Category: Adventure

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Doug Wildey’s Rio: The Complete Saga


By Doug Wildey (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-61377-210-2  eISBN: 978-1-62302-476-5

There have been many Western comics over many years created by Americans and other nations. Most were banged out as commercial fodder to feed fashion during periods when mainstream media celebrated a periodic re-emergence of the genre. Rio most definitely ain’t one of those.

Working at his own pace for his own pleasure over long years and virtually isolated from the mainstream comics world, the late Doug Wildey – famed animator (Johnny Quest) and comic strip artist (Outlaw Kid) – produced an iconic and elegiac immortal character.

After a meandering trail of appearances at Eclipse, Comico and Marvel, the wanderer most recently settled at IDW resulting in this glorious collection: far more serious art book than collection of wondrous comics stories.

Almost the entirety of this stupendous compendium is shot from Wildey’s immaculate multi-media original art with corrections, amendments and every instance and evidence of the creator’s interaction with the page left for aficionados to enjoy. No flattening bowdlerisation by the print process here: Think of it as a gallery visit in your hands.

The content comprises all Wildey’s published stories, one entire unpublished tale and a final almost-complete saga he was working on when he died. As he was a rather mercurial cove Wildey skipped about a job, wrapping up pages as whim took him, so the missing parts are there in spirit too: as roughs, sketches, pencils or script and layout designs. It’s a fascinating glimpse of a born raconteur and relentless perfectionist plying his trade. Also included are dozens of sketches, pin-ups and other associated images given weight and context through a loving appreciation by Mark Evanier in his Introduction. What more can a fan want?

Well, obviously, a damned fine read…

An old gunfighter and badman in the heydays of the Wild West, Rio is a rangy loner wandering the country just ahead of creeping civilisation, trying to live the rest of his life as best he can as the end draws near.

The saga began as a serial in early 1980s experiment Eclipse Monthly, during the days of American Comics’ Direct Market revolution. Then it was collected into an album-sized compilation and assorted reprints many times since.

In ‘The Hide Butchers’, the iconically world-weary “tall rider” is engrossed on a tricky and dangerous mission. Offered a full pardon by President Ulysses S. Grant in return for stopping the decimation of the Buffalo herds by “Sporting Special”, Rio is in Wyoming Territory vainly attempting to reason with Railway boss Dorsey. These train excursions – wherein customers could slaughter the animals from the comfort of their seats – nearly wiped out the animals, consequently almost starving to their own extinction Indians who lived off them.

Deemed a threat to profits, Rio is framed for murder by the bigwig’s hirelings – the Grady Parrish gang – and must down a small army of gunmen before he can know any real peace…

His hunt begins in ‘Satan’s Doorstep’ as the trail leads into Apache country and a doomed clash with a cavalry troop led by a glory-obsessed fool who thinks he’s the next Napoleon Bonaparte…

Sole survivor of that desert confrontation, Rio picks up his quarry’s trail in Endsville, Wyoming, before crossing the border to an enslaved Mexican town turned into a ‘Robber’s Roost’ by the bandits he’s chasing. To pass the time, the sadistic brutes play a murderous game with the citizens, but when Rio is captured he deftly turn the tables against them…

Wildey was a master storyteller and a Western Historian of some note. His art graced many galleries and museums, but his greatest achievements are here, where his artistry brings a lost and fabled world briefly back to vibrant life, in spirit as well as look.

Wildey switched over to colour in his own unique style and a more luscious and painterly colour palette, transferring his iconic lone rider from the wilderness to the very borders of the creeping Civilisation he so patently abhorred in a sequel to his original tale of ‘Mr. Howard’s Son’…

Finally pardoned by President Grant, Rio is invited to become sheriff of Limestone City, a burgeoning metropolis less than 100 miles from Kansas City yet somehow a town with no crime! Whilst pondering the offer, he finds old friends already living there; two of the most infamous outlaws in history who – with their families – are living quietly as respectable, albeit incognito, citizens of the progressive paradise.

However, after a botched kidnapping and speculative bank raid exposes the retired outlaws, human nature and petty spite lead to disastrous chaos and a spiral of bloody tragedy which the new lawman is ill-equipped and much disinclined to help with…

In ‘Hot Lead for Johnny Hardluck’, Rio meets a young Dutch kid hardened by exploitative mine work who has chanced upon a fortune. After winning a huge diamond at poker the boy heads for San Francisco, unaware the sore loser has hired thieves to restore what he lost at all costs. Happily, Rio is working as stagecoach guard on the route the kid follows, but even after the fireworks are over, the danger and bloodshed isn’t…

Another brush with famous gunmen informs ‘Red Dust in Tombstone’ as Rio meets up with Doc Holliday and his pals the Earp brothers. Trouble is brewing in town and tensions are high, but Wildey smartly shows us a telling side of all concerned that movies have not…

Wrapping the narratives up with a tantalising promise of what might have been, ‘Reprisal’ is an unfinished masterpiece of cowboy lore as the lone rider saunters into a brewing border crisis. Bandits are raiding ranches, but when the wanderer uncovers a scam with soldiers selling gunpowder to outlaws, the situation explosively escalates into savage tragedy…

This wagon train of wonders wraps with an epic visual treat as ‘Doug Wildey’s Rio Gallery’ re-presents covers, evocative colour illustrations, sketches and model sheets to delight every fan of the genre or just great illustration.

Gripping, authentic, and satisfyingly mythic, these tales from a lost master of his subject and his craft are some of the best westerns America has ever produced and some of the most sublime sequential art every set to paper. Go see why pilgrim…
© 2012 Ellen Wildey. All Rights Reserved. Introduction © 2012 Mark Evanier.

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Showcase Presents Superman volume 4


By Edmond Hamilton, Robert Bernstein, Jerry Siegel, Leo Dorfman, Al Plastino, Curt Swan, George Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1847-8 (TPB)

By the time of the stories in this fabulous fourth monochrome compendium Superman was a truly global household name, with the burgeoning mythology of lost Krypton, modern Metropolis and the core cast familiar to most children and many adults.

The Man of Tomorrow was just beginning a media-led burst of revived interest. In the immediate future, television exposure, a rampant merchandising wave thanks to the Batman-led boom in superheroes generally, highly efficient world-wide comics, cartoon, bubble gum cards and especially toy licensing deals would all feed a growing mythology. Everything was in place to keep the Last Son of Krypton a vibrant yet comfortably familiar icon of modern, Space-Age America: particularly constantly evolving, ever-more dramatic and imaginative comicbook stories.

