Category: Adventure

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Tarzan in the City of Gold (The Complete Burne Hogarth Comic Strip Library volume 1)


By Burne Hogarth and Don Garden (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78116-317-7 (HB)

Modern comics and graphic novels evolved from newspaper comic strips. These daily pictorial features were – until relatively recently – extremely popular with the public and highly valued by publishers who used them as a powerful weapon to guarantee and even increase circulation and profits. From the earliest days humour was paramount; hence the terms “Funnies” – and of course, “Comics”.

The 1930s saw an explosion of action and drama strips launched with astounding rapidity and success. Not just strips but actual genres were created in that decade which still impact on not just today’s comic-books but all our popular fiction. Despite the odd ancestor or precedent like Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs (comedic when it began in 1924, but gradually moving through mock-heroics to light-action and becoming a full-blown adventure serial with the introduction of Captain Easy in 1929), the majority of strips in production were feel-good humour strips with the occasional child-oriented fantasy.

The full-blown adventure serial strip started on January 7th 1929 with Buck Rogers and Tarzan launching on the same day. Both were adaptations of pre-existing prose properties – although the Ape-Man had already conquered the silver screen – and their influence changed the shape of the medium forever. In terms of sheer quality of art, the adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels starring jungle-bred John Clayton, Lord Greystoke by Canadian commercial artist Harold “Hal” Foster were unsurpassed, and the strip became a firm favourite of the reading masses, supplementing movies, books, a radio show and ubiquitous advertising appearances.

As fully detailed in Tarzan historian/author Scott Tracy Griffin’s informative overview ‘Burne & Burroughs: The Story of Burne Hogarth and Edgar Rice Burroughs’, Foster initially quit the strip after the10-week adaptation of Tarzan of the Apes. He was replaced by Rex Maxon, but returned (at the insistent urging of Edgar Rice Burroughs) when the black-&-white daily was expanded to include a lush, full colour Sunday page of new tales.

Leaving Maxon to cater the Monday through Saturday series of novel adaptations, Foster produced the Sunday page until 1936 (233 weeks) after which he momentously moved to King Features Syndicate and created his own weekend masterpiece. Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur debuted on February 13th 1937. Once a four month backlog of material he had built up was gone, Foster was succeeded by a precociously brilliant 25-year old artist named Burne Hogarth: a young graphic visionary whose superb anatomical skill, cinematic design flair and compelling page composition revolutionised action/adventure narrative illustration.

The galvanic modern dynamism of the idealised human figure in comic books is directly attributable to Hogarth’s pioneering drawing and, in later years, educational efforts.

When he in turn finally left the strip, Hogarth found his way into teaching as co-founder – with Silas H. Rhodes – of the Cartoonist and Illustrators School for returning veterans. This became the New York School of Visual Arts and Hogarth produced an invaluable and inspirational series of art textbooks including Dynamic Anatomy and Dynamic Figure Drawing, shaping generations of aspiring pencillers. I can see my own well-worn copies from where I sit typing this.

In the early 1970s, Hogarth was lured back to the leafy domain of legendary Lord Greystoke, producing two magnificent volumes of graphic narrative in the dazzling style that had captivated audiences more than 30 years previously. Large bold panels, vibrantly coloured, with blocks of Burroughs’ original text, leapt out at the reader in a riot of hue and motion as they retold the triumphant, tragic tale of an orphaned scion of British nobility raised to puissant manhood by Great Apes in Tarzan of the Apes and Jungle Tales of Tarzan.

Burroughs cannily used the increasingly popular strip feature to cross-market his own prose efforts with great effect. Tarzan and the City of Gold was first serialised in pulp magazine Argosy in 1932 and released in book form the following year. So by May 17th 1936, Foster’s new and unconnected Tarzan in the City of Gold could be described as a brand new adventure on one hand, whilst boosting already impressively book sales by acting as a subtle weekly ad for the fantastic fantasy novels.

As discussed and précised in ‘Hal Foster’s Tarzan in the City of Gold – the Story So Far’, the illustrator and regular scripter Don Garden’s final yarn began with the 271st weekly page: revealing how the wandering Ape-Man had stumbled upon a lost outpost built by ancient refugees from Asia Minor in a desolate region of the “Dark Continent”.

The city of Taanor was so rich in gold that the material was only useful for weather-proofing roofs and domes of houses, but when white ne’er-do-wells Jim Gorrey and Rufus Flint discover the fantastic horde they marshalled a mercenary army, complete with tanks and aircraft to plunder the lost kingdom. Tarzan, meanwhile, had become war-chief of noble King Dalkon and his beautiful daughter Princess Nakonia and determined to use every trick and stratagem to smash the invaders…

After 51 epic weekly episodes, Foster was gone and we pick up the story of ‘Tarzan in the City of Gold’ (episodes #322-343, 9th May to October 3rd 1937) as the drama takes a bold new direction when the embattled Jungle Lord leads a slow war of attrition against the invaders whilst simultaneously recruiting a bizarre battalion of beasts comprising apes, lions and elephants to crush the greedily amassed armaments of 20th century warfare with fang and claw, sinew and muscle…

In those halcyon days the action was non-stop and, rather than cleanly defined breaks, storylines flowed one into another. Thus, Tarzan allowed the victorious Taanorians to believe he had perished in battle and journeyed to familiar territory, revisiting the cabin where he had been born and the region where he was raised by the she-ape Kala – stopping to punish a tribe of humans hunting and tormenting his old family/band of apes. Then, Hogarth’s first full epic began.

‘Tarzan and the Boers Part I’ (pages #344-377, 10th October 1937 – 29th May 1938) sees the erstwhile Greystoke lured to the assistance of duplicitous chieftain Ishtak who craves the Ape-Man’s assistance in repulsing an “invasion” by white pioneers from South Africa.

It isn’t too long before Tarzan discovers Ishtak is playing a double game. Having sold the land in question to families led by aged Jan Van Buren, the avaricious king intends to wipe them out and keep his tribal territories intact…

When Tarzan unravels the plot he naturally sides with the Boers and, over many bloody, torturous weeks, helps the refugees survive Ishtak’s murderous campaign of terror to establish a sound, solid community of honest (white) farmers…

When Hogarth first took over he had used an affected drawing style mimicking Foster’s static realism, but by the time of ‘Tarzan and the Chinese’ (#378-402, 5 June – 20th November 1938) had completed a slow transition to his own tautly hyper-kinetic visual methodology, perfectly suited to the electric vitality of the ever-onrushing feature’s exotic wonders.

Here, after leaving the new Boer nation, Tarzan finds a vast, double-walled enclosure and – ever curious – climbs into a fabulous hidden kingdom populated by the descendants of imperial Chinese colonists.

Once again he was just in time to prevent the overthrow of the rightful ruler – firstly by rebels and bandits, then a treacherous usurper and latterly by invading African warriors – before slipping away to befriend another clan of Great Apes and be mistaken for an evolutionary missing link by Professor John Farr in ‘Tarzan and the Pygmies’ (#403-427, 27th November 1938 to 14th May 1939). However, the boffin’s nefarious guide Marsada knows exactly who and what the Ape-Man is and spends a great deal of time and effort trying to kill Tarzan, as payback for his destroying a profitable poaching racket years before. Most infuriatingly, the husky newcomer had caught the passionate fancy of Farr’s lovely daughter Linda…

Following an extended clash with actual missing links – a mountain tribe of primitive, bestial half-men – Tarzan and Linda fall into the brawny hands of magnificent (white) tree-dwelling viragos who all want to mate with a man who seems their physical equal. The trials and tribulations of ‘Tarzan and the Amazons’ (#428-437, 21st May-23rd July 1939) only ends when the jungle Adonis fakes his own death…

More relatively aimless perambulations bring the hero once more to the nascent homeland of his Afrikaans friends. ‘Tarzan and the Boers Part II’ (#438-477, 30th July 1939 – 28th April 1940) has him perfectly matched against cunning, truly monstrous villain Klaas Vanger. This wandering diamond hunter has discovered a mother-lode of gems on Jan Van Buren’s farm and, after seducing his way into the family’s good graces by romancing impressionable daughter Matea, he tries to murder them all. When this also fails, Vanger instigates a new war between settlers and natives, whilst absconding with a cache of diamonds and massacring a tribe of baboons befriended by Tarzan…

These vile acts lead to a horrific boom town of greedy killers springing up on Boer lands, compelling Tarzan, baby baboon Bo-Dan and hulking. tongue-tied lovelorn farmhand Groot Carlus to take a terrible but well-deserved vengeance on the money-crazed monster and his minions and rescuing crestfallen Matea from the seducer’s vile clutches…

Edgar Rice Burroughs was a master of populist writing and always his prose crackled with energy and imagination. Hogarth was an inspired intellectual and, as well as gradually instilling his pages with ferocious, unceasing action, layered the panels with subtle symbolism. Even vegetation looked spiky, edgy and liable to attack at a moment’s notice…

His pictorial narratives are all coiled-spring tension or vital, violent explosive motion, stretching, running, fighting: a surging rush of power and glory. It’s wonderful these majestic exploits are back in print – especially in such a lavish and luxurious oversized (330 x 254mm) hardback format – even if only to give us comic lovers and other couch potatoes a thorough cardio-vascular work-out. Nevertheless, I won’t be completely happy until all this wild wonderment is online too…

Beautifully rendered and reassuringly formulaic, these masterful interpretations of the utterly authentic Ape-Man are a welcome addition to any comics’ connoisseurs’ cupboard and you would be crazy not to take advantage of this beautiful collection; the first of five in the Complete Burne Hogarth Comic Strip Library.
Tarzan® & © 2014 ERB, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All images copyright of ERB, Inc 2014. All text copyright of ERB, Inc 2014.

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Showcase Presents Metamorpho, The Element Man


By Bob Haney, Gardner Fox, Ramona Fradon, Joe Orlando, Sal Trapani, Jack Sparling, Charles Paris, Mike Sekowsky, Mike Esposito, Bernard Sachs & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0762-5 (TPB)

By the time Metamorpho, The Element Man was introduced to a superhero-obsessed world the first vestiges of a certifiable boom were just becoming apparent. As such, the light-hearted, nigh-absurdist take struck a Right-Time, Right-Place chord, blending far out adventure with tongue-in-cheek comedy.

Celebrating 60 years of weird happenings, the bold, brash “Man of a Thousand Elements” debuted in The Brave and the Bold #57, cover-dated January 1965 and on sale from October 29th 1964 – just in time for Halloween. After a second try-out tale in the next issue, he and his crackers cast catapulted right into a solo title for an eclectic and oddly engaging 17-issue run. Sadly, this canny monochrome compendium – collecting those eccentric debut adventures from B&B #57 & 58, Metamorpho, The Element Man #1-17 and team-up tales from The Brave and the Bold #66 and 68 and Justice League of America #42 – is at present STILL the only archival collection available. Until someone rectifies that situation, at least here you can revel in some truly enchanting monochrome illustration and madcap myth-making. Unlike most Showcase editions, the team-up stories here are not chronologically re-presented in original publication order but are closeted together at the back, so if stringent continuity is important to you, the always informative old-school credit-pages will enable you to navigate the wonderment in the correct sequence.

