Category: Adventure

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Superman – The Atomic Age Sundays volume 1: 1945-1953


By Alvin Schwartz, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye (IDW/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-262-3 (HB)

It’s indisputable that the American comic book industry – if it existed at all – would be an utterly unrecognisable thing without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s bold and unprecedented invention was fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation and quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. He was also shamelessly copied and adapted by many inspired writers and artists for numerous publishers, spawning an incomprehensible army of imitators and variations within three years of his summer 1938 debut.

The intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and triumphal wish-fulfilment which epitomised the early Man of Steel soon grew to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, socially reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East also engulfed America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do.

In comic book terms Superman was master of the world. Moreover, whilst transforming and dictating the shape of the fledgling funnybook industry, the Man of Tomorrow relentlessly expanded into all areas of the entertainment media. Although we all think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as the epitome and acme of comics creation, the truth is that very soon after his debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel became a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse.

Diehard comics fans regard our purest and most powerful icons in primarily graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, Black Panther, The Avengers and all their hyperkinetic kind long ago outgrew four-colour origins and are now also fully mythologized modern mass media creatures, instantly familiar across all platforms and age ranges…

Far more people have viewed or heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comic books. His globally syndicated newspaper strips alone reached untold millions, and by the time his 20th anniversary rolled around at the very start of what we know as the Silver Age of Comics, he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial regular and starred in a series of astounding animated cartoons, as well as two films and a novel by George Lowther.

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

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

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for most of the last century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers aimed for. Syndicated across country – and frequently the planet – they were seen by millions of readers and generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic-books. Strips also paid far better and rightly so: some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were made to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them consequently grew to be part of global culture. Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Charlie Brown and so many more evolved beyond humble, tawdry newsprint to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar.

Some still do…

Even so, it was always something of a risky double-edged sword when comic book characters become so popular that they swim against the tide (after all weren’t the funny-books invented just to reprint strips in cheap accessible form?) to became actual mass-entertainment – and often global – syndicated serial strips.

Superman was the first comic book character to make that leap – about six months after he exploded out of Action Comics – but only a few have ever successfully followed. Wonder Woman, Batman (eventually) and groundbreaking teen icon Archie Andrews made the jump in the 1940s with only a handful such as Spider-Man, Howard the Duck and Conan the Barbarian having done so since.

The daily Superman newspaper comic strip launched on 16th January 1939, augmented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring), the mammoth task soon required the additional artistic gifts of Jack Burnley and ancillary writers Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz. The McClure Syndicate feature ran from 1939 until May 1966 and at its peak appeared in over 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers: a combined readership surpassing 20 million.

For most of the post-war years, Boring & Stan Kaye illustrated the spectacular Sundays (latterly supplemented by Win Mortimer and Curt Swan). The majority of strips – from 1944 to 1958 – were written by still largely unsung scribe Alvin Schwartz. Born in 1916, Schwartz was an early maestro of comic books, writing Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel and for many other titles and companies. Whilst handling the Superman strip he also freelanced on Wonder Woman and other superheroes as well as DC genre titles such as Tomahawk, Buzzy, A Date with Judy and House of Mystery.

After numerous clashes with new superman Editor Mort Weisinger, Schwartz quit comics for commercial writing: selling novels, essays, documentaries and docudramas for the National Film Board of Canada. He worked miracles in advertising and market research, developing selling techniques like psychographics and typological identification. A member of the advisory committee to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, he died in 2011.

After too many years wallowing in obscurity most of Superman’s newspaper strip exploits are at last available to aficionados and the curious newcomer in tomes such as this compiled under the auspices of the Library of American Comics.

Showcasing Schwartz & artist Wayne Boring in their purest prime, these Sundays (numbered as pages #521 to #698 collectively spanning October 23rd 1949 to March 15th 1953) star a nigh-omnipotent Man of Steel in domestically-framed tales of emotional dilemma and pedestrian criminality rather than a parade of muscle-flexing bombast. Here humour, wit and satire comfortably replace angst and bludgeoning action.

Following an affable appreciation of the creators and the times in Mark Waid’s ‘An Introduction’, ‘A Wayne Boring Gallery’ offers a tantalising selection of contemporaneous Superman and Action Comics covers before weekly wonderment commences in all its vibrant glory. Sadly, the serials are untitled, so you’ll just have to manage with my meagre synopses of individual yarns…

Kicking off is a charming fantasy as the Metropolis Marvel is temporarily stranded in Arthurian Britain after a US government time travel experiment goes awry. Whilst living in the past he befriends and assists court magician Merlin: an old duffer whose conjuring tricks aren’t fooling anyone anymore…

The first new tale of 1950 begins on February 12th, detailing how swindler Joseph Porter cons the Man of Steel into taking his place and clearing up his problems with cops and numerous gulled victims. This includes a hilarious spoofing sequence as the hero plays un-matchmaker to a scandalously-affianced hillbilly ingenue that will delight fans of Li’l Abner…

The extended saga opening on May 28th offers another human-interest drama given a super-powered spin: two aging robber barons recalling their regulation-free heydays before embarking on a ruthless wager to see who will get “anything they wish for” first. The only limitations imposed are their imaginations and financial resources. Before long Superman is hard-pressed to keep collateral casualties to a minimum…

One of the few antagonists to transfer from funnybooks to the Funny pages was fifth dimensional prankster Mr. Mxyztplk who popped back to our third dimension and took instant umbrage to an arrogant Earth educator. Dr. Flipendale had the temerity to declare the imp a mass delusion and refused to believe or even acknowledge the escalating chaos his stark pronouncements triggered…

Strip #573 (October 22nd) offers a different take on the classic secret identity crisis as Clark is exposed as an invulnerable man to all of Metropolis. Although gangsters are convinced, Lois Lane is not, claiming the underworld is perpetrating a frame-up…

That yarn takes us to years’ end and 1951 opens on January 7th with a tale of suspicion and injustice as Clark heads back to childhood hometown Smallville to celebrate Superboy Week and encounters a young man nursing an ancient grudge. When the poison pen/rumour campaign looks set to spoil festivities, the hero’s investigations uncover a betrayed child, a framed, murdered father and nefarious clandestine misdeeds carried out by corporate rogues in the Boy of Steel’s name…

Another identity crisis bedevils Clark beginning on April 1st. A killer’s case of mistaken identity seemingly exposes the reporter as super-strong and bulletproof. Surely, he must be the indomitable Man of Steel in disguise? Not according to Professor Pinberry who believes our hapless scribe has been accidentally exposed to his new superpower ray machine, Clark is happy to grasp at the fortuitous alibi but trouble mounts after the public demands to see the machine in action again and the city’s biggest mobster goes after the gadget to make himself Superman’s equal.

Strip #609 commenced on July 1st as aged duffer Salem Cooley comes to Metropolis and enjoys the most miraculous winning streak in history. Even Superman’s astounding powers can’t keep up with the string of happy circumstances, fortuitously profitable accidents and close shaves. Everybody wants to be the old coot’s pal, so who then is behind the constant assassination attempts on superstitious Salem… and what reward could possibly tempt anyone to challenge the luckiest man alive?