Spanning October 1962 to February 1964 and taken from Action Comics #293-309 and Superman #157-166, here the Man of Tomorrow faces evermore fantastic physical threats and critical personal and social challenges.

AC #293 gets things off to a fine start with Edmond Hamilton & Al Plastino’s ‘The Feud Between Superman and Clark Kent!’ as another exposure to randomly metamorphic Red Kryptonite divides the Metropolis Marvel into a rational but powerless mortal and an aggressive, out of control superhero, determined to continue his existence at all costs…

Superman #157 (November 1962) opens with fresh additions to mythology as ‘The Super-Revenge of the Phantom Zone Prisoner!’ – Hamilton, Curt Swan & George Klein – introduces permanently power-neutralising Gold Kryptonite and Superman’s Zone-o-phone – allowing him to monitor and communicate with the incarcerated inhabitants in a stirring tale of injustice and redemption. Convicted felon Quex-Ul uses it to petition Superman for release since his sentence has been served, and despite reservations our fair-minded hero agrees. However, further investigation reveals Quex-Ul was framed and innocent of any crime, but before Superman can make amends, he must survive a deadly trap the embittered (and partially mind-controlled) parolee had laid for the son of the Zone’s discoverer…

The issue also carried a light-hearted espionage yarn as the Action Ace becomes ‘The Super-Genie of Metropolis!’ (Robert Bernstein & Plastino) as well as ‘Superman’s Day of Doom!’ from Jerry Siegel, Swan & Klein, wherein a little kid saves the hero from a deadly ambush set during a parade in his honour.

Action #294 contains a classic duel between Superman and Lex Luthor in Hamilton & Plastino’s ‘The Kryptonite Killer!’ wherein the sinister scientist makes elemental humanoids to destroy his hated foe, whilst #295’s ‘Superman Goes Wild!’ (Bernstein, Swan & Klein) features an insidious plot by the Superman Revenge Squad to drive him murderously insane.

Issue #158 of his solo title hosted full-length epic ‘Superman in Kandor!’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein) as raiders from the preserved Kryptonian enclave attack the Man of Steel in ‘Invasion of the Mystery Supermen’, describing him as a traitor to his people. Baffled, Action Ace and Jimmy Olsen infiltrate the Bottle City: creating costumed alter egos Nightwing and Flamebird to become ‘The Dynamic Duo of Kandor!’ By solving the enigma, they save the colony from utter destruction in ‘The City of Super-People!’

Action #296 seemingly offers a man vs. monster saga in ‘The Invasion of the Super-Ants!’ (Hamilton & Plastino) but the gripping yarn has a sharp plot twist and timely warning about nuclear proliferation, before in #297’s ‘The Man Who Betrayed Superman’s Identity!’ (Leo Dorfman, Swan & Klein), veteran newsman Perry White is gulled into solving the world’s greatest mystery after a head injury induces amnesia.

Editor Mort Weisinger was expanding the series’ continuity and building the legend, and realised each new tale was an event adding to a nigh-sacred canon: what he printed was deeply important to the readers. However, as an ideas man he wasn’t going to let that aggregated “history” stifle a good plot, nor would he allow his eager yet sophisticated audience to endure clichéd Deus ex Machina cop-outs which might mar the sheer enjoyment of a captivating concept. Thus “Imaginary Stories” were conceived as a way of exploring non-continuity plots and scenarios, devised at a time when editors felt that entertainment trumped consistency and fervently believed that every comic read was somebody’s first and – unless they were very careful – their last…

Taken from Superman #159, this book’s first Imaginary Novel follows, as ‘Lois Lane, the Super-Maid of Krypton!’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein) sees a baby girl escape Earth’s destruction by rocketing to another world in ‘Lois Lane’s Flight from Earth!’ Befriending young Kal-El, she grows to become a mighty champion of justice. Clashing with ‘The Female Luthor of Krypton!’ and repeatedly saving the world, Lois tragically endures ‘The Doom of Super-Maid!’ at a time when attitudes apparently couldn’t allow a woman to be stronger than Superman – even in an alternate fictionality…

Dorfman, Swan & Klein’s ‘Clark Kent, Coward!’ leads Action #298 wherein a balloon excursion dumps Jimmy, Lois and the clandestine crusader in a lost kingdom whose queen finds the timid buffoon irresistible. Unfortunately the husky hunks of the hidden land take extreme umbrage at her latest dalliance…

In #160 of his eponymous publication, our hero temporarily loses his powers in ‘The Mortal Superman!’ (Dorfman & Plastino), almost dying in ‘The Cage of Doom!’ before his merely human wits prove sufficient to outsmart a merciless crime syndicate, after which the mood lightens as – fully restored – he becomes ‘The Super-Cop of Metropolis!’ to outwit spies in a classy “why-dunnit” from Siegel, Swan & Klein.

Action #299 reveals the outlandish motives behind ‘The Story of Superman’s Experimental Robots!’ in a truly bizarre tale by Siegel & Plastino, whilst Superman #161 offers an untold tale revealing how he tragically learned the limitations of his powers. In ‘The Last Days of Ma and Pa Kent!’ (Dorfman & Plastino) a vacation time-travel trip led to his foster parents’ demise and only too late did the heartbroken hero learn his actions were not the cause of their deaths. It’s supplemented by ‘Superman Goes to War’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein) lightening the mood as a war game covered by Daily Planet staff devolves into the real thing after Clark discovers some participants are actually aliens.

Action Comics reached #300 with the May1963 issue ,and to celebrate Hamilton & Plastino crafted brilliantly ingenious ‘Superman Under the Red Sun!’ wherein the Man of Tomorrow is trapped in the far, far future where Earth’s sun has cooled to crimson and his powers fade. The valiant chronal castaway suffers incredible hardship and danger before devising a way home, just in time for #301 and ‘The Trial of Superman!’ – by the same creative team – as the Man of Steel allows himself to be prosecuted for Clark Kent’s murder to save America from a terrible threat.