Sans dreary preamble, the action commences immediately with ‘The Origin of Metamorpho’, written by Bob Haney (who created the concept and character and wrote everything here except the Justice League story). The captivating art is by Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris and introduces glamorous he-man Soldier of Fortune Rex Mason: currently working as a globetrotting artefact-procurer and agent for ruthlessly acquisitive scientific genius and business tycoon Simon Stagg. Mason is obnoxious and insolent but his biggest fault as far as the boss is concerned is that the mercenary dares to love – and be loved – by the plutocrat’s only daughter Sapphire…

Determined to rid himself of the impudent “fortune-hunter”, Stagg sends his potential son-in-law to Egypt tasked with retrieving a fantastic artefact dubbed the Orb of Ra from the lost pyramid of Ahk-Ton. The tomb raider is accompanied only by Java, a previously fossilised Neanderthal corpse Rex had extracted from a swamp and which (whom?) Stagg had subsequently restored to life. Mason plans to take his final fabulous fee and whisk Sapphire away from her controlling father forever, but fate and his companion have other plans…

Utterly faithful to the scientific wizard who was his saviour, Java sabotages the mission and leaves Mason to die in the tomb, victim of an ancient, glowing meteor. The man-brute rushes back to his master, carrying the Orb and fully expecting Stagg to honour his promise and give him Sapphire in marriage. Meanwhile, trapped and painfully aware his time has come, Mason swallows a suicide pill as the scorching rays of the star-stone burn through him…

Instead of death relieving his torment, Rex mutates into a ghastly chemical freak capable of shapeshifting and transforming into any of the elements or compounds that comprise his human body: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, iron, cobalt and so many others…

Hungry for vengeance, Mason returns and confronts his betrayers only to be overcome by the alien energies of the Orb of Ra. An uneasy détente is declared as Mason accepts Stagg’s desperate offer to cure him – if possible…

The senior Stagg is further horrified when Rex reveals his condition to Sapphire and finds she still loves him. Totally unaware of his employer’s depths of duplicity, Mason starts working for the tycoon as metahuman problem-solver Metamorpho, the Element Man.

Brave and the Bold #58 (February-March 1965) reveals more of Stagg’s closeted skeletons when old partner Maxwell Tremayne kidnaps the Element Man and later abducts Sapphire to ‘The Junkyard of Doom!’ Apparently, the deranged armaments manufacturer was once intimately acquainted with the girl’s mother and never quite got over it…

The test comics were an unqualified success and Metamorpho promptly started in his own title, cover-dated July-August 1965, just as the wildly tongue-in-cheek “High Camp” craze was catching on in all areas of popular culture: mixing ironic vaudevillian kitsch with ancient movie premises as theatrical mad scientists and scurrilous spies began appearing everywhere.

‘Attack of the Atomic Avenger’ sees nuclear nut-job Kurt Vornak seeking to crush Stagg Industries, only to be turned into a deadly, planet-busting radioactive super-atom, after which ‘Terror from the Telstar’ pits our charismatic characters against Nicholas Balkan, a ruthless criminal boss set on sabotaging America’s Space Program. Manic multi-millionaire T.T. Trumbull uses his own daughter Zelda to get to Simon Stagg through his heart, accidentally proving to all who know him that the old goat actually has one. This was part of TT’s attempt to seize control of America in ‘Who Stole the U.S.A.?’, with the ambitious would-be despot backing up the scheme with an incredible robot specifically designed to murder Metamorpho.

Happily, Rex Mason’s guts and ingenuity prove more effective than the Element Man’s astonishing powers…

America saved, the dysfunctional family head South of the Border, becoming embroiled in ‘The Awesome Escapades of the Abominable Playboy’ as Stagg schemes to marry Sapphire off to Latino Lothario Cha Cha Chavez. The spoiled wilful girl is simply trying to make Mason jealous and had no idea of her dad’s true plans; Stagg senior has no conception of Chavez’s real intentions or connections to the local tin-pot dictator…

With this issue the gloriously stylish innovator Ramona Fradon left the series, to be replaced by two artists who strove to emulate her unique, gently madcap manner of drawing with varying degrees of success. Luckily, veteran inker Charles Paris stayed on to smooth out the rough edges. First was E.C. veteran Joe Orlando whose 2-issue tenure began with outrageous doppelganger drama ‘Will the Real Metamorpho Please Stand Up?’ wherein eccentric architect Edifice K. Bulwark tries to convince Mason to lend his abilities to his chemical skyscraper project. When Metamorpho declines, Bulwark and Stagg attempt to create their own Element Man with predictably disastrous consequences. ‘Never Bet Against an Element Man!’ (#6 May-June 1966) took the team to the French Riviera as gambling grandee Achille Le Heele snookers Stagg and wins “ownership” of Metamorpho. The Gallic toad’s ultimate goal was stealing the world’s seven greatest wonders (including the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower) and, somehow, only the Element Man can make that happen…

Sal Trapani began drawing with #7’s ‘Terror from Fahrenheit 5,000!’ as the acronymic superspy fad hit hard. Here Metamorpho is enlisted by the C.I.A. to stop suicidal maniac Otto Von Stuttgart destroying the entire planet by dropping a nuke into the Earth’s core, before costumed villain Doc Dread is countered by an undercover Metamorpho becoming ‘Element Man, Public Enemy!’ in a diabolical caper of doom and double-cross. Metamorpho #9 shifted into classic fantasy when suave and sinister despot El Mantanzas maroons the cast in ‘The Valley That Time Forgot!’: battling cavemen and antediluvian alien automatons, after which a new catalysing element is added in ‘The Sinister Snares of Stingaree!’ This yarn introduces Urania Blackwell – a secret agent somehow transformed into an Element Girl and sharing all Metamorpho’s incredible abilities. Not only is she dedicated to eradicating evil such as criminal cabal Cyclops, but Urania is also the perfect paramour for Rex Mason, who even cancels his wedding to Sapphire to go gang-busting with her…

With a new frisson of sexual chemistry sizzling barely beneath the surface, ‘They Came from Beyond?’ finds a conflicted Element Man confronting an apparent alien invasion whilst ‘The Trap of the Test-Tube Terrors!’ sees another attempt to cure Rex of his unwanted powers. This allows mad scientist Franz Zorb access to Stagg Industry labs long enough to build an army of chemical horrors. The plot thickens with Zorb’s theft of a Nucleonic Moleculizer, prompting a continuation in #14 wherein Urania is abducted only to triumphantly experience ‘The Return from Limbo’…

Events and stories grew increasingly outlandish and outrageous as TV’s superhero craze intensified and ‘Enter the Thunderer!’ (#14, September/October 1967) depicted Rex pulled between Sapphire and Urania whilst marauding extraterrestrial Neutrog terrorises Earth in preparation for the arrival of his mighty mutant master. The next instalment augured an ‘Hour of Armageddon!’ as the uniquely menacing Thunderer takes control of Earth until boy genius Billy Barton aids the Elemental defenders in defeating the alien horrors.

Trapani inked himself for Metamorpho #16: an homage to H. Rider Haggard’s She novels (and 1965 movie blockbuster) wherein ‘Jezeba, Queen of Fury!’ changes the Element Man’s life forever. When Sapphire marries playboy Wally Bannister, the heartbroken Element Man undertakes a mission to find the lost city of Ma-Phoor and encounters an undying beauty who wants to conquer the world… and just happens to be Sapphire’s exact double. Moreover, the immortal empress of a lost civilisation once loved an Element Man of her own: a Roman soldier named Algon who became a chemical warrior two thousand years previously.

Believing herself reunited with her lost love, Jezeba finally launches her long-delayed attack on the outside world with disastrous, tragic consequences…

The oddly appetising series came to a shuddering unsatisfactory halt with the next issue as the superhero bubble burst and costumed comic characters suffered their second recession in 15 years. Metamorpho was one of the first casualties, cancelled just as (or perhaps because) the series was emerging from its quirky comedic shell with the March/April 1968 issue.

Illustrated by Jack Sparling, ‘Last Mile for an Element Man!’ sees Mason tried – and executed! – for the murder of Bannister, resurrected by Urania Blackwell and set on the trail of true killer Algon. Consequently, Mason and Element Girl uncover a vast conspiracy and rededicate themselves to defending humanity at all costs. The tale ends on a never-resolved cliffhanger: when Metamorpho was revived a few years later no mention was ever made of these last game-changing issues…

Our elemental entertainment doesn’t end here though, as this tome somewhat expiates the frustrating denouement with three terrific team-up tales, beginning with The Brave and the Bold #66 (June/July 1966) and ‘Wreck the Renegade Robots’ wherein a mad scientist usurps control of the Metal Men just as their creator Will Magnus is preoccupied with a cure turning Metamorpho back into an ordinary mortal…

Two issues later (B& B #68 October/November 1966), the still chemically active crimebuster battles popular TV Bat-Baddies The Penguin, Joker and Riddler as well as a fearsomely mutated Caped Crusader in thoroughly bizarre tale ‘Alias the Bat-Hulk!’ with both yarns courtesy of Haney, Mike Sekowsky & Mike Esposito. Sekowsky also drew the final exploit in this volume as Justice League of America #42 (February 1966) sees the hero joyfully join the World’s Greatest Superheroes to defeat cosmic menace The Unimaginable. The grateful champions instantly offer him membership but are astounded when – and why – ‘Metamorpho Says… No!’: a classic romp written by Gardner Fox and inked by Bernard Sachs.

The wonderment concludes with a sterling pin-up of Element Man and core cast by Fradon & Paris. Individually enticing, always exciting but oddly frustrating in total, this book will delight readers who aren’t too wedded to cloying continuity but simply seek a few moments of casual, fantastic escapism.
© 1965-1967, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks The Incredible Hulk volume 3: Less Than Monster, More Than Man


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Bill Everett, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Mike Esposito, John Romita, Jerry Grandenetti, John Tartaglione, Sam Rosen, Art Simek, Ray Holloway & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4903-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Their stories are timeless and have been gathered many times before, but today I’m once more focusing on format before Fights ‘n’ Tights – or is that Rags ‘n’ Shatters?

