Reed Crandall & Al Bryant, these tales remain exciting, innovative, thrilling, breathtakingly original, funny, scary and visually intoxicating over 80 years later. Jack Cole’s Plastic Man is a truly unique creation that has only grown in stature and appeal and this is a magical comics experience fans would be crazy to deny themselves.
© 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman The Golden Age Sundays volume 1: 1943-1946


By Jerry Siegel and “DC Comics”, Wayne Boring, Jack Burnley, Stan Kaye, Ira Snappin, &various (IDW/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-61377-797-8 (HB)

This book includes REALLY Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times and under the madness of war.

The comic book industry would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s bold and unprecedented invention was fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation and quite literally gave birth to a genre… if not an actual art form.

The Man of Tomorrow was shamelessly copied, adapted by countless inspired writers and artists for numerous publishers, spawning an incomprehensible army of imitators and variations within three years of his summer 1938 debut.

Yes, 87 YEARS… and still counting!

The intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and triumphal wish-fulfilment expressed by the early Action Ace expanded to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reformist dramas, science fiction/fantasy, romance, comedy and, once war in Europe and the East also engulfed America, absorbed and reinforced patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do. Superman was master of the world and whilst transforming and dictating the shape of the fledgling funnybook industry, relentlessly expanded into all areas of entertainment media.

We might think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as the epitome and acme of comic strip creation, but the truth is that very soon after his debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, and Sherlock Holmes. Diehard comics fans regard our purest, most enduring icons in primarily graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, The Avengers and their hyperkinetic ilk long ago outgrew four-colour origins to become fully mythologized modern media creatures, instantly recognised in mass markets across all platforms and age ranges. Far more people have viewed or heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comics.

However, his globally syndicated newspaper strips reached untold millions, and by the time of his 20th anniversary – at the very start of what we know as the Silver Age of Comics – he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial regular and starred in a series of astounding animated cartoons, as well as two films and a novel by George Lowther.

Superman was a perennial wellspring for toy, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers and had just ended his first smash live-action television serial. In his future were many more shows, a stage musical, many blockbuster movies and almost seamless succession of games, bubblegum cards and TV cartoons beginning with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and continuing ever since. Even superdog Krypto got in on the small-screen act…

However, in his formative years the small screen was simply an expensive novelty for many. The Action Ace achieved true mass market fame through a different medium: one not that far removed from his print origins.

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the last century newspaper strips were the Holy Grail all American cartoonists/graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and frequently the world – they might be seen by millions if not billions, of readers and were generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books. At that time it also paid far better, and rightly so. Some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were created to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them grew to be part of a global culture. Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Blondie, Charlie Brown and many more escaped humble and tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Some still do…

After years lost in obscurity, almost all of Superman’s early newspaper strip exploits are at last available to aficionados and the curious newcomer in tomes such as this one, compiled under the auspices of the Library of American Comics. Showcasing the tough transitional period when Shuster’s diminishing eyesight overlapped Siegel’s military service and other minds and hands increasingly steered their super-baby the full colour strips here cover episodes #184 – #353, covering May 9th 1943 to August 4th 1946.

The daily Superman newspaper comic strip launched on 16th January 1939, supplemented by the full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Initially crafted by Siegel & Shuster and an ever-growing studio – Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring – the mammoth, relentless task required the additional talents of luminaries like Jack Burnley and writers Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz, especially as the draft deprived DC and McClure of those talented gentlemen. Managed by the McClure Syndicate, the feature ran continuously from 1939 until May 1966, appearing at its peak in more than 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers, boasting a combined readership of more than 20 million. When the Christopher Reeve Superman film franchise began, a second newspaper strip did too, starting in 1978 as The World’s Greatest Superheroes before becoming simply Superman. It folded in 1985. The combined series totalled almost 12,000 newspaper strips, but I strongly suspect that no matter how good the new movie is, the parlous state of newspaper publishing won’t be able to support a fresh tabloid iteration. I would love to be wrong…

For most of the war years Wayne Boring and Jack Burnley handled the visuals. Seigel was called up in 1943, as were Sikela and Nowak, and scripts were anonymously generated in-house at DC. When Burnley began his Starman comic book series, Boring (working for DC/National, not Shuster’s Superman Studio) was back on Sundays, with inker Stan Kaye signing up for the long haul, reinforced by steadfast Ira Snappin filling narrative boxes and word balloons throughout.