September 9th saw Superman agree to write Daily Planet articles about some of his previous exploits to benefit crime prevention charities. However, when capers he cites are restaged by mysterious malefactors, the city soon turns against the Man of Tomorrow and it takes all his super-wits to uncover the mastermind behind it all and quash one of the boldest crimes in the city’s history…

To lure a crime boss out, the Action Ace agrees to be absent Metropolis for a few weeks in the next adventure (running November 18th 1951 – January 13th 1952). However, when a poverty-struck boy succumbs to disease and depression, the Man of Might opts to return undercover, inspiring the kid’s recovery by granting wishes made on a “magic wand”. The task becomes increasingly difficult after crooks get hold of the stick and the invisible hero has to play along to sustain little Teddy’s recuperation…

From January 20th, Superman plays guardian angel to former wastrel and drunken playboy Reggie de Peyster who swears he’s a reformed character. Nobody but Superman realises the trust fund brat is sincere and all the appalling, shameful scandals he’s currently implicated in are being manufactured to cut him out of a vast inheritance…

Lois Lane takes centre stage from April 6th as, after months of being sidelined, the daring reporter quits her job to find a career offering some real excitement. She’s soon assistant to private detective Mike Crain: catching crooks and bodyguarding glamourous stars, but the work seems dull and pedestrian. Of course, Lois is utterly oblivious to the fact Superman is secretly intervening: patriarchal efforts to get her back where she belongs. Ah, different times, eh?

When maverick Hollywood producer/director Hans Bower arrives in Metropolis, (from June 29th he promptly declares Clark to be his latest mega-sensational super-star. A force of nature unable to take no for an answer, Hans soon has the bewildered reporter helming his next box office blockbuster. As shooting progresses, however, Superman uncovers a covert agenda and shocking secret behind the mogul’s extraordinary actions.

Uncanny crime is the order of the day from September 21st when bizarre illusions plague Metropolis and scientist Dr. Wagonrod accuses Superman of perpetrating hoaxes and staging crises due to an undiagnosed split personality. The truth is far more devious than that…

Concluding this first Atomic Age collection, November 30th 1952 to March 15th 1953 found readers avidly watching the skies when an alien capsule fell to Earth and disgorged a succession of alien bio-weapons to test humanity. Superman was hard-pressed to defeat the army of bizarre beasts but did have one immeasurable advantage: the sage advice and input of life-long science fiction fan Sedgwick Ripple…

The Atomic Age Superman: – Sunday Pages 1949-1953! was the first of three huge (312 x 245 mm), lavish, high-end hardback collections starring the Man of Steel and a welcome addition to the superb commemorative series of Library of American Comics which has preserved and re-presented in luxurious splendour such landmark strips as Lil Abner, Tarzan, Rip Kirby, Polly and her Pals and many of the abovementioned cartoon icons.

It’s an unimaginable joy to see these neglected Superman stories again, offering a far more measured, domesticated and comforting side of one of America’s most unique contributions to world culture. It’s also a pure delight to see some of the most engaging yesterdays of the Man of Tomorrow. Join me and see for yourself and agitate for the entire library to find time to release digital editions…
© 2015 DC Comics. All rights reserved. SUPERMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics.

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Trent volume 7: Miss Helen


By Rodolphe & Léo, coloured by Marie-Paule Alluard, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-397-0 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Continental audiences adore the mythologised American experience, both in Big Sky Wild Westerns and later eras of crime dramas. They also have a profound historical connection to the northernmost parts of the New World, generating many great graphic extravaganzas…

Born in Rio de Janeiro on December 13th 1944, “Léo” is artist/storyteller Luiz Eduardo de Oliveira Filho. After attaining a degree in mechanical engineering from Puerto Alegre in 1968, he was a government employee for three years until forced to flee the country because of his political views.

Whilst military dictators ran Brazil, he lived in Chile and Argentina before illegally returning to his homeland in 1974. He worked as a designer and graphic artist in Sao Paulo whilst creating his first comics art for O Bicho magazine, and in 1981 migrated to Paris to pursue a career in Bande Dessinée. He found work with Pilote and L’Echo des Savanes as well as more advertising and graphic design jobs, until the big break came and Jean-Claude Forest (Bébé Cyanure, Charlot, Barbarella) invited him to draw stories for Okapi.

This brought regular illustration work for Bayard Presse and, in 1988, Léo began his association with scripter/scenarist Rodolphe D. Jacquette – AKA Rodolphe. Prolific and celebrated, his writing partner had been a giant of comics since the 1970s: a Literature graduate who left teaching and running libraries to create poetry, criticism, novels, biographies, children’s stories and music journalism.

On meeting Jacques Lob in 1975, Jacquette expanded his portfolio: writing for many artists in magazines ranging from Pilote and Circus to à Suivre and Métal Hurlant. Amongst his most successful endeavours are Raffini (with Ferrandez) and L’Autre Monde (with Florence Magnin), but his triumphs in all genres and age ranges are far too numerous to list here.

In 1991 “Rodolph” began working with Léo on a period adventure of the “far north” starring a duty-driven loner. Taciturn, introspective, bleakly philosophical and pitilessly driven, Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant Philip Trent premiered in L’Homme Mort, forging a lonely path through the 19th century Dominion. He starred in eight moving, hard-bitten, love-benighted, beautifully realised albums until 2000, with the creative collaboration sparking later fantasy classics Kenya, Centaurus and Porte de Brazenac…

Cast very much in the pattern perfected by Jack London and John Buchan, Trent is a man of few words, deep thoughts and unyielding principles who gets the job done whilst stifling the emotional turmoil boiling within him: the very embodiment of “still waters running deep”…

Miss was the 7th saga, released in 1999, offering a marked change in fortune for the lovelorn peacekeeper as, after years of second-guessing, procrastination and prevarication, he finally weds the love of his life.

Years previously, he had saved Agnes St. Yves – but not her beloved brother – and was given a clear invitation from her: one he never acted upon. In the interim, Agnes met and married someone else. As before, Trent was unable to save the man in her life when banditry and destruction called during an horrific murder spree. The ball was again in Philip’s court and once more he fumbled it through timidity, indecision and inaction. He retreated into duty, using work to evade commitment and the risk of rejection…

Now everything has changed and Trent and Agnes are joyous newlyweds; however their nuptials are marred by a man in the crowd, someone the Mountie met in the days after he first lost his current bride…

The ghost at the wedding is soon joined by other old acquaintances and disturbing packages and before long, he meets again Miss Helen. Even back then he knew the vivacious American was wrong: a cultured creature flaunting wealth and her sexual favours whilst espousing dangerous anarchist rhetoric. She sought to turn the steadfast lawman to her cause before abruptly disappearing…

Her return coincides with a major exhibition of vast riches, and after flattery, seduction, fond reminiscences and veiled threats fail to secure his cooperation in robbing the event, Helen does what she was always going to do and kidnaps the new Mrs Trent.