The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line was designed with economy in mind: re-presenting classic tales of Marvel’s key characters by the founding creators in chronological order in cheaper, editions on lower quality paper and – crucially – are physically smaller (152 x 227mm or about the dimensions of a B-format paperback book). Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but they’re perfect for kids and if you opt for the digital editions, that’s no issue at all…

Bruce Banner was a military scientist caught in the world’s first gamma bomb detonation. As a result of ongoing mutation, stress and other factors cause him to transform into a giant green monster of unstoppable strength and fury.

After an initially troubled debut run, the Gruff Green Giant finally found his size 700 feet and a format that worked, becoming one of young Marvel’s most popular features. After his first solo-title folded, The Incredible Hulk shambled around a swiftly-coalescing Marvel Universe as guest star and/or villain du jour until a new home was found for him.

This tome gathers the evergreen marvels and Hulky bits from Tales To Astonish #75-91: spanning January 1966-May 1967, and seeing the nomadic antihero established as a continuity-wide global fugitive and universal “Bête Vert” whilst his agonised human half became a man of misfortune and constant sorrow…

Way back then, the trigger for the Hulk’s second chance was a reprinting of his origin in the giant anthology comic book Marvel Tales Annual #1. It was the beginning of the company’s inspired policy of keeping early tales in circulation, which did so much to make fervent fans out of casual latecomers. Thanks to reader response, “Ol’ Greenskin” was awarded a back-up strip in a failing title. Giant-Man Hank Pym was the star turn in Tales to Astonish, but by mid-1964 his strip was visibly floundering. In issue #59 the Master of Many Sizes was used to introduce his forthcoming co-star in a colossal punch-up, setting the scene for the next issue wherein the Green Goliath’s co-feature began.

Here – scripted throughout by Stan Lee – the second chapter of the man-monster’s career truly takes off in power-packed intrigue-laded short episodes which resume with The Gamma Goliath freshly returned from space and having survived a clash with the lethal Leader.

TtA#75’s ‘Not all my Power Can Save Me!’ (Kirby layouts under Mike Esposito finishes) sees the Hulk helplessly hurled into a devastated dystopian future, before in ‘I, ‘Against a World!’ (with pencils by Gil Kane moonlighting as “Scott Edward”, but still working from Kirby roughs), the devastation is compounded by a doom-drenched duel with time-lost Asgardian immortal The Executioner.

A true milestone occurred in Tales to Astonish #77 when the tragic physicist’s dread secret is finally exposed. Magnificently illustrated by John Romita (the elder, and still over Kirby layouts), ‘Bruce Banner is the Hulk!’ concludes the time-travel tale and reveals the tragic horror of the scientist’s condition to the military and the general public after teenager Rick Jones at last buckles under months of psychological pressure from Army Major Glenn Talbot and obsessed General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross…

It didn’t make The Hulk any less hunted or haunted, but at least now the soldiery were in an emotional tizzy whilst trying to obliterate him.

With #78, Bill Everett began a brief but brilliantly evocative run as penciler (Kirby remaining on layouts throughout). To his very swift and last regrets, megalomaniacal military scientist Dr. Zaxon tries to steal the Gamma Monsters’s bio-energy in ‘The Hulk Must Die!’ Before his body is even cold, follow-up ‘The Titan and the Torment!’ propels the fugitive gargantuan into a bombastic battle against recently Earth-exiled Olympian man-god Hercules.

Fighting a pitiless war with fellow subterranean despot Mole Man, not-so-immortal Tyrannus resurfaced in ‘They Dwell in the Depths!’ Regarding the monster as a weapon of last resort, he abducts the man-brute to Subterranea, but still loses his last battle after which The Hulk returns topside and shambles into a plot by insidious cabal The Secret Empire in #81’s ‘The Stage is Set!’ That convoluted mini-epic touched upon a crossover saga that spread into a number of other Marvel series, especially Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Sub-Mariner. Here, however, the monster is targeted by the Empire’s hired gun Boomerang as they strive to steal the military’s new Orion missile…

As the epic unfolded ‘The Battle Cry of The Boomerang’, ‘Less Than Monster, More Than Man!‘, and ‘Rampage in the City!’ wove strings of subplot into a gripping whole which indicated to the evolving reader just how close-knit the Marvel Universe was. Obviously such tight coordination between series caused some problems as art for the final episode is credited to “almost the whole blamed Bullpen” (which to my jaded eyes is mostly Jerry Grandenetti). During that climax the Hulk marauds through the streets of New York City in what I can’t help but feel is a padded, unplanned conclusion…

Everything’s back on track for #85, however, as John Buscema & John Tartaglione step in to illustrate ‘The Missile and the Monster!’ as yet another spy diverts the experimental Orion rocket onto the city. The obvious discomfort the realism-heavy Buscema experienced with the Hulk’s appearance has mostly faded by second chapter ‘The Birth of… the Hulk-Killer!’, although the return of veteran inker Mike Esposito to the strip also helps. As General Ross releases a weapon designed by the Leader to capture the Grim Green Giant, the old soldier has no inkling what his rash act will lead to, nor that Boomerang is lurking behind the scenes to make things even hotter for the Hulk…

Issue #87’s concluding episode ‘The Humanoid and the Hero!’ depicts Ross’ regret as the Hulk-Killer expands his remit to include everybody in his path before Gil Kane returns for #88 as ‘Boomerang and the Brute’ shows both the assassin and the Hulk’s true power.

Tales to Astonish #89 once more sees the Hulk become an unwilling weapon as a nigh-omnipotent alien subverts and sets him to purging humanity from the Earth. ‘…Then, There Shall Come a Stranger!’, ‘The Abomination!’ and ‘Whosoever Harms The Hulk…!’ comprise a taut and evocative thriller-trilogy which also includes the origin of the malevolent Hulk counterpart (Gamma-suffused spy Emil Blonsky who would play such a large part in later tales of the ill-fated Bruce Banner)…

With covers by Kirby, Gene Colan, Giacoia, Everett, Kane, & Colletta and most certainly “To Be Hulk-inued…” these titanic tales are somewhat hit-and-miss, with visceral thrillers and plain dumb nonsense running together, but the enthusiasm and sheer quality of the awesome artistic endeavours should go a long way to mitigating most of the downside. These are – even at their worst – full-on, butt-kicking, “breaking-stuff” thrillers to delight the destructive eight-year-old in everyone. Hulk Smash(ing)!
© 2023 MARVEL.

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Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 – 10th Anniversary Edition


By John Wagner, Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Peter Harris, Malcolm Shaw, Charles Herring, Gerry Finlay-Day, Robert Flynn, Joe Collins, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon, Ian Gibson, Massimo Belardinelli, Ron Turner, John Cooper, Bill Ward, Brian Bolland & various (Rebellion/REBCA)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-332-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Britain’s last great comic icon can be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s the longest-lasting adventure character in our rather meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he kicked off in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD – and now that The Dandy’s gone, veterans Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan might one day be overtaken in the comedy stakes too…

However, with at least 52 2000AD episodes a year, annuals, specials, a newspaper strip (in the Daily Star and The Metro), Judge Dredd Megazine, numerous reprinted classic comics collections, some rather appalling franchised foreign comic book spin-off titles, that adds up to a phenomenal amount of material, most of which is still happily in print.

Judicial Review: Dredd and dystopian ultra-metropolis Mega-City One – originally posited as 21st century New York – were formulated by a very talented committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others, with major contributions from legendary writer John Wagner who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own name and several pseudonyms.

Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated law enforcer dubbed a Judge in the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days in a world where robots are cheaper, more efficient and frequently crazier than humans, where jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity. Boredom is at epidemic proportions and almost everybody is just one askance glance away from mental meltdown. Judges are peacekeepers who maintain order at all costs: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot. Justice is always immediate…

Dredd’s world is a polluted and precarious Future (In)Tense, with all key analogues for successful sci fi (as ever a social looking-glass for the times it’s created in) situated and sharply attuned to a Cold War Consumer Civilisation. The ravaged planet is split into political camps with post-nuclear holocaust America locked in a slow death-struggle with Sov Judges of the old Eastern Communist blocs. Eastern lawmen are militaristic, oppressive and totalitarian – and that’s by the US Judges’ standards – so just imagine what they’re actually like. Judges are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realised is the strip is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action.

Such was not the case when the super-cop debuted in 2000AD Prog (that’s issue number to you) #2 on March 5th 1977. He was stuck at the back of the new weekly comic in a tale finally scripted – after much intensive re-hashing – by Peter Harris and illustrated by Mike McMahon & Carlos Ezquerra. The blazing, humourless, no-nonsense (there would be plenty of yes nonsense later) action extravaganza introduced a bike-riding Sentinel of Order in the cautionary tale of brutal bandit Whitey, whose savage crime spree was ended with ferocious efficiency before the thug was sentenced to Devil’s Island – a high-rise artificial plateau surrounded by the City’s constant stream of lethal, never-ending, high-speed traffic. Prog #3 saw Dredd investigate ‘The New You’ in a cunning thriller by Gosnell & McMahon wherein a crafty crook tries to escape justice by popping into his local face-changing shop, whilst #4 saw the first appearance of the outcast mutants in ‘The Brotherhood of Darkness’ (Malcolm Shaw & McMahon) as ghastly post-nuclear pariahs raid the megalopolis for slaves.

Early hints of humour began in Prog 5’s ‘Krong’ by Shaw & Ezquerra, introducing Dredd’s little-old-lady cleaner/landlady Maria, wherein deranged horror film fan/hologram salesman Kevin O’Neill – yes it’s an in-joke – unleashes a giant mechanical gorilla on the city. The issue was the first to cover-feature old Stone Face (that’s Dredd, not Kev)…

‘Frankenstein 2’ pits the Lawman against an audacious medical mastermind, hijacking citizens to keep his rich-but-aging clients in fresh, young organs, whilst #7 sees ruthless reprobate Ringo’s gang of muggers flaunting their criminality in the very shadow of ‘The Statue of Judgement’ until Dredd lowers the boom on them…

The first indications that the super-cop’s face was somehow hideously disfigured emerge in #8, as Charles Herring & Massimo Belardinelli’s ‘Antique Car Heist’ finds the Judge tracking down a murdering thief who stole an ancient petrol-burning vehicle, after which co-creator John Wagner returned in Prog 9 to begin a staggering run of tales with ‘Robots’, illustrated by veteran British science fiction artist Ron Turner. The gripping vignette was set at the Robot of the Year Show, exposing callous cruelty citizens inflicted upon their mechanical slaves as a by-product of a violent blackmail threat by a disabled maniac in a mechanical-super chair… This set the scene for an ambitious mini-saga in #10-17 as those casual injustices paved the way for ‘Robot Wars’ (alternately illustrated over the weeks by Ezquerra, Turner, McMahon & much missed arch wag Ian Gibson) wherein carpentry-robot Call-Me-Kenneth succumbs to a mecha mind meltdown to emerge as a human-hating steel Spartacus, spearheading a bloody revolution against fleshy oppressors.