For reasons covered in previous collections, Superman was generally stuck on the home front as ordinary US fighting men proudly got blown up and maimed, but as the war progressed, those high-minded and pragmatically framed (editorial) edicts began to slip. Let’s face it, even the youngest readers knew Superman could have ended the conflict in hours but, like USO tours, the Man of Steel’s job was entertainment not solutionising. Thus, at least initially, content remained carefully curated tales of emotional dilemmas, romances and pedestrian criminality rather than muscle-flexing bombast, utilising mystery, fashion, wit and satire as substitutes for bludgeoning action…

Following affable appreciation in ‘An Introduction’ by Mark Waid, weekly wonderment commences in all its vibrant glory at the height of hostilities. Sadly, individual serial stories are untitled, so you’ll just have to manage with my meagre synopses of individual yarns; and it’s important to note that during this time Seigel finally left for boot camp and a number of often anonymous scribes were pulled in to take his place…

We open with Burnley rendering a serial saga as 4F reporter Clark Kent is assigned to follow and write on the experience of “Model Air Cadet” Dave Cooper as he progresses through training. Naturally, the proposed series presents a perfect opportunity for spies to deliver a shattering propaganda coup, but even after sneaky Nazi uber-strategist Eyeglasses takes charge of a sustained but continually failing campaign of sabotage, character assassination, framing and attempted murder, somehow Dave gets ever nearer to his goal of serving his country as an American Airman without ever knowing how much Superman helped…

With Boring at the drawing board a whole new concept took over the Sunday strip from August 15th as the Action Ace – responding to mail from servicemen overseas – sets up wish-fulfilment service ‘Superman’s Service for Servicemen’.

Apparently based on genuine GI letters from service people reading the strip wherever they were stationed, the following weeks and months found the hero scanning a postcard and then making a wish come true. These included flying soldiers across the world to get the most out of 24-hours passes; playing cupid; chasing off Home Front wolves and solving other “Dear John…” crises; checking for infidelity (he even helps WACs confirm that their far-deployed lovers are staying true!); crushing an invasion of sabotage-intent Gremlins infesting Metropolis and getting one Pacific-stranded soldier home in time for Christmas… and the birth of his first child…

Ranging far and wide, Superman delivers a kangaroo to an officer’s little girl; delivers late or lost mail to every stranded warrior; helps women decide which branch of the auxiliary services they should volunteer for; tracks down four separated pals lost on different missions; handles the KP duties for an entire army camp; supplies a busload of burlesque entertainers for joy-strapped GIs; assuages nervous mothers’ concerns on the lack of luxury in service barracks; criss-crosses oceans to facilitate marriages; retrains square pegs in over their heads; mediates service legal disputes; helps one lonely soldier enlist his pet pooch and much, much more…

Naturally, any enemy shipping, aviation, ordnance or personal encountered during these humanitarian sorties did not fare well at the mighty hands of the Man of Steel, such as a second sneak attack of 200 Japanese bombers seeking to ambush embattled troops and a similar land-based assault on our boys. Eventually as newspaper time catches up with real-world events, Superman acts as escort to flighty Sally Wilshire as she witnesses first-hand the D-Day landing and beyond…

Sadly, not included here is an oddment of publishing history and doctrine that will hopefully make it to future editions. In 1943, McClure – concerned that circulation might dip if Superman did not appear regularly – urged DC to create a spin-off feature. The abortive result was Lois, Lane, Girl Reporter. Intended as filler for emergencies, a trial run of 12 strips ran above Superman Sunday pages in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, sporadically between  October 24th 1943 and February 27th 1944, but are not seen here…

Back on the Superman Service, the ultimate expression of the service was when the Wonder of the Age astoundingly grants the wish of arrogant Japanese Major Saki Sukiyaki, and turns a planned propaganda triumph for the foe into a spectacular victory for democracy…

After more than a year, as the war staggered to its conclusion, continuity drama returned to Superman, albeit still laced with contemporary themes. Strip #263 (November 12th 1944) began a tale exploring the traumas of being demobilised as Clark encounters old pal Elmer Kronk, whose casual reaction to a string of near-lethal accidents is most disturbing…

Reinstating Superman’s service for servicemen – with a side-order of civilian reintegration – took the feature into the last year of the conflict with the emphasis very much on mopping up and going home, but boasts one last bizarre hurrah spanning #279-282 (March 4th – 25th 1945) as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and rest of the insane inner circle use the service to invite the literal Übermensch to a conference where he can take up his natural place as one of them…

Then Lois exploits her relationship for a private service. Having been a volunteer ambulance driver, she wants the Action Ace to visit and cheer up disabled servicemen. That’s easy enough to accomplish but the hero runs with the idea and organises an entire support organisation from those women no longer employed as war workers, but it’s a big job with some weird turns in store. Before long the Man of Tomorrow is finally battling Japanese soldiers in the skies over the Pacific, before heading home to help a young man struggling with uninformed parents and a massive case of “battle fatigue”, and another poor soul who somehow mislaid the army’s cash payroll…

Although the war against Japan ended with unconditional surrender on August 14th 1945 – and officially on September 2nd – preprepared stories kept coming that kept affairs on a strictly martial note. In #306 (September 9th) the failing militarists instigated a scheme to create their own superman with crudely hilarious (by 1940s standards) results, before Superman played matchmaker to a marriage-hungry war-hero seeking a “Dream Girl” to wed…

A sign of changed times came at last with episode #317 (November 25th 1945) as a thematic reset looked forward by looking back. Here, a much enhanced and expanded origin saga began with Jor-El & Lara accepting doom on Krypton, infant Kal-El’s flight to Earth, childhood in Smallville and Clark’s first days at the Daily Planet and nights as Superman…