Cornered and hopeless, Philip is forced to comply, unaware that other factions have also been observing him, and that bloody plans are afoot. Even after he’s brought up to speed, when the moment comes all he can do move fast and hope that he and his true love can survive the inevitable bloodbath that follows…

Another beguilingly introspective voyage of internal discovery, where human nature is a hostile environment, Miss Helen delivers suspense, drama and riveting action in a compelling epic to delight all fans of widescreen cinematic entertainment.
Original edition © Dargaud Editeur Paris 1999 by Rodolphe & Leo. All rights reserved. English translation © 2017 Cinebook Ltd.

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Captain Long Ears


By Diana Thung (SLG Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-59362-187-2 (TPB)

You might not have noticed – or even care – but every so often we slip in a week or so of themed recommendations. This time it’s “Pesky Kids” in all their picto-literary glory. We’ve seen youthful heroes, classic scallywags and comedically oppressed minors. Today we’re sharing a lost classic of the form which asks and answers just why some kids act like they do all wrapped up in a genial mystery with a hidden edge…

Here’s a odd thing. For a while, some years back, Diana Thung was a glittering name and shining prospect in graphic storytelling, but after two brilliant all-ages fantasy triumphs she dropped out of sight.

I don’t know why – and to be honest have no right to. It is a great shame as her work was groundbreaking and remains superb. I hope she’s well and happy, and I’m not going to stop recommending her delightful creations…

Thung was born in Jakarta, and grew up in Singapore before eventually settling in Australia. She is a natural storyteller, cartoonist and comics creator of sublime wit and imagination with a direct hotline to infinite thoughtscapes of childhood. Every single thing populating her astonishingly unique worlds is honed to razor sharpness and pinpoint logical clarity, no matter how weird or whimsical it might initially seem.

The sentiment is pure and unrefined; scenarios are perfectly constructed and effectively, authentically realised – and when things get tense and scary they are excessively tense and really, really scary… and pretty bloody sad too.

After SLG published debut series Captain Long Ears in 2010, Thung catapulted to (relative comic book) fame and two years later delivered her first original graphic novel August Moon, following up with Splendour in the Snow, before melting away. Prior to all that though she shared a very personal view of loss and bereavement that is both beguiling and hilarious, raw and unpolished and masked by a potent screen of happy manga style.

Michael lives in his head a lot. That’s okay though because he’s only eight, and it’s exciting there since that where his best friend lives too. That imaginative interior is packed with fun and thrills and a super-science citadel where Exalted Space Ninja Captain Long Ears and his deputy Captain Jam undertake their cosmic duties and eat peanut butter sandwiches. The situation is tense. All contact has been lost with supreme leader Captain Big Nose who has not answered hails for the longest time. Captain Jam acts like he knows something, but he’s not talking…

After putting themselves to bed, the next day dawns with Mum still – or already – at work. It’s become a habit but Michael can cope. Making breakfast (sugar with cereal), packing snacks and grabbing some cash, he and his cuddly gorilla bear are calling in at Headquarters. Maybe Captain Big Nose is there…

As they get off the bus outside seedy amusement park Happy Land, two overwrought workers are having a very tough time delivering a large wooden packing crate. It’s heavy, smelly, constantly shaking and emitting scary noises.

By the time they’ve dropped it in the enclosure behind the park grounds, Long Ears and Jam have fully failed to find any clues to their missing comrade, been accidentally absorbed by a school party and given a gang of alien predators disguised as bullying older kids a real shock. On the run from unimaginable retaliation, they land at the quiet rear enclosure just as the baby elephant in the box – still traumatised by memories of the poachers who killed the herd adults – loses all control and attacks the labouring oafs…

Lost in his own worlds, Michael spies on the events and resolves to liberate the prisoner in the crate at all costs…

That night, Michael’s mum gets home and quickly pierces the subterfuges her son had constructed to appear to be at home and in bed. Soon the police are searching for a missing child, but shabby old Happy Land is not their first port of call…

Visually inventive and astoundingly vivid – even in monochrome – whilst owing a huge inspirational debt to Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, the saga unfolds as pirates, sea-monsters, alien invaders and wizards compete with real world rogues and villains and all the powers of unsure memory and unleashed imagination as Michael voyages to an inescapable admission and conclusion over lost Big Nose that almost costs his life…

Funny, scary, thrilling and moving, this is a fabulously enticing young reader’s yarn every lover of comics and storytelling should take to their hearts.
™ & © 2010 Diana Thung. All rights reserved.

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The Baker Street Peculiars


By Roger Langridge, Andrew Hirsh & Fred Stresing (KaBOOM!)
ISBN: 978-1-60886-928-2 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-61398-599-1

Roger Langridge is a very talented gentleman with a uniquely beguiling way of telling stories. He has mastered every aspect of the comics profession from lettering (Dr. Who) to writing (Thor: The Mighty Avenger) to illustration (Knuckles the Malevolent Nun, Zoot!). When combining his gifts – as Fred the Clown, Popeye, Abigail and the Snowman – the approbation, accolades and glittering prizes such as Eisner and Harvey Awards can’t come fast enough.

He is also a bloody genius at making folk laugh…

The Baker Street Peculiars started life as an all-ages comicbook miniseries before being gathered in a titanic detective tome and craftily references a glittering reservoir of cool concepts encompassing the mythology of Sherlock Holmes, 1930s London, cosy crime mysteries, kid gangs and rampaging monster movies. Moreover, thanks to Langridge’s keen ear for idiom and slang, every page resonates with hilarious dialogue any lover of old films or British sitcoms will find themselves helplessly chortling over – if not actually joining in with…

Blimey, Guv’ner!

Illustrated by Andy Hirsch (Science Comics: Dogs, Varmints, Adventure Time, Regular Show) and coloured by the inestimable Fred Stresing, ‘The Case of the Cockney Golem’ opens in foggy old London Town circa 1933, currently enduring an odd spot of bother. Exceedingly odd…

‘A Beast in Baker Street’ reveals that famous landmark statues are going missing. Now, with one of the bronze lions in Trafalgar Square coming to life and bolting away down Charing Cross Road – unlike the crowds rushing about in panic – three wayward tykes (and a dog) chase after it. Soon they are all embroiled in the story of a lifetime… perhaps several lifetimes…

Tailor’s granddaughter Molly Rosenberg, orphan street thief Rajani Malakar and neglected filthy rich posh-boy Humphrey Fforbes-Davenport (and his canine valet Wellington) are all out long after bedtime and keen on a spot of adventure. Having individually chanced upon the commotion, they spontaneously unite to doggedly track the animated absconder to Baker Street where they enjoy a chance encounter with a legendary investigator…

Molly is especially intrigued: she’s read every exploit of the famous consulting detective. When he roundly rubbishes their claim of moving statues – and claims to be too busy with other cases – she angrily suggests that they act as his assistants. The detective quite quickly complies, but only to conceal an incredible secret not even his fanciful new deputies could ever imagine…

As Molly’s grandpa suffers another visit from thugs running an extortion racket for the nefarious Chippy Kipper – “the Pearly King of Brick Lane” – the kids’ bizarre quest continues in ‘The Lion, the Lord and the Landlady’ after the junior sleuths meet up at 221B Baker Street. Although consoled with a fine meal, they are disappointed to find their hoped-for mentor absent.

