Category: Adventure

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Spirou & Fantasio volume 21: The Prisoner of the Buddha


By André Franquin, Jidéhem & Greg, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-135-4 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

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

The other red-headed boy adventurer debuted on April 21st 1938 in an 8-page tabloid magazine that bears his name to this day. Fronting a roster of new and licensed foreign strips – Fernand Dineur’s Les Aventures de Tif (latterly Tif et Tondu) and US newspaper imports Red Ryder, Brick Bradford and Superman – the now-legendary anthology Le Journal de Spirou expanded exponentially: adding Flemish-language edition Robbedoes on October 27th 1938, boosting page counts and adding action, fantasy and comedy features until it was an unassailable, unmissable necessity for continental kids.

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

Jean-Claude Fournier succeeded Franquin: overhauling the feature over nine stirring serial adventures between 1969-1979 by tapping into a rebellious, relevant zeitgeist in tales of drug cartels, environmental concerns, nuclear energy and repressive regimes. By the 1980s, the series seemed stalled: three different creative teams alternated on the serial: Yves Chaland, Raoul Cauvin & Nic Broca and significantly Philippe Vandevelde writing as “Tome” & artist Jean-Richard Geurts – AKA Janry.

These last reverently referenced the revered and beloved Franquin era: reviving the feature’s fortunes over 14 wonderful albums between 1984-1998. On their departure the strip diversified into parallel strands: Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and guest-creator specials A Spirou Story By…

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

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since October 2009, initially concentrating on bringing Tome & Janry’s superb pastiche/homages of Franquin before dipping into the original Franquin oeuvre and adding later tales by some of the bunch listed above, but for their 21st manic marvel they reached back all the way to 1959 for a purely Franquin-formulated furore. Originally serialised in LJdS #1048-1082 prior to its release as album Le prisonnier du Bouddha in March 1961, this slick tale of Cold War tensions, silly sci fi and outrageous satire sees the master in collaborative mode with Jidéhem (Jean De Mesmaeker) and Greg (Michel Regnier)…

On January 3rd 1924, Belgian comics superstar André Franquin was born in Etterbeek. Drawing from an early age, he began formal art training at École Saint-Luc in 1943. When the war forced the school’s closure a year later, Franquin found work at Brussels’ Compagnie Belge d’Animation as an animator. There he met future bande dessinée superstars Maurice de Bevere (Lucky Luke-creator “Morris”), Pierre Culliford/Peyo (creator of The Smurfs) and Eddy Paape (Valhardi, Luc Orient).

In 1945 everyone but Culliford signed on with Dupuis, and Franquin began his career as a jobbing cartoonist/illustrator. He produced covers for Le Moustique and scouting magazine Plein Jeu and, throughout those early days, was with Morris trained by Jijé. At that time main illustrator at Le Journal de Spirou, Jijé turned the youngsters and fellow neophyte Willy Maltaite – AKA Will (Tif et Tondu, Isabelle, Le jardin des désirs) – into a creative bullpen known as the La bande des quatre. This “Gang of Four” promptly revolutionised Belgian comics with their engaging “Marcinelle school” style of graphic storytelling.

Jijé handed Franquin all responsibilities for the flagship strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriquée, (LJdS #427, June 20th 1946) and the eager beaver ran with it for two decades, enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every episode, fans would meet startling new characters like comrade/rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor The Count of Champignac.

Spirou & Fantasio became globe-trotting troubleshooting journalists, endlessly expanding their exploits in unbroken four-colour glory. They travelled to exotic places, uncovering crimes, capturing the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of extraordinary arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Zantafio. Along the way Franquin premiered one of the first strong female characters in European comics – competitor journalist Seccotine who is renamed Cellophine in current English translations.

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

From 1959, writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem began regularly assisting Franquin, but by 1969 the master storyteller had reached his Spirou limit. He quit, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him…

His later creations include fantasy series Isabelle, illustration sequence Monsters and bleak adult conceptual series Idées Noires, but his greatest creation – and one he retained all rights to on his departure – was Marsupilami, which – in addition to comics – has become a megastar of screen, plush toy store, console and albums.

Plagued in later life by bouts of depression and cardiac problems, Franquin passed away on January 5th 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics.

Let’s review happier if undoubtedly scarier days here in a Cold War classic where Spirou and Fantasio revisit rural melting pot Champignac-in-the-Sticks after strangely losing touch with crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas de Champignac – the aforementioned Count of Champignac.

The idyllic hamlet is in turmoil with the incipient opening of this year’s Cattle Festival ramping up regular bucolic angst. Its picturesque streets are filled with self-determined cows and short-tempered farmers, meaning the two investigators really have to watch their steps…

Finding the ramshackle chateau turned into a super-secure fortress, the lads and Spip – in truth impatient, impolite Marsupilami – break into the once-familiar estate and discover it has become a wild kingdom of gigantic plants. Eventually rescued by their odd old friend from encroaching green hells, the boys are unaware the Count is concealing another guest – until

after many odd incidents they meet timid nuclear physicist, potential Soviet defector and fellow scientist of conscience Professor Nikolai Nikolayevitch Inovskiev. The hulking gentle giant has invented something that will change the world and doesn’t want its incredible power abused…

He calls his little box of tricks a Gamma Atomic Generator (GAG for short) and it can promote rapid and monstrous plant growth, create severe but localised weather effects and cancel gravity – and it fits into a jacket pocket…

As the boys endure an accidental indoor blizzard, two enemy agents observe from outside before being accidentally but painfully caught in the GAG’s destructive effects. Terrified of the device being misused by the capitalist West, they make plans to steal it back during the cattle show, but Spirou and Fantasio foil the scheme – but only after the GAG makes the farm fest a chaotic, never to be forgotten Fortean event for the entire village…

Thinking job done and world saved, our heroes are horrified to learn from the shellshocked spies that the GAG is not unique. In communist China, Inovskiev’s covert collaborator – American Harold W. Hailmary – is a prisoner of the People’s Republic and surely cannot hold out much longer in delivering them the magic box and all its secrets…

Coincidentally, at that moment in British-controlled Hong Kong, a smuggled message reaches the Chief of Police: an American is imprisoned somewhere in the heart of the Valley of the Seven Buddhas…

When dapper British agents Douglas and Harvey attempt to interview Champignac and the boys, they discover the missing Russian and implore them all to act in a manner Her Majesty’s Government would unofficially look kindly upon even as it turned a blind eye…

Soon, equipped with the GAG, Spirou, Fantasio, Spip and the Marsupilami are sneaking across the Chinese border and heading into one of the most eccentric and spectacular missions of their lives… one replete with deadly peril, fantastic feats, spectacular chases, tank battles and hairsbreadth escapes, all leavened with outrageous surreal slapstick and deviously trenchant satire…

This edgily exuberant yarn is packed with action, thrills and spills and also offers a remarkably even-handed appraisal of Cold War politics messaging and always-timely moral.

Readily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the beguiling style and seductive wholesome élan which makes Asterix, Lucky Luke and Yakari so compelling, this is a truly outstanding – and funny! – tale from a long line of superb exploits, proving our heroes deserve to be English language household names as much as those series – and even that other kid with the white dog…
Original edition © Dupuis, 1960 by Franquin, Jidéhem & Greg. All rights reserved. English translation 2024 © Cinebook Ltd.

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The Fiery Arrow (Before Blake and Mortimer volume 2)


By Jean Van Hamme, Christian Cailleaux & Etienne Shréder after Edgar P. Jacobs: coloured by Bruno Tatti, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBNs: 978-1-80044-095-1 (album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes some Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect. If any use of such, slurs, epithets, terms or treatments offend you, you really should not be reading this book – or maybe you need it more than most.

Belgian Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs (1904-1987) is rightly considered one of the founding fathers of the European comics industry. Although his output is relatively meagre when compared to some of his contemporaries, his iconic works formed the basis and backbone of the art form across post-war Europe and far beyond. As a world rebuilt, his splendidly adroit, roguish and impeccably British adventurers Blake and Mortimer – created for the first issue of Le Journal de Tintin in 1946 – became a staple of Continental kids’ life just as Dan Dare did in Britain starting four years later.

Jacobs was born in Brussels, a precocious child who began feverishly drawing from an early age but was even more obsessed with music and the performing arts – especially opera. He attended a commercial school but – having resolved never to work in an office – pursued art and drama following graduation in 1919. A succession of odd jobs at opera-houses (scene-painting, set decoration, acting, singing as an Extra) supplemented his private performance studies. In 1929, Jacobs won a Government award for classical singing, but his dream career as an opera singer was thwarted by the Great Depression, as the arts funding and performances nosedived following the stock market crash.

Picking up whatever stage work was to be had – including singing and performing – Jacobs finally switched streams to commercial illustration in 1940 and found regular employment at magazine Bravo. While illustrating short stories and novels, he famously took over the Flash Gordon syndicated strip after the German occupation authorities banned Alex Raymond’s All-American Hero, leaving the publishers desperately seeking someone to satisfactorily complete the saga.

Jacob’s Stormer Gordon lasted less than a month before being similarly sanctioned by the Nazis, after which Jacobs created his own epic science-fantasy feature – Le Rayon U: a weekly comics milestone in both Belgian comics and the greater annals of science fiction adventure. The Nazis may have banned the strikingly Aryan Flash Gordon but there was no denying public appetite for his kind of action, so Jacobs dipped deep from that established well of romanticism and fantasy as well as borrowing heavily from US movie serial chapterplays.

The U Ray was a huge hit in 1943 and scored big all over again a generation later when Jacobs reformatted the original and traditional “text-block & picture” material to incorporate speech balloons prior to re-running the entire adventure in Le Journal de Tintin in 1973. It was subsequently released as graphic albums beginning in 1974.

Whilst creating U Ray, one of Jacob’s many other jobs was scene-painting, and during the staging of a theatrical version of Tintin and the Cigars of the Pharaoh Hergé and Jacobs met and became friends. If the comics maestro was unaware of Jacob’s comics output before then, he was certainly made aware of it after.

Jacobs started working on Tintin, colouring originally monochrome strips of The Shooting Star from newspaper Le Soir for a forthcoming album collection. By 1944, he was performing similar service for Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in America, King Ottokar’s Sceptre and The Blue Lotus. He also contributed to the illustration of extended epic The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun. His love of opera made it into the feature as Hergé (who loathed it), teasingly created bombastic Bianca Castafiore as a comedy foil and basing bit players like Jacobini in The Calculus Affair on his long-suffering assistant.

After war and liberation, publisher Raymond Leblanc convinced Hergé, Jacobs and other creatives to work for his new venture. Launching publishing house Le Lombard, Leblanc also started Le Journal de Tintin: an anthology comic edited by Hergé with editions in Belgium, France and Holland starring the intrepid boy reporter plus a host of newer heroes.

Beside Hergé, Jacobs and writer Jacques van Melkebeke, the weekly featured Paul Cuvelier’s Corentin and Jacques Laudy’s The Legend of the Four Aymon Brothers. Laudy had been friends of Jacobs’ since working together on Bravo and was model for some of his characters.

Le secret de l’Espadon (which eventually ran from LJdT #1, 26th September 1946 to 8th September 1949) cemented Jacobs’ status as a star in his own right: offering peril, action and suspense in stunning thrillers blending science fiction, detective mysteries and supernatural mysteries in the universally engaging Ligne Claire style which had done so much to make intrepid boy reporter Tintin a global sensation.