Clearly the stars were his destination, and the new year brought a new direction. With #326 (27th January 1946) a return to contemporaneity saw the deep thinker Professor Vern build a Rocketship and drag Lois to Saturn with him. Thankfully, when the voyage inevitably hits trouble, Superman is able to follow and rescue them from a thousand perils and the solicitude of oppressive mega civilisation Suprania. It’s a close-run thing though, as fabulous High Queen Arda really likes the Kryptonian and isn’t married at the moment…

A return to Earth in every way prompts a human-scaled story of mystery, murder and romance amongst circus folk as the Man of Tomorrow must navigate a happy course between rivals Sadface the Clown and high wire artist Breakstone as they bring acrimony and woe to Warnum & Wailey’s 3-ring extravaganza whilst battling without let or restraint for the love of comely aerialist Carlotta…

Happily, Lois & Clark are there to adjudicate, referee, spot the deathtraps and reap the headlines in a Big Top thriller comprising episodes #339-353 (28th April – 4th August 1946)…

Although that one concludes on a happy note, generally it’s all To Be Continued…

Superman: The Golden Age Sunday Pages 1943-1946 is the first of three huge (312 x 245mm), lavish, high-end hardback collections starring the earliest and always transitional Man of Tomorrow. It’s an inexpressible joy to see these “lost” stories, offering a far more measured, domesticated and comforting side of America’s most unique contribution to world culture. It’s also a pure delight to see some of the hero’s most engaging yesterdays. Join me and see for yourself…
Superman ™ & © 2013 DC Comics. All rights reserved. The Library of American Comics is a trademark of The Library of American Comics LLC. All rights reserved. SUPERMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics.

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Ka-Zar Marvel Masterworks volume 2


By Mike Friedrich, Steve Gerber, Carol Seuling, Ross Andru, Don Heck, Dan Adkins, Jim Starlin, Marie Severin, Werner Roth, George Tuska, Paul Reinman, Mike Royer, Bob Brown, Sal Buscema, Gene Colan & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0966-6 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are quite a few comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but a few are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I’m again abusing my privileges and advising an encounter with something old, nigh forgotten but definitely worth a soupçon of your time and energies…

IT’S A JUNGLE OUT THERE! …and apparently everywhere else, too…

Retconned from a pulp hero and latterly comics B-Lister from the early days of Timely comics, primal white jungle god Ka-Zar most accurately stems from 1965 where he stole the show in a dinosaurs & mutants yarn in X-Men #10.

Beginning as a cheeky Tarzan tribute act relocated to a lost world in a realm of swamp-men and dinosaurs, Ka-Zar eventually evolved into one of Marvel’s more complex – if variable – characters. Fabulously wealthy heir to one of Britain’s oldest noble families, his bestest friend is “sabretooth tiger” Zabu and his wife is feisty environmental-crusader Shanna the She-Devil. His dad was apparently a mad scientist, his brother a homicidal super-scientific modern day pirate. Kevin Reginald, Lord Plunder is perpetually torn between the clean life-or-death simplicity of the wilds and bewildering constant compromises of modern civilisation.

The primordial paragon is arguably Marvel’s oldest star, having begun life as a prose star, boasting three issues of his own pulp magazine between October 1936 and June 1937. They were authored by Bob Byrd – a pseudonym for publisher Martin Goodman or one of his retinue of staff writers. Goodman latterly shoehorned him into his speculative venture: new-fangled comic book Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939), where he lurked alongside fellow pulp line graduate The Angel, Masked Raider, Human Torch and Sub-Mariner…

In the sixties, when Ka-Zar reappeared he was all rowdy, reimagined and renovated by Jack Kirby for X-Men #10 (cover-dated March but actually on sale from January 5th), and it was clear the uncrowned Sovereign of the Savage Land was destined for bigger and better things. However, for years all we got was guest shots as a misunderstood foe du jour for Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Spider-Man, and The Hulk.

In 1969 he got his shot as a lone wolf starring in Marvel Super-Heroes. Later that year – after Roy Thomas & Neal Adams used him so effectively in their X-Men run (issues #62-63) – Ka-Zar was awarded his own giant-sized title, reprinting most of his previous appearances. However, the reruns oddly bracketed all-new stories of Hercules and The Angel (the new one from X-Men not the costumed detective of the 1940s). That same month, his first solo series began in a split book entitled Astonishing Tales…

Gathering material from Astonishing Tales #17-20, Shanna the She-Devil #1-5, Ka-Zar (volume 2) #1-5 and Daredevil #110-112, spanning cover-dates December 1972 through August 1974, this sequel compilation volume begins with reminiscences from Mike Friedrich and Carole Petersen-Sueling in two separate (but equal) Introductions.