Receiving further instructions from the great detective’s elderly cook Mrs. Hudson, the youthful team learn that Mr Holmes believes the statues are simply being stolen and that he wishes the dauntless children to post guard on Boadicea at Westminster Bridge and Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square…

Their sentinel duties bear strange fruit, however, as East End thugs perform a strange and dangerous ritual and the beloved tourist attractions come to menacing life. As the kids follow the ambulatory landmarks back to Kipper’s hideout, Molly strives to recall a story her grandfather used to tell her: a fable about a Rabbi in old Prague who used a scroll to bring a giant avenging clay statue to life…

As the colossal Chippy shares his own unique origins with his cohort of thugs and sculptures, the youngsters sneak in. Swifty captured and stuck in a dungeon, they can only watch in horror as Kipper uses ancient magic to make a new kind of monster. ‘The Old, Hard Cell’ brings the plot to a bubbling boil as the terrified tykes swallow simmering resentments and work together. Even as they escape their current predicament, elsewhere, other, more mature truth-seekers are compelled to change their stubbornly-held opinions…

Someone else with a keen eye and suspicious mind is enterprising lady journalist Hetty Jones of The Mirror. Her own patient, diligent enquiries have brought her to Baker Street in time to collaborate with the aged detective-in-charge. With all eventualities except the impossible exhausted, the grown-ups must accept the truth and soon track down the missing lion. It’s probably too late, however, as an army of animated marble and bronze artefacts rampage through London towards the East End, with only three nippers (and a dog) ready to confront them…

With Chippy Kipper in the vanguard, the chilling regiment invades Molly’s home turf but ‘The Battle of Brick Lane’ is no one-sided affair. One plucky minor has remembered the secret of the Rabbi’s Golem and conceived a daring stratagem to immobilise the monstrous invaders. As for Kipper’s human thugs, they’ve severely underestimated the solidarity of hundreds of poor-but-honest folk pushed just a bit too far, one time too many…

When the dust settles, Sherlock Holmes has one last surprise for his squad of juvenile surrogates…

Adding to the charm and cheer is a cover-&-variants gallery by Hirsch & Hannah Christenson, sketch and design feature ‘Meet the Peculiars’ and a delirious sequence of all-Langridge strips starring his unique interpretation of the Great Detective Himself in ‘The Peculiar Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’.

Reverently refencing and spoofing beloved old films and our oh-so-idiosyncratic manners and parlance with a loving ear for an incongruous laugh, The Baker Street Peculiars is a sheer triumph of spooky whimsy, reinventing what was great about classic British storytelling. Fast, funny, slyly witty and with plenty of twists, it is an absolute delight from start to finish and another sublime example of comics at its most welcoming.
™ & © 2016 Roger Langridge & Andrew Hirsch All rights reserved.

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Marvel Adventures Spider-Man volume 1: Amazing


By Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, Scott Koblish & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4118-1 (Digest PB/Digital edition)

Since its earliest days Marvel always courted the youngest audiences. Whether animated tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad others, or original creations such as Tessie the Typist, Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids or Calvin, the House of Ideas always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.

These days, however, general kids’ interest titles are on the wane and with Marvel’s proprietary characters all over screens large, small, and even portable, the company prefers to create child-friendly versions of its own pantheon, making an eventual hoped-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.

In 2003 the company established a Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko all mixed in with remnants of their manga-based Tsunami imprint, also intended for a younger readership. The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with the core titles transformed in Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man with reconstituted classics replaced by all new stories. Additional series included Marvel Adventures series Super Heroes, The Avengers and Hulk. These ran until 2010 when all were cancelled and replaced by new – continuity-continuing -volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

This digest-sized collection gathers the first four stories from the 2010 iteration and actually starts in the middle of the action – although writer Paul Tobin and artists Matteo Lolli and Scott Koblish (with inkers Christian Dalla Vecchia, Terry Pallot Koblish & Andrew Hennessy) take great pains to keep the stories as clear as possible.

Sixteen year old Peter Parker has been the mysterious Spider-Man for about six months. In that time he has constantly prowled the streets and skyscrapers of New York, driven to fight injustice. However, as a kid just learning the ropes, he’s pretty much always in over his head…

The opening tale finds him on a crusade against the all-pervasive Torino crime-family, attempting to expose their bought-and-paid-for Judge Clive Baraby, whilst ex-girlfriend and wannabe journalist Gwen dogs his webbed heels and her father Police Captain George Stacy – who knows the boy’s secret but allows him to continue his vigilante antics – picks up all the well-thumped thugs the incensed wall-crawler leaves in his wake.

Even though Spidey can’t touch corrupt Baraby, his campaign of attrition has the Torinos on the ropes, so the Mafioso engage the services of super-assassin Bullseye to kill the Web-spinner. However, the Man who Never Misses is infuriatingly slow to act and soon there’s an open contract on the kid crusader…

Peter’s civilian life is pretty complicated too. Since he and Gwen split, the lad has taken up with schoolmate Sophia Sanduval – an extremely talented lass nicknamed Chat – who also knows Pete’s secret, can communicate with animals and has a part-time job with the Blonde Phantom Detective Agency…

She also pays attention in class and suggests how what they learned in history can be used to trap the untouchable Baraby.

The second story opens with a brutal dognapping and leads inexorably to a clash with merciless mercenary Midnight when the villain invades Peter’s school during a martial arts exhibition by Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Along the way, Chat introduces Pete to new buddy Flapper – a very wise owl indeed – and new kid Carter Torino enrols at the school. How does this troubled new boy know the constantly watching Bullseye?

Before the subplots get too intens,e however, Midnight and his ninjas attack Shang-Chi and Spider-Man joins the fracas, subsequently learning some things from the combat expert – including who to return that stolen dog to…

Whilst close-mouthed gang-prince Carter gets closer to Gwen, Wolverine guest-stars in an third untitled tale as Chat asks her bug-boy beau to help hunt down the wild-haired mutant for a client who wants Logan to model their hair gel. Typically, whenever the Clawed Canadian appears trouble isn’t far behind, and when a gang of Torino goons jumps Wolverine, Spidey is forced to join the carnage. And that’s when Bullseye makes his move…

As conflicted Carter Torino confronts his criminal family, the volume concludes with a savage showdown between Bullseye and the sorely outmatched Spider-Man …and sees the death of one of the supporting cast…

Never the success the company hoped, the Marvel Adventures project was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to those Disney XD television shows designated as Marvel Universe Cartoons, but these tales are still an intriguing and more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born generations away from the originating events.

Fast-paced and impressive, these Spidey tales are extremely enjoyable yarns but parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action”…
© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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No Need For Tenchi!