The slaughter is widespread and terrible before the Judges regain control, helped in no small part by loyal, lisping Vending droid Walter the Wobot, who graduated at the conclusion to Dredd’s second live-in comedy foil…

With order restored, self-contained stories firmed up the vision of the crazed city. In Prog 18 Wagner & McMahon introduced the menace of mind-bending ‘Brainblooms’ cultivated by another little old lady/career criminal, and Gerry Finley-Day & John Cooper described the galvanising effect of a ‘Muggers Moon’ on Mega-City 1’s criminal class before Dredd demonstrated the inadvisability of being an uncooperative witness…

Wagner & McMahon then debuted Dredd’s bizarre paid informant Max Normal in #20, whose latest tip ended the profitable career of ‘The Comic Pusher’; Finley-Day & Turner turned in a workmanlike thriller as the laconic lawmaker tackles a seasoned killer with a deadly new weapon in ‘The Solar Sniper’ and Wagner & Gibson showed the draconian steps Dredd was prepared to take to bring in mutant assassin ‘Mr Buzzz’.

Prog 23 comfortably catapulted the series into all-out ironic satire mode with Finley-Day & McMahon’s ‘Smoker’s Crime’ when Dredd stalks a killer with a nicotine habit to a noxious City Smokatorium, after which Malcolm Shaw, McMahon & Ezquerra reveal the uncanny secret of ‘The Wreath Murders’ in #24. The next issue began the long tradition of spoofing TV and media fashions with Wagner & Gibson concocting lethal illegal game show ‘You Bet Your Life’ whilst #26 exposes the sordid illusory joys and dangers of the ‘Dream Palace’ (McMahon) before #27-28 offer some crucial background on the Judges themselves when Dredd visits ‘The Academy of Law’ (Wagner & Gibson) to give Cadet Judge Giant his final practical exam. Of course, for Dredd there are no half measures or easy going and the novice barely survives graduation…

With the concluding part in #28, Dredd moved to second spot in 2000AD (behind brutally jingoistic thriller Invasion) and the next issue saw Pat Mills & Gibson confront robot racism as Ku Kux Klan-analogue ‘The Neon Knights’ brutalised the reformed and broken artificial citizenry until the Juggernaut Judge krushes them.

Mills then offered tantalising hints on Dredd’s origins in ‘The Return of Rico!’ (McMahon) as a bitter criminal resurfaces after twenty years on the penal colony of Titan. The outcast wants vengeance on the Judge who had sentenced him, but from his earliest days as a fresh-faced rookie, Joe Dredd had no time for corrupt lawmen – even if one were his own clone-brother…

Whitey escapes from ‘Devil’s Island’ (Finley-Day & Gibson) in Prog 31, thanks to a cobbled-together contraption that turns off weather control, but doesn’t get far before Dredd sends him back, whilst fully automated skyscraper resort ‘Komputel’ (Robert Flynn & McMahon) becomes a multi-story murder factory that only Mega-City’s greatest Judge can counter before Wagner (as John Howard) took sole control for a series of savage, whacky escapades beginning with #33’s ‘Walter’s Secret Job’ (art by Gibson). Here the besotted droid is discovered moonlighting as a cabbie to buy “pwesents” for his beloved master…

McMahon & Gibson illustrated 2-parter ‘Mutie the Pig’: a flamboyant criminal and bent Judge, and perform the same tag-team effort on ‘The Troggies’, a debased colony of ancient humans living under the city and preying on the unwary…

Something of a bogie man for wayward kids and exhausted parents, Dredd does himself no favours in Prog 38 bursting in on ‘Billy Jones’ (Gibson) and exposing a vast espionage plot utilising toys as surveillance tools. On tackling ‘The Ape Gang’ in #39 (19th November 1977 by McMahon), the Judge graduated to lead spot whilst quashing a turf war between augmented, educated, criminal anthropoids in the unruly district dubbed “the Jungle”…

‘The Mega-City 5000’ was an illegal, murderously bloody street race the Judges were determined to shut down, but the gripping action-illustration of the Bill Ward drawn first chapter is sadly overshadowed by hyper-realist rising star Brian Bolland, who began his legendary association with Dredd by concluding the mini-epic in blistering, captivating style in Prog 41. Bolland, by his own admission, was an uncommercially slow artist and much of his later Dredd work would appear as weekly portions of large epics with others handling intervening episodes, giving him time to complete his own assignments with a minimum of pressure.

From out of nowhere in a bold change of pace, Dredd is seconded to the Moon for a 6-month tour of duty beginning in #42. His brief is to oversee the nigh-lawless colony set up by the unified efforts of three US Mega-Cities there. The outpost was as bonkers as Mega-City One and a good deal less civilised – a true Final Frontier town…

The extended epic began with Wagner & Gibson’s ‘Luna-1’, with Dredd and stowaway Walter almost shot down en route in a mysterious missile attack before being targeted by a suicide-bomb robot before they can even unpack. ‘Showdown on Luna-1’ introduces permanent Deputy-Marshal Judge Tex from Texas-City, whose jaded, laissez-faire attitudes get a sound shaking up when Dredd demonstrates he’s one lawman who won’t coast for the duration of his term in office. Hitting dusty mean streets, Dredd starts cleaning up the wild boys by outdrawing a mechanical Robo-Slinger and uncovering another assassination ploy. It seems reclusive mega-billionaire ‘Mr. Moonie’ has a problem with the latest law on his lunar turf…

Whilst dispensing aggravating administrative edicts like a frustrated Solomon, Dredd chafes to hit the streets and do real work in #44’s McMahon-limned ‘Red Christmas’. Opportunity arises when arrogant axe-murderer ‘Geek Gorgon’ abducts Walter and demands a showdown he barely lives to regret, whilst ’22nd Century Futsie!’ (Gibson) finds Moonie Fabrications clerk Arthur Goodworthy cracking under the strain of overwork: going on a destructive binge, with Dredd compelled to protect a future-shocked father’s family from Moonie’s overzealous security goons. The arc concludes in Prog 46 with ‘Meet Mr. Moonie’ (Gibson) as Dredd & Walter confront the manipulative manufacturer and uncover his horrific secret.

The feature moved to the prestigious middle spot with this episode, allowing artists to really open up and exploit full-colour centre-spreads, none more so than Bolland as seen in #47’s ‘Land Race’ as Dredd officiates over a frantic scramble by colonists to secure newly opened plots of habitable territory. Of course, there’s always someone who doesn’t want to share…

Ian Gibson illustrated 2-part drama ‘The Oxygen Desert’ (#48-49), wherein veteran moon-rat Wild Butch Carmody defeats Dredd using superior knowledge of the airless wastes beyond the airtight domes. Broken, the Judge quits and slides into despondency, but all is not as it seems…

Prog 50 debuted single-page comedy supplement Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd – but more of that later – whilst the long-suffering Justice found himself knee-boot deep in an international interplanetary crisis when ‘The First Lunar Olympics’ (Bolland) against a rival lunar colony controlled by the Machiavellian Judges of the Sov-Cities bloc escalates into assassination and a murderous, politically-fuelled land grab. The conflict was settled in ostensibly civilised manner with strictly controlled ‘War Games’, yet there’s still a grievously high body-count by the time the moon-dust settles. This vicious swipe at contemporary sport’s politicisation was and still is bloody, brutal and bitingly funny…

Bolland illustrated a sardonic saga of ruthless bandits up for a lethal laugh in #52’s ‘The Face-Change Crimes’, employing morphing tech to change their appearances and rob at will until Dredd beats them at their own game. Wagner & Gibson crafted a 4-part epic (Progs 53-56) wherein motor fanatic Dave Paton’s cybernetic, child-like pride-&-joy blows a fuse and terrorises the domed territory: slaughtering humans and infiltrating Dredd’s own quarters before the Judge finally stops ‘Elvis, The Killer Car’.

Bolland stunningly limned a savagely mordant saga of killer bandits who hijack the moon’s air before themselves falling foul of ‘The Oxygen Board’ in #57, but only managed the first two pages of 58’s ‘Full Earth Crimes’, leaving McMahon to complete the tale of regularly occurring chaos in the streets whenever the Big Blue Marble dominates the black sky above.

It was a fine and frantic note to end on as, with ‘Return to Mega-City’, Dredd rotates back Earthside and resumes business as unusual. Readers were probably baffled as to why the returned cop utterly ignored countless crime and misdemeanours, but Wagner & McMahon provide a logical answer in a brilliant, action-packed set-up for madcap dramas to come

This first Case Files chronicle nominally concludes with Wagner & McMahon’s ‘Firebug’ from Prog 60, as the ultimate lawgiver deals with a seemingly-crazed arsonist literally setting the city ablaze. The Law soon discovers a purely venal motive to the apparent madness…

There’s still a wealth of superb bonus material to enjoy before we end, however, and kicking off proceedings is the controversial First Dredd strip (illustrated by Ezquerra) which was bounced from 2000AD #1 and vigorously reworked – a fascinating glimpse of what the series might have been. It’s followed by the eawliest Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd stwips (sowwy – can’t wesist!) from 2000AD Progs 50-58. Scripted by Joe Collins, these madcap comedy shorts were seen as antidote to the savage, brutal action strips and served to set the scene for Dredd’s later full-on satirical lampoonery. Illustrated by Gibson, ‘Tap Dancer’ dealt with an embarrassing plumbing emergency whilst ‘Shoot Pool!’ has the Wobot again taking his Judge’s instructions far too literally…

Bolland came aboard giving full rein to his own sense of the absurd with 5-parter ‘Walter’s Brother’: a bizarre tale of evil twins, cunning frame-ups and malign muggings inevitably resulting in us learning all we needed to know about the insipidly faithful, annoying rust-bucket. Dredd then had to rescue the plastic poltroon from becoming a pirate of the airwaves in ‘Radio Walter’ before the star-struck servant finds his 15 seconds of fame as winner of rigged quiz-show ‘Masterbrain’ and this big, big book concludes with a trio of Dredd covers from Progs 10, 44 and 59, courtesy of artists Ezquerra, Kev O’Neill and McMahon.

Mesmerising and beautifully limned, these punchy stories of Britain’s most successful and iconic comics character are the narrative bedrock from which all the later successes of the Mirthless Moral Myrmidon derive. More importantly, they are timeless classics no comic fan can ignore – and just for a change something that you can easily get your hungry hands on. Even my local library has copies of this masterpiece of British literature and popular culture…
© 1977, 1978, 2006 Rebellion A/S. All rights reserved. Judge Dredd & 2000AD are ® & ™ Rebellion.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks Daredevil volume 2: Alone Against the Underworld


By Stan Lee, Denny O’Neil, John Romita, Gene Colan, with Jack Kirby, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito, Dick Ayers, Bill Everett & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3440-8 (PB/Digital edition)

It’s another year of significant anniversaries so let’s say many happy returns for the swinging sixtieth of the rather tastelessly characterised “Sightless Swashbuckler” and latter-day meanly moody Man Without Fear Daredevil…

As the remnants of Atlas Comics grew in popularity in the early 1960s it slowly replaced its broad variety of genre titles with more and more superheroes. The recovering powerhouse that would be Marvel was still hampered by a crippling distribution deal that limited the company to 16 titles (curtailing their output until 1968), so each new untried book would have to be certain of success.