Dorfman, Swan & Klein’s ‘The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue!’ (Superman #162) is possibly the most ambitious and influential tale of the entire “Imaginary Tale” sub-genre: a startling utopian classic so well-received that decades later it influenced and flavoured the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman continuity for months. It still does today. The Metropolis Marvel permanently divides into two equal beings in ‘The Titanic Twins!’, who promptly solve all Earth’s problems with ‘The Anti-Evil Ray!’ and similar scientific breakthroughs before both retiring with pride and the girls of their dreams, Lois Lane and Lana Lang (one each, of course) in ‘The End of Superman’s Career!’…

There’s no record of who scripted Action #302’s ‘The Amazing Confession of Super-Perry White!’ but Plastino’s slick, beefy art lends great animation to a convoluted tale with the Man of Steel replacing the aging editor to thwart an assassination plot, accidentally giving the impression that podgy Perry is his actual alter ego…

Superman #163 offered crafty mystery in ‘Wonder-Man, the New Hero of Metropolis!’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein) who almost replaces the Man of Steel, were it not for his tragic foredoomed secret, before ‘The Goofy Superman!’ (Bernstein & Plastino) sees Red K deprive the hero of powers and sanity, resulting in a fortuitous stay in the local Home for the Perpetually Bewildered – since that’s where a cunning mad bomber is secretly hiding out…

In Action #303 Hamilton, Swan & Klein have the infernal mineral transform Superman into ‘The Monster from Krypton!’, almost dying at the hands of the army and a vengeful Supergirl who believes her cousin has been eaten by the dragon he’s become, and #304 hosted ‘The Interplanetary Olympics!’ (Dorfman, Swan & Klein), as Superman deliberately throws the contest and shames Earth…  but only for the best possible reasons!

Courtesy of Hamilton, Swan & Klein in Superman #164 (October 1963) comes classic clash ‘The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman’, pitting the lifelong foes in an unforgettable confrontation on post-apocalyptic planet Lexor – a dead world of lost science and fantastic beasts. ‘The Super-Duel!’ offers a new side to Superman’s previously 2-dimensional arch-enemy and the issue also includes ‘The Fugitive from the Phantom Zone!’ (Siegel & Plastino): a smart vignette with Superman outwitting a foe he can’t beat by playing on his psychological foibles…

Action #305 featured Imaginary Story ‘Why Superman Needs a Secret Identity!’ (Dorfman, Swan & Klein) detailing personal tragedies and disasters following Ma & Pa Kent’s proud and foolish public announcement that their son is an alien Superboy, whilst Superman #165’s ‘Beauty and the Super-Beast!’ and conclusion ‘Circe’s Super-Slave’ (Bernstein, Swan & Klein), see the Man of Steel seemingly helpless against the ancient sorceress. In fact, the whole thing is an elaborate hoax to foil alien invaders of the Superman Revenge Squad. The issue’s third tale, ‘The Sweetheart Superman Forgot!’ (Siegel & Plastino) offers heartbreaking forbidden romance wherein powerless, amnesiac and disabled Superman meets, loves and loses a good woman who wants him purely for himself. When memory and powers return, Clark has no recollection of Sally Selwyn, who’s probably still pining faithfully for him…

Action #306 sees Bernstein & Plastino tweak the Prince and the Pauper in ‘The Great Superman Impersonation!’ as Kent is hired to protect a South American President because he looks enough like Superman to fool potential assassins. Of course it’s all a byzantine con, but by the end who’s conning who?

The reporter’s crime exposés make ‘Clark Kent – Target for Murder!’ in Action #307 (by an unattributed scripter with Swan & Klein) but villainous King Kobra makes the mistake of his life when the hitman he hires turns out to be the intended victim in disguise, after which #308 concentrates on all-out fantasy as ‘Superman Meets the Goliath-Hercules!’ (anonymous & Plastino) after crossing into a parallel universe. Before returning, the Action Ace helps a colossal demigod perform “the Six Labours of King Thebes” in a yarn clearly cobbled together in far too much haste.

Superman #166 (January 1964) features ‘The Fantastic Story of Superman’s Sons’ by Hamilton, Swan & Klein: an Imaginary Tale/solid thriller built on a painful premise – what if only one of Superman’s children inherits his powers? (Sounds a bit familiar now, no?) The saga starts with ‘Jor-El II and Kal-El II’ and the discovery that Kal junior takes after his Earth-born mother. He subsequently grows into a teenager with real emotional problems and, hoping to boost his confidence, dad packs both boys off to Kandor so they’ll be physically equal. Soon the twins find adventure as ‘The new Nightwing and Flamebird!’

However, when a Kandorian menace escapes to the outer world, it’s up to the human son to save Earth following ‘Kal-El II’s Mission to Krypton!’ which wraps everything up in a neat and tidy bundle of escapist fun.

This volume closes with a strange TV tie-in tale from Action Comics #309 as an analogue of This Is Your Life honours Superman by inviting all his friends – even the Legion of Super-Heroes and especially Clark Kent – to ‘The Superman Super-Spectacular!’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein). With no other option, the hero must share his secret identity with someone new so that they can impersonate him. Although there must be less convoluted ways to allay Lois’ suspicions, this yarn includes perhaps the oddest guest star appearance in comics’ history…

These tales are the comic book equivalent of bubble gum pop music: perfectly constructed, always entertaining, occasionally challenging and never unwelcome. As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of a pre angst-drenched, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling, mind-boggling and yes, frequently moving all-ages stories also perfectly depict changing mores and tastes that reshaped comics between the safely anodyne 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1970s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry – “keep them entertained and keep them wanting more”.

I know I certainly do…
© 1962-1964, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Dr. Mesmer’s Revenge


By Donne Avenelle, Carlos Cruz & José Ortiz (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-687-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless Terror for Kids of Every Land and Vintage… 8/10

It’s time for another sortie down memory lane for us rapidly diminishing oldsters and hopefully a fresh, untrodden path for new fans of the fantastic seeking a typically quirky British comics experience.

This sinister selection delivers another stunning nostalgia-punch from Rebellion’s superb and ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics, collecting seminal shocker and film-fuelled fright fest Dr. Mesmer’s Revenge.

The strip debuted in Lion and Thunder running from October 16th 1971 to October 21st 1972, with this book of the dead also including two epic appearances from the Lion Annuals for 1973 and 1974. The series is a typical example of the manner in which weekly periodicals functioned back then: a solid support trip offering a change of pace from straight action or fantastic adventure as supplemented by comedy pages.