In 1950, with the first 18 pages slightly redrawn, Le secret de l’espladon V1 (The Secret of the Swordfish) became Le Lombard’s first album release, with a concluding volume published three years later. These were reprinted nine more times between 1955 and 1982, with an additional single complete deluxe edition released in 1964. The epic romp featured a distinguished duo of Scientific Adventurers: a bluff, gruff Scots/British scientist and English Military Intelligence officer (closely modelled on his comics colleague Laudy): Professor Philip Mortimer and Captain Francis Blake. They and archfoe Olrik (based on Jacobs himself) were a thematic evolution of characters created for The U Ray…

After decades of old farts like me whining, the lost gem was finally released in English translation in 2023 and followed up at years end by sequel La Flèche Ardente. This latter came courtesy of Jean Van Hamme (Thorgal, XIII, Largo Winch, Blake & Mortimer) & Christian Cailleaux (Tchaï Masala, Gramercy Park, Le troisième thé, Blake & Mortimer), bolstered by colourist Étienne Shréder – and it was worth all that waiting…

Previously in another place and time, the nations of Norlandia and Austradia were at war. The former’s chief scientist Professor Marduk had devised an ultimate weapon capable of ending the conflict but lacked a fuel source to power his “U ray”. He believed mystery element “Uradium” could be found on an unexplored lost continent and headed an expedition to locate and secure samples of the miracle ore.

His prototypical party included assistant Sylvia Hollis, heroic Major Walton and Lord John Calder, Captain Dagon, Sergeant MacDuff and “Asiatic” manservant Adji, spearheading a sturdy crew of true-blue stalwarts. However, their desperate mission to the Black Isles Archipelago was doomed from the start thanks to a spy planted in their ranks…

After many fraught moments and sabotage attempts, the expedition broached the forbidding jungles of a lost world teeming with uncanny primal beasts and savage humanoids, but misfortune, deadly natural hazards and an Austradian assault force reaped a heavy harvest of tragedy as the explorers trekked inland to where Marduk’s researches indicated uradium would be found. Thankfully, Walton was a steadfast counter to danger of every description…

After heartbreaking effort the survivors found a lost civilisation, befriending Prince Nazca and Princess Ica of The Underground City. These highly evolved beneficiaries allowed them samples of magic mineral but then refused to let their “guests” leave… until Walton, the lost world’s overwhelming threats, dire circumstance and the hidden traitor jointly triggered a spectacular reversal of fortune, a lucky escape and ultimate triumph for Norlandia…

Eight decades later the saga resumes with the triumphant survivors and refugee Princess Ica recuperating in their embattled but still free homeland. As Calder romances Sylvia, and learns how her geologist father Kellart Hollis was lost discovering uradium, her boss Marduk finally unlocks its secrets.

In the enemy camp, vile tyrant Emperor Babylos moves to end the current impasse by conquering the lost continent. He is resolved to prevent Norlandia exploiting uradium, even if he has no idea what the element actually does. Despicable Captain Dagon renews his own efforts to destroy the enemies of Austradia after being rescued from a nightmare of primaeval peril by brutal General Robioff when Austradian forces occupy the Black Isles.

Their ultra-modern military ruthlessly ravages the primordial preserve, with monster-animals, beast-men and primitive humans alike falling to lethal ordnance indiscriminately applied. The callous blitzkrieg even precipitates the fall of the hidden city and merciless torture of Prince Nazca for information on the U-force…

The devout ruler and his people worship supreme deity Puncha Taloc and regard “The Stone of Life and Death” as his sacred gift, and Nazca valiantly resists every cruel effort to extract information. All around him his people and world are dying and his strength cannot long resist more torture…

In Norlandia, Adji also warns against exploiting uradium, crying sacrilege and worse, blithely unaware of the terrible fate of the Black Isles. When Marduk reveals a weapon to harness the incredible energies of uradium, the devastating energy of his “ultraphonic” ray rifle horrifies and outrages all who see it demonstrated. Tragically, the secret of his “Fiery Arrow” is already compromised as another traitor seeks to pass it on to Dagon…

Thankfully, Walton and MacDuff are on hand to foil the handover if not capture their slippery foe, and soon after Princess Ica begins playing a role in the heroes’ counterattack…

In the subjugated Underground City, Nazca is saved by a cloaked figure from the past, just as the Black Isles explode in a furious detonation even the civilised, rationalist citizens of Norlandia wonder might be the outraged retribution of Puncha Taloc…

In the aftermath, Austradian dreams are shattered. The story of an earlier mighty race and culture emerges, and the miraculous survival of friends thought lost forever sweetens the victory of the heroes and fall of Emperor Babylos: especially for Sylvia and the man she has secretly loved but never thought she could ever have…

Replete with Old World fun and thrills that cannot be denied or ignored, this album also offers tantalising teasers for the original auteur’s brand and classics: specifically The Time Trap, Professor Sato’s Three Formulae and S.O.S. Meteors plus a bibliography & publishing timeline,  should further inducements be needed to catch your eye.

Deceptively simplistic, effortlessly engaging and cunningly customised to merge retro futurist tastes with modern sensibilities, The Fiery Arrow is pure escapist joy to behold, and a book no serious fantasy nostalgic can afford to miss.
Original edition © Editions Blake & Mortimer/Studio Jacobs (Dargaud-Lombard S.A.) 2023. All rights reserved. English translation © 2023 Cinebook Ltd.

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Jamie Smart’s Max & Chaffy: Hunt for the Pirate’s Gold!


By Jamie Smart, coloured by Emily Kimbell (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-310-3 (PB)

Laced with cheerful welcoming charm by cartoonist, comics artist and novelist Jamie Smart, Max & Chaffy books for younger readers (four when this one comes out) hark back to more traditional times and fare. Initially introduced in Welcome to Animal Island, little Max moved to a new home in a lighthouse and soon made some amazing friends: Orlando, Crumbs, Moose, Pedalo and a strange little creature called Chaffy.

The little fluffball has  mismatched ears and is easily confused: constantly getting lost and needing Max and the reader’s help to be where it belongs. The reason for getting misplaced so much is a desire to locate other Chaffys (as seen in follow-up fables The Great Cupcake Mystery! and Search for the Ice Chaffy!):  a desire magnified once the soon-to-be inseparable pair joined the Official Chaffy Finding Club…

Unlike Smart’s multi award-winning comics offerings (Bunny vs. Monkey, Looshkin – the Adventures of the Maddest Cat in the World!!, Fish Head Steve!, Corporate Skull, Space Raoul, and many brilliant strips for The Beano, Dandy and others) or his illustrated kids novels like the Flember quartet, Max & Chaffy adventures are crafted for early readers, offering strong directed stories laced with interactive pages, with participation an integral part of the storytelling. The most engaging of these page games are regularly recurring Search & Find tableaux – just like Where’s Wally? – cunningly combined with grouping/collecting moments (as they search for new specimens of Chaffy), offering flavours of Pokémon and echoes of Mr. Men whenever they find and befriend them.

Joyous, inclusive and accepting, this fourth outing sees our tiny tot stars seeking new Chaffys – all with a list of identifying characteristics – before teaming up with grumpy sea captain Foghorn. He takes them on a tour of Animal Island’s wilder shores and ultimately under the sea, where one quest is soon satisfied by the discovery of a timid, rapidly-inflating Puffa-Chaffy before they are all distracted and diverted by unearthing a pirate treasure map in a bottle…

When they discover it was drawn by Foghorn’s ancestor – and World’s Greatest Pirate – Captain Boombox Foghorn, they just have to go find it, aided by the restless spirit of Boombox himself. An extended undersea excursion sees them all experiencing fabulous creatures and places, discovering a unique new Chaffy to add to Max’s growing list and learning that there’s much more than one kind of treasure…

That’s reiterated by a bonus feature requiring a second read as Boombox urges a review of the buoyant bouncy pages and a search for his lost valuables in the recesses of the pages and panels.

Exuberant, enticing, rewarding and eminently re-readable, this is another must-have pearl of great wisdom no kid of any age could possibly resist.

Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.
Max & Chaffy: Hunt for the Pirate’s Gold! will be released on August 1st 2024 and is available for pre-order now.

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Sidney Smith’s The Gumps


By Sidney Smith, edited and compiled by Herb Galewitz (Charles Scribner’s Sons)
ISBN: 978-0-68413-997-5 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

There are so many milestones of the art of comics that new or casual readers can’t enjoy these days. The literary pioneer celebrated in this book is probably the most important of all 20th century US cartoonists, but other than this rare-as-hen’s-teeth tome and a single Library of American Comics Essentials collection (The Saga of Mary Gold) there’s precious little to be seen of his greatest invention – in English at least. Chances are you’ve never heard of him, but Robert Sidney Smith (February 13th 1877 – October 20th 1935) is arguably the most influential creator in the history of popular entertainment. A pretty big claim, I admit, but true nonetheless.

Smith was a pioneer of narrative continuity and the most successful early cartoonist to move the medium on from situational, gag-a-day variations on a character (a style dominant again today) to build with his avid audience an ongoing relationship based on character development and story progress. The Gumps grew from a notion expressed by influential comic strip Svengali Joseph Medill Patterson – Editor and Publisher of the Chicago Tribune – who shaped the development of such iconic institutions as Little Orphan Annie, Gasoline Alley, Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates and so many more. He handed his idea to Smith to make magic with…

The ongoing saga of a middle class American family began in 1917 and ran for 42 years, inviting readers to share the largely comedic tribulations of chinless wonder Andy Gump, his formidable wife Minerva, son Chester, cat Hope, dog Buck and fearsome Tilda, the family’s aging cook, housemaid, gadfly and critic

Andy was a regular guy: a blowhard with lots of schemes to make his fortune, Min was shrewish and nagging, the boys were troublesome and Tilda was a nosy tartar and the already infinite plot well of their domestic set-up sporadically drifted into thrilling adventure and flights of fancy whenever eccentric, two-fisted globetrotting millionaire Uncle Bim paid a visit…

It sounds hackneyed now, but that’s because The Gumps literally wrote the book on what daily story narratives should be: a lot of laughs, plenty of vicarious judgement, an occasional tragedy, oodles of long-drawn out tension and archetypal characters every reader recognised if not actually identified with…

Having enticed and beguiled a nation, The Gumps was one of the earliest strips to make the jump to celluloid. More than four dozen Universal Pictures 2-reel comedies were released between 1923 and 1928 starring Joe Murphy as the gormless patriarch. These followed 50 or more animated cartoons first seen between in 1920 and 1921, produced and directed by Wallace A. Carlson with scripts credited to Smith.

The Gumps was an early sensation of radio (1931-1937), paving the way for all later family soap operas which mimicked its irresistible format. Most importantly, as the strip progressed, its rocketing popularity became a key driver in the rise of comics syndication. Eventually Sidney Smith’s baby was seen across America and the world and he became one of the most highly-paid artists in the history of the medium. His salary was enormous and kept rising, as the grateful Patterson constantly rewarded him with some new extravagance to show his gratitude. The legend goes that racing-mad speed-freak Smith was driving his latest luxury Rolls Royce when he died in a smash-up in 1935…

After his shocking death, Patterson parachuted in sports cartoonist Gus Edson: a creditable replacement but ultimately unable to recapture the indefinable pizzazz of the originator. Whether it was something unique to Smith or simply that times and tastes were changing will never be known. Readership declined steadily but it took decades before the feature finally folded on October 17th 1959, by which time less than 20 papers carried it.