Moreover, as costumed characters were selling, each new similarly-themed title would limit the breadth of the monster, western, war, humour or girls’ comics that had been the outfit’s recent bread and butter. It was putting a lot of eggs in one basket, and superheroes had failed twice before for Stan Lee. It all worked out in the end though…

Back then, Matt Murdock was a blind lawyer whose remaining senses hyper-compensate, enabling him to perform astonishing acrobatic feats and fight like a demon. A formidable fighter for justice in both identities and a living lie-detector, he was very much a second-string hero for most of his early years.

Daredevil was nonetheless a striking and popular one, due in large part to the roster of brilliant artists who illustrated the strip. He battled thugs, gangsters, a plethora of super-villains and even the occasional monster or alien invasion, quipping and wise-cracking his way through life and life-threatening combat. His civilian life consisted of assorted legal conundra and manfully standing back while quenching his own feelings as his portly best friend and partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson vainly romanced their secretary Karen Page, With Lee and a rotating line-up of artists plugging on, concocting some extremely engaging tales until the latest Marvel Sensation could find his feet.

That transition forms the meat of this potent compilation: part of a series of Mighty Marvel Masterworks available as kid-friendly digest paperbacks and eBooks. It traces the move from morose masked avenger to wisecracking Scarlet Swashbuckler, gathering Daredevil #12-21 (January 1965-October 1966) into one boldly boisterous package of thrills and spills.

The previous year had seen Golden Age giant Wally Wood leave his own unmistakable mark on the series but with his departure Lee turned to an old pal who had left during the harshest days of the Atlas implosion. He was to eventually become Marvel’s top – and most loyal – superstar…

‘Sightless, in a Savage Land!’ was laid out by Jack Kirby and illustrated by John Romita. The latter had worked for Timely/Atlas in the 1950s before moving to relatively steady work on National/DC’s romance comics, as well as freelance advertising. He returned to take DD on an epic quest, guest-starring Tarzan-tribute act Ka-Zar, ranging from the dinosaur-haunted Savage Land via an extended battle with high-tech pirates led by The Plunderer to Jolly Olde England-land (in #13’s ‘The Secret of Ka-Zar’s Origin!’) and ultimately to a US Early Warning Base (#14, ‘If This be Justice…!’, and with what I’m sure is some un-credited assistance from George Tuska).

With this multi-part, globe-girdling epic, Daredevil began to confirm his persona as a wisecracking one-man war on evil: a front that would carry him all the way to the grim ‘n’ gritty Frank Miller days, far, far in the future. Romita’s graceful, flamboyant style and expressiveness imparted new energy into the character (especially since Frank Ray né Giacoia had been inking the series since #14).

DD #15’s ‘…And Men Shall Call Him… Ox!’ showed the artist’s facility for explosive superhero action as the dim strongman last seen in #6 resurfaced, albeit in a new and sinister fashion as the lummox is made the subject of a macabre brain-swapping experiment…

When a certain webslinger guest-starred in #16, little did anyone suspect how soon Romita would be leaving…

‘Enter… Spider-Man!’ introduces criminal mastermind Masked Marauder who has big plans; the first of which is to get DD and the wallcrawler to kill each other. With follow-up ‘None are so Blind…’, a convoluted a sub-plot began which would lead to some of the highest and lowest moments of the early Daredevil series, beginning after the wondrous wallcrawler accuses Foggy of being the Man Without Fear! Although the webspinner quickly realizes his mistake, others present don’t…

Issue #18’s ‘There Shall Come a Gladiator!’ introduces the manic armoured villain and archetypal super-thug in a tale two-thirds scripted by legend-in-waiting Denny O’Neil. Here Foggy seeks to sway Karen by bolstering the ridiculous idea that he is Daredevil… and almost perishes as a result of his deception.

DD #19 then sees the Masked Marauder ally with Gladiator in action-packed big fight tale ‘Alone… Against the Underworld!’: a fitting farewell for Romita who was moving over to Amazing Spider-Man after Steve Ditko’s abrupt, controversial and utterly unexpected departure.

Originally tipped for a fill-in issue, Gene Colan came aboard as penciller with #20’s ‘The Verdict is: Death!’ and inked by Mike Esposito (as Mickey DeMeo). Colan’s superbly humanistic drawing and facility with expressions was a little jarring at first – since he drew Daredevil in a passable Romita imitation and everything else in his own style – but he soon settled in and this two-part revenge thriller featuring The Owl (concluding with the Giacoia, Dick Ayers & Bill Everett inked ‘The Trap is Sprung!’) is a fine beginning to his long, fabulously impressive run on the series, incorporating the Man Without Fear’s battle against his ferocious arch-foe, an army of thugs, deadly flying robots and even an exploding volcano to keep the readers on their toes…

Augmented by a pulse-pounding house ad, this classy compendium is a nostalgic delight for one and all: a truly magnificent example of Marvel’s compelling formula for success combining smart stories, human characters and magnificent illustration. If you’ve not read these tales before I strongly urge you to rectify that error as soon as superhumanly possible.
© 2023 MARVEL.

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Sandman Mystery Theatre Book One


By Matt Wagner, Guy Davis, John Watkiss, R.G. Taylor, David Hornung & John Costanza & various (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6327-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

Created by Bert Christman & Gardner F. Fox, The Sandman premiered in either Adventure Comics #40 July 1939 (two months after Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27) or two weeks earlier in New York World’s Fair Comics 1939, depending on which rather spotty distribution records can be believed.

Head and face utterly obscured by a gasmask and slouch hat; caped, business-suited millionaire adventurer Wesley Dodds was cut from the iconic masked mystery-man mould that had made pulp fictioneers The Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Spider and many more household names. Those dark red-handed heroes were also astonishing commercial successes in the early days of mass periodical publication…

Wielding a sleep-gas gun and haunting the night to battle a string of killers, crooks and spies, he was accompanied in the earliest comicbooks by his plucky paramour Dian Belmont, before gradually losing the readers’ interest and slipping from cover-spot to last feature in Adventure Comics, just as the cloaked pulp-hero avengers he emulated slipped from popularity in favour of more flamboyant fictional fare.

Possessing a certain indefinable style and charm but definitely no especial pizzazz, the feature was on the verge of being dropped when the Sandman abruptly switched to skin-tight yellow-&-purple and gained boy-sidekick Sandy the Golden Boy (Adventure Comics #69, December 1941, courtesy of Mort Weisinger & Paul Norris). All this, presumably to emulate the overwhelmingly successful Batman and Captain America models then reaping big dividends on newsstands.

It didn’t help much, but when Joe Simon & Jack Kirby came aboard with #72 it all changed. A semi-supernatural element and fascination with the world of dreams (revisited by S&K a decade later in their short-lived experimental suspense series The Strange World of Your Dreams) added moody conceptual punch to balance the kinetic fury of their art, as Sandman and Sandy became literally the stuff of nightmares to bizarre bandits and murderous mugs…

For what happened next you can check out the superb Simon & Kirby Sandman collection.

Time passed and in the late 1980s Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith & Mike Dringenberg took the property in a revolutionary new direction, eventually linking all the previous reboot elements into an overarching connective continuity under DC’s new “sophisticated suspense” imprint Vertigo. Within a few years the astounding success of the new Sandman prompted editorial powers-that-be to revisit the stylishly retro original character and look at him through more mature eyes. Iconoclastic creator Matt Wagner (Mage, Grendel, The Demon, Batman) teamed with artistic adept Guy Davis (Baker Street, B.P.R.D.) and colourist David Hornung to channel a grittier, grimier, far more viscerally authentic 1930s, where the haunted mystery man could pursue his lonely crusade with chilling verisimilitude.

The tone was darkly modernistic, with crime-busting played out in the dissolute dog-days of the Jazz Age and addressing controversial themes such as abuse, sexual depravity, corruption and racism; all presented against the rising tide of fascism sweeping the world then.

Consider this a warning: Sandman Mystery Theatre is not for kids.

This compendium collects the first three redefining story-arcs from issues #1-12 (April 1993 to March 1994) and commences after an absorbing introduction from veteran journalist, critic and pop culture historian Dave Marsh.

Each chapter preceded by its original evocative faux pulp photo cover created by Gavin Wilson and Hornung, the dark drama opens with The Tarantula, taking us to New York in 1938 where District Attorney Larry Belmont is having the Devil’s own time keeping his wild-child daughter out of trouble and out of the newspapers. Dian is gallivanting all over town every night with her spoiled rich friends: drinking, partying and associating with all the wrong people, but the prominent public servant has far larger problems too. One is a mysterious gas-masked figure he finds rifling his safe soon after Dian departs…

The intruder easily overpowers the DA with some kind of sleeping gas – which also makes you want to blurt every inconvenient truth – before disappearing, leaving Belmont to awaken with a headache and wondering if it was all a dream…

After a rowdy night carousing with scandalous BFF Catherine Van Der Meer and her latest (gangster) lover, Dian gets up with a similar hangover, but still agrees to attend one of father’s dreary public functions that evening. The elder Belmont is particularly keen that she meet a studious young man named Wesley Dodds, recently returned from years in the Orient to take over his deceased dad’s many business interests. Dodds seems genteel and effete, yet Dian finds there’s something oddly compelling about him. Moreover, he too seems to feel a connection…

The Gala breaks up early when the DA is informed of a sensational crime. Catherine Van Der Meer has been kidnapped by someone calling himself as The Tarantula…

Across town, mob boss Albert Goldman meets with fellow gangsters from the West Coast and, as usual, his useless son Roger and drunken wife Miriam embarrass him. Daughter Celia is the only one he can depend on these days, but even her unwavering devotion seems increasingly divided. After another stormy scene, the conference ends early, and the visiting crimelords are appalled to find their usually diligent bodyguards soundly asleep in their limousines…

Even with Catherine kidnapped, Dian is determined to go out that night, but when Wesley arrives unexpectedly changes her mind, much to her father’s relief. The feeling doesn’t last long, however, after the police inform him the Tarantula has taken another woman…

When a hideously mutilated body is found, Dian inveigles herself into accompanying dear old Dad to Headquarters but is promptly excluded from the grisly “Man’s Business”. Left alone, she starts snooping in the offices and encounters a bizarre gas-masked figure poring through files. Before she can react, he dashes past her and escapes, leaving her to explain to the assorted useless lawmen cluttering up the place.