Dr. Mesmer’s Revenge was crafted by British legend Donne Avenell, who began his career before WWII at in the editorial department of Amalgamated Press (which evolved into Fleetway/IPC on household name Radio Fun. Born in Croydon in 1925, Avenell served in the Royal Navy during the war before returning to publishing: editing an AP architectural magazine whilst pursuing writing for radio dramas and romances under a slew of pseudonyms.

He returned to comics in the 1950s, with many contributions to childhood icons like War Picture Library and Lion, directing the sagas of The Spider, The Phantom Viking, Oddball Oates, Adam Eterno and more. He co-wrote major international features like Buffalo Bill, Helgonet (The Saint) and The Phantom for Swedish publisher Semic, created the strip Django and Angel and toiled on assorted Disney strips.

In 1975, with Norman Worker, he co-wrote Nigeria’s Powerman comic which helped launch the careers of Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons. Avenell was equally at home on newspaper strips such as Axa (1978-1986, drawn by Enrique Romero), Tiffany Jones and Eartha (illustrated by John M. Burns), and worked in television, writing shows like The Saint and their subsequent novelisations. He died in 1996.

Series illustrator Carlos Cruz González was born in 1930 in Andalusia. His large family moved to Malaga when the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, and again to Buenos Aires in 1949. By that time, Carlos was already a professional artist for local newspapers. In South America, whilst working in a flour mill, he moonlighted as a designer at publisher Abril.

In the 1950s he created covers for Idilio, Nocturno and Más Allá, and became fill-in artist on features like Hugo Pratt’s Sargento Kirk before graduating to his own strips like Colt Miller, Indio Suarez and Santos Palma (written by Hector German Oesterheld). Going international he contributed to German periodical Pip and worked on Egmont’s edition of The Phantom.

Moving back to Malaga in the 1960s, Cruz began a 20-year career with Britain’s Fleetway and DC Thomson, drawing war, action, horror, romance and girls’ fiction stories. Prolific and gifted, his strips appeared in many include Battling Boffins in Tiger, Sgt. Rock – Paratrooper (Tiger and Hurricane), Union Jack Jackson (Warlord), Crabbe’s Crusaders, Roamin’ James: Space Pilot! and Mighty McGinty in Buster, Moonie’s Magic Mate and The Pillater Peril in Smash, Eagle’s Blood Fang, Wendy, M.A.S.K. and jewel in the crown Dan Dare.

He also worked in the Spanish market on strips like Juanjo for Trinca, and crafted “Kelly” for Holland’s Tina, and in later years joined the art team on Sweden’s En Hombre Enmascarado. Carlos Cruz died in April 2018.

In the sixties and seventies the British liked their comics characters weird, wild, utterly amoral, flagrantly inept and invariably corrupt to the core. These days it’s a requirement we only demand from and venerate in politicians and public servants. One thing we have adored above all other things is a great, properly flamboyant villain. We always enjoyed a strange, extended love affair with what can only be described as “unconventional” (for which feel free to substitute “weird” or “creepy”) heroes.

So many stars and putative role models of our serials and strips have been outrageous or just plain “off”: self-righteous voyeurs-vigilantes like Jason Hyde, deranged vigilante geniuses like Eric Dolmann, self-absorbed outsiders like Robot Archie, arrogant, morally ambivalent former criminals like The Spider or outright racist supermen such as Captain Hurricane…

We also made much of (barely) reformed criminals like Charlie Peace and evil masterminds in the manner of The Dwarf, Black Max, Grimly Feendish, The Snake and today’s particular Menace to Society…

In the respectable English suburb of Blackford stands a strange house. Shaped like a pyramid it has giant cat statues as gates and ancient monuments dotted around the walled estate. Here dwells reclusive Egyptologist Dr. Mesmer and the world is faced with a terrifying crisis from the moment burglars rob his cellar temple of valuable – and arcanely powerful – ancient artefacts…

Outraged, Mesmer unleashes magical 5000-year-old mummy Pharaoh Angor, animated cat-idol Bulbul and sundry other supernatural relics to take back his property, punish the thieves, the dealer who fenced them and all those who bought the items. Only young police constable Tom Stone, and his initially disbelieving superior Inspector Moffat, are aware of what’s really going on…

Over weeks Mesmer’s retaliations and missions revealed incredible feats of horror, until he regained his collection, with the cops always overmatched but scoring some brief victories. As the strip evolved, Mesmer moved beyond righteous indignation, and – after an accidental time-swap – took all concerned back to meet the living pharaoh Angor and his noble enemies. The return to the present saw the doctor change tactics and try to conquer the modern world, with merely mortal gadfly nuisances Stone and Moffat his only opposition…

Once the series concluded, the doctor made a brace of encores in the Lion Annual for 1973 and 1974. The first tale saw how respected archaeologist Dr. Wrath was caught robbing tombs in the Valley of Kings and how his subsequent punishment led to uncovering the mummy of Angor, shattering vengeance inflicted upon his accusers and a little name change. The second yarn sees the power-hungry villain in Dorset, stealing an ancient sun-stone relic and awakening something even mighty mummy Angor cannot defeat…

Moodily chilling and evocatively compelling, Dr. Mesmer’s Revenge is a timeless treat for comics buffs and fear fans: one you’d be well advised to sample soon.
© 1971, 1972, 1973 & 2019 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Mr. Monster Presents… The Secret Files of Dr. Drew


By Jerry Grandenetti, Marilyn Mercer, Abe Kanegson with Will Eisner, compiled and edited by Michael T. Gilbert (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-532-0 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-62115-999-5

Superheroes pretty much carried American comic books in the early years, but after WWII the Fights ‘n’ Tights boom started fading and new kinds of champions from more traditional forms rose to the fore. Simultaneously – as had happened following the end of the Great War – the public’s entertainment appetites turned from patriotic adventure to pedestrian crime and supernatural themes, and funnybooks quickly cashed in on the trend.

In conjunction with dedicated horror anthology titles, regular comics publications also dabbled in monsters (such as The Heap in aviation adventure title Airboy for example – although he had been sloshing around since the early 1940s) and a new kind of two-fisted ghostbuster began manifesting in lots of different publications.