There will probably never be a comprehensive or complete Gumps archival collection. The spiky but compelling art is still manically wonderful and most of the gags remain well-conceived and effective, but the real problem is the pacing and verbosity of the text in the panels. Smith was writing and drawing a whole new way to tell stories and had to be sure the majority of his audience were with him. For most modern readers – blessed with a 100+ years of progress – much of the material might seem interminably slow. Not so back then: many of Smith’s boldest innovations caused uproar and shock on a periodic basis…

This sterling and scholarly monochrome landscape tome from 1974 still pops up now and again, offering the best of all possible worlds; extracting salient snippets, events and extracts from key storylines whilst providing fascinating commentary and context where necessary.

On Thursday February 8th 1917 Sidney Smith’s funny animal strip Old Doc Yak ended with the sagacious ruminant moving out of their house and wondering who the next tenants might be. The following Monday – February 12th – the doors opened on the Gump clan. The magic started strong and just kept on going…

Packed with photos and plenty of astonishing facts, Herb Galewitz’s ‘Introduction’ offers the run-down on the strip and its creator whilst also providing a glimpse at the star in the making through ‘Sidney Smith’s Sports Cartoons’. Also revealed are ‘The Last Old Doc Yak’ strip and a handy pictorial introduction to the incoming cast before ‘The Early Years: 1917-20’ sees the stories begin to unfold…

Scenes of wedded bliss and domestic contention abound as Andy & Min contend with household chores, wayward furnaces, gardening, child-rearing and each other. As ticked off as they ever got, the happy marrieds seldom let adversarial moments linger or fester…

‘Andy On Vacation – 1922’ shows our hero’s take on bucolic pastimes like fishing, hiking and cooking after he and Min take separate holidays. Andy finds himself at a lakeside cabin with the least welcoming couple in history. Mr. Gump doesn’t mind: it takes all sorts and he’s willing to be accommodating…

The satire cup overflows when the pontificating prawn then enters politics. ‘Andy Runs for Congress – 1922’ proffers plenty of scope for character assassination, skulduggery and corrupt shenanigans before all the votes are finally cast and counted…

The Gumps truly hit its peak after moving wholeheartedly into melodrama, as with ‘The Vindication of Tom Carr – 1929’, wherein romantic regular Mary Gold’s one true love was wrongfully convicted of robbery. Smith sagely portrayed the trial through daily bulletins which built tension and sympathy in equal amounts. When the travesty of justice saw the real culprit rapaciously move in on Mary, the aroused assembled readership was aghast and astoundingly vocal in their protests…

They went absolutely crazy when the vile predator’s machinations led shockingly to ‘The Death of Mary Gold – 1929’. The story even moved from the comics section to Front Page as readers registered their disapproval. Circulation of papers carrying The Gumps skyrocketed…

Uncle Bim was an exotic semi-regular whose appearances always caused sparks. His lonely years of prospecting and wealth-gathering looked likely to end when he met Millie De Stross but her social-climbing mother had other ideas. These brought her to near-ruin after the gullible old lady encountered unscrupulous embezzler/conman Townsend Zander who masqueraded as royalty in ‘The Count Bessford Affair – 1933’…

With Mama firmly in the crook’s pocket, the scoundrel demanded marriage to Millie as part of his pay-off. When that went wrong he resorted to kidnap and blackmail. Audiences were breathless and terrified. Their favourite funny page feature had a track record of letting good guys suffer and killing off heroines…

When ‘The Disappearance of Uncle Bim – 1933’ was finally resolved, the distraught millionaire rushed his intended to the altar, but Zander had one last card to play, resulting in ‘A Foiled Wedding! – 1934’…

The villain’s outrageous claim to have already wed Millie led to courtroom drama and ‘A Legal Hassle! – 1934’, allowing reprehensible, haughty Mama De Stross to sue Bim for his fortune, so Andy took the beleaguered suitor to his old holiday haunt for ‘An Interlude at Shady Rest – 1934’…

Batteries fully recharged, the irrepressible Gumps returned to the fray to finally outwit Mrs. De Stross and defeat Zander, resulting in a long-delayed happy ending (of sorts) with ‘Bim and Millie, United at Last – 1934’. Of course that meant the newlyweds had to cope with ‘Mama De Stross, Mother In Law – 1934’…

These too-brief tastes of Smith’s amazing graphic narrative achievements are supplemented by a selection of shorter vignettes such as a glimpse at the unique service of housemaid ‘Tilda’ and the wiles of child prodigy ‘Chester Gump’ as well as a peek at the efforts of his successor in ‘Gus Edson’s The Gumps’. Also included is an appreciation of Smith’s gag-panel, uncomfortably displaying the “oriental wisdom” of ‘Ching Chow’. Although disquieting to modern eyes, this philosophy-spouting comedy “Chinaman” first appeared on January 27th 1927 and also carried on after Smith’s death, initially rendered by Stanley Link. Regarded as an irreplaceable cartoon “fortune cookie” by countless editors, the panel was crafted by a succession of creators and ran until June 4th 1990 (!!), outliving The Gumps by almost 40 years…

The examples seen here are counterbalanced by a ‘Comparison of Chester Gump and Stanley Link’s Tiny Tim’ and followed by a photo-feature ‘Miscellany’ displaying a wide range of Gumps books and merchandise to end this cartoon celebration…

Studious and genuinely enticing for students of comics and anybody interested in the evolution of soap operas and sitcoms, this book provides insight and a fascinating visual tour of a phenomenon and world we’ve mostly outgrown, but one still worth celebrating and commemorating.
© 1974 The Chicago Tribune/N.Y. News Syndicate Inc. All rights reserved.

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Showcase Presents Batman volume 5


By Frank Robbins, Dennis O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Neal Adams, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano, Frank Giacoia & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3236-8 (TPB)

This book includes some Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

After three seasons (perhaps two and a half would be closer) the overwhelmingly successful Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes and a movie since the US premiere on January 12, 1966 and triggered a global furore of “Batmania” – and indeed hysteria for all things zany and mystery-mannish. As the series foundered and crashed the global fascination with “camp” superheroes (and yes, the term had everything to do with lifestyle choices but absolutely nothing to do with sexual orientation, no matter what you and Mel Brooks might think about Men in Tights) burst as quickly as it had boomed, and the Caped Crusader was left with a hard core of dedicated fans and followers who now wanted their hero back.

For DC editor Julius Schwartz – who had tried to keep the most ludicrous excesses of the show out whilst still cashing in on his global popularity – the reasoning seemed simple: strip out the tired gimmicks and gaudy paraphernalia and get him back to solving mysteries and facing genuine perils as soon and as thrillingly as possible.

This also meant slowly phasing out the boy sidekick…

Many readers were now acknowledged as discerning, independent teens and the kid was no longer relevant to them or the changing times. Although the soon-to-be college-bound freshman Teen Wonder would still pop back for the occasional guest-shot yarn, this fifth astoundingly economical monochrome monument to comics ingenuity and narrative brilliance would see him finally spread his wings and fly the nest for an alternating back-up slot in Detective, shared with relative newcomer Batgirl in stirring hip and mod solo sallies.

Collecting the newly independent Batman’s cases from September 1969 to February 1971 (#216-228 of his own title as well as the front halves of Detective Comics #391-407), the 30 stories gathered here – some of the Batman issues were giant reprint editions so only the covers are reproduced on these pages – were written and illustrated by an evolving team of fresh-thinking creators as editor Schwartz lost many of his elite stable to age, attrition and corporate pressure.

However, the “new blood” was fresh only to the Gotham Guardian, not the industry, and their sterling efforts swiftly moulded the character into a hero capable of actually working within the new “big things” in comics: suspense, horror and the supernatural…

During this pivotal period the long slow road to today’s scarily crazed Dark Knight gradually revealed a harder-edged, grimly serious caped crusader, even whilst carefully expanding the milieu and scope of Batman’s universe… especially his fearsome foes, who slowly ceased to be harmless buffoons and inexorably metamorphosed into the macabre Grand Guignol murder fiends of the early 1940s.

The transformational process continues here with Frank Robbins-scripted Detective #391 as ‘The Gal Most Likely to Be – Batman’s Widow!’ (illustrated by Bob Brown & Joe Giella) sees the fleeting return of abortive modern love interest Ginny Jenkins who had inadvertently become the passing fancy of mobbed-up publisher and extortionist Arnie Arnold. By crushing the crooked editor’s scam to fleece Gotham’s society eateries, Batman paved the way for Ginny to settle down with the true man of her dreams…

Robbins (creator of newspaper strip Johnny Hazard) always had a deft grip on both light adventure and darker crime capers as seen in issue #392’s ‘I Died… A Thousand Deaths!’ as the Gotham Gangbuster’s plan to take down mobster Scap Scarpel goes dangerously awry after trusting a less than honest “confidential informant” whilst in Batman #216 (November), Robbins gifted faithful butler Alfred a surname (after 30 years of anonymous service) by introducing the retainer’s niece Daphne Pennyworth in ‘Angel – or Devil?’ (limned by Irv Novick & Dick Giordano).

The aspiring actress had become ensnared in the coils of a band of very crooked travelling players and was very nearly their patsy for murder…

In an era where teen angst and the counterculture played an increasingly strident part in the public consciousness, Robin’s role as spokesperson for a generation became increasingly important, with disputes and splits from his senior partner constantly recurring. A long overdue separation came in Detective #393’s ‘The Combo Caper!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) wherein Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson take a young delinquent with them on their last vacation together, embroiling Batman & Robin in a sinister string of high-end gem heists.

The partnership formally sundered in Batman #217’s ‘One Bullet Too Many!’ (Robbins, Novick & Giordano) as Dick ships out for Hudson University and Batman begins a radical rethink of his mission and goals.

Dapper Gentleman’s Gentleman Alfred became a far more hands-on emotionally involved part of the mythos – like Margery Allingham’s Magersfontein Lugg in her Albert Campion mysteries or ex-Sergeant/valet Mervyn Bunter in Dorothy L. Sayer’s Lord Peter Wimsey tales – from this point on: shutting up the stately Manor and moving the Batcave into the basement of the Wayne Foundation building in the heart of the city where most of the crime and injustice actually happened…

The first case – a superbly crafted classic whodunit of the streamlined setup – involved the unsolved murder of a paediatrician, but the real innovation was the creation of a new Wayne Foundation outreach project: the Victims Incorporated Program which saw philanthropy and superheroics combine to provide justice for those who couldn’t afford to buy it. The worthy scheme immediately hit a deadly snag in Detective #394’s ‘A Victim’s Victim!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) when a crippled racing car driver came seeking vengeance, claiming Wayne had personally sabotaged his career. It took all of the Dark Detective’s skills to uncover the deadly truth…

Batman #218 was an all-reprint Giant Annual represented here only by its glorious Murphy Anderson cover, whereas the next tale marked a landmark step forward in the history of the Caped Crusader.

Neal Adams had been producing a stunning succession of mesmerising covers on both Batman and Detective Comics, as well as illustrating a phenomenal run of team-up tales in World’s Finest Comics and The Brave and the Bold, so his inevitable bump up to the premier league was hotly anticipated. However Dennis O’Neil’s script for Detective Comics #395’s ‘The Secret of the Waiting Graves’ (January 1970, inked by Giordano) also instituted a far more mature and sinister – almost gothic – take on the hero as he confronted psychotic nigh-immortal lovers named Muerto whose passion for each other was fuelled by deadly drugs and sustained by a century of murder…

Adams’ captivating dynamic hyperrealism was just the final cog in the reconstruction of the epic Batman edifice, but it was also an irresistibly attractive one, especially as the growing public taste for supernatural stories overtook costumed crimebusting….