Furious and humiliated, Dian then insists that she officially identify Catherine and nobody can dissuade her. Shockingly, the savagely ruined body is not her best friend but yet another victim. Somewhere dark and hidden, Van Der Meer is being tortured, but the perpetrator has far more than macabre gratification in mind…

In the Goldman house, Celia is daily extending her control over darling devoted Daddy. They still share a very special secret, but these days she’s the one dictating where and when they indulge themselves…

With all the trauma in her life, Dian increasingly finds Wesley a comforting rock, but perhaps that view would change if she knew how he spends his nights. Dodds is tormented, plagued by bad dreams. Not his own nightmares, but rather somnolent screams of nameless victims and their cruel oppressors haunt his troubled slumbers. Worst of all, these dreams are unrelenting and somehow prophetic. What else can a decent man do then, but act to end such suffering?

In a seedy dive, uncompromising Police Lieutenant Burke comes off worst when he discovers the gas-mask lunatic grilling a suspect in “his” kidnapping case and again later when this “Sandman” is found at a factory where the vehicle used to transport victims is hidden.

Even so, the net is inexorably tightening on both Tarantula and the vigilante interfering in the investigation, but Burke doesn’t know who he most wants in his nice, dark interrogation room…

As the labyrinthine web of mystery and monstrosity unravels, tension mounts and the death toll climbs, but can The Sandman stop the torrent of depraved terror before the determined Dian finds herself swept up in all the blood and death?

Of course, he does but not without appalling consequences…

Scene and scenario suitably set, John Watkiss steps in to illuminate second saga The Face (issues #5-8). Attention switches to Chinatown in February of 1938, where Dian and her gal-pals scandalously dine and dish dirt… until Miss Belmont meets again an old lover.

Jimmy Shan once worked in her father’s office but now serves as lawyer and fixer for his own people amongst the teeming restaurants, gambling dens and bordellos of the oriental district. Dian would be horrified to see Jimmy – or Zhang Chai Lao as his Tong masters know him – consorting with unsavoury criminals, and would certainly not be considering reviving her scandalous out-of-hours relationship with him. All such frivolous thoughts vanish, however, when the diners vacate the restaurant and stumble upon a severed head: a warning that the ruling factions are about to go to war again in Chinatown. As usual, white police are utterly ineffectual against the closed ranks of the enclave…

Later at a swanky charity soiree to raise money for a school, Dian meets Jimmy again and agrees to a meeting. At the same shindig she later sees Wesley, and in the course of their small talk, Dodds reveals that he recognises Shan from somewhere.

…And in Chinatown, another beheading leads to greater tension between the Lee Feng and Hou Yibai Societies. When an enigmatic gas-masked stranger starts asking unavoidable questions, he finds both Tongs denying all knowledge of the killings…

As the grisly murder-toll mounts, The Sandman’s investigations lead to one inescapable conclusion: a third party is responsible. But who, and why? Before this drama closes, Dian will learn more hard truths about the world and the money-men who secretly run it…

Issues #9-12 (December 1993-March 1994) are illustrated by R.G. Taylor, plumbing the darkest depths of human depravity in the tale of ‘The Brute’. The friendship of Dian and Wesley slowly deepens and life seems less fraught in the city, but that ends as a hulking degenerate stalks the back-alleys, killing and brutalising prostitutes and their clients…

Dodds is also on the mind of boxing promoter and businessman Arthur Reisling who’s looking for a fresh financial partner in his global exploitations. The effete-seeming scholar is hard to convince, though, unlike Eddie Ramsey. He’s a poverty-stricken pugilist and single parent desperate to make enough money to pay for his daughter Emily’s TB medicine. Riesling’s offer to him is just as scurrilous but the broken-down pug doesn’t have the luxury of saying “no”…

Eventually, with Dian in tow, Wesley accepts a party invitation from the speculator and meets his dynasty of worthless, over-privileged children. None of them seem right or well-adjusted. Later, when Eddie tries to come clean by informing the authorities of Riesling’s illegal fight events, he’s attacked by the promoter’s thugs and saved by The Sandman – at least until the colossal mystery killer attacks them both and they’re forced to flee for their lives…

As Dodds returns home to recuperate, the punishing dreams escalate to mind-rending intensity. Eddie, meanwhile, is left with no safe option and takes to the streets with Emily. His decision will lead to revolting horror, total tragedy and utter heartbreak.

The Sandman returns to his covert surveillance, silently unearthing the depths of Reisling’s underworld activities and coincidentally exposing a turbulent, dysfunctional atmosphere in the magnate’s home life to match his criminal activities. In this house, corruption of every kind runs deep and wide, and the masked avenger decides it’s time to bring his findings to Dian’s father. This time, District Attorney Belmont is prepared to listen and to act…

As murders mount and Dodds’ dreams escalate in intensity, the strands of a bloody tapestry knot together and the appalling secret of the bestial killer’s connection to Reisling is exposed; only a detonation of expiating violence can restore order…

Stark, compelling and ferociously absorbing, these bleak thrillers depict a cruel but incisive assessment of good and evil no devotee of dark drama should miss, with the period perils accompanied by a gallery of the series’ original, groundbreaking comic book photo-covers and posters by Gavin Wilson, plus later collection covers and related art from Matt Wagner, Alex Toth and Kent Wilson.
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Complete Newspaper Dailies volume 1 – 1929-1931


By Philip Nowlan & Dick Calkins with an introduction by Ron Goulart (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-93256-319-1 (HB/Digital edition)

There’s not really a lot you can say about Buck Rogers that hasn’t been said before – and probably better – by the likes of such luminaries and fans as Ray Bradbury, Howard Hughes and Chuck Jones. The landmark, game changing comics strip feature grew out of a cover-featured prose novella printed in the August 1928 issue of “scienti-fiction” pulp magazine Amazing Stories. Written by journalist Philip Francis Nowlan, “Armageddon 2419A.D.” told of retired US Army Air Corps officer Anthony Rogers, who fell into a 500-year coma whilst surveying a deep mine. He awakened to a world controlled by a Chinese looking Empire governed by tyrants called “Mongols” or “The Han”.

…And that’s my cue to remind everyone NOW that at that time in human evolution, creators and consumers of popular culture were far less socially advanced. You might even want to call them racist, but it’s works like these that – whilst pandering to popular tastes – also began a process of change. Perceived as Past or Future though, these were Very Different Times and if that could offend then stay away…

The valiant battle to free America from Asiatic oppression was another thinly-veiled “Yellow Peril” story, (embarrassingly for us liberals, this dubious prejudice has generated some of the most enduring escapist adventure fiction of the 20th century) but something about this particular tale caught the public’s attention. Consequently John Flint Dille – head of National Newspaper Service Syndicate – secured the rights to adapt the text tale into ongoing picture form and had the author and artist Dick Calkins (Sky Roads) produce the industry’s first action/drama continuity feature. It became the most influential Science Fiction strip ever: jet packs, robots, space flight, atomic bombs, weaponized medicine, anti-gravity and even television all appeared in these panels long before their real world introductions…

The daily strip premiered on January 7th 1929, about the time prose sequel The Airlords of Han appeared in Amazing Stories (cover-dated March 1929). It was also the day that the Tarzan newspaper strip debuted.

Renamed Buck Rogers, 2429 A.D. (and advancing one year every January 1st thereafter), the strip was a monster hit and Dille’s marketing genius made it an incredibly profitable one. There was merchandise, premiums, giveaways, a radio show, books and a movie serial. What we now consider part and parcel of an entertainment franchise was all invented by Dille.

This premiere tome gathers the 6-days-a-week monochrome episodes covering the first two years and is preceded by a captivating Introduction by author and strips expert Ron Goulart, describing the genesis of the feature, its antecedents, impact and successors. ‘Buck Rogers, Ray Guns, and Science Fiction’ is also a cornucopia of captivating toys, figures, games, house ads, comic book, pulp mag and pop-up book covers, posters and movie memorabilia and other promo material.

Although the feature just unrolled in a wave of innovation, here the saga is partitioned into discrete tales beginning with ‘Chapter 1: Meeting the Mongols’ as Buck awakens, meets freedom fighter Wilma Deering and all-knowing scientist Dr. Huer and enlists in their struggle to liberate a subjugated America (AKA “the Federate Orgzones”) of scattered enclaves, bewildered, amazed but never overwhelmed by the fantastic changes…

Buck’s life takes a big twist when Wilma is captured and taken to the Han’s World Capital. Doggedly in pursuit amidst fresh wonders and ancient lusts and intrigues, our hero repeatedly upsets the applecart: winning staunch allies across the enslaved globe. His protracted campaign memorably debuts “race traitor”, arch-collaborator and ultimate nemesis Killer Kane and opens the planetary saga to the marvels and terrors of space warfare.

Despite being framed and judged a traitor to the freedom fighters, Rogers soldiers on. After clearing his name and reuniting with Wilma, ‘Chapter 2: Capturing the Mongol Emperor’ sees him and his allies retaliate as the war of superweapons intensifies…

Ultimately victorious, the aftermath provides more peril as ‘Chapter 3: Pact of Perpetual Peace’ sees Buck, Wilma, Chilean guide Enrique and Mongol rebels Morke Ka Lono, Liu and Lanlu despatched as envoys to meet the Emperor’s unsuspected superior officer – The Celestial Mogul…

The perilous voyage takes them from ocean depths to mountain top fortresses, facing pirates, monsters, traitors and bigots before shockingly discovering the past four centuries of enslavement were the result of a single foe’s prejudice and greed…

With diplomacy triumphant and the world free, ‘Chapter 4: Defeat of the Mongol Rebels’ sees Buck and his pals pitted against those inevitable power-hungry hold-outs who benefitted most from the previous status quo. The insidious insurgents begin by kidnapping Wilma and luring Buck into a deadly chase across medical monolith the Aseptic City. Perpetrator Hum-Toy’s greatest threat was to destroy everyone with her deadly germ bombs and her resistance inspired legions of Mongols to take up arms again and destroy the Celestial Mogul’s new peace…

With Earth again at war, ‘Chapter 5: Tiger Men of Mars’ upped the ante as curious aliens witness the carnage and – after taking Wilma as a specimen for further study – head for home on the Red Planet. Deering was a dangerously uncooperative lab rat whose antics allowed Buck and Earth’s forces to effect a rescue. Negotiations seemed to settle the crisis and both sides opened diplomatic relations, but soon after, humans started disappearing. Among them was Wilma’s sister Sally and when hostilities erupted the Tiger Men briefly lost custody of another captive: a golden girl called Illana from a rival race on the Red Planet…

When the Tigers flee back to their world with Sally and Illana, Buck spearheads a rapid construction project to build an interplanetary rescue rocket and humanity takes its first big step into the cosmos…

After some teething troubles and a brief stopover on The Moon, the humans head off only to encounter a derelict alien ship and revive its sole survivor. Tallan is from Jupiter and the last time he saw humans they still lived in caves. With his aid the humans soon establish contact with Sally and Illana and before long Buck and Tallan have infiltrated the Tiger City, just in time to spectacularly scotch a scheme to conquer Earth. That battle separates many of the Earthling space-farers and leads to more conflict in ‘Chapter 6: Land of the Golden People’, with the Martian conflict soon drawing in Earth too.