Previously, Ka-Zar & Zabu’s idyllically brutal lives hunting dinosaurs and battling aliens, gods, wizards and lost civilisations in the Savage Land had been turned on its head with the arrival of apparently irresistible S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Barbra “Bobbi” Morse (who becomes costumed spy/Avenger Mockingbird many years from now) and aging biologist Dr. Wilma Calvin. Their quest for a Super-soldier formula dragged the wild man across continents to Florida and into conflict with Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), the Man-Thing, super-mercenary Gemini and, on reaching New York City, drug lord dope peddler The Pusher…

Increasingly enamoured of Morse, Ka-Zar opts to give the modern world another go, but increasingly comes to despise the greed, the dirt, the greed, the callous brutality and the sheer greed of civilisation, especially after encountering the drug crisis first hand…

Culture clash conflict resumes with ‘Target: Ka-Zar!’ as crafted by Friedrich, Dan Adkins & Frank Chiaramonte for April 1973’s Astonishing Tales #17. Here, the Jungle Lord’s impatience and discontent are magnified when AIM again tries to snatch Calvin’s prototype serum, employing gunmen on the ground and ultimately super-mercenary Gemini to humiliatingly grab the formula from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s helicarrier and making Ka-Zar and Zabu look like idiots in the process…

Pride stung and mad as hell, the wild man follows Gemini to earth and falls into an ambush laid by his brother Parnival and backed up by his pet alien monster. Hired by AIM to secure the serum the Plunderer has the upper hand when ‘Gog Cometh!’ since the childlike colossus is lethally loyal and can teleport on command. He/it is also growing larger every minute…

The saga spirals out of control as Ka-Zar wins a rematch with Gemini but loses the serum sample to The Plunderer who heads for Manhattan whilst in Land’s End, England, another strand of the search for super-soldiers culminates with AIM scientist Professor Victor Conrad surviving a gun battle with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents by taking his own medicine…

Back in the USA, late-arriving Bobbi Morse and Zabu give the blonde barbarian a lift to Manhattan in time to channel the end of King Kong, as the ever-enlarging Gog runs amok with the local landmarks before confronting its destiny on top of the city’s tallest building, even as, far below, the strictly human clashes result in triumph for the forces of right and wonders of chemistry…

With the serum recovered and his honour upheld, the Noble Savage realises that – other than Bobbi – there is nothing about civilisation that please him, but as he ponders that and pines for the Savage Land, one last loose thread needs tying off as a new threat seizes control of AIM and seeks redress for past sins. Inked by Jack Abel, and with Jim Starlin stepping in to complete the episode begun by Adkins, AT #19 reveals ‘…And Men Shall Name Him… Victorius!’ as Conrad abducts agent Morse to obtain S.H.I.E.L.D.’s version of the formula that made him an unstoppable warrior. When Ka-Zar & Zabu track him down he rejects taking the serum himself and attacks the scientist, Gemini and brother Parnival in all his purely human might and main…

Marie Severin, Werner Roth & Frank Giacoia wrap up the run as Astonishing Tales # 20 (October 1973) depicts ‘The Final Battle!’ before Ka-Zar returns to his (un)natural environment and a new solo title, pausing only to crush his assembled foes turn down a job with Nick Fury and briefly regret losing Bobbi to the Big City….

Before that new beginning though, there’s a slight chronological sidestep to introduce a soon-to-be-crucial character who came and went with little fanfare a few months previously. As the costumed cohort craze subsided with the close of the Sixties, Stan Lee & Roy Thomas looked into creating a girl-friendly boutique of female stars written by women.

Opening shots in this act of liberation were Claws of the Cat by Linda Fite, Marie Severin & Wally Wood (who at least knew how to draw them) and Night Nurse by Jean Thomas & Win Mortimer. Both #1’s were cover-dated November 1972 and despite impressive creative teams none of these fascinating experiments lasted beyond a fifth issue, although a third shot was kept from limbo by some judicious teamwork. The caregiver vanished for decades and the feline fury mutated into Tigra, the Were-Woman in Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974), and even though their experimental comrade stuck around, the general editorial position was upheld… “books starring chicks don’t sell…”

Contemporary jungle queen – possibly the last hurrah of an extremely popular genre subset in Fifties comic books – Shanna the She-Devil #1 was created by Carole Seuling, Steve Gerber & George Tuska, and on sale from 29th August with a December 1972 cover date.

Inked by Vince Colletta, Shanna the She-Devil #1 debuted in a touching and troubled tale, detailing how the gun-hating daughter of Africa-based American game warden Gerald O’Hara became a vet in Manhattan. Wrapped in a contemporary framing sequence, ‘Shanna the She-Devil!’ recalls her origin whilst stalking ruthless poachers ravaging a game preserve in modern-day Africa.

The clash and her capture prompt memories of how, decades previously, she had fled that verdant world of casual slaughter to save lives… and how a moment of casual atrocity by “fun-loving” American gun nuts in the zoo where she worked led to the death of all its big cats bar two panther cubs she saved and fled to Africa with…

Recreating herself as guardian of nature, rearing the kittens Ina & Biri and training her body to the peak of physical readiness and unarmed combat prowess, Shanna O’Hara became a legend to the local peoples, a trusted and valuable ally to game warden Patrick McShane and a nemesis to all interlopers endangering the balance of nature or disrupting its uncompromising harmony…