Nevertheless, Batman #219 led with a cracking political thriller in Robbins, Novick & Giordano’s ‘Death Casts the Deciding Vote’, wherein Bruce brings his V.I.P. scheme to Washington DC and stumbles into a plot to assassinate an anti-crime Senator, before astounding Christmas vignette ‘The Silent Night of the Batman’ (Mike Friedrich, Adams & Giordano) completely steals the show – and became a revered classic – with its eerily gentle, moving modern take on the Season of Miracles…

Adams couldn’t do it all and he didn’t have to. Detective #396 saw artists Brown & Giella up their game in Robbins’ clever contemporary yarn ‘The Brain-Pickers!’ as teen finance wizard Rory Bell corners the stock market from the back of his freewheeling motorbike, only to be kidnapped by a gang with an eye to a big killing – corporate and otherwise – until the Caped Crimebuster gets on their trail. Novick & Giordano similarly adapted their styles for Batman #220 with ‘This Murder has been… Pre-Recorded!’ (scripted by Robbins) finding Bruce finally meeting journalist Marla Manning (whose writing inspired the V.I.P. initiative) when an exposé of corrupt practises makes her the target of a murder-for-hire veteran.

O’Neil, Adams & Giordano reunited in Detective #397 for another otherworldly mystery when obsessive millionaire art collector Orson Payne resorts to theft and worse in his quest for an unobtainable love in ‘Paint a Picture of Peril!’, whilst #398 sees Robbins, Brown & Giella pose ‘The Poison Pen Puzzle!’ after muckraking gossip columnist Maxine Melanie’s latest book inspires her murder with an overabundance of perpetrators queuing up to take the credit…

Robbins, Novick & Giordano’s ‘A Bat-Death for Batman!’ leads in #221 as the Dark Knight heads for Germany in search of Nazi war criminals and their bio-agent which turns domestic animals and livestock into rabid killers, whilst the Friedrich-scripted ‘A Hot Time in Gotham Town Tonight!’ sees the Masked Manhunter eradicate the threat of a mystic idol capable of turning the city into smouldering ashes. Then Detective #399 (O’Neil, Brown & Giella) debuts anti-Batman campaigner/political opportunist Arthur Reeves and reveals how ‘Death Comes to a Small, Locked Room!’: a clever mystery centred on the apparent assassination of a martial arts teacher, after which Batman #222 offers two tales illustrated by Novick & Giordano.

Robbins’ ‘Dead… Till Proven Alive!’ features a guest shot from Robin as British band The Oliver Twists hit Gotham, reviving speculation that one of that Fabulous Foursome had been killed and secretly replaced (a contemporary conspiracy theory had it that Beatle Paul McCartney had been similarly dealt with), after which Friedrich contributed another superb human interest yarn as an exhausted hero pushes himself beyond his limits to help a deaf mugging victim in ‘The Case of No Consequence!’ Then anniversary Detective Comics #400 introduces a dark counterpoint to the Gotham Gangbuster as driven scientist Kirk Langstrom pays a heavy price for devising a serum making him superior to Batman in ‘Challenge of the Man-Bat!’ (Robbins, Adams & Giordano).

Batman #223 was another Annual, this time sporting a captivating Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson cover, before Detective #401 spotlights Robbins, Brown & Giella’s ‘Target for Tonight!’ as insane playboy hunter Carleton Yager stalks Gotham’s most dangerous game, armed only with his wits, weapons and knowledge of the Dark Knight’s true identity…

Batman #224 opens an era of eerie psychodramas and manic murder as our hero travels to New Orleans to solve the mysterious demise of a Jazz legend and battles monstrous Moloch in ‘Carnival of the Cursed’ (O’Neil, Novick & Giordano), after which Detective #402 sees the Dark Knight capture the out-of-control thing that was Kirk Langstrom and ponder if he had the right to kill or cure the beast in Robbins, Adams & Giordano’s ‘Man or Bat?’.

Batman #225 (O’Neil, Novick & Giordano) details the murder of divisive talk show host Jonah Jory with witnesses swearing the city’s great hero is the killer in ‘Wanted for Murder-One, the Batman’ and Detective #403 delivers gothic thriller ‘You Die by Mourning!’ (Robbins, Brown & Frank Giacoia, with a splash page by Carmine Infantino), in which the V.I.P. project turns up grieving widow Angie Randall who needs justice for her murdered husband. This cunning conundrum revolves around the fact that dear dead Laird wasn’t dead yet – but will be tomorrow; and is followed by Detective Comics #404’s offering by O’Neil, Adams & Giordano’s utterly exceptional and magnificent ‘Ghost of the Killer Skies!’ As the Masked Manhunter seek to solve a series of impossible murders on the set of a film about German WWI fighter ace Hans von Hammer, all evidence seeming to prove the slayer can only be a vengeful phantom…

Batman #226 skews science to introduce a new mad menace in ‘The Man with Ten Eyes!’ by Robbins, Novick & Giordano. A cruel misunderstanding during a robbery pits security guard Reardon against Batman just as the real thieves detonate a huge explosion. Traumatised, shell-shocked and blinded, Reardon is subjected to an experimental procedure which allows him to see through his fingertips but the Vietnam vet blames the Caped Crimebuster for his freakish fate and resolves to extract his vengeance in kind…

Detective #405 was an inauspicious start to a fresh world of intrigue and adventure as ‘The First of the Assassins!’ (O’Neil, Brown & Frank Giacoia) finds the Gotham Guardian seconded to Interpol to solve the killing of 15 shipping magnates. Whilst struggling to keep the 16th healthy against a fusillade of esoteric threats from oriental fiend Tejja, the hero first learns of a vast global League of killers…

Another groundbreaking narrative strand debuted in Batman #227 in O’Neil, Novick & Giordano’s ‘The Demon of Gothos Mansion’ as Daphne Pennyworth encores, begging help to escape her latest employment as a governess. Batman investigates the remote household and uncovers a cult of madmen, demonic possession and what less-rational men might consider a captive ghost…

The epic, slow-boiling battle against the League of Assassins expands in Detective Comics #406 as Your Servant of Death – Dr. Darrk!’ (by O’Neil, Brown & Giacoia) another tycoon almost dies and Batman at last clashes with the deadly mastermind behind a global campaign of terror. Or does he?

This staggering compendium of wonderment concludes with Detective #407: final chapter in a triptych introducing tragic Kirk Langstrom. In ‘Marriage: Impossible!’ (Robbins, Adams & Giordano), the ambitious scientist’s fall from grace is completed when he infects his fiancée Francine Lee with his mutational curse and forces the Dark Knight into an horrific decision.

One last treat here is the cover to Giant Batman #228: another spectacular visual feast from Swan & Anderson closing this marvellous meander down memory lane in classic style. With the game-changing gems in this volume, Batman finally shed his alien-bashing Boy Scout silliness and was restored to his original defining concept as a grim relentless avenger of injustice. The next few years would see the hero rise to unparalleled heights of quality so stay tuned: the very best is just around the corner… that dark, dark corner…
© 1969, 1970, 1971, 2011 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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TinTin’s Moon Adventure/Tintin on the Moon/Adventures of Tintin: Destination Moon & Explorers on the Moon



By Hergé, Bob De Moors and others, translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Egmont UK/Farshore)
ISBN: 978-1-40520-815-4 (HB Destination) 978-1-40520-627-3 (TPB Destination)
ISBN: 978-1-40520-816-1 (HB Explorers) 978-1-40520-628-0 (TPB Explorers) Tintin’s Moon Adventure (Magnet/Methuen) ISBN: 978-0-41696-710-4 (TPB)
Tintin on the Moon (Egmont) ISBN: 978-1405295901 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Georges Prosper Remi, known all over the world as Hergé, created a true masterpiece of graphic literature with his tales of a plucky boy reporter and entourage of iconic associates. Initially singly and later with stellar assistants including Edgar P. Jacobs, Bob de Moor and the Hergé Studio, Remi completed 23 splendid volumes (originally produced as episodic instalments for numerous periodicals) which have grown beyond their popular culture roots and attained the status of High Art.

Like Dickens with The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Hergé died working, so final outing Tintin and Alph-Art remains a tale without an official conclusion, but is still a fascinating examination and a pictorial memorial of how the artist worked. It’s only fair though, to ascribe a substantial proportion of credit to the many translators whose diligent contributions have enabled the series to be understood and beloved in more than 70 languages. The subtle, canny, witty and slyly funny English versions are the work of Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner.

On leaving school in 1925, Remi worked for Catholic newspaper Le XXe Siècle where he apparently fell under the influence of its Svengali-like editor Abbot Norbert Wallez. The following year, the young artist (himself a dedicated boy scout) produced his first strip series – The Adventures of Totor – for monthly Boy Scouts of Belgium magazine. By 1928, he was in charge of producing the contents of Le XXe Siècle’s children’s weekly supplement Le Petit Vingtiéme. Remi was unhappily illustrating The Adventures of Flup, Nènesse and Poussette and Cochonette (written by a staff sports reporter) when Wallez urged the auteur to create an entirely new adventure series. Perhaps a young reporter who would travel the world, doing good whilst displaying solid Catholic values and virtues? Perhaps he might also highlight and expose some of the Faith’s greatest enemies and threats?

Having recently discovered word balloons in imported newspaper strips, Remi opted to incorporate this simple yet effective innovation into his own work, and produced a strip that was both modern and action-packed. Beginning on January 10th 1929, Tintin au pays des Soviets AKA Tintin in the Land of the Soviets changed the comics world. Happy 95th Anniversary, Young Man!

The strip appeared in weekly instalments in Le Petit Vingtiéme, running until May 8th 1930: meaning Tintin remains one of the very first globally successful strip characters, barely preceded by Tarzan and Buck Rogers (both January 7th 1929) and pipping Popeye who only shambled into view on January 17th of that year…

The boy-hero – a combination of Ideal Good Scout and Remi’s own brother Paul (a soldier in the Belgian Army) – would be accompanied by his dog Milou (Snowy to us English speakers) and report back all the inequities from the “Godless Russias”. The strip’s prime conceit was that Tintin was an actual foreign correspondent for Le Petit Vingtiéme and opens with the pair arriving in Russia. The dog and his boy were constantly subject to attacks and tricks by “the Soviets” to prevent the truth of their failed economic progress, specious popular support and wicked global aspirations being revealed to the Free World.

Some of the history beyond that first epic trek is quite dark: During the Nazi Occupation of Belgium, Le Vingtiéme Siècle was closed down and Hergé was compelled to transfer the strip to daily newspaper Le Soir (Brussels’ most prominent French-language periodical, and thus appropriated and controlled by the Nazis). Remi diligently toiled on for the duration, but following Belgium’s liberation was accused of collaboration and being a Nazi sympathiser.

It took the intervention of Belgian Resistance war-hero Raymond Leblanc to dispel the cloud over Hergé, which he did by resolutely vouching for the cartoonist and providing cash to create a new magazine – Le Journal de Tintin – which Leblanc published and managed.

The anthology swiftly achieved a weekly circulation in the hundreds of thousands and enabled the artist and his team to remaster past tales: excising material dictated by and added to ideologically shade war time adventures, as well as generally improving and updating great tales that were about to become a global phenomenon. With WWII over and his reputation restored, Hergé entered the most successful period of his career. He had mastered his storytelling craft, commanded a dedicated audience eager for his every effort and was finally able to say exactly what he wanted in his work, free from fear or censure.