By Hitoshi Okuda, translated by Fred Burke (Viz Graphic Novel)
ISBN: 978-1-56931-180-6 (tank?bon PB)

The one real problem with manga is that translated past triumphs seldom stay in print. There are dozens of classic collections that demand rediscovery by a casual rather than otaku audience and many minor masterpieces languish lost when they could be appreciated and adored…

This bright and breezy adventure comedy from 1987 is a rare reversal of the usual state of affairs in that a TV anime came first and the manga serial was its spin-off. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki debuted as a 6-part TV show (termed an OVA or Original Video Animation in Japan) that proved so blisteringly popular that even before the original season concluded further specials and episodes were rushed into production. Over the next decade or so two more seasons appeared as well as spin-off shows and features (for a total of 98 episodes all told), plus games, toys, light novels and, of course, a comic book series.

The translation most commonly accepted for the pun-soaked title is No Need For Tenchi, but equally valid interpretations include Useless Tenchi, No Heaven and Earth and This Way Up.

The assorted hi-jinks of the show resulted in three overlapping but non-related continuities, with the Hitoshi Okuda manga serials stemming directly from the first season. Okuda eventually produced two comics sagas in this format: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-oh-ki which began in 1994 and features here – and follow-up Shin Tenchi Muyo! which I’ll get to one fine day…

The strip debuted in the December 16th 1994 Sh?nen anthology (comics pitched at 10-18 year old males) Comic Dragon Jr. It ran until Jun 9th 2000, generating 12 volumes of classic laughs and thrills. The stories are generally regarded as non-canonical by fans of the various TV versions, but of course we don’t care about that since the printed black and white tales are so much fun and so well illustrated…

This first volume collects the first seven issues of the Viz tome Tales of Tenchi, which did so much to popularise Manga in the English-speaking world, and opens with a thorough and fascinating recap of that first TV season – from which all succeeding manic mirth and mayhem proceeds – before cracking on to bolder and better bewilderments starring the entire copious cast on all new adventures and exploits…

Tenchi Masaki is an ordinary lad living peacefully in the countryside with his father Nobuyuki and grandfather Katsuhito, until one day he breaks opens an ancient shrine and lets a demon out. Hell-fiend Ryoko tries to kill him but a magic “Lightning Eagle Sword” helps him escape. The demon follows though, demanding the sword and things get really crazy when a spaceship arrives, revealing Ryoko is in fact a disgraced alien pirate from the star-spanning Jurai Empire.

Starship Ryo-oh-ki is full of attractive, shameless, immensely powerful warrior-women including Princess Ayeka, her little sister Sasami and supreme scientist Washu. This gaggle of violently disruptive visitors moves in with Tenchi and family, causing nothing but trouble and embarrassment. Soon the boy and his sword are being dragged all over the cosmos in the sentient Ryo-oh-ki (who, when not on duty, prefers the form of a cute rabbit/cat hybrid critter).

Ayeka and Sasami both harbour feelings for hapless Tenchi but things get really complicated when grandfather Katsuhito is revealed to be Yosho, a noble Prince of the Jurai. It appears Tenchi and those darned space girls are all related…

Tales of Tenchi opened with ‘The Genius’ as the star, currently studying Jurai warrior training under his grandfather’s diligent tutelage, falls foul of the princesses’ growing boredom. Ryoko attacks again, precipitating a devastating battle that threatens to burn the entire landscape to ashes, but is the aggressor really the demon pirate?

In ‘Double Trouble’ the other Ryoko tries to take Tenchi’s sword – in actuality a puissant techno-artefact known as the Master Key – before being defeated by the original, but at the cost of shock-induced amnesia. As the refugees all decompress, ‘Under Observation’ depicts outrageous and inadvisable potential cures for the distressed Ryoko but when the defeated doppelganger’s master Yakage arrives, the entire extended family are endangered. The terrifying star-warrior challenges Tenchi to a duel…

Part 4 ‘Plunder’ is one colossal hi-energy clash as the boy valiantly demonstrates all he has learned to drive off the intruder, but only after the villain takes Ayeka hostage, demanding a rematch in 10 days’ time…

Intensifying his training in ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ Tenchi prepares for the upcoming clash whilst Ryoko pursues Yakage into space, unaware that super-scientist Washu has hidden herself aboard the pursing ship…

‘A Good Scolding’ reveals intriguing history regarding the assorted super-girls whilst Tenchi trains for the final confrontation before concluding chapter ‘Relationships’ brings things to a spectacular climax whilst still leaving a cliffhanger to pull you back in for the next addictive instalment…

Blending elements of Star Wars: A New Hope with classic Japanese genre themes (fantasy, action, fighting, embarrassment, loss of conformity and hot chicks inexplicably drawn to nerdy boys), this rousing romp also includes comedy vignettes starring ‘The Cast of No Need For Tenchi’, and fourth-wall-busting asides, to top off a delightfully undemanding fun-fest to satisfy not just manga maniacs but also any lover of fanciful frivolity and sci fi shenanigans.
© 1994 by Hitoshi Okuda/Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co Ltd., Tokyo. NO NEED FOR TENCHI! is a trademark of Viz Communications Inc.

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Ironwolf: Fires of the Revolution


By Howard Chaykin, John Francis Moore, Michael Mignola & P. Craig Russell (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-063-5 (HB) 978-1-56389-065-9 (TPB)

In the early 1970s, when Howard Chaykin and other luminaries-in-waiting like Bernie Wrightson, Walt Simonson, Al Weiss, Mike Kaluta and others were just starting out in the US comics industry, it was on the back of a global fantasy boom. DC had the comic book rights to Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tales (beautifully realised in 5 issues of Swords and Sorcery by Denny O’Neil and many of the above-mentioned gentlemen) as well as the more well-known works of Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan, Korak, John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar and even Beyond the Farthest Star. Marvel had some old pulp called Conan and a bunch of others…

Those beautiful fantasy strips began as back-up features in DC’s jungle books but quickly graduated to their own title – Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Weird Worlds – where they enthralled for just 7 magnificent issues before returning to back-up status in Tarzan and Korak. Dropping ERB’s strap line the comic itself ran for three more issues before folding in 1974. Those featured an all-new space opera scenario by O’Neil and Chaykin – The Saga of Ironwolf.

Predating Star Wars by years, and seductively blending hard sci fi and horror tropes, it only just began the story of a star-spanning empire fallen into dissolution and decadence and the rebellion of one honest aristocrat who threw off the seductive chains of privilege to fight for freedom and justice. Artificial vampires, monsters, vast alien armies and his own kin were some of the horrors Ironwolf tackled, leading a loyal band of privateers from his gravity-defying wooden star-galleon the Limerick Rake.

With impressive elan Ironwolf mixed post-Vietnam, current-Watergate cynicism with youthful rebellion, all flavoured by Celtic mythology, Greek tragedy, the legend of Robin Hood and pulp trappings to create a rollicking, barnstorming unforgettable romp. It was cancelled after three issues.