Two months later Sueling, Ross Andru & Colletta exposed ‘The Sahara Connection!’ as Shanna acquiesces to the desperate requests of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jakuna Singh and uses her gifts and cats to crush drug-peddling human traffickers El Montano and Abdullah after which ‘The Moon of the Fear-Bulls!’ finds her fighting the murderous thralls of a lost Minoan colony sacrificing entire African villages to their lost gods and current chief Phobotauros: a maniac with an unsavoury secret…

Gerber scripted Seuling’s plot for #4 as ‘Cry… Mandrill!’ introduced one of Marvel’s wildest mutants. Searching for her vanished father, Shanna inadvertently unravels a conquest plot to subjugate three emerging African nations by the ape-visaged maniac with the power to control women – except apparently Shanna… usurped and captured, Mandrill scores one minor victory by admitting Gerald O’Hara is his hostage…

The series abruptly folded with #5 cover-dated August 1973, but as we’ll see here later, the She-Devil carried on via judicious team-ups and eventually scored a continuance of solo sagas in matured-themed monochrome magazine Savage Tales.

Here and now, Gerber, Andru & Colletta reveal ‘Where Nekra Walks – Death Must Follow!’ as Jakuna Singh, S.H.I.E.L.D. and FBI agent Amos Duncan request Shanna’s participation in dismantling the still-active organisation of Mandrill’s enthralled women: a task necessitating a quick consult with mutant advisor Professor Charles Xavier…

The trail then leads to barbarous ceremonies held by the villain’s top subordinate, a brutal superstrong mutant who stokes hatred to feed on the emotion and augment her powers. Directing all her loathing at Shanna makes Nekra physically unbeatable, but being angry all the time is no help if your opponent can stay calm and clear-headed…

Cover dated January 1974, Ka-Zar #1, (volume 2, and on sale from September 25th 1973) boasted the adventurer’s ‘Return to the Savage Land!’, courtesy of Friedrich, Paul Reinman & Mike Royer, and teasingly saw Shanna in a cameo as the victim du jour.

Being parachuted in by S.H.I.E.L.D. was the last modern convenience Kevin Plunder would stomach. Within minutes he was back battling behemoths in his furry underwear and announcing his return to all the primitive tribes, but Ka-Zar was blithely unaware that a new menace lurked. Evil necromancer Malgato, the Red Wizard sought power and control and used the Jungle Lord’s most despised enemy Maa-Gor the Man-Ape to carry out his schemes. These almost come together after a brief history of Ka-Zar’s kingdom, when a pteranosaur ambush leads to our stalwart hero being held for sacrifice beside a strikingly beautiful red-headed woman in a leopard-skin bikini…

Don Heck & Jack Abel limned the catastrophic conclusion and ‘The Fall of the Red Wizard!’ as faithful Zabu comes to the rescue, unleashing utter chaos, routing the wizard and latterly proving the mage and his mission were never what they seemed…

Issue #3 played out on the ‘Night of the Man-God!’ as Maa-Gor, humiliated again by the puny human, undertakes a trek to the mutagenic Region of Mists and gets boosted far up the evolutionary ladder. Transformed into a telepathic wonder, he still clings to his hatred of Ka-Zar and psychically connects to old X-Men villain El Tigre, drawing him to the Savage Land to trap his foe. The ambush succeeds, but only until Bobbi Morse shows up intent on settling unresolved issues. Battling the villains and stopping Man-God’s plans to despoil the wild sanctuary is a welcome break for both unhappy lovers but the battle carries over into #4, albeit broken here by a fabulous maps section entitled ‘Ka-Zar Presents The Savage Land’…

Plotted by “Bullpen West”, written by Friedrich and illustrated by Heck & Royer, ‘Into the Shadows of Chaos!’ sees Ka-Zar and all his allies crushed as the Man-God broadcasts global threats of extinction, before distracting himself by resurrecting his dead Man-Ape kin to destroy his most despised foe. The issue concludes with a Royer pin-up of ‘Ka-Zar’s Lair!’ before Mike Esposito inks the epic downfall of the monster in #5’s ‘A Man-God Unleashed!’ wherein a desperate Jungle monarch – and Bobbi – trash the anthropoidal zombies and Maa-Gor falls victim to his own doubts…

Ka-Zar would soon experience a complete change of outlook and genre, but the saga of Shanna and Mandrill carried on in series scripted by Gerber. Here, an excerpt from Daredevil #109 and longer extract from Marvel Two-in-One #3, bring DD, Black Widow, The Thing and, briefly, Captain America into the ongoing war with a sinister terrorist group…

In DD #109 (by Gerber, Bob Brown & Heck), Foggy Nelson’s radical student sister Candace tells Matt Murdock of a plot by criminal gang Black Spectre to steal government printing plates. En route to stop the raid the Scarlet Swashbuckler is intercepted by The Beetle and this brutal interference allows the sinister plotters to abscond with the prize. Even as the exoskeleton-clad thugs break away in Manhattan, in San Francisco Natasha Romanova is attacked by Nekra, Priestess of Darkness, who tries to forcibly recruit her into Black Spectre.