With Humanity’s home invaded by terrifying war machines, this first volume concludes with ‘Chapter 7: Synthetic Gold Plot’ as Wilma goes missing again. As Buck hunts her beside acerbic journalist Herby Swipe, their frantic inquiries unearth a covert mission on behalf of the World Government and that she may not be a willing companion of suave plutocratic rat Wyn Winters. Rogers’ increasingly wild and inept efforts against a backdrop of espionage chicanery and economic chaos soon make him many new enemies and a fugitive from the law, but also point to a connection with global pariah Killer Kane as he seeks an incredible secret weapon…

First in a line of Daily and Sunday collections now criminally out of print and (other than this tome) unavailable digitally, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Complete Newspaper Dailies volume 1 offers a crucial window into the birth of our art form, one that should be revered for its innovations and discussed for its social impact good and bad. Let’s hope the publishers can revive the project and make all that happen in our imminent future.
© 2009 The Dille Family Trust, reprinted with permission.

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Lucky Luke volume 40 – Phil Wire


By Morris, translated by Erica Jeffrey (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-155-6 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Doughty, dashing and dependable cowboy “good guy” Lucky Luke is a rangy, implacably even-tempered do-gooder able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around the mythic Old West, enjoying light-hearted adventures on his petulant and rather sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. Over nine decades, his exploits have made him one of the top-ranking comic characters in the world, generating upwards of 85 individual albums and many, many spin-off series (like Kid Lucky and Ran-Tan-Plan), with sales thus far totalling in excess of 300 million in 30 languages. That renown has translated into a mountain of merchandise, toys, games, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies and even commemorative exhibitions. No theme park yet, but you never know…

Originally the brainchild of Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de Bévère (“Morris”) and first officially seen in Le Journal de Spirou’s seasonal Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947, Luke actually sprang to (un-titled) laconic life in mid-1946, before inevitably ambling into his first weekly adventure ‘Arizona 1880’ on December 7th 1946. Morris was one of “la Bande des quatre”– The Gang of Four – comprising Jijé, Will and Franquin: leading proponents of a fresh, loosely free-wheeling artistic style known as the “Marcinelle School”. It came to dominate Le Journal de Spirou in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style favoured by Hergé, E.P. Jacobs and other artists in Le Journal de Tintin.

In 1948 said Gang (all but Will) visited America, meeting US creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, encountered Goscinny, scored work at newly-formed EC sensation Mad and constantly, copiously noted and sketched a swiftly vanishing Old West.

Working solo until 1955 (with early script assistance from his brother Louis De Bevere), Morris produced nine initial albums – of which today’s was #8 – of affectionate sagebrush spoofery before teaming with old pal and fellow trans-American émigré René Goscinny. With him as his regular wordsmith, Luke attained dizzying, legendary, heights starting with Des rails sur la Prairie (Rails on the Prairie) which began serialisation on August 25th 1955. In 1967, the six-gun straight-shooter switched sides, joining Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote in La Diligence (The Stagecoach). Goscinny co-created 45 albums with Morris before his untimely death, whereupon Morris soldiered on both singly and with other collaborators. He went to the Last Roundup in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar sagebrush sagas crafted with Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shot at the venerable vigilante.

Lucky Luke has a long history in Britain, having first pseudonymously amused and enthralled young readers during the late 1950s, syndicated to weekly anthology Film Fun. He later rode back into comics-town in 1967 for comedy paper Giggle, using nom de plume Buck Bingo. And that’s not counting the many attempts to establish him as a book star starting with Brockhampton Press in 1972 and continuing via Knight Books, Hodder Dargaud UK, Ravette Books and Glo’Worm, until Cinebook finally and thankfully found the right path in 2006.

As Lucky Luke contre Phil Defer (Lucky Luke: Phil Wire in Britain) this classic collection comprises a brace of tales taken from the company’s general entertainment periodical Le Moustique. The saga of deadly gunslinger Phil Wire -“The Spider” is visually based on the early western works of based on legendary cinematic bad man Jack Palance in a strip taken from issues #1464-1494 (14th February-12th September 1954) of the celebrated periodical.

It begins in the booze-soaked Badlands when Phil Defer – LE FAUCHEUX sells his lethal talents to sinister saloon owner O’Sullivan. He’s looking to remove a rival entrepreneur…

Fate – or perhaps the gods of comedy – instead decree that another tall guy extremely good with guns gets to Bottleneck Gulch first, where he’s naturally mistaken for the rather idiosyncratic, notoriously superstitious killer for hire. You know, the tall guy…

Lucky and Wire have already clashed once before and – despite all the hero’s efforts to deter O’Sullivan – meet once more after all “the Spider’s” schemes to remove rival barkeep O’Hara are foiled. Ultimately, as ever, it comes down to a showdown on main street with only one tall man walking away…

The album also features a second but shorter serial from Le Moustique #1508-1516 (19th December 1954 to 13th February 1955): originally entitled Lucky Luke et Pilule. As Lucky Luke and The Pill, it here details a campfire tale told by our rangy wanderer, relating how a short-sighted, diminutive hypochondriac tenderfoot with no discernible fighting ability or action acumen became a true gun-toting town-tamer…

Ideal for older kids with a bit of historical perspective and social understanding – although the action and slapstick situations are no more contentious than any Laurel and Hardy film, Chuckle Brothers skit and whatever TikTok clip the waifs of the coming generation (Gen Eric?) titter to – these early exploits are a grand old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides Again or Support Your Local Sheriff, superbly executed by a master storyteller, and a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for modern kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was…
© Dupuis 1956 by Morris. © Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2013 Cinebook Ltd.

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Flash Gordon Annual 1969


By anonymous staff of the Mick Anglo Studio, Dick Wood, Al Williamson, Don Heck & various (World Distributor’s [Manchester] Ltd.)
No ISBN – B06WGZR1KX

By most lights, Flash Gordon is the most influential comic strip in the world. When the hero debuted on Sunday January 7th 1934 (with the superb if now-dated Jungle Jim running as a supplementary “topper”) in response to revolutionary, inspirational, but clunky Buck Rogers (by Philip Nolan & Dick Calkins and which had also began on January 7th but back in 1929), a new element was added to the realm of fantasy wonderment: Classical Lyricism.

Where Rogers had traditional adventures and high science concepts, this new feature reinterpreted Fairy Tales, Heroic Epics and Mythology. It did so by spectacularly draping them in the trappings of the contemporary future, with varying esoteric “Rays”, “Engine” and “Motors” substituting for trusty swords and lances – although there were also plenty of those – and exotic flying craft and contraptions standing in for Galleons, Chariots and Magic Carpets.

Most important of all, the sheer artistic talent of Raymond, his compositional skills, fine line-work, eye for concise, elegant detail and just plain genius for drawing beautiful people and things, swiftly made this the strip all young artists swiped from.

When all-original comic books began a few years later, literally dozens of talented kids used the clean lined Romanticism of Gordon as their model and ticket to future success in the field of adventure strips. Most of the others went with Milton Caniff’s expressionistic masterpiece Terry and the Pirates (which also began in 1934 – and he’ll get his go another day).

At the time of this annual a bunch of Gold Key and King Features Syndicate licenses were held by Mick Anglo, who provide strip and prose material for UK weekly TV Tornado. It combined British-generated material with US comic book reprints in an era when the television influence of shows like Tarzan and Batman, and veteran features like Flash Gordon – who had a small screen presence thanks to frequent re-runs of his cinema chapter plays. The project was extremely popular, even though not always of the highest quality…

In 1966, newspaper monolith King Features Syndicate briefly got into comic book publishing again: releasing a wave of titles based on their biggest stars. These were an ideal source of material for British publishers, whose regular audiences were profoundly addicted to TV and movie properties. Moreover, thematically they fitted with World Distributors’ other licensed properties, which repackaged Western’s comics material like Star Trek, Beverly Hillbillies and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with domestically generated material – generally by Mick Anglo’s packaging company Gower Studios.

This Anglo-American (tee-hee!) partnership fulfilled our Christmas needs for decades, generating a wealth of UK Annuals, comics and the occasional Special, mixing full-colour US reprints with prose stories, puzzles, games and fact-features on related themes.

Flash Gordon Annuals appeared sporadically over the next few decades with this release from 1968 (and forward-dated for 1969) being the second. Like the previous book it leaned heavily on generic space opera adventure in prose-based illustrated vignettes leavened with some truly stunning comics tales recasting Flash, Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov as generalised space explorers undertaking non-stop voyages to the unknown by saving lesser civilizations from mischance, misfortune and monsters sentient and not.

The action opens with a prose return to last year’s main comic feature. Sporting full-colour illustrations peppered with mini general knowledge/science factoids, ‘The Terror of Krenkelium’ sees Flash and Zarkov head back underground to a subterranean kingdom where first-timer Dale meets her rival for Flash’s attention. Happily, Princess Darla regains her equilibrium and common sense when usurper Mogulari tries to kill the court and take over only to meet stern and fatal resistance from the upworlders…

‘Plague of the Underground Forest’ then finds our heroes revisiting a formerly idyllic aboriginal paradise planet whose deeply spiritual people are now racked with famine thanks to an invasion of super-rats. The problem is not destroying the immediate menace but convincing the despondent survivors to leave their ancestral lands for somewhere that can actually support them in the solution’s aftermath…

Astronautics quiz ‘Space Probe’ and a page of ‘Fun Time’ cartoons presage a switch to 2-colour illustration as prose thriller ‘The Idol of Zatamandoo’ sees the star travellers uncover the dark underbelly of another apparent paradise planet where a godlike being trades peace and perfection for the occasional human sacrifice. After a traditional quiz – ‘Know Your Sport’ – Flash, Dale and Zarkov return to Mongo to save Earth from being drowned by ‘The Floating Desert’ before prose pauses and this year’s strip quotient begins. Originating in US comic book Flash Gordon #6 (cover-dated July 1967) as ‘Cragmen of the Lost Continent’, here Bill Pearson & Reed Crandall’s sublime romp becomes ‘Flash Gordon meets the Cragmen of the Lost Continent’ as a trek through unknown regions of Mongo sees Dale in charge and kicking alien butt when Flash is swallowed by a monster and the old doctor breaks his leg.