One of the very best was sagacious supernatural sleuth Dr. Desmond Drew, who appeared bimonthly in Ranger Comics from June 1947 to August 1951: helming 14 captivating cases crafted by Will Eisner’s top creative crew: writer Marilyn Mercer, artistic wunderkind Jerry Grandenetti and master calligrapher Abe Kanegson.

Although never a breakout hit or cover feature, the startlingly effective tales – spanning Ranger Comics #47 to 60 – were oft-reprinted before publisher Fiction House finally closed its doors. The yarns had a life-altering effect on modern comics auteur Michael T. Gilbert, who claims these eerie escapades as a major influence on his own Mr. Monster character.

The hows, whens and whys of the Ghostbreaking Guardian – as well as his eventual fate – are investigated in fascinating, abundantly illustrated ‘Introduction: The Secret Files of Dr. Drew!’, scrupulously compiled by Gilbert for this superb archival and that history lesson is the perfect aperitif before the fabulously chilling and enthralling tales are disclosed…

Once you’ve absorbed all there is to know from a fan devoted to sharing his great knowledge, the curious Case Files commence with an arcane parable of greed and vengeance as – preceded by a 2-page cartoon intro from Mr. Monster himself – ‘The Strange Case of the Absent Floor!’ (Ranger #47, June 1949) opens wide…

The “Stalker of the Unknown” was visually based on actor Basil Rathbone in his role of Sherlock Holmes, and debuted sans origin tale: fully-formed with plenty of idiosyncratic baggage to flesh him out. From his foreboding mansion atop brooding Bone Hill, the consulting detective of all things unnatural would sally out in an old-fashioned horse-drawn buggy to tackle ancient horrors in the new Atomic Age: especially in the twisted streets of the city stretched out below his daunting abode…

The initiating escapade sees him rectify a long-standing miscarriage of justice after an elevator operator begs him to investigate an unsuspected floor in the old Wainwright Building: an edifice which never boasted a thirteenth storey until the night an oddly dressed couple boarded his lift…

Incredible peril lurked far closer to home in ‘The Philosopher’s Stone!’ (RC #48, August) since Drew actually owned that potent talisman. However, as he could never get it to work, the doctor had no qualms in lending it to his old friend Gordon Kyle. When Kyle was found instantly aged into decrepitude, a frantic hunt for a remorseless ancient predator begins…

For #49 (October), a young woman paralysed and in utter agony draws the ghostbreaker into battle against a vicious spurned lover employing ‘The Witch’s Doll!’ to gain vengeance, after which ‘The Devil’s Watch!’ (December) pits Drew against his greatest adversary when attempting to deny the Devil a legally-purchased old soul… which just happens to now reside in an innocent young musician…

When ethereal fog heralds a spate of debilitating sickness, victims – all male – are heard to utter ‘The Gypsy Girl!’ (#51, February 1950) before sinking into death. It takes all Drew’s resources to connect the outbreak to a witch-burning three centuries previously, and achieves critical personal importance after he learns his own ancestor was one of the witnesses at Gypsy Anna’s trial. Thankfully, fate and wisdom provide the key to banishing the vengeful spirit in the nick of time…

The hardest part of his struggle against a Balkan bloodsucker haunting a movie set is being dragged out of Bone Hill and flown to Hollywood in ‘The Mark of the Vampire!’ (#52, April) but his clash with bizarre cult ‘The Order of Elusa!’ (Ranger #53, June) proves far more arduous as the primordial murderous sect is located at the bottom of the sea and its immortal wizards almost seduce and corrupt the paranormal paragon with his greatest weakness: ancient, undiscovered, secret knowledge…

When an aqueduct project falters, construction bosses call in the dark detective to dispel a ship full of land-locked phantom buccaneers in ‘The Pirates of Skull Valley!’ (#54, August) before ‘The Curse of the Mandibles!’ (#55, October) finds a desperate client trying to prevent his imminent murder by a spirit which has – over centuries – decimated his entire family. The true culprit behind the string of deaths is even stranger and more incomprehensible than can be imagined…

‘Sabrina the Sorceress!’ (#56, December) is a common criminal charlatan, but when the fake medium is accused of murdering her client she suddenly faces true supernatural terror beside – and despite – Drew, after which the man of mysteries saves an anxious bridegroom from dying at the hands of his spectral bride in ‘Druid Castle!’ (#57, February 1951).

Summoned to the local penitentiary, the thaumic troubleshooter faces body-snatching refugees from the 4th dimension in ‘The Dartbane Horrors!’ (April), before voyaging to Paris to clash with despised rival psychic Salazar whilst solving a string of murders perpetrated by an unworldly fiend who favours ‘The Ancient Reek of Brimstone!’ (June).

The Keeper of Knowledge pauses his comic book crusade in London, bringing a theatrical monster to justice with the assistance of a ghostly actress holding the crucial secret of ‘Sandini’s Trunk!’ (Ranger Comics #60, August 1951).

This fabulous grimoire harbours further delights such as reminiscence-packed reverie ‘The Jerry Grandenetti Interview!’ (conducted by Gilbert before the master draughtsman died in 2010) as well as ‘The Secret Files of The Spirit’s Ghosts!’: a section copiously investigating ‘The Creators!’ and even laying to rest a true enigma of comics history by explaining the abrupt disappearance of Abe Kanegson (who completely dropped off the map in 1950 and was never seen again by his comics colleagues)!

Rendered in the unmistakeable style of classic Eisner’s Spirit episodes, with mature scripting from Marilyn Mercer (who left comics to become a writer, journalist and fashion editor) and Kanegson’s flamboyantly expressive lettering graphics, these are astonishingly compelling comic treasures no fan of the medium or lover of sinister suspense should dismiss. There’s even a selection of Ranger Comics covers and original inked art.

Eerie, gripping and timelessly enthralling, this is a minor masterpiece of monster-mashing comics fiction: one you’d be thrice-damned and really quite accursed to miss.
Mr. Monster Presents… The Secret Files of Dr. Drew™ & © 2014 Michael T. Gilbert. Introduction, Jerry Grandenetti interview and creator biographies © 2014 Michael T. Gilbert. All rights reserved.