After defeating the Beetle, DD meets Africa-based champion Shanna O’Hara, unaware the fiery American ex-pat is seeking bloody vengeance against enemies who have attacked Foggy, Natasha and the US economy… and murdered her father…

Marvel Two-in-One #3 (Gerber, Sal Buscema & Joe Sinnott) peeped ‘Inside Black Spectre!’ as destabilising attacks on prosperity and culture foment riot in the streets of the beleaguered nation. Following separate clue trails, Ben Grimm joins the Man Without Fear to invade the cabal’s aerial HQ, before they are improbably overcome soon after discovering the Black Widow has defected to the rebels…

Reprinted in full, DD #110 (Gerber, Gene Colan & Frank Chiaramonte) sees perfidious plot ‘Birthright!’ expose Black Spectre as an exclusively female-staffed group, personally led by pheromone-emitting male mutant Jerome Beechman AKA Mandrill. One of the earliest “Children of the Atom”, he endured years of appalling abuse and rejection until he met equally ostracised Nekra. Once they realised their combined power, they swore to make America pay…

Brown & Jim Mooney drew ‘Sword of the Samurai!’ in #111, with DD & Shanna attacked by a formidable Japanese warrior, even as the She-Devil discloses her tragic reasons for hunting Nekra and Mandrill. When she too is taken by Black Spectre – who want to dissect her to discover how she can resist Mandrill’s influence – DD is attacked again by an outrageously powerful sword-wielding Silver Samurai…

Triumphing over impossible odds, the Man Without Fear infiltrates the cabal’s flying fortress in #112 to spectacularly conclude the insurrection in ‘Death of a Nation?’ (Colan & Frank Giacoia), which finds the mutant duo seemingly achieving their ultimate goal by desecrating the White House and temporarily taking (symbolic) control of America… But only until Shanna, freshly-liberated Natasha and the fighting mad Man Without Fear marshal their utmost resources…

With covers throughout by Adkins, John Romita, John Buscema, Gil Kane, Frank Brunner, Frank Giacoia, Jim Steranko, Joe Sinnott, Ron Wilson and Colan, this remarkably collegiate collection concludes with tantalising treats including house ads, cover sketches by Romita, original art by Brunner, Heck, Abel and Royer plus a truly copious creator biographies section…

Boldly bombastic if sometimes madly muddled, brilliantly escapist and crafted by some of the biggest and best in comics, these wild rides and riotous romps are timeless fun from the borderlands of Marvel’s endless universe: a fabulous excursion to forgotten worlds you’ll want to treasure forever…
© 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Star Cat – Unicorns in Space


By James Turner & Yasmin Sheikh (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-356-1 (TPB)

Never forget: all the best cats are ginger, and especially so if space is their back yard and litter box…

Way back in January 2012, Oxford-based David Fickling Books made a rather radical move by launching a traditional anthology comics weekly aimed at under-12s. It revelled in reviving the good old days of picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and content.

Each issue still features humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. Since then The Phoenix has established itself a potent source of children’s entertainment as, like The Beano and The Dandy, it is equally at home to boys and girls, and has mastered the magical trick of mixing amazingly action-packed adventure series with hilarious humour strip serials such as this one.

One of the wildest rides of the early days was Space Cat by James Turner (Super Animal Adventure Squad, Mameshiba, The Unfeasible Adventures of Beaver and Steve). His yarns entertained us for ages before, eventually Yasmin Sheikh (Luna the Vampire) joined in – a hopefully unendingly collaboration to amuse us all for years to come…

Like an animalistic Red Dwarf, the premise is timeless and instantly engaging, detailing far-out endeavours of spacefaring nincompoops in classic mock-heroic manner. There’s so very far-from-dauntless and possibly neurotic Captain Spaceington; extremely dim and utterly unschooled amoeboid Science Officer Plixx; inarticulate, barely housebroken feral beastie The Pilot and disdainfully arrogant Robot One, who quite erroneously believes itself at the forefront of the cosmos’ smartest thinkers. The colossal, void-busting vessel the Captain and his substandard crew traverse the universe in looks like a gigantic ginger tom, and that’s because that’s what it is: half cat, half spaceship. What more do you need to know?

After briefly reconnecting with the interstellar imbeciles via info spread ‘Welcome Aboard’, the ramshackle roving resumes in ‘Chapter 1: Deity Dishes’ as our stellar sentinels are tasked with testing a breakthrough in cosmic power production and storage. Omega Toroids are so potent and jam-packed with energy that they can’t be used in series or left together, but as the Captain and Plixx install a single unit in the Star Cat’s engine, overconfident know-it-all Robot One’s craving for donuts creates a mix-up of potentially devastating proportions after mistakenly stuffing his metal maw with all the remaining toroids and getting an inadvertent upgrade to all-conquering star-god status. Sadly, despite the boost, he’s still intrinsically him and becomes the cause of his own downfall while ravaging the Pixie planet…

Supervising chicken-on-a-mission The Space Mayor then despatches his top team (no, Spaceington & Co…) on an urgent mission to end a rubber chicken shortage on Clowntopia-8. So desperate is the crisis that, against all advice and common sense, they consider a short cut through the notorious Spooky Quadrant… and literally live to regret it after encountering all the horrors of the damned at sinister Space Castle Spaceferatu in ‘Chapter 2: Nothing to Fear Except Fear Itself’.