Striving against uncredible beasts and hostile conditions she eventually rescues her captive hero from sinister mountain dwellers and is bringing him to safety when…

An abrupt return to words follows a full-colour board game delivering ‘Danger in Space’ (as long as you can find dice and counters) after which diversion our dynamic trio scotch ‘The Micro-Men Plot’: an invasion scheme by a despot able to shrink his all-conquering forces.

An activity page of conjuring tricks shares the how-to of ‘Magic by Illusion’ before strip thrills blast back with a short spy story also taken from Flash Gordon #6. Written by Gary Poole and limned by either Mike Roy and/or Frank Springer, it tells of Secret Agent X-9 in Japan to obtain at all costs ‘The Third Key of Power’.

It’s back to 2-tone visions and peerless prose as our heroes endure the strangest case of their lives after encountering an advanced culture of ants. ‘The Swarming Peril’ proves so fearsome Flash has his brain inserted into an insect’s skull to complete his mission…

‘Time For a Laugh’ affords more cartoon buffoonery before The Mazzlins try to eradicate humankind in a ‘Deluge!’, after which thrills pause for general knowledge and testing in ‘Flash Puzzles’ and ‘Strange But True’.

Prose poser ‘Return to Krenkelium’ finds the human heroes again going underground, with Princess Darla’s embattled people invaded by The Snakemen of Syndromeda – beings from even deeper in the planet’s core…

Crossword ‘Out of This World’ segues into comics and the conclusion of the Cragmen crisis as Flash faces ‘The Totem Master!’ before this slice of Christmas past fades away with another board game situated in a ‘City Under the Sea.’

Once upon a time this type of uncomplicated done-in-one media-tasty package was the basic unit of Yule fuel, entertaining millions of British kids, and still holds much rewarding fun for those looking for a simple and straightforward nostalgic escape.
MCMLXVII, MCMLXVIII by King Features Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved throughout the world. The Amalgamated Press.

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Superman: the Atomic Age Sundays volume 2: 1953-1956


By Alvin Schwartz, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye (IDW/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-537-2 (HB)

It’s indisputable that today’s comic book industry – if it existed at all – would have been 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 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. 85 YEARS… and counting!

An 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.

Superman was master of the world and 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 cartoon 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 enduring icons in primarily graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, Black Panther, The Avengers and their hyperkinetic ilk long ago outgrew four-colour origins to become fully mythologized modern media creatures, instantly recognised in mass markets across all platforms and age ranges…

Far more people have viewed or heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comics. 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 many more shows (Superboy, Lois & Clark, Smallville, Superman & Lois and even spin-offs like Supergirl), a stage musical, a franchise of blockbuster movies and an almost seamless succession of games, bubble gum cards and TV cartoons beginning with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and continuing ever since. Even his 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 the majority of the last century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail that all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and frequently the planet – it was seen by millions, if not billions, of readers and generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic-books. It also paid far better.

And rightly so: some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were created to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them grew to be part of a global culture. Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Charlie Brown and so many more escaped humble and tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar.

Some still do…

Superman was the first original comic book character to make that leap – about 6 months after he exploded out of Action Comics – but precious few ever successfully followed. Wonder Woman, Batman (eventually) and trailblazing 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, supplemented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by such luminaries as 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 talents of Jack Burnley and writers Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz.

The McClure Syndicate Superman feature ran continuously from 1939 until May 1966, appearing at its peak in more than 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers; boasting a combined readership of more than 20 million. For most of the post war years Boring & Stan Kaye illustrated these spectacular Sundays (eventually supplemented by artists Win Mortimer and Curt Swan). The majority of the strips – from 1944 to 1958 – were written by Alvin Schwartz.

Born in 1916, he was an early maestro of comic books, writing for Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel and many other titles and companies. Whilst handling the Superman strip he also freelanced on Wonder Woman and the dwindling superhero pantheon as well as genre titles like 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 and essays, and latterly documentaries and docudramas for the National Film Board of Canada.

He also worked miracles in advertising and market research, developing selling techniques such as psychographics and typological identification. He was a member of the advisory committee to the American Association of Advertising Agencies. He died in 2011.

After 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 one, compiled under the auspices of the Library of American Comics. Showcasing Schwartz and artist Wayne Boring in their purest prime, these Sundays (numbered as pages #699 to #869 and collectively spanning March 22nd 1953 to June 24th 1956) feature a nigh-omnipotent Man of Steel in domestically-framed and curated tales of emotional dilemmas and pedestrian criminality rather than muscle-flexing bombast, utilising mystery, fashion, wit and satire as substitutes for bludgeoning action.

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

It begins with another prime example of Superman gaslighting his girlfriend – one of the sharpest journalists on Earth – in what I keep telling myself is just an example of how different attitudes were back then…

When Lois Lane catches Superman mid-change from Clark Kent, he manages to obscure his face long enough to claim her “victory” was through luck not skill or ingenuity, and challenge her to actually deduce his alter ego in a test through time. Angry, prideful and apparently a real sucker, she agrees and – relocated to ancient Troy, on the pilgrim ship Mayflower and Massechusetts colony and in 1907 San Francisco – promptly fails to spot the new identities the Man of Steel establishes. Apart from the appalling patriarchal premise and treatment it’s a beautiful tale with Lois meeting and/or replacing Helen of Troy, Priscilla Mullins (look her up or read The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) and celebrity performer Lillian Russell with Trojan battles, pioneering dangers and the Great San Francisco Earthquake giving Superman plenty to do before she concedes defeat…

Dated July 5th 1953 (strip #714), the next exploit is far less upsetting as a dying millionaire convinces the Man of Tomorrow to find a decent purpose and inheritor for his vast riches. Operating clandestinely at first Superman vets artists, inventors, simple scammers, country doctors (thereby diverging long enough to become embroiled in a decades-long hillbilly feud) and battles crooks before finally completing his mission…

Strip #725 opened a thrilling new chapter on September 20th as the Action Ace intercepts an alien vehicle crashing to Earth and finds it carries two convicts from his long-dead homeworld. At first Arno and Tolas are content to use their new superpowers to scam, steal and swindle the puny humans before eventually realising they’re strong enough to take anything want. Superman’s attempts to restrain their crimes are never enough and he only saves his adopted homeworld by adopting his enemies’ preferred tactics…

December 13th (strip #737) saw a new yarn begin as an extremely determined young woman threw herself off a building to get Superman’s attention. Alice Talbot was a lawyer working as process server for her sexist uncle. He believed Law was man’s work and had his associates give her impossible jobs to discourage her: a situation that needed all the Man of Steel’s discretion as Alice took on ever-more difficult serving jobs and succeeded – even if with some secret assistance…

Few Superman foes transferred from funnybooks to the Funnies section, but murderously ridiculous criminal The Prankster was perfect for whimsy-minded readers. Strip #747 (February 21st 1954) began an extend campaign of confusion and carnage as the diabolically devious bandit began attacking modern art, plundering vaults and raiding stores after finding a way to exploit one of Superman’s powers and use it against him…

Clark took centre stage in a clever quandary running from April 25th to July 4th (#756-766) as a publicity stunt gone awry leaves him handcuffed to a starlet and accompanied everywhere by her wily manager, requiring many clever tricks over a very busy weekend to go into action as the Man of Tomorrow before he can legitimately shuck the shackles…

The “Atomic Age” title gets full milage in the next story (#767-777, July 11th – September 19th) as a purse-snatcher fleeing Superman is dosed with radiation and acquires the unwelcome and uncontrollable power to become intangible. Happily he’s not smart enough to capitalise on the scary gift… but his even shadier pal Al is…

When a strange man starts following Superman, it leads to crazy contests and another shifty conman mystic who has convinced wrestler Mop-up Moby that he can beat the Man of Steel in the ring. Incredibly that proves true in the comedy romp running from September 26th – November 7th (#778-784), after which a science experiment gives Superman amnesia and leaves him lost and confused on a desert island (#785-793, November 14th 1954 to January 9th 1955). At least “Roger” has lazy drop-out beach-bums Horace and Mike to guide him and manage his strange abilities: they even help the simple islanders appreciate the mod-cons of 20th century living Roger provides – whether they want him to or not…

Restored and returned to Metropolis for strip #794 (November 14th), Superman is swamped with petty requests from the authorities, unaware they are keeping him distracted from preparations for a major television event. The “Your Story” episode detailing his life is a great honour, but a huge risk too as he’s supposed to appear live with all his friends: Lois, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen and… Clark Kent…

Another secret identity dilemma follows (#801-805, March 6th – April 3rd) as Clark exhibits superstrength and allows observers to believe it comes from a mutant apple he ate. It might have been the end of it, but two other apples were eaten and he has to spend all his time faking the same powers for their eaters or risk exposure of his alter ego…

When Lois and Clark investigate a mystery millionaire (#806-813, April 10th – May 29th) they go undercover as domestics and encounter the most appalling children ever reared. Soon though a heartbreaking story emerges and the hardboiled reporters become matchmaking homemakers, after which epic action and humour return as an amazing archaeological discovery sends Superman back to ancient Greece to dispel many myths around Hercules before helping the rather hapless legend-in-waiting accomplish his labours (#814-824, June 5th – August 14th)…

Atom Age fantasy follows as a genuine flying horse baffles and bamboozles Metropolitans from scientists to thieves to circus showmen (#825-833, August 21st – October 16th). When Superman discovers the facts, his greatest concern is to reunite the modern Pegasus with the boy who loves him, before heading to the Himalayas (#834-844, October 23rd 1955 – January 1st 1956) and foiling a devilish plotter seeking to seize control of a lost colony of French musketeers and cavaliers!

The new year opened with science fiction in the driving seat as downtrodden despondent travelling salesman/inventor Edgar Weems makes contact with a scientist on a dying world. Benevolent Bel Neth Ka of Kadath is happy to share his secrets – like antigravity ointment and superstrength serum – but when innocent Edgar starts selling them his instant success naturally causes chaos. That was a big and very funny job for Superman running from January 8th to March 25th over Strips #845-856, and leads to the concluding tale in this second Atomic Age collection, as Lois goes on quiz show “The $88,000 Jackpot”. Her specialist subject is Superman and her answers are astonishingly accurate. As the days pass (April 1st to June 24th 1953 and strips#857-869), audience attention makes life hell for the Action Ace, reminding viewers of his weaknesses and who he might be in civilian life…

The Atomic Age Superman: – Sunday Pages 1953-1956 is the second of three huge (312 x 245mm), lavish, high-end hardback collections starring the Man of Tomorrow. It’s an inexpressible joy to see these “lost” stories again, offering a far more measured, domesticated and comforting side of America’s most unique contribution to world culture. It’s also a pure delight to see some of the hero’s most engaging yesterdays. Join me and see for yourself…
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