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Dungeon Zenith volume 5 Fog and Tears


By Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim & Boulet, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-316-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Somewhere way out there, is a planet called Terra Amata. On this world of rich history and diverse ways of life, there’s a castle in a fantastic land of miracles, quests and adventures. Once upon a time it was also a rather dangerous meeting place dubbed the Dungeon…

As primarily crafted by prolific artisans Joann Sfar (Les Potamoks, Professeur Bell, Les olives noires, The Rabbi’s Cat) and Lewis Trondheim (Little Nothings, Stay, Ralph Azham) in collaboration with associates of a collective of bande dessinée creators (L’Association) – the Donjon saga has generated 59 volumes since debuting in 1998. A cult hit all over the world, it began as spoof and parody of roleplaying fantasy games, but as so often with stories of innate charm and high quality, it grew beyond its intentions…

After a cruelly long hiatus, English translations recently resumed, repackaged in full-colour album-sized paperbacks, forming sub-divisions of a vast, eccentrically raucous, addictively wacky generational franchise which welds starkly adult whimsy to the weird worlds of Sword & Sorcery sagas. These omnibus tomes take a legion of horribly human anthropomorphic stars into territories even wilder than those seen in Dungeon: Early Years, Parade, Zenith and Monstres. Latterly, adjuncts such as Antipodes and Bonus joined the sprawling braided mega-saga set on an alien world very much like ours in all the ways that really matter…

Dungeon reveals Terra Armata in time-separated epochs via periodic glimpses of a fantastic edifice on an unstable world where magic is a natural resource. Anthropomorphic inhabitants of the surreal realm include every kind of talking beast and bug, as well as monsters, demons, smart-a$$es, wizards, politicians and always – in all ways – strong, stroppy women-folk, making sense and taking charge. Whenever you look there’s always something happening and it’s usually quite odd…

Nominal star throughout the eons is a duck with a magic sword enabling – and eventually compelling – him to channel and/or be possessed by deceased heroes and dead monsters. At the time of these tales – long before his ethical downfall and rise to the unassailable rank of Grand Khan of dying, burning Terra Armata – he is simply Herbert of Craftiwich: and as usual he’s in a lot of trouble…

Just so we’re all on the same page: the “Dungeon” referred to is (mostly) an eternal hostelry and meeting place for wandering heroes, villains and extras we readers see over centuries. Adventures are staged as figurative times of day. Prequel series Potron-Minet relates to the dawn of the establishment, Donjon Zénith – the focus of today’s lesson – concentrates on a glorious hey-day, whilst the decline takes up Crépuscule – the twilight years.

Joining master craftsmen Sfar & Trondheim and supplying the art is Gilles Roussel AKA “Boulet”. He was born in the Parisienne sous-préfecture (sub-prefecture) of Meaux on February 1st 1975 and studied at the Graduate School of Decorative arts in Strasbourg, before creating comics like Raghnarok in 2001. Three years later he was one of the first to publish autobiographical webcomics (“Blog BD”) and became a leading light in the burgeoning field: a doyen of Paris’ Festival des blogs BD. Amongst jobs for magazines like Psikopat and Tchô, Boulet’s milestones include La Rubrique Scientifique, science comics series Project Octopus (from 2017), and many key literary collaborations such as Erik le Viking with Terry Jones (2008) and Par bonheur, le lait with Neil Gaiman (2015). In 2006, he took over the art for Donjon Zénith from Trondheim.

As so lavishly translated by NBM, Fog & Tears shares French Donjon Zénith tomes 9 &10: Larmes et brouillard and Formule incantatoire: seeing valiant Herbert in the worst trouble of his life in the eponymous opening instalment. The Dungeon has been captured by magical villain Delacour and all attempts to recapture it have failed. Now Herbert’s allies plan to take it back…

The duck has bigger problems. The dashing lover has just had a son with his beloved: a Kochak warrior princess. Isis is adamant that the infant will undergo all the rituals of her people, and he will accompany her into a frozen hell. He’s keen to accede to her every wish but the devout steppe-dwellers are intensely stubborn and unyielding and the duck is worried about his boy’s chances. Herbert has learned the Opasnyye Rite involves throwing infants into a pit of hungry wolves and seeing what happens…

After travelling deep into the icy region and utterly failing to talk Isis out of it, Herbert steals the baby and makes a run for home with an outraged army of fanatical military marvels on his heels. With Kochak ninjas and – far worse – Isis in close pursuit, the duck rejoins his abandoned allies and smuggles the waif onto the infiltration mission to Delacour’s Dungeon. Elsewhere, Dragonista couple Marvin and Pirzween – and their own newborn – survive a visit from Isis, leaving the outraged mother doubting her faith and the infant’s chances of survival.

In the aftermath, the duck duke and a dedicated band of necromancers slip into the keep, as do an army of outraged Kolchaks. In response, Delacour unleashes a plague of ghosts from profane coffer the Vault of Souls before fleeing. If the chest is not closed, the dead will overrun the world…

As chief necromancer Horus seeks to hold back the dead, Isis and her acolytes reclaim the baby, dragging poor misguided Herbert back north with them so he can witness the ritual that will make his son a Kolchak and the inheritor of the kingdom…

When all the tragedy ends, her father the Ataman realises that now his only chance for a true heir rests with him and recapturing the duck and his apostate daughter can wait…

In second chapter ‘Incantatory Spells’ his abandoned comrades – Marvin and Pirzween – take centre stage as Herbert’s ally Alcibiades recruits them for a convoluted conjurors’ quest to close the mystic chest still spewing ghosts into the world of the living. With only rapidly-weakening Horus holding back the host, Marvin undergoes humiliation multiple agonizing self-inflicted penances and even more humiliation as he chases down a string of components that will allow his magic wielding allies and comrades to stop the undead invasion.

It’s not the succession of weird wizards and constant stupid diversions that get to him though, it’s sneaking about in cowardly disguises – like when the mighty lizard must impersonate an elf – and Pirzween’s constant back-seat warrior-ing that ticks him off. That and her stupid girlish manner around old school flame/utterly unnecessary mystical quest-mate Blaise…

In the end though, even Herbert – and especially Blaise – have to agree that it’s Marvin’s idea and muscle that save the day and end the threat…

To be Continued…

Please be warned: these cartoon tales are a bit more sophisticated than general English or American fare. I know you’re okay with vicariously indulging in extreme and excessive depictions of violence, but if you fear your children, loved ones, livestock or servants might be adversely affected by mild swearing or nipples on birds and lizards, take whatever appropriate action you choose (which I believe is the magic phrase “it’s only a comic, dear”).