In 1986, those episodes were collected as a special one shot which obviously had some editorial impact, as soon after, this slim but classy all-star conclusion was released in both hardcover and paperback.

In the Empire Galaktika no resource is more prized than the miraculous anti-gravity trees of Illium – ancestral home of the Lords Ironwolf. These incredible plants take a thousand years to mature, can grow on no other world, and are the basis of all starships and extraplanetary travel in the Empire.

After untold years of comfortable co-existence, the latest Empress, Erika Morelle D’Klein Hernandez – steeped in her own debaucheries – declares that she is giving the latest crop of mature trees to monstrous aliens she had welcomed into her realm. Disgusted at this betrayal, nauseated by D’Klein’s blood-sucking allies and afraid for the Empire’s survival, Lord Brian of Illium destroys the much-coveted trees and joins the revolution.

With a burgeoning republican movement, he almost overthrows the corrupt regime in a series of spectacular battles, but was ultimately betrayed by one of his closest allies. Ambushed, the Limerick Rake died in a ball of flame…

Ironwolf awakes confused and crippled in a shabby hovel. Horrified he learns he has been unconscious for eight years, and although the Empire has been replaced with a Commonwealth, things have actually grown worse for humanity. The Empress still holds power and men are no more than playthings and sustenance – not only for the vampiric Blood Legion but also the increasingly debased aristocrats he once called his fellows.

Clearly he has a job to finish…

After decades away, much of the raw fire of the young creators who originated Ironwolf has mellowed with age, but Chaykin has always been a savvy, cynical and politically worldly-wise story-teller and still had enough indignant venom remaining to make this tale of betrayal and righteous revenge a gloriously fulfilling read, especially with the superbly beguiling art of Mike Mignola & P. Craig Russell, illustrating his final campaign to liberate the masses.

Since the tale (which links into Chaykin & Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez’s DC future-verse Twilight epic – and no, that one has nothing to do with fey vampires in love: stayed tuned for our review of the sci fi classic) is not available digitally and physical copies are a bit pricy, I think the time has never been better for reissuing the entire vast panoramic saga in one complete graphic novel.

Let’s see if somebody at DC is reading this review…
© 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs. the Crook From Space


By Jerry Siegel & Reg Bunn (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-78618-971-4 (HB/Digital edition)

Part of Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics strand, The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs the Crook From Space is another sublimely cool collection celebrating an all-but forgotten sub-strand of the 1960s comics experience.

Until the 1980s, UK comics operated on an anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character on a weekly – or sometimes fortnightly – basis. Humorous periodicals like DC Thomson’s The Beano were leavened by thrillers like Billy the Cat or General Jumbo, and adventure papers like Amalgamated Press/Fleetway’s Lion or Valiant always carried gag strips such as The Nutts, Grimly Feendish, Mowser and a wealth of similar quick laugh treats.

British comics also notoriously enjoyed a strange, extended love affair with what can only be described as “unconventional” (for which feel free to substitute “creepy”) heroes. So many of our stars and potential role models of serials and strips were just plain “off”: self-righteous, moody voyeurs-turned vigilantes like Jason Hyde, sinister masterminds like The Dwarf, deranged geniuses like Eric Dolmann, jingoistic (and racist) supermen like Captain Hurricane and a plethora of reformed criminals/menaces like Charlie Peace, The Steel Claw or this guy…

… And don’t get me started on our legion of lethally anarchic comedy icons or that our most successful comic symbol of justice is an Eagle-bedecked, jack-booted poster boy for a fascist state. Perhaps that explains why these days we can’t even imagine or envision what a proper leader looks like and keep on electing clowns, crooks and blinkered over-privileged clueless simpletons…

All joking aside, British comics are unlike any other kind and simply must be seen to be believed and enjoyed. One of the most revered stars of the medium is being progressively collected in archival editions, perfectly encapsulating our odd relationship with heroism, villainy and in particular that murky grey area bridging them…

Mystery criminal genius and eventual superhero The Spider debuted in peerless weekly anthology Lion (June 26th 1965 issue), reigning supreme until April 26th 1969. He has periodically returned in reprint form (Vulcan) and occasionally new stories ever since.

As first introduced by Ted Cowan (Ginger Nutt, Paddy Payne, Adam Eterno, Robot Archie) & Reg Bunn (Robin Hood, Buck Jones, Captain Kid, Clip McCord), the moody malcontent was an enigmatic super-scientist whose goal was to be acclaimed the greatest criminal of all time.

The flamboyantly wicked narcissist began his public career by recruiting crime specialists – safecracker Roy Ordini and genteelly evil genius inventor Professor Pelham – before attempting a massive gem-theft from America’s greatest city. He was foiled by cruel luck and resolute cops Gilmore and Trask: crack detectives cursed with the task of capturing the arachnid arch-villain.

Cowan scripted the first two serialised sagas before handing over to comics royalty: Jerry Siegel (Superman, Superboy, The Spectre, Doctor Occult, Slam Bradley, Funnyman, The Mighty Crusaders, Starling), who was forced to look elsewhere for work after an infamous dispute with DC Comics over the rights to the Man of Steel.

This eagerly anticipated collection covers the Lion’s share of arachnid amazement from 25th June 1966 to 28th January 1967: two extended and interlocking epics crafted as Britain and the entire, but less fab & groovy world succumbed to “Batmania”.

In case you’re not old, that term covers a period of global hysteria sparked by the 1966 Batman TV show, which launched in January in the USA, with the UK catching the madness from 21st May until September 11th 1966. A second season ran here from September 17th to April 2nd 1967. The planet went crazy for superheroes and an era dubbed “camp” saw humour, satire, and fantastic psychedelic whimsy infect all categories of entertainment. It was a time of peace, love, wild music and radical change, and I believe there were lots of drugs being experimented with at the time…

British comics were not immune, and a host of more conventional costumed crusaders sprang up in our traditionally unconventional pages. Scripted by the godfather of the genre – and an inveterate humourist – The Spider skilfully shifted gears without a squeak and the first epic ‘The Spider v. The Exterminator’ saw the uncrowned king of crime preying upon and at war with the gathered mob lords of America, who called themselves Crime Incorporated.

The hooded leader – The Silhouette – had acted upon their behalf and hired a superpowered villain to destroy the wicked webspinner, but in numerous weekly clashes, only vividly spectacularly stalemates had been achieved. Eventually, after learning what the Silhouette really was, the foes became partners: resolved to impoverish and crush all other major criminals, and divide the planet between them. The crime lords struck back, leading to the return of old Spider enemies Dr. Mysterioso and The Android Emperor in extraordinary extended clashes until only two remained. Then abruptly, announcing there was more challenge and greater fun in fighting evil, The Spider declared himself a hero, ruthlessly betrayed the Exterminator and set out to be a world saver…

He got his chance the very next week whilst fighting devious and decrepit tech bandit The Infernal Gadgeteer, as their duels were interrupted by a marauding pillage from the stars.