In 1949 he returned to unfinished yarn Tintin au pays de l’or noir – abandoned when the Nazis invaded Belgium. The story had been commissioned by Le Vingtiéme Siècle, running from 28th September 1939 until 8th May 1940 when the paper was shut down. Set on the eve of a European war, the plot revolved around Tintin hunting seditionists and saboteurs tampering with Middle East oil supplies. Before being convinced to update and complete the tale as Land of Black Gold, Hergé briefly toyed with taking his cast into space…

Collected albums Objectif Lune and On a marché sur la Lune were colossal hits after initial serialisation in LJdT  from 30th March 1950 – 7th September 1950  and – after what must have been an intolerable wait for readers – from 29th October 1952 – 29th December 1953.

The tale was produced after discussions between Hergé and his friends Bernard Heuvelmans (scientist, author and father of pseudo-science Cryptozoology) and Jacques Van Melkebeke (AKA George Jacquet: strip scripter, painter, journalist and frequent if unacknowledged contributor to Tintin’s canon). The sci fi epic which became a 2-volume masterpiece first made the leap to English in 1959.

On a personal note: I first read Destination Moon in 1964, in a huge hardcover album edition (as they all were in the 1960s) and was blown completely away. I’m happy to say that except for the smaller pages – and there’s never a substitute for “pictorial Big-ness” – this taut thriller and its magnificent, mind-boggling sequel are still in a class of their own in the annals of science fiction comic strips. During the 1980s the entire tale was (repeatedly) released in a combined tome as Tintin’s Moon Adventure: an utterly inescapable piece of publishing common sense. It’s just a shame that it – and all the other the Tintin books – are still not available in digital editions…

Our tale opens with the indomitable boy reporter and Captain Haddock returning to ancestral pile Marlinspike Hall only to discover brilliant but “difficult” savant Professor Cuthbert Calculus has disappeared. When an enigmatic telegram arrives, the puzzled pair are off once again to Syldavia (as seen in King Ottokar’s Sceptre) and a rendezvous with the missing boffin…

Although suspicious, Tintin soon finds the secrecy is for sound reasons. In Syldavia, Calculus and an international team of researchers, engineers and technologists are completing a grand project to put a man on the Moon! In a turbulent race against time and amidst a huge and all-encompassing security clampdown, the scheme nears completion, but Tintin and Haddock’s arrival coincides with a worrying increase in espionage activity.

Some enemy nation or agency is determined to steal the secrets of Calculus’s groundbreaking atomic motor at any cost, and it takes all Tintin’s ingenuity to keep ahead of the villains. The arrival of detectives Thompson and Thomson adds nothing to the aura of anxiety but their bumbling investigations and Calculus’ brief bout of concussion-induced amnesia provide some of the funniest moments in comics history…

As devious incidents and occurrences of sabotage increase in intensity and frequency it becomes clear that there is a traitor inside the project, but at last the moment arrives and Tintin, Haddock, Calculus, technologist Dr. Frank Wolff (and Snowy) blast off for space!

Cold, clinical and superbly underplayed, Destination Moon is completely unlike the flash-and-dazzle razzamatazz of British or American tales from that period – or since. It is as if the burgeoning Cold War mentality of the era infected even Tintin’s bright clean world. Moreover, as before, pressure of work and Hergé’s troubled private life resulted in a breakdown and forced hiatus in the serial, but this time some of that darkness transferred to the material – although it only seems to have added to the overall effect of claustrophobia and paranoia. Even comedy set-pieces are more manic and explosive: despite its fantastic premise, in many ways this is the most mature of all Tintin’s exploits…

Presumably to offset the pressures, the master founded Studio Hergé, beginning on 6th April 1950: a public company to produce The Adventures of Tintin as well other features, with Bob De Moor enthroned as chief apprentice. He became a vital component of Tintin’s gradual domination of the book market: frequently despatched on visual fact-finding missions. De Moor revised the backgrounds of The Black Island for a British edition, repeating the task for a definitive 1971 release of Land of Black Gold. An invaluable and permanent addition to the production team, De Moor supervised and administrated while filling in backgrounds and, most notably, rendering those unforgettably eerie, magnificent Lunar landscapes of the sequel volume.

If the first book is an exercise in tension and suspense, Explorers on the Moon is sheer bravura spectacle. En route to Luna the explorers discover the idiot detectives have stowed away by accident. In conjunction with Captain Haddock’s illicit whisky imbibing and the effects of freefall, Thompson & Thomson provide brilliant comedy routines to balance the pervasive isolation and dramatic dangers of the journey.

Against all odds the lunanauts land safely and make astounding scientific discoveries. We Boomers knew decades ago that there was water on the moon because Tintin and Snowy went skating there! However, the explorations are cut short due to the imminent threat of suffocation after the discovery of another extra passengers on the rocket. Moreover, lurking in the shadows is the very real threat of a murderous traitor to be dealt with…

This so-modern yarn is a high point in the entire Tintin canon, blending heroism and drama with genuine moments of irresistible emotion… and side-splitting comedy. The absolute best of the bunch in my humble opinion, and still one of the most realistic and accurately depicted space comics ever produced. If you only ever read one Hergé saga it simply must be the translunar Adventure of Tintin.
Destination Moon: artwork © 1953, 1959, 1981 Editions Casterman, Paris & Tournai. Text © 1959 Egmont UK Limited. All Rights Reserved. Explorers on the Moon: artwork © 1954, 1959, 1982 Editions Casterman, Paris & Tournai. Text © 1959 Egmont UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.

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Sub-Mariner & The Original Human Torch


By Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Rich Buckler with Bob McLeod, Richardson & Company, Mike Gustovich, Danny Bulanadi, Alfredo Alcala, Romeo Tanghal & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9048-6 (TPB)

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the hybrid offspring of a sub-sea Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer; a being of immense strength, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly and thrive above and below the waves. Created by young Bill Everett, Namor technically predates Marvel/Atlas/Timely Comics.

He first caught the public’s attention as part of an elementally electrifying “Fire vs. Water” headlining team-up clash in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939 and soon to become Marvel Mystery Comics) alongside The Human Torch, but had originally been seen in truncated form via monochrome Motion Picture Funnies: a weekly promotional giveaway handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year.

Rapidly becoming one of the new company’s biggest draws, Namor gained his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-date Spring 1941) and was one of the last super-characters to go at the end of the first heroic age. In 1954, when Atlas (as the company then was) briefly revived its “Big Three” (the Torch and Captain America being the other two), Sub-Mariner resurfaced with Everett returning for an extended run of superb fantasy tales. Even so, the time wasn’t right and the title sank again.

When Stan Lee & Jack Kirby began reinventing comic-books in 1961 with Fantastic Four, they revived and rebooted the near-forgotten amphibian as a troubled, semi-amnesiac, yet decidedly more regal and grandiose anti-hero. He was understandably embittered at the loss of his undersea kingdom, which had seemingly been destroyed by American atomic testing.

He also became a dangerous bad-boy romantic interest: besotted with the FF’s golden-haired Sue Storm…

Namor knocked around the budding Marvel Universe for a few years, squabbling with assorted heroes like Daredevil, The Avengers and X-Men – and villains like The Incredible Hulk and Doctor Doom – before securing his own series as part of “split-book” Tales to Astonish with the aforementioned fellow antisocial antihero…

In 1988, as part of Marvel’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, that phenomenal half-century of comic book history was abridged, amended, updated and generally précised by avowed fan and self-appointed keeper of chronology Roy Thomas and writing partner Dann Thomas who collaboratively commemorated the Avenging Son’s contribution in 12-part Limited Series miniseries The Saga of the Sub-Mariner: rapturously drawn by Golden Age groupie Rich Buckler.

Roy & Rich did the same with The Saga of the Original Human Torch – a 4-part series running April to July 1990 – and both sides of the tempestuous coin are triumphantly tossed together in this splendidly all-encompassing, no-nonsense textbook of historic Fights ‘n’ Tights mythology ideal for celebrating and commemorating the elemental odd couple’s 85th Anniversary…

It all begins thousands of years ago with ‘A Legend a-Borning’ from The Saga of the Sub-Mariner #1 (November 1988) with Buckler inked by Bob McLeod. A short history of the sinking of antediluvian Atlantis and its eventual reoccupation by nomadic tribes of Homo Mermanus follows. The water-breathing wanderers flourish deep in the icy waters, and their story leads to a certain US research vessel sailing into icy waters in 1920…

Its depth-charging and icebreaking has horrendous consequences for the citizens of the deep and in response Emperor Thakorr organises a possibly punitive expedition. Instead, his daughter Princess Fen uses experimental air-breathing serums to infiltrate the ship and forms a brief liaison with Captain Leonard McKenzie. They even marry, but neither is aware the voyage has been arranged by unscrupulous telepath Paul Destine who is drawn to the area by an uncanny device of ancient power and origins…

Whilst Destine is being buried under a catastrophic avalanche trying to excavate the artefact, a raiding party from Atlantis boards the ship and drags Fen back home. She believes her husband has been killed in the attack. Months later a strange, pink-skinned baby is born beneath the deep blue sea…

The story resumes years later with teenaged Namor experiencing prejudice firsthand whilst playing with his blue-skinned chums and royal cousin Prince Byrrah. The passing of his callow years are interspersed with his grandfather’s disdain, his mother’s tales of the fabled “Americans” and the annoying girl Dorma who is always hanging around…

Every day seems to point out another way in which he differs from his people, such as his ever-increasing strength, ability to live unaided on the surface and the wings on his ankles which grant him the power of flight through the air.

Life changes forever when the youngster scavenges a sunken ship and shockingly encounters a brace of clunky mechanical men from the surface world doing the same. Panicked, he attacks, severing control cables connected to a ship far above before proudly hauling them to Atlantis as his prize. For once grandfather is delighted, especially when the face plates are pried open and he sees dead surface-men within.

The Emperor is ever more gleeful when Byrrah suggests Namor should go beard the Surfacers in their own realm to pay them back for the past destruction of Atlantis. Young, feisty and gullible, Namor sets off, ready to live up to his name which means ‘Avenging Son’…

‘A Prince in New York’ spectacularly depicts the fantastic reign of terror and destruction Sub-Mariner wrought upon the city, until distracted and becalmed by plucky blonde policewoman Betty Dean. It then reveals how he learns to despise Nazi Germany’s maritime depredations before ‘A Fire on the Water’ details how New York Special Policeman The (Original) Human Torch is deputised to stop the fish-man at all costs…

He never quite succeeds, but their ongoing clash resulted in some of the most astonishing scraps in comics history. With the city almost wrecked by their battles Betty Dean again steps in to calm the boiling waters and the next chapter – inked by Richardson & Company – introduced the ‘Invaders!’ as Hitler incomprehensibly decides to eradicate Atlantis with depth charges and U-boats. This rash act of wanton hatred merely secures Sub-Mariner’s fanatical aid for the Allied Powers.