Just purely coincidentally, the creepy citadel in space that is reputed to hold the most unimaginably priceless treasure in the universe has no impact on the team making that diversion short cut. However, even with Robot-One’s “Moral Dilemma Mode” activated, they make the wrong decision and it proves as useless as all the rest of R-1’s upgrades in dealing with the terrifying and sneaky Space Vampyr…

Deplorably deranged, terrifying two-dimensional tyrant/archenemy Dark Rectangle reappears in ‘Chapter 3: Flat Out’, when his trusty hench-being Murky Hexagon begs Spaceington’s aid in curing his master’s dose of 3-D Flu. That noble deed demands the idiots invade the 2-D “Flati-verse” Dark Rectangle came from, and leads to odd adjustments, bizarre doings and a very nasty clash with the villain’s ghastly family…

After crashing on an unknown world, the Star Cat crew are accused of cultural sabotage and sundry misdemeanours in ‘Chapter 4: Rhyme Crime’ but soon get the hang of talking for better or verse… all except Robot-One of course…

That mini-armageddon is as nothing when measured against the chaos generated by the Massivitis germs that transform and utterly embiggen the boss of space in ‘Chapter 5: Mega Mayor’. Thankfully, self-identified chicken-biologist (and closet proctologist) Robot-One has a plan, but it does require golden wigs, giant automatons in drag, extremely invasive incursions by medically untrained volunteers and biscuits, Many, many biscuits…

That fantastic voyage successfully concluded, ‘Chapter 6: Crab to the Future’ details how all but The Pilot are flash frozen on the coldest planet in the galaxy and eventually defrosted in the far future. Ten thousand years of progress – and the occasionally case of time-meddling – have created an odd yet ideal utopia, but the Captain, Plixx and especially the annoying Robot soon fix that, prior to returning to their own lethally enthralling era…

Eventually, even the dimmest crewmember realizes the robot is getting more arrogant, nasty and dangerous, but that doesn’t stop the Space Mayor sending him and his comrades to the Lovely Sector to fetch a crystal flower from the most pure and good planet in the galaxy. ‘Chapter 7: Unicorns in Space!’ reveals how Unicornia initially takes the wild rovers to its collective hearts and bosoms, but it’s not long before the abhorrent android taints even this rainbow hued paradise…

As a result of the tragedy he triggered, Robot-One earnestly seeks to change and ‘Chapter 8: A Light Year in Your Shoes’ has the crew indulge in a spot of body-switching and mind transference that only causes more chaos. The Space Mayor gets accidentally involved in ‘Chapter 9: Change of Mind’ when the Chook in Charge pays a visit to the ginger starship just as Robot-One starts editing aspects of his digital personality and memory…

Closing – for now – on an even-more lowered tone, acronym layered ‘Chapter 10: Fair-Weather Friends’ finds the crew supervising the mayor’s new project – a Binary Universal Manipulator constructed for the Federation of Allied Republics and Territories. Uncannily, the freshly modulated, good-as-gold & nice-as-pie Robot-One is no help at all when Dark Rectangle sabotages the test and causes climactic calamities so all that good work must be undone to unleash the old personality if the obnoxious oblong is to be defeated…

Wrapping up the sidereal silliness are a bunch of pages of related activities: a swathe of features offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and you to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by James Turner & Yasmin Shiekh, expounding on how to draw the crew, absorb the basics of page-craft and learn professional terms. With features on lettering, layouts and composition, colouring, example panels/pages and even some page blanks to go wild in, plus an extensive plug for the Phoenix Comics Club website complete with instant access via a QR code. What are we all waiting for?

Text and illustrations © The Phoenix Comic 2025. All rights reserved.
Star Cat – Unicorns in Space will be published on August 14th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

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Superman: The Secrets of the Fortress of Solitude


By Jerry Siegel, Jerry Coleman, Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Mark Schultz, Geoff Johns & Richard Donner, John Sikela, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye, Ross Andru & Romeo Tanghal, John Statema, George Peréz, Mike Mignola, Curt Swan, Brett Breeding, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen, Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3423-2 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Superman is comics’ champion crusader: the hero who heralded and defined a genre. In the decades since his spectacular launch in April 1938 (cover-dated June), one who has survived every kind of menace imaginable. With this in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his prodigious back-catalogue and re-present them in specifically-themed collections, such as this fun but far from comprehensive chronicling of someone who’s become his latter-day Kryptonian antithesis: a monstrous militaristic madman with the same abilities but far more sinister values and motivations.

For fans and creators alike, continuity can be a harsh mistress. These days, when maintaining a faux-historical cloak of rational integrity for the made-up worlds we inhabit is paramount, the greatest casualty of the semi-regular sweeping changes, rationalisations and reboots is those terrific tales which suddenly “never happened”.