‘The Spider versus the Crook From Outer Space’ played out for months, with manic combats and crazy inventions peppering a madcap competition that begins when the attention-seeking shapeshifter abducts the Gadgeteer so he/it can be centre of attention. Constantly attacking humanity in the guise of villains from history, the alien runs the Spider and his team ragged, upping the stakes with monsters and super-weapons whenever the make-believe hero frustrates him/it. The duel takes its emotional toll too, and when an alien invasion armada interrupts the games, the space crook petulantly but pitilessly destroys them for their temerity…

Despite breakneck pace, the story positively bulges with imaginative ingenuity, as when a hidden aquatic race from the oceans also foolishly disrupts the bout and pays the price, or when the sworn foes both change sides and trade moral perspectives…

As the end nears, Dr. Mysterioso returns leading a microscopic militia and sowing chaos but the coup de grace comes when the alien at last decides to battle his implacable antagonist as another, better Spider…

These retro/camp masterpieces of arcane dialogue, insane devices and rollercoaster antics are perhaps an acquired taste but no one with functioning eyes can fail to be astounded by the artwork of Reg “crosshatch king” Bunn which handles mood, spectacle, action and Siegel’s frankly unbelievable script demands with captivating aplomb.

This titanic tome reaffirms that the King is back at last and should find a home in every kid’s heart and mind, no matter how young they might be, or threaten to remain. Batty, baroque and often simply bonkers, The Spider proves that although crime does not pay, it always provides a huge amount of white-knuckle fun…
© 1996, 1967 & 2023 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Sky Masters of the Space Force: The Complete Dailies


By Jack Kirby, Dick & Dave Wood, Wally Wood & Dick Ayers (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-129-8 (HB) 978-1-61345-211-0 (TPB) 1-56685-009-6 (Pure Imagination)

Sky Masters of the Space Force was – and remains – a beautiful and eminently readable newspaper strip but one with a chequered and troubled back-story. How much so you can discover for yourself when you buy this book.

Even ever-upbeat and inspirational comics god Jack Kirby spent decades trying to forget the grief caused by his foray into the newspaper strip market during the height of the Space Race before finally relenting in his twilight years and giving his blessing to collections and reprints such as this one from Hermes Press.

Be grateful that he did because the collected work is one of his greatest achievements, even with the incredible format restraints of one tier of tiny panels per day, and a solitary page every Sunday. Decades later this hard-science space adventure is still the business!

And that’s despite the acrimonious legal manoeuvrings that poisoned the process of creating the strip from start to finish. That can of worms you can read for yourself in Daniel Herman’s forthright ‘Introduction: Jack Kirby, Wally Wood, and Sky Masters’ which precedes the astronautical adventures contained herein…

Just for context though: against a backdrop of international and ideological rivalry turned white-hot when the Soviets successfully launched Sputnik in 1957, the staid George Matthew Adams newspaper syndicate decided to finally enter the 20th century with a newspaper feature about space.

After approaching a reluctant DC Comics (then National Periodicals Publications) a deal was brokered. The project was steered by editor Jack Schiff who convinced Jack Kirby, inker Wally Wood (later replaced by Dick Ayers) and scripters/brothers Dick and Dave Wood (no relation to Wally) to begin bringing the conquest of the cosmos into our lives via an all-American astronaut, his trusty team of stalwart comrades and the philanthropic largesse of the newly-minted US Space Force (who knew Donald Trump could read back then?).

The daily strip launched on September 8th 1958 and ran until February 25th 1961; scant months before Alan Shepherd became in reality the first American in Space on May 5th.

The Sunday colour page told its five extended tales (The Atom Horse, Project Darkside, Mister Lunivac, Jumbo Jones and The Yogi Spaceman) in a separate continuity running from February 8th 1959 to 14th February 1960. They are sadly not included in this monochrome archival collection, but at least that gives us fans something to look forward to…

This tense, terse and startlingly suspenseful foray into a historical future begins with ‘The First Man in Space’ (September 8th – November 21st 1958) as Major Schuyler “Sky” Masters becomes the second man in space. Romantically involved with Holly Martin, he is hurled into orbit to rescue her astronaut father after the bold pioneer encounters, in the pitiless reaches above Earth, something too horrible to contemplate…

Human tragedy and ever-impinging fear of the unknown of that moody tale informs all the tales that follow, and as Holly Martin’s feisty brother Danny and burly Sgt. Riot join the cast (who do they remind me of?) for ‘Sabotage’ (22nd November – 7th March 1959), the quintessential components of all great comics teams are in place.

In this second encounter the stage expands enormously and a member of the vast Space Force contingent sinks into derangement: convinced colonization of the void and abandonment of Mother Earth is an unholy abomination.

That’s bad enough, but when he’s despatched as one of the six pathfinders constructing America’s first permanent orbiting space station, disaster is assured unless Sky can expose him and stop his deadly machinations…

Even as grim yet heady realism slowly grew into exuberant action and fantastic spectacle, the strip moves into high dramatic gear as woman pilot (or “aviatrix”) ‘Mayday Shannon’ (9th March – 9th May) joins the squad. The Brass have high hopes that she will prove “females” can thrive in space too. They didn’t reckon on her publicity-hungry greed and innate selfishness. Happily, the magnetic allure of the stars ultimately overcomes her bad side and Sky is on hand to deal with her ruthlessly unscrupulous manager…

A medical emergency tests the ingenuity of our dedicated spacers when project instigator and patriarch Doctor Royer is taken ill and Sky must ferry a surgeon to him in ‘To Save a Life’ (11th May – 10th June) after which the tireless Major and an unsuspected rival for Holly’s affections are stranded together on a New Guinea island of cannibals after losing control of ‘The Lost Capsule’ (11th June – 23rd September)…

During that heady meeting of ancient and modern cultures, inker/finisher Wally Wood was replaced by Dick Ayers (although the signatures remained “Kirby & Wood” for years more. Maybe the credit was for the writers?).

The incalculable terrors of space manifested with the next saga as ‘Alfie’ (24th September 1959 to 13th January 1960) carried the heroes of the New Frontier into the next decade. When young astronaut crewman Marek joins the orbiting space wheel, he begins periodically suffering bizarre fits. Every four hours for seven and a half minutes, the young American seems to channel the personality of aging East End cockney thief Alfie Higgins. With the fear that it might be some kind of infectious space madness, Sky and Riot head for London to link up with Scotland Yard in a gripping mystery drama blending jewel robbery and murder with the eerie overtones of Dumas’ Corsican Cousins…

The constant tensions of the Cold War and Space Race come to the fore in ‘Refugee’ (14th January – 19th February) as Sky and the US Space Force aid a most unlikely and improbable Soviet defector’s escape to the West…

Now a fully-trusted and dedicated member of the squad, Mayday Shannon returns to solve an astronaut’s romantic dilemma by arranging a ‘Wedding in Space’ (20th February – 20th April), before the true threat of the outer depths is tackled when Sky meets astronautical guru and maverick Martin Strickland. A tempestuous but invaluable asset of the Space program, the intellectual renegade has proof of alien life but won’t share the ‘Message from Space’ (21st April – 22nd June) unless military and civil authorities give him carte blanche to act on humanity’s behalf…

Counterbalancing such speculative sci fi aspects, the penultimate adventure is very much Earthbound and grounded in contemporary science and economics. ‘Weather Watchers’ (23rd June – 27th December) finds greedy capitalist entrepreneur Octavius Alexia realise he can make huge profits by scamming insurers if he has access to advance weather predictions afforded by the growing web of satellites orbiting the world.