With Thakorr wounded, the people elect Namor Emperor by popular acclaim before watching him swim off to crush the Axis and their super-powered servants. The young regent fights with and beside the Torch, Captain America, Bucky, Spitfire and Union Jack. By the time the war is won and Namor returns to his realm, Byrrah and his crony Commander Krang have turned recuperating Thakorr against his interim substitute and Sub-Mariner finds himself banished. Only Lady Dorma’s impassioned intervention prevents the homecoming becoming a bloodbath…

With nowhere else to go Namor rejoins his surface superhero friends to create the post-war All-Winners Squad, before eventually being summoned home by his cousin Namora. Atlantis has been ravaged by air-breathing gangsters…

Seeking vengeance, they team up with Betty for a short-lived crusade against criminals, madmen and monsters until again recalled to the rebuilt underwater kingdom. Namor’s years away had gradually diminished his mighty hybrid abilities, but now-recovered Thakorr orders Atlantis’ greatest scientists to restore them so the Sub-Mariner can renew the Realm’s war against all surface-men…

Instead, Namor attempts diplomacy, but his State Visit to the United Nations results in violent protests and the death of a bystander. He returns to his grandfather a bitter man, but still argues against war, no matter how hard General Krang and Byrrah urge it…

When Atlantis is wracked by seaquakes, Namor leads a patrol to the polar cap above and discovers freshly-exhumed Paul Destine is responsible. The psychic had found a fantastic Helmet of Power which magnified his gifts exponentially, and decided to test his expanded abilities on the closest population centre…

Enraged, Namor’s physical might is useless against the tele-potent madman and Destine wipes his fishy foe’s memories, sending him to live as an amnesiac amongst the dregs of New York, blindly awaiting his future ‘Dark Destiny’ (McLeod inks).

The epic history lesson reaches the dawn of the Marvel Age decades later as ‘Rage and Remembrance’ recaps the epochal events after new Human Torch Johnny Storm restores the memory of a weary derelict and unleashes the rage of the Sub-Mariner once again. With his mind and most of his memories back, Namor instantly heads home to find Atlantis razed and his people gone. Blaming humans, he launches a series of blistering attacks on the Fantastic Four whilst attempting to win the heart of the clearly conflicted Invisible Girl…

As months pass he discovers his people had relocated to rebuild Atlantis. Namor is re-elected Emperor over the protests of Byrrah and betrothed to Lady Dorma, unknowingly earning the eternal enmity of Warlord Krang who has always wanted her…

His war against the surface continues, escalating into a brief invasion of New York, a turbulent alliance with The Hulk and clash with ‘Avengers!’ (Mike Gustovich inks) resulting in the revival of his now-forgotten Invaders comrade Captain America…

Sub-Mariner’s pointless sorties against mankind continue as he forcefully adds The X-Men and Magneto onto his roster of enemies whilst still trying to take Sue Storm away from Reed Richards.

After repelling an invasion by sub-sea barbarian Attuma he softens and again seeks official human recognition for Atlantis. Whilst making this embassage, Krang seizes control of Atlantis and after battling Daredevil, Namor returns to his kingdom, deals with the usurper and more-or-less dials back his campaign against the surface. Sadly, this peace is interrupted as Destine again strikes, inviting the new ruler to a ‘Rendezvous with Destiny!’ (McLeod inks).

Time and events telescope from now on as ‘Losses in Battle’ traces Namor’s showdown with the mental maniac, alliance with the Inhuman Triton and battles Plantman, Dr. Dorcas, Tiger Shark, The Thing and a host of others, as well as enjoying a reunion with Betty Prentiss (nee Dean) and facing the rise of the sinister antediluvian Serpent Cult of Lemuria, which first devised the formidable Helmet of Power in eons past. Also revealed is how Namor’s marriage to Dorma is thwarted by murderous Lemurian Llyra and his subsequent agonising first and last meetings with his long-lost father…

‘Blood Ties’ then details his meeting with and adoption of Namora’s teenaged daughter Namorita, clashes with Doctor Doom and M.O.D.O.K., an alliance of Byrrah and Llyra and origins of The Defenders before ‘Triumphs… and Tragedy!’ (inked by McLeod & Co) brings us to a cameo-packed conclusion, relating Namor’s enforced alliance with Doom, admission into the Mighty Avengers and loss of two of his greatest loves…

Although appearing a tad rushed, the writing is strong and compelling: offering fresh insights for those familiar with the original material whilst presenting these chronicles in an engaging and appetising manner for those coming to the stories for the first time. Moreover, Buckler’s solidly dependable illustration capably handles a wide, wild and capacious cast with great style and verve.

Balancing the watery wonderment is the later and far shorter comics chronology of Sub-Mariner’s arch ally and favourite frenemy, as first seen in The Saga of the Original Human Torch. It starts with ‘The Lighted Torch’ by Thomas, Buckler & Danny Bulanadi, showing how the Flaming Fury first burst into life as a malfunctioning humanoid devised by troubled and acquisitive Professor Phineas Horton. Instantly igniting into an uncontrollable fireball whenever exposed to air, the artificial innocent was consigned to entombment in concrete but escaped to accidentally imperil the metropolis until it/he fell into the hands of a malign mobster named Sardo.

When the crook’s attempts to use the android as a terror weapon dramatically backfired, the hapless newborn was left a misunderstood fugitive – like a modern-day Frankenstein’s monster. Even his creator only saw the fiery Prometheus as a means of making money.

Gradually gaining control of his flammability, the angry, perpetually rejected android decides to make his own way in the world. Instinctively honest, the creature saw crime and wickedness everywhere and resolved to do something about it. Indistinguishable from human when not afire, he joined the police as Jim Hammond: tackling ordinary thugs even as his volcanic alter ego battled such outlandish bandits as Asbestos Lady. The Torch met Betty Dean when New York City Chief of Police John C. Wilson asked him to stop the savage Sub-Mariner destroying everything. The battles are spectacular but inconclusive, only ending when Betty intervenes and brokers a tenuous ceasefire.

Later, a brusque reunion with Horton sets the Torch on the trail of his creator’s former assistant Fred Raymond. Hammond is too late to stop Asbestos Lady murdering the Raymonds in a train wreck, but adopts their little boy Toro, who gains the power to become a human torch as soon as he meets the artificial avenger. The partners in peril become a team who set ‘The World on Fire!’: battling beside Namor in The Invaders for WWII’s duration.

They even play a major role in ending the conflict in 1945, storming a Berlin bunker and incinerating Hitler, before rising ‘Out of the Ashes…’ (Alfredo Alcala inks) to battle Homefront hostiles, exposing Machiavellian android mastermind Adam-II who, with knowledge of the future, attempts to assassinate a group of strangers who would all eventually be Presidents of the USA. The Fiery Furies formed the backbone of the All-Winners Squad, battling maniacs and conquerors from tomorrow, continuing their campaign against crime long after their comrades retired…

When a family crisis benches Toro, the Torch soldiers on with new sidekick Sun Girl until he returns. The reunion is destined to be short and far from sweet…

The hot history lesson concludes in ‘The Flaming Fifties!’ (inked by Romeo Tanghal) as Jim Hammond bursts from a desert grave following a nuclear test explosion: revived from a chemically-induced coma mimicking death. His last memory was of being ambushed by gangsters and sprayed with a chemical inhibiting his flame and knocking him out. Blazing back to the ambush site he attacks his assailants only to discover four years have passed…

When they employ the same solution as before, the compound no longer works on his atomically-charged form and when G-Men burst in the awful truth comes out. The Torch & Toro vanished in 1949 and when pressed, the crooks admit to having got their chemical cosh from the Russians. More chillingly, they paid for it by handing Toro over to the Reds…

After spectacularly rescuing and deprogramming the Soviets’ incendiary secret weapon, the Torch brings Toro home and they continue their anti-crime campaign against weird villains, Commie menaces and an assortment of crooks and gangsters. However, before long tragedy again strikes as the atomic infusion finally reaches critical mass in Jim’s android body.

Realising he is about to flame out in a colossal nova, The Human Torch soars into the desert skies and detonates like a supernova…

The pre-Marvel Age exploits of the Torch end here, but devotees already know how Hammond was resurrected a number of times in the convoluted continuity that underpins the modern House of Ideas…

This substantial primer into the prehistory of the groundbreaking Marvel Universe also includes a quartet of original art covers plus a brace of full-colour, textless cover reproductions. Fast, furious and fabulously action-packed, this is a lovely slice of authentic Marvel mastery to delight all lovers of Costumed dramas.
© 1988, 1989, 1990, 2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Infinite Wheatpaste volume 1: Catalytic Conversions


By L. Pidge with Chase Hutchison (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-910395-78-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

There’s a tantalising, wide-eyed freshness and gleeful zest to experiment re-entering comics publishing at the moment: a forward motion which will hopefully filter up to the mainstream market in the fullness of time. Until then, though, if you’re seeking a different spin, it’s best advice to look as always to the margins, as with this compilation of heartfelt dizzyingly drawn deliberations from US self-publishing phenomenon Pidge.

Based in the Colorado Rockies and working with life/work partner and colourist Chase Hutchison, they have also generated reading matter of substance in Fast Times and Heavy Rotation and contributed/edited numerous micropress anthologies. Pidge spends her off times teaching middle schoolers or drawing… and maybe both at the same time. …

There’s also life stuff, snowboarding and lots of knitting going on too…

Their multigenerational, pan-dimensional, picaresque cosmic roads epic serial Infinite Wheatpaste has been nominated for Ignatz and other awards, making many keen fans as it unfolds a wild ride of inner exploration and external personal advancement and communal adventure.

A captivating cartooned Foreword introduces the creators, their worlds and the author’s driving motivation – a deep-seated, unshakeable love of comics – for the tome under review today, all supplemented by a handy roster of truly eccentric ‘Dramatis Personae’ involved and interlinking in exploits all over the worlds. There’s timing-&-schedule challenged college student Soe who’s addicted to knitting and fashionably-stewed libations. She’s a true pal to all, but remains troubled by being an elemental goddess. Gene-mash-up and itinerant wanderer Casimir is in need of big changes to his life, and recently-bereaved widower/aging automaton Otis (0T-15) is just trying to stay stable and get by. There’s thoroughly decent happy-go-lucky guy Groob, failing-his-rehab Jeff (AKA fiery god Supernova). There’s also best friend Addy and her partner (seer/sorceress/shamus) Lilah to be going on with, but they’re just the tip of an ever-expanding astral iceberg…

An endless progression of buddies, beverages and buses, caffeine, ciggies and cats (-ish), Issue one ‘En Camino’ sees Jeff again regretting too many drugs and returning to a remedial program. Concerned, Addy insists he shouldn’t fly under his own power and takes the bus with him just in case. It’s a doomed and dangerous act, and when he explosively detonates en route, Soe is set upon a wildly meandering and overlapping, backslipping pan-reality path that will change the nature of existence…

The second compiled issue – designated ‘Brew’ – shows Soe’s new place (since she’s had to move domiciles yet again) where cool new roomy Jon introduces laid-back pal Groob. Soe’s tea ritual is sadly screwed up whenever mysterious watery appendages assault her, but generally it’s just another case of adapting to altered settings. The winter sparks growing friendships and leads to thoughts of Secret Santas and game of lizard tag. At least by the end, Soe has reliable witnesses to her ongoing fluid furores…

In deep midwinter, ‘Hand’ in #3 has her repeatedly and publicly accosted by sentient water, but comforted by Jon’s amazing comic boxes as walls of reality rupture and precious time is lost. Groob then bolts for outer space, discovering forces of trauma and loss thanks to ‘Two Life Forms’. Whilst working his passage and making more unique friends – and better, like sexy Seda/Abe – on a starliner, he stays the main focus of a bold odyssey in Track #5, where space opera action antics dominate in ‘Intergalactic Thin Mints’. These revels introduce bold pirate/stowaway/devoted family man Casimir, seeking a place to call his own…

‘Shiftless on 66’ pops us back to Earth where an Arizona road trip leads Delilah to a rash of monster sightings and missing trailer kids. The wandering witchcraft PI is soon deep under, battling froggish cave-kobolds from the back of beyond, but is she being hard-boiled or hard baked?