The rest of us will just carry on without you…

Surreal, earthy, brilliantly outlandish, sharply poignant, wittily hilarious and powerfully tragic, this is a subtly addictive read delivered via vibrant, wildly eccentric cartooning that is an absolute marvel of exuberant, graphic style. Despite being definitely not for younger readers, Dungeon Zenith is the kind of near-the-knuckle, illicit and smart epic older kids and adults will adore. And for the fullest comprehension – and even more insane fun – I strongly recommend acquiring all attendant incarnations too.
© Editions Delcourt 2022, 2023-2005. (Donjon Zénith tomes 9 &10 by Boulet, Joann Sfar Lewis Trondheim). © 2023 NBM for the English translation.

Dungeon: Zenith Vol. 5 – Fog & Tears will be released on October 17th 2023 and is available for pre-order now. For more information and other great reads please go to http://www.nbmpub.com/.

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Captain Midnight Archives volume 2: Captain Midnight Saves the World


By William Woolfolk, Leonard Frank, Leonard Starr, Dan Barry & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-243-5 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-62115-921-6

Created by broadcast scripters Wilfred G. Moore and Robert M. Burtt, Captain Midnight began as a star of radio serials in the days when troubleshooting All-American aviators were the acme of adventure genre heroes. The Captain Midnight Program soldiered on from 1938 to 1940 until the Wander Company acquired sponsorship rights to promote their top product: Ovaltine.

From there on, national radio syndication led to a newspaper comic strip (by Erwin L. Hess, running June 29th 1942 until the end of the decade); a movie serial (1942) and – later – two TV serials (1953 and 1954-1956) before being overdubbed, retitled and syndicated as “Jet Jackson, Flying Commando” well into the 1960s. There was a mountain of now-legendary merchandise such as the infamous Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Ring…

And there was a comic book franchise – one recently reinvigorated for 21st century audiences.

The hero’s basic origin related how after the Great War ended, pilot and inventor Captain Jim Albright returned home having earned the sobriquet “Captain Midnight” after a particularly harrowing mission that concluded successfully at the witching hour. He then formed a paramilitary “Secret Squadron” of like-minded pilots to continue making the world a better place – often at the covert behest of the President – using guts and gadgets to foil spies, catch crooks and defend the helpless.

Captain Midnight truly hit his stride after Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, becoming an early Home Front media sensation throughout the war years. However, his already fluid backstory and appearance underwent a radical makeover when he switched comic book horses in midstream.

This stunningly engaging collection gathers a slew of often gruesome science fiction-themed tales taken from the latter end of the Fawcett Comics run. Captain Midnight #48, 50, 52-56, 58, 60, 62, 64 and 66 collectively spanned February 1947- August 1948. As times and tastes changed, the venerable title folded with the next issue.

Following a fervent Introduction from Batton Lash discussing the career of the much-travelled, constantly evolving “Monarch of the Airways” and the telling differences between radio, screen and comic book iterations, the contents explosively unfold with a tragic dearth of credit and attributions. Much comic material from this era is criminally unattributed, but writers known to be active on Midnight at this juncture include Bill Woolfolk and Otto Binder, whilst artists look like the unflagging Leonard Frank and young legends-to-be Leonard Starr and Dan Barry.

From issue #48 ‘Captain Midnight Visits the Golden Asteroid’ sees Albright and his mechanic Ichabod Mudd piloting their newly invented rocket-ship to investigate a new stellar body only to find that the astronomer who discovered it has an ulterior and nefarious motive for getting to the stellar wanderer.

Illustrated by Frank from #50, ‘Captain Midnight Spikes the Sun Gun’ pits the modern Edison against devilish Dr. Pyrrho who has found a way to inflict destructive heat on the already sweltering citizens of the American Southwest, after which a return prospecting trip to our nearest neighbour uncovers ‘The Moon Creatures’ (Woolfolk) who aggressively resisted all attempts to human colonise Luna…

With the solar system now a regular destination for exploration, Albright began occasional sorties to the planets and picked up some new recurring foes. The first was a plundering barbarian from Pluto who raids Earth for its Uranium reserves in #52’s ‘Captain Midnight versus the Space Raider!’ (Binder & Frank). The resultant chase and recovery takes our hero to Mars and first contact with an unsuspected race also under threat of merciless assault by the murderous Jagga…

After driving the fiend off and recovering his ill-gotten gains, Midnight next encounters the ruthless Plutonian inflicting ‘Peril on Venus’ in #53. By sending him packing once again, the inventor consequently aids the long-lost last survivors of Atlantis in getting their failing colony onto an even keel in a world overrun by dinosaurs…

In #54, Midnight and Icky find yet another embattled civilisation – on Ceres. A literally golden kingdom is fending off Jagga’s bacterial onslaught and meteor bombardments. With the Air Aces’ assistance, the monster is finally driven off in ‘The Asteroid Battle’.

There’s a double dose of super-scientific spectacle in #55, beginning with Albright’s perhaps unwise invention of a monumental dirigible intended as ‘The Sky Airport’. When common thugs steal the mobile monolith and use it as a base for air raids on banks, the heartbroken genius is forced into desperate action to clear his conscience…

This is followed by another interplanetary incident as ‘Captain Midnight Finds the Lunar Lair’ and finally brings Jagga to justice in the form of a trial in Earth’s courts. Unequivocally guilty, the beast is sentenced to death by electrocution in #56’s ‘The Last Rites of Jagga’ (Frank art) but said execution proves to be a major mistake and Midnight is called upon to deliver the sentence in his own infallible scientific manner…

A new threat emerges in #58 ‘On the Planet of Peril’ when an unknown race reanimates Earth’s greatest villains and monsters. A month later ‘Captain Midnight Battles the Ice Age’ finds our interplanetary explorers on Neptune: changing that world’s climate to give its humanoid inhabitants a big step up the ladder to civilisation, whilst issue #60 sees the return of earthly arch-enemy Dr. Osmosis who terrifies and torments humanity with his explosive ‘Flying Saucers of Death’…

Captain Midnight #62 detailed the inventor’s efforts to save America’s ‘Farmers on the Moon’ from sabotage as Earth agricultural entrepreneur Jim Klaw sought to maintain his produce monopoly at all costs…