The most painful example of this – for me at least – was a wholesale loss of the entire charm-drenched mythology which had evolved around Superman’s birthworld in the wonder years between 1948 and 1986. Happily, DC post Future State/Infinite Frontier/other recent publishing events are far more inclusive, all-encompassing and history-embracing…

Silver Age readers buying Superman, Action Comics, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane, World’s Finest Comics and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (not forgetting Superboy and Adventure Comics) would delight every time some fascinating snippet of information was revealed. We spent our rainy days filling in the incredible blanks about the lost world through the delightful and thrilling tales from those halcyon publications.

Thankfully DC was never as slavishly wedded to continuity as its readership and understood that a good story is worth cherishing. This captivating compilation gathers material from

Superman #17: Action Comics #241 & 261; Action Comics Annual #2; Superman Man of Steel #100 and Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude All New Collector’s Edition/DC Special Series #26 spanning 1942 to 2000, and focusing on landmark, rare, and notionally non-canonical tales of his astounding home-away-from-home/Super Mancave: all crafted by some of the countless gifted writers and artists to have contributed to the mythology of the Man of Tomorrow over the years.

Without preamble we open with Jerry Siegel & John Sikela’s ‘Muscles for Sale!’ (from Superman #17, cover-dated July/August 1942) which offered the very first revelation that the ultra-busy champion of the weak had built himself a little retreat. Here, located in a remote US mountain, the Action Ace enjoyed some Me-time in his new “Secret Citadel”, exercising, letting off super-steam and wandering about his Trophy Room before battling a mad mesmerist turning ordinary citizens into dangerously overconfident louts, bullies and thieves…

Then, an era later and after the Metropolis Marvel had become a small screen star, the Silver Age officially began with Action Comics #241 cover-dated June 1958. Scripted by Jerry Coleman and limned by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye ‘The Super-Key to Fort Superman’ is a fascinating, clever puzzle-play guest-featuring Batman as an impossible intruder vexes, taunts and baffles the Man of Steel in his most sacrosanct sanctuary: a place packed with fascinating wonders for Space Age kids…

February 1960 offered a classic return to the icy palace in ‘Superman’s Fortress of Solitude!’ (Action Comics #261 by Siegel, Boring & Kaye) as linked but previously untold anecdotes detail the secret history of the citadel of wonders to foil a cunning criminal plot against the indomitable hero…

Next, from 1981 and in its 64-pages + covers entirety, is an epic time travel excursion catered and curated by Roy Thomas, Ross Andru & Romeo Tanghal, and only previously seen in film-inspired oversized tabloid treat Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude All New Collectors Edition (DC Special Series #26). A cunning excuse to revisit past stories and glories and enjoy a room-by-room meander, ‘Fortress of Fear!’ finds the Man of Steel scouring his vast domicile for a clue to prevent the imminent explosive demise – 59 minutes and counting! – of his second homeworld! He’s also planning on thoroughly chastising mystery villain Dominus for risking all of humanity for simple vengeance…

Co-crafted by Jerry Ordway, John Statema, George Peréz, Mike Mignola, Roger Stern, Curt Swan & Brett Breeding, ‘Memories of Krypton’s Past’ (Action Comics Annual #2 1989) was a way-station moment in an absolutely epic endeavour wherein the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman finally learned why he was the last and only Kryptonian.

Previously. when trapped in a pocket dimension he had been forced to execute three super-criminals who had killed every living thing on their Earth and were determined to do the same to ours. Although given no choice, Superman’s actions plagued him, and on his return his subconscious caused him to stalk the streets in a fugue-state dealing out brutal justice to criminals in the guise of Gangbuster. When finally made aware of his schizophrenic state, Kal-El banished himself before he could do any lasting harm to Earth.

For months the exile roamed space, losing his abilities (deprived of Sol’s rays his powers quickly fade), before being enslaved by tyrant Mongul and forced into gladiatorial games on giant battle-planet Warworld…

Not seen here is the aftermath of those revelations wherein Superman overthrows the despot, liberates the hordes of the Warworld and returns to Earth with the most powerful device in Kryptonian history…

Closing the vacation trips comes the last chapter of another extended epic as first seen in Superman: Man of Steel #100 (May 2000). In Mark Schultz, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen’s ‘Creation Story’, semi-retired inventor hero John Henry Irons AKA Steel and his brilliant niece Natasha continue their battle against electronic packrat cult the Cybermoths: foiling the theft of future tech. Their efforts and resultant struggle happily lead to a brand new extra-dimensional opportunity for the astounded and late-arriving Caped Kryptonian as a freshly discovered pocket dimension discovered by Steel is filled and repurposed with the last Kryptonian remnants of the original Fortress of Solitude. Sadly, the astounding architectural feat draws rapacious Cybermoths and their anarchic queen Luna into action again, with neither Superman nor his engineering associates aware that a horrifying old enemy is behind her repeated attempts to seize this new citadel in a “Phantom Zone”…

No trip is complete without a little keepsake, and here we finish with double page cutaway diagram spread ‘Secrets of the Fortress of Solitude’ by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning, taken from Action Comics Annual #10 in 2007. Be assured, should you ever get lost in the astounding arctic sanctuary, this should keep you out of the Interplanetary Zoo and well away from the Phantom Zone portal.

You’re welcome…
Copyright 1942, 1958, 1960, 1981, 1989, 2000, 2007, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.