‘Facsimile’ brings us face-to-faceplate with bereaved custodian and janitorial robot Otis. OT-15 misses his husband and seeks solace by neglecting his own crucial maintenance whilst studying Buddhism. Apparently, all it takes to set the droid on the right path is his “cat” Grande and an angry teen losing her own settings and moorings…

Recapitulated as a road trip, Issue #8’s ‘Unincorporated’ observes Addy working for the Coyote Bay Times, badly interviewing youthful skateboarders just as scattered fiery divinity Jeff reassembles and returns. Her ladylove Delilah is unconvinced, but life of all sorts goes on, leading to a final case of ‘Leftover’, beginning in the Outer Rim of the Perseus Arm where Casimir is making more enemies than friends and needs an urgent chance of scenery for him and his kid. Thankfully, there’s someone/thing that might have a way back home…

To Be Continued…

Although the main event is paused, there are still bunches of Bonus stuff to enjoy, beginning with ‘Knitting Patterns’ including dauntingly detailed plans for constructing such soft machines as ‘Soe’s Dipped Mittens’, ‘Casimir’s Balaclava’, and ‘Hulder Mitts’, backed up by a cartoon ‘Afterword’ appreciating the efforts and existence of Professor Chase Hutchison.

Exuberant, graphic, joyous creativity, tinged with trippy counterculture tribute act energy, this initial serving of Infinite Wheatpaste pattern matches Road Warriors with life coaching and coffee with the outer cosmos in the way Red Dwarf might meet Kafka in San Francisco during the (Indian) Summer of Love. Of course they’d all go for tea and biscuits… and so could you whilst unleashing your inner comics muse.
© Pidge, 2016, 2024. All rights reserved.

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Wolverine: Origin – The Complete Collection


By Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada, Paul Jenkins, Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove, Kieron Gillen, Adam Kubert, Frank Martin, Rain Beredo & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-88899-753-1 (B/Digital edition)

Wolverine is all things to most people and in his long life has worn many hats: Comrade, Ally, Avenger, Father Figure, Teacher, Protector, Punisher. He first saw print in a tantalising teaser-glimpse at the end of Incredible Hulk #180 (cover-dated October 1974 – So Happy 50th, Eyy?). That peek devolved into a full-on if inconclusive scrap with the Green Goliath and accursed cannibal critter Wendigo in the next issue. Canada’s super-agent was just one more throwaway foe for Marvel’s mightiest monster-star and subsequently vanished until All-New, All Different X-Men launched.

The semi-feral mutant with fearsome claws and killer attitude rode – or perhaps fuelled – the meteoric rise of those rebooted outcast heroes. He inevitably won a miniseries try-out and his own series: two in fact, in fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents and an eponymous monthly book (of which more later and elsewhere). In guest shots across the MU – plus myriad cartoons and movies – he has carved out a unique slice of superstar status and never looked back. Over those years many untold tales of the aged agent explored his erased exploits in ever-increasing intensity and detail. Gradually, many secret origins and revelatory disclosures regarding his extended, self-obscured life slowly seeped out. Afflicted with periodic bouts of amnesia, mind-wiped ad nauseum by sinister foes or well-meaning associates, the lethal lost boy clocked up a lot of adventurous living – but didn’t remember much of it. This permanently unploughed field conveniently resulted in a crop of dramatically mysterious, undisclosed back-histories. Over the course of his X-Men outings, many clues to his early years manifested such as an inexplicable familiarity with Japanese culture and history but these turned out to be only steps back not the true story…

Origin
Although long touted as a story that couldn’t be told, the history of such a popular character was never, ever going to remain a mystery. Wolverine captivated comic book audiences and did it all over again on the small screen and in movies. Thus, in a climate of declining print sales, finally giving him an origin was truly inevitable. Sadly, just as certain was fan conviction that the event couldn’t help but be something of a disappointment.

Since I loathe story spoilers above almost all things, I’m going to be as vague as I can, just in case you’re the one who hasn’t seen this story yet. Released in a stylish six chapter prestige limited series spanning November 2001 to July 2002. ‘The Hill’, ‘Inner Child’, ‘The Beast Within’, ‘Heaven and Hell’, ‘Revelation’ and ‘Dust to Dust’, touch upon torment, tragedy and triumph to build the hero’s backstory, so suffice us to say that at the turn of the 19th century in Canada, 12-year old Rose is hired by wealthy landowner John Howlett II as companion to sickly heir James.

Left among taciturn servants on the palatial estate, Rose also befriends all-but-feral child “Dog” Logan, a much-abused son of the groundskeeper/general handyman. As she rapidly settles into the daily routine she also learns the estate is not a tranquil or safe place…

Horror strikes one fateful night as a murder-suicide shatters forever the tense stability of the gothic domain, with Rose and Wolverine-to-be forced to flee for their lives. On the run for years, they found stability, settling in a quarrying camp where harsh conditions and physical toil rapidly mature our mutant hero. Work was hard and as James grew he increasingly found peace, companionship and idyllic joy in the wild woods amongst a pack of timber wolves. Even here repercussions of the Howlett Estate tragedy impacted them, leading to a final, appalling confrontation, a desperate life-shattering clash, trauma beyond endurance and a retreat from the world… and reality.

In many ways the book could never really have lived up to expectations It was never going match let alone surpass 30 years of anticipation, and the creators should be applauded for ignoring convoluted X-Men mythology to concentrate on a purely primal tale in the fashion of Jack London or Joseph Conrad.

Sadly, there’s a distinct lack of tension and no sense of revelation at all. Most characters are barely one-dimensional: provided for a single purpose and predictably dealt with when their job is done. From the first page we know how it’s going to end and none of the characters has enough spark for a reader to emote with.

Understandably, such a “big story” needed a lot of creator fingers in the pie, so credits are a bit convoluted. Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada & Paul Jenkins came up with the plot, which Jenkins scripted. Artwork was drawn by Andy Kubert, and shot from his pencils but any grit or edginess that extremely talented gentleman built was regrettably lost by cloyingly heavy digital painting (by Richard Isanove whose very pretty colours seemingly candy-coat the shocking life-story of this most savage of heroes). All of which is largely irrelevant as the story sold bucketloads and has remained canonical ever since.

Origin II
Six years after, the company did it all over again for a much larger and less invested audience via his movie incarnation, but when it came, the story did not please or even satisfy everyone. Perhaps in response, writer Kieron Gillen, artist Adam Kubert and colourist Frank Martin filled in the next comics chapter. Cover-dated February to July 2014, follow-up 5-part miniseries Origin II made an far more effective and extremely appetising – if arguably just as controversial – titbit to add to the canonical menu…

If you recall, young Rose was hired to help sickly James Howlett. Among the lower order like herself she also befriended savage child Dog Logan. Blamed for the deaths of James parents, he and Rose fled for their lives, growing up on the run, and eventually settling in a quarrying camp. However even here the reach and repercussions of the Howletts found them, leading to a deadly battle in which a hasty unsheathing of bone claws cost Rose everything…

A few years later: It’s 1907 in the icy wilds of Canada. A man more beast than human runs with wolves, accepted by the pack as one of them. That harsh yet happy life is destroyed when a colossal white bear invades the territory. The creature doesn’t know how to eat like other bears and tracks the pack to its den before destroying the cubs.

The Wolfish Man’s peace of mind is broken forever but after almost dying killing the invasive beast even greater horror unfolds. The loss of his family has forced the not-wolf to start thinking again…

The polar bear was no unhappy wanderer, but actually introduced by men into the unfamiliar wilderness. Now showman Hugo Haversham, trapper Creed and his disfigured woman Clara are scouring the frozen wilds for other potentially profitable attractions. Creed & Clara share some strange secret and react badly when their erstwhile employer – creepy English scientist Dr. Nathaniel Essex – turns up in the frozen frontier town. He clearly knows something of her amazing affinity with animals and Creed’s uncanny healing abilities and is quite angry that a mere entrepreneur has appropriated the butchered bear carcass for his circus show…

Haversham knows a dangerous rival when he sees one, and takes the first opportunity to leave when Creed announces they are heading out. Essex continues his own endeavours, using his paramilitary “Marauders” to disseminate poison gas of his own devising in the deep woods, intent on finding what killed his white bear…

The tactic proves disastrous as the fumes drive a bizarre clawed aborigine to butcher the gas-masked Marauders. Moreover, the attacker seems utterly immune to the deadly vapours…

Essex’s remaining men pursue, driving the enraged wild man straight into Creed’s traps. Although the snares don’t stand up to his claws, the human beast is helpless against Clara’s uncanny influence. To Creed’s mounting fury, the connection seems to be mutual…

Soon, suitably caged, the Clawed Man of the Woods is the star attraction of Hugo the Great’s Travelling Circus. Regularly tortured, baited by Creed and fawned upon by Clara, the no-longer-mute beastman has only one thought in his head: the sight of another beloved blond girl dying on his claws…

Essex is still in the picture too: following the show and trying to buy the feral exhibit for his ongoing experiments. When his frustrated patience finally expires so does Hugo – thanks to Essex’s gas – leaving the rapid-healing Clawed Man to undying agonies on the sinister scientist’s vivisection table…

When all hope seems lost, Clara (having convinced Creed to help) breaks her new pet out. The trio flee into the night and – thanks to the torture or perhaps Clara’s devotion – the poor, benighted creature has begun to speak again. He now calls himself Logan…

A month later the fugitives are starving in New York City and Creed has had enough. He is not there when Essex’s men attempt to capture Clara’s wild lover and does not see history tragically, bloodily repeat itself. He does however join heartbroken, traumatised Logan in going after Essex, whilst happily concealing the true nature and extent of Clara’s powers…

The man who will be Mr. Sinister is unrepentant and working on his next project: an cruelly tempting solution that will lobotomise the imbiber and eradicate all painful memories. It all ends in more horrific score-settling before Logan escapes into the night and into history, but this tales still has a couple of shocking twists to reveal…

Brutal, visceral and compulsive; cleverly laying as much intriguing groundwork for future stories as answering long-asked questions, Origin II is a far more rewarding and superior yarn to delight aficionados of the complex Canadian crusader.

This engaging Complete Collection includes a wealth of bonus features and especially a raft of articles on how the project came about. Once the stories are told, Introduction ‘What do you think of the idea of a Limited Series telling Wolverine’s origin?’ by X-Men: The Movie Producer/co-writer Tom DeSanto leads to a response in ‘The Beginning’ by Bill Jemas, backed up by the latter’s full ‘Origin Treatment’, and co-plotter Joe Quesada’s ‘Confessions of an EIC’ (that’s Editor in Chief) before scripter Paul Jenkins adds ‘A Few Words’…

Quesada’s ‘Climbing the Hill’ shares story notes on the process to tell the untellable tale, bolstered by thoughts from the admin team in ‘The Editors Speak by Mike Marts & Mike Raicht’.

That’s supported by ‘The E-mail Chain’ that set things rolling and some much-needed visual secrets in ‘Character Designs’ by Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove’s ‘The Painted Process’ and cover pencils for Origin #1-6 as well as a selection of  pages of pencils (62) from throughout the tale.

Isanove’s painting ‘The Feast’ precedes cover pencils for Origin II and variant covers by Salvador Larroca & David Ocampo, Skottie Young, Steve Lieber (Deadpool variant) and  Salva Espin & Peter Pantazis (a Deadpool ditto), before sharing ‘The Origins of Origin II’.

For all its faults, Origin: the True Story of Wolverine immediately succeeded in its primary purpose of galvanising the public and making the wild wonder unmissable again. Publishing is a business, and the market always dictates what and where the stories are. Still, it is only a comic in a multi-media universe, so when someone decides to reveal the Real, True, True Real story of… we’ll all get another go at learning his secrets. Or not.