To monopolise on that valuable information, he targets Mayday with the latest in espionage technologies and male honey trap J. Mansfield Sparks III. It might have all gone his way too if the woman hadn’t been so smart, and his mercenary gigolo had remained unencumbered by conscience…

The series ended in a rather rushed and rapid manner with ‘The Young Astronaut’ (28th December 1960 – 25th February 1961) wherein a new recruit proved to be too good to be true. Excelling at every aspect of the harsh training, Frederick T. “Fission” Tate had ulterior motives for getting into space. Luckily, suspicious Major Masters was right beside him on that first flight into the Wide Black Yonder…

As well as these stellar tales of stellar wonder, this volume also contains an abundance of visual extras such as a numerous covers and samples of Kirby’s contemporary comic book work, plus original art panels in a ‘Focus’ section, which almost compensates for the absence of the Sunday colour pages. Almost…

This compilation comprises a meteoric canon of wonderment that no red-blooded armchair adventurer could possibly resist, but quite honestly, I simply cannot be completely objective about Sky Masters.

I grew up during this time period and the “Conquest of Space” is as much a part of my sturdy yet creaky old bones as the lead in the paint, pipes and exhaust fumes my generation readily absorbed. That it is also thrilling, challenging and spectacularly drawn is almost irrelevant to me, but if any inducement is needed for you to seek this work out let it be that this is indisputably one of Kirby’s greatest accomplishments: engaging, beguiling, challenging and truly lovely to look upon. Now go enjoy it.

Back in 2000, Pure Imagination Publishing released The Complete Sky Masters of the Space Force, which also contains an abundance of essays; commentary and extras such as sketches and unpublished art, as well as those omitted Sunday pages, albeit printed in black and white. If you have the resources and that completist bug it’s worth hunting down, until such time as modern publishers finally catch on and print everything.

© 2017 Herman and Geer Communications, Inc. d/b/a Hermes Press. Introduction and Focus © 2017 Daniel Herman.

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The Epic of Gilgamesh


Translated by Kent H. Dixon & illustrated by Kevin H. Dixon (Seven Stories Press)
ISBN: 978-1-60980-793-1 (TPB): 978-1-60980-794-8 (eBook)

The infinite realm of comics is the most expansive medium we have for extolling heroic deeds, combining a facility for depicting all aspects of character with an unlimited budget for special effects; all whilst communicating instantaneous visceral understanding and appreciation to and on the part of the audience.

Such was not always the case: once upon a time all we had was words, originally spoken or chanted but eventually translated into permanent marks on durable surfaces.

As of this writing, The Epic of Gilgamesh is still the oldest known work of human literature. A truly timeless heroic saga, its earliest incarnation is actually five Sumerian poems lauding the accomplishments of Bilgamesh, King of Uruk, dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur. That’s approximately 2100 BCE as you, I and most modern Mesopotamians would reckon it.

As is so often the case, some smart wordsmith long ago appropriated the texts and reconditioned the snippets into something grander, with the saga surviving into our era via a series (still incomplete) of Babylonian tablets. The material is open to frequent interpretation and has been translated into many languages since first discovered.

What source material we have comes from tablets of cuneiform logographs discovered back in 1853 by Hormuzd Rassam amidst the remains of the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh (near modern Mosul in Iraq). In the early 1870s western historian George Smith published his first translation and, after more hands-on study and research, a full and final version in his 1880 book The Chaldean Account of Genesis. The first direct Arabic translation – by Iraqi Taha Baqir – only appeared in 1960. Many modern scholars have had a bash, with 2003’s 2-volume critical work by Andrew George being generally accounted as the most definitive thus far.

I, however, am no scholar (or gentleman, by all accounts) and the graphic novel on point today has my vote for perhaps the most honest and genuine treatment yet. It’s certainly the least pompous with the most laughs…

Gilgamesh is the prototype and template of all modern hero-myths, with a demigod king, alternatively beloved and despised, stricken and emboldened by his own greatness triumphing over all odds and odd monsters, but ultimately brought low by his own humanity.

It’s also a story with creation myth motifs (man brought forth from clay; god-touched, animal-saving survivors of great floods; resurrection from the dead) that reoccur over and over again in later religions. Has anyone told Dwayne Johnson about this book yet?

This version is replete with earthy humour, casual smut and everyday venality. It feels like – despite the mystical trappings – the characters at its heart are all too human. This is most cool, as artefacts dating back to 2600 BCE were recently uncovered that indicate the actual existence of some of the actors in this particular passion play…

What also lends this superb monochrome marvel much of its compelling veracity and beguiling attraction is a somewhat unique collaboration. Kent H. Dixon is an award-winning poet, screenwriter, novelist and educator who spends his days teaching and translating literary works from Japanese hibakusha to classics by Rilke and Mallarmé.

Kent Dixon is a social activist, underground radio show host and the award-winning cartoonist who created …And Then There Was Rock and subversive milestone Mickey Death in the Winds of Impotence. He might be the only aging rebel in the world happy to work with his dad…

Their slowly-unfolding, decade-long collaboration on The Epic of Gilgamesh caught the attention of top bloke Russ Kick (You Are Being Lied To and Everything You Know is Wrong; and data archive thememoryhole2.org) who quickly made it – and them – a key part of the superb Graphic Canon series.

So, what do you get here that other translations don’t offer? Following Kick’s scene-setting, context-establishing Introduction, Kent Senior’s Translator’s Note relates how the literary wizard retranslated the original tablets – including only just unearthed Tablet 5 – and offers a few hints regarding narrative direction whilst Kevin Dixon’s Artist’s Note spills a few secrets on producing a classic everybody “knows” as an out of sequence part-work…

As for the story: an arrogant hero-king wanders the Earth and realms of gods and monsters. He’s pretty vile to women and beats up whom he pleases until the gods create a perfect enemy who ends up becoming his truest (if not only) friend. When he dies the Hero defies the universe and challenges Hell to get him back. You’ve heard it all before but you’ve never seen it quite like this…

Bold and brash, raw and raucous, this inviting interpretation also manages to maintain a graceful poetic rhythm and deftly incorporate the philosophy and instructions-for-living that permeate and underscore the original without missing a beat. A magnificent tale with a big heart and supremely engaging, this funny, scary, action-packed pictorial fable is a brilliant achievement and I for one am hungry for more. Spenser’s Faerie Queene or Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West anyone?
© 2018 by Kent H. Dixon and Kevin H. Dixon. All rights reserved.