Over to you, film fans…
© 2019 MARVEL.

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Tarzan and the Adventurers (Complete Burne Hogarth Comic Strip Library volume 5)


By Burne Hogarth & Rob Thompson with James Freeman, Dan Barry, Nick Cardy, Bob Lubbers & various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78565-380-3 (landscape album HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

The 1930 and 1940s were decades of astounding pictorial periodical adventure. In the age before mass television, newspaper strips (and their bastard spawn comic books) were the only form of visually-based home entertainment for millions of citizens young and old, consequently shaping the culture of many nations. Relatively few strips attained nigh-universal approval and acclaim. The Gumps, Little Orphan Annie, Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, Terry and the Pirates and Prince Valiant were in that rarefied pantheon but arguably the most famous was Tarzan.

Evolving from mock melodrama comedic features like Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs or Carl Ed’s Harold Teen, the full-blown dramatic adventure serial truly started on January 7th 1929 with Buck Rogers and Tarzan debuting that day. Both were skilful adaptations of pre-existing prose properties and their influence changed the shape of the medium forever. The following years saw an explosion of similar fare, launched with astounding rapidity to huge success. Not only strips, but also actual fictive genres were born in that decade, still impacting today’s comic books and all our popular entertainment forms.

In terms of art quality, adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ immensely successful novels starring jungle-bred John Clayton, Lord Greystoke by Canadian commercial artist Harold “Hal” Foster were unsurpassed. The strip soon became beloved by the masses, supplementing and nurtured by the movies, books, radio show and ubiquitous advertising appearances.

As detailed in previous volumes of this sublime oversized (330 x 254 mm), monochrome/full -colour hardback series, Foster initially quit at the end of a 10-week adaptation of first novel Tarzan of the Apes. He was replaced by Rex Maxon, but at the insistent urging of author Burroughs, returned when the black-&-white daily expanded to include a lush, full colour Sunday page offering original adventures. Maxon was left to capably handle the weekday book adaptations, as Foster crafted the epic and lavish Sunday page until 1936: 233 consecutive weeks. He then left again for good: moving to King Features Syndicate and his own landmark weekend masterpiece Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur which debuted in February 1937. Once the 4-month backlog of material he had built up was gone, Foster was succeeded by a precociously brilliant 25-year old neophyte.

Burne Hogarth was a passionate graphic visionary whose superb anatomical skill, cinematic design flair and compelling page composition revolutionised action/adventure narrative illustration. His galvanic dynamism of idealised human figures and animals can still be seen in today’s comic books: all that impossibly body-positive perfection in motion can be directly attributed to Hogarth’s pioneering drawing and, in later years, educational efforts. Burroughs was a big fan and cannily used the increasingly popular comic strip to cross-market his own prose efforts with great effect.

This fabulous fifth & final tome encompasses Sunday pages from October 1949 to September 1950 and the equivalent Daily strips (September 1947 through September 1950), with Hogarth gradually easing out of the now-onerous job and employing a legion of gifted ghosts to fulfil his obligations. During this period, commercially-led format changes reduced the size and changed the shape of the Sunday strip from tabloid to landscape framing, but the contents suffered no loss of wonder, action or drama. The transition and repercussions are discussed with some academic frontloading and fitting further explanation in the form of extended essay ‘Transforming Tarzan’s Jungle’ by Henry G. Franke III. Fully briefed for our trek, we resume the fun with ‘Tarzan and the Adventurers’: Sunday pages #973 – 1010 as seen spanning October 30th 1949 to July 16th 1950. The saga was crafted by Hogarth, writer Rob Thompson and latterly James Freeman – who was forced upon Hogarth after the syndicate fired his preferred collaborator. It sees the Ape-Man visiting old ally Masai chief N’Kola just as white explorers Baker and Cleveland arrive, seeking the tribes’ help in locating a medicinal herb which might be a malaria cure.

In truth, the scurrilous duo are hunting lost treasure sunk in kingdom-demarcating Lake Dagomba, and need help in convincing Dagomba headman Mabuli to allow them access. This chief hates Tarzan but the impasse is ended when wicked witch doctor Chaka strikes a sinister side deal that triggers valiant efforts and vile betrayal, double cross, murder and bloody civil warfare incorporating spectacular chases, fantastic duels with beasts, mortals and the very landscape, captivating readers for months until the saga ended with explosive irony and tons of TNT…

The end was near for Hogarth and the Jungle Lord, and the Sunday association closed in a short serial finished by a comic book artist slowly making strips his career. Born in 1922, Robert Bartow “Bob” Lubbers drew a host of features before WWII, but other than The Vigilante and The Human Fly after hostilities ceased, mostly settled on newspaper stars like The Saint, Big Ben Bolt, Li’l Abner, Secret Agent X-9 and his own creations Long Sam and Robin Malone. That all occurred after a stellar run assisting/replacing Hogarth.

Ostensibly crafted by – and still signed “Hogarth”, ‘Tarzan and the Wild Game Hunters’ (#1011-1019: July 23rd to September 17th 1950) saw the vine-voyaging valiant aid cowboy-turned safari man Russ Rawson in capturing a rhino and gorilla for Winchester Zoo… but only after determining that Africa would be a far better place without these pair of particularly perilous rogue beasts…

Before switching to moody monochrome and standard single tier-per-diem layouts for the dailies section, Franke III explores ‘The Daily Grind’ in another erudite prose prologue preceding the accumulated serial sequences: providing context and background on writer Thompson and artistic aids/replacements Dan Barry, Nick Cardy & Lubbers, with John Lehti and Paul Reinman also getting a worthy mention.

Monday to Saturday storylines were relentless and tough to get right. No matter how good you are, there’s only so much progress to be made in 3-4 panels at a time, and savvy creators usually combined classic themes with familiar material whenever they could. Here that notion resulted in a (very) broad adaptation/reinterpretation of ERB’s prose pulp serial Tarzan at the Earth’s Core, which had been first serialised between September 1929 and March 1930 ,before becoming the 13th canonical novel in 1932. The strips comprising ‘Tarzan at the Earth’s Core’ (#2509 to 2616, September 1st 1947 through January 3rd 1948) were supervised by Hogarth & Thompson but limned primarily by Dan Barry (1911-1997).

He also began as a jobbing comic book guy. Like his own brother Seymour “Sy” Barry – who produced The Phantom newspaper strip for three decades – Dan worked in a finely-detailed, broadly realistic style, blending aesthetic sensibility with straightforward visual clarity and firm, almost burly virile toughness: a gritty “He-man” attitude for a new era, contemporarily christened “New York Slick”.

He drew masked hero fare like Airboy, Skywolf, Boy King, Black Owl, Spy Smasher, Doc Savage and more before joining the US Air Force and, on returning after the hostilities, drew monster hero The Heap and sundry genre shorts for titles like Crimebusters whilst running his own outfit producing educational/informational comics. Dan began his  gradual withdrawal from funnybooks as early as 1947, joining Hogarth’s studio and assuming art chores on the Tarzan daily for a year, whilst still gracing DC’s crime, mystery and science fiction anthologies until as late as 1954. He was offered Flash Gordon and quickly accepted, but that’s the stuff of another review…

In deepest, darkest Africa, the Jungle Lord is tracked down by explorer Jason Gridley who has been in contact with a man named David Innes, and resolved to save that lost soul. Innes is an adventurer who joined Professor Abner Perry in a giant drilling vehicle that took them deep inside the Earth. They are now trapped in an incredible antediluvian realm more than 500 miles below the world’s crust: a land of beast men, lost empires, dinosaurs and even more incredible things…

Tarzan is largely a spectator for this sequence as ERB’s prose adventures in Pellucidar are updated and recounted for readers before Lord Greystoke joins the rescue party using another mole machine – built by boffin Dr. Dana Franklin – to reach the exotic underworld. Adding romantic interest is Franklin’s glamourous daughter/assistant Doris as they voyage deep into a myriad of incredible adventures.

As well as saving Innes and Perry and reuniting the former with his own true love Dian the Beautiful, the newcomers face sentient pterodactyl tyrants (Thipdars if you’re au fait with the books), clash with cavemen and ape beasts (Sagoths), fight a macabre menagerie of long-extinct monsters, war with lizard warriors (Horibs) and get utterly lost and reunited in a land where time does not pass and night never comes…

The series is a paean to primitivism and is a boost to all those besotted with wild kingdoms. There are even pulchritudinous primeval pairings… Gridley to cavegirl princess Jana and Doris with Clovian cave chief Ulan…

The drama is divided into individual overlapping adventures until all the players eventually reunite for a big, big finale. With the aforementioned ghost artists deployed to augment Barry & Thompson, the saga concludes with episodes #2617-2640 of ‘Tarzan at the Earth’s Core’ (January 5th – 31st January 1948) as all the plot threads cleave together and those who want to return to the surface do so…

Although he was still involved in a mostly administrative capacity, Hogarth’s signature had been missing for some time when ‘Tarzan and Hard-Luck Harrigan’ #3361-3414: 22nd May – 22nd July 1950) began. The strip sported the name of new illustrator Nick Cardy; AKA strip veteran Nicolas Viscardi, who had drawn Lady Luck and other features for Will Eisner, and post-war became a DC mainstay on Gang Busters, Congo Bill, Aquaman, Teen Titans, Bat Lash, Batman/The Brave and the Bold and so much more. The tale itself was lighter fare with humorous overtones as Greystoke encountered a decrepit and devious old western prospector/snake oil peddler who had foolishly hitched his wagon to an African adventure… The affable scoundrel initially tried to capture Tarzan’s monkey pals before attempting to catch and sell the Ape-man himself before learning the error of his ways…

Sadly, old habits died hard. When the odd companions encountered desert raider El Mahmud dying of wounds, they were forced by the bandit’s devoted lieutenant Rambul to “cure” him with Harrigan’s bottled nostrum. That’s when the literal gold-digger spots the treasure the raiders possess and reverts to type, determined to enjoy one last lucky strike, no matter who he must betray…

Again demarcated by an artist change, ‘Tarzan and Hard-Luck Harrigan’ concluded with episodes #3415-3420 (24th – 29th July 1950) signifying the beginning of Lubbers 3½ year tenure, with a rowdily raucous big battle and the old coot’s redemption before moving briefly on to final inclusion ‘Attack of the Apes’ (#3421-3462: 31st July – 16th September 1950) with Lubbers benefitting from Hogarth’s last moments of oversight in a spooky yarn where a renegade troop of Great Apes (the fictious subspecies that reared Tarzan) begin attacking native villages…

After investigating in the primal manner of the lord of the forests, Tarzan gains a new anthropoid assistant in brutal Bay-At, learns who, why and what the true culprits are and renders his own judgement…

And that was that for Hogarth’s Tarzan until a flurry of new material appeared as graphic novel prototypes in the 1970s, which helped usher in a more mature view of the comics medium itself.

Tarzan is a fictive figure who has attained immortal reality in a number of different creative arenas, but none offer the breathtaking visceral immediacy of Burne Hogarth’s comic strips. These vivid visual masterworks are all coiled-spring tension or vital, violent explosive motion: stretching, running, fighting, surging rushes of power and glory where even backgrounds and landscapes achieve a degree of dramatic interactive expressionism. It’s a dream come true that these majestic exploits are available in full for ours and future generations of dedicated fantasists to enjoy.
Trademarks Tarzan® and Edgar Rice Burroughs® owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and Used by Permission. Copyright © 2018 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All Rights Reserved.