A new extraterrestrial enemy debuted in #64 as ‘Beyond the Sun’ (Frank) introduced shapeshifting tyrant Xog: a gaseous monster from Saturn who boarded America’s newest spaceships as step one in his plans for interplanetary domination. When Midnight thwarted the scheme and rescued hostage Terrans, the vile king swore vengeance…

It came in the final tale in this superbly retro rollercoaster of rocket-powered fun – from #66 with art by Frank – as Xog transforms the good Captain into sentient gas before invading Earth. Happily, even ‘Without a Body’, Albright is too much for the malign marauder and once more saves the day and the world…

With a stunning gallery of covers by Frank, Charles Tomsey, Dan Barry and Mac Raboy, plus cool mini-features such as ‘Captain Midnight’s Air Lingo’, ‘US Army Aviation Badge Insignia’ and ‘Famous Planes’, this fabulous feast of fearsome fantasy is guaranteed to satisfy the yearnings of every starry-eyed space cadet, whatever their age.
Captain Midnight Archives volume 2: Captain Midnight Saves the World! ® and © Dark Horse Comics 2014. All rights reserved.

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Solomon Kane volume 1: The Castle of the Devil


By Scott Allie, Mario Guevara, Dave Stewart & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-282-6 (TPB)

Although Marvel have resumed control of Robert E. Howard’s star turns, they haven’t yet re-issued all the prior efforts of the previous licensee yet. That’s a shame as this particular tome has Halloween written all over it. Until they do, why not scour shoppes and online sites for a copy. The exercise will probably do you good and who knows what else you might find?

Following on from their revitalisation – if not actual creation – of the comic book Sword and Sorcery genre in the early 1970s (with their magnificent adaptation of pulp superstar Conan the Barbarian), Marvel Comics quite naturally looked for more of the same. They found ample material in Robert Ervin Howard’s other warrior heroes such as King Kull, Bran Mac Morn and dour Puritan Avenger Solomon Kane.

The fantasy genre had undergone a global prose revival in the paperback marketplace since the release of soft-cover editions of Lord of the Rings (first published in 1954), and the 1960s resurgence of two-fisted action extravaganzas by such pioneer writers as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline and Fritz Lieber. This led to a generation of modern writers like Michael Moorcock and Lin Carter kick-starting their careers with contemporary interpretations of man, monster and mage. Without doubt, though, nobody did it better than the tragic Texan whose other red-handed stalwarts and tough guys such as El Borak, Steve Costigan, Dark Agnes and Red Sonya of Rogatino excelled in a host of associated genres and like milieus.

Solomon Kane debuted in the August 1928 issue of Weird Tales in a gripping tale of vengeance entitled “Red Shadows”. He made seven more appearances before vanishing in 1932 as his creator concentrated on far more successful Conan. Three further tales, some epic poems and a few unfinished ideas and passages remained unpublished until 1968, when renewed interest in the author’s work prompted publishers to disinter and complete the yarns.

Apart from two noteworthy 4-colour exceptions, during the 1970s and 1980s, Marvel was content to leave Solomon Kane to monochrome adaptations of canonical Howard stories (in Dracula Lives, Savage Sword of Conan, Monsters Unleashed and other older-reader magazines), but with his transfer to the Dark Horse stable the Holy Terror flourished in broader, lavishly-hued interpretations of the unfinished snippets left when the prolific Howard took his life in 1936.

Beginning in 2008 and released as a succession of miniseries, these nearly-new adventures offer modern fans a far darker, more moody glimpse at the driven, doom-laden wanderer.

Kane is a disenfranchised English soldier of fortune in the 17th century on a self-appointed mission to roam the Earth doing God’s Work: punishing the wicked and destroying devils and monsters. With no seeming plan, the devout Puritan lets fate guide his footsteps ever towards trouble…

Expanded upon and scripted by Scott Allie from tantalisingly unfinished fragment The Castle of the Devil, this initial volume collects a 5-issue story-arc from September 2008-February 2009 and also includes a short piece which originally featured online in the digital MySpace Dark Horse Presents site in June 2008.

The drama opens as the surly pilgrim bloodily encounters bandits and an horrific wolf-beast in Germany’s Black Forest, losing his horse in the attack. Proceeding on foot he finds a boy hanging from a gibbet and cuts the near-dead body down. Soon after, he meets mercenary John Silent, another Englishman in search of fortune…

From his new companion, Kane learns local lord, Baron von Staler, has an evil reputation and will not be happy to have his affairs meddled with. The puritan doesn’t care: he wants harsh words with the kind of man who would execute children…

Despite genuine misgivings, the insufferably jolly Silent insists on accompanying his clearly suicidal countryman. Soon the pair are admitted to a bleak and terrifying Schloss built on the remains of an old abbey…

Von Staler is not the mad tyrant they had been warned of. The gracious, pious old warrior with devoted servants and a beautiful young Moorish wife welcomes them in, offering the hospitality of his hearth and charming them with his easy manner. The lord is appalled by the tale of the hanged boy, denying any knowledge of the atrocity and swears to bring the culprits to justice.

Over supper he and his bride Mahasti explain that their ill-repute is unjustly earned. The simple peasants have unfairly conflated him with the manse’s previous accursed inhabitants: a chapter of monks who murdered their own Prior two centuries past.

Vater Stuttman had been a holy man until he sold himself to Satan. His desperate brethren had been forced to entomb and starve him to contain his evil. With the church determinedly ignoring their plight, the chapter faded from the sight of Man and eventually Staler’s family had purchased the lands, building their ancestral seat upon the ruins.

The peasants however, still called it “the Church of the Devil”…

Gratified to find a man as devoted to God as himself, Kane relaxes for the first time in months, thankful to spend a night in a warm bed with people as devout as he. The truth begins to out at ‘The Dead of Night’ as Silent goes prowling within the castle and kills one of the Baron’s retainers, even as Kane’s rest is disturbed by shameless Mahasti offering herself to him…

Spurning her advances, the furious puritan leaves the citadel to wander the forest, and again encounters the colossal wolf thing. Back in his bed Silent, nursing a deep wound, dreams of beleaguered old monks and their apostate Prior…

In ‘Offerings’ the truth slowly begins to dawn on the melancholy wanderer after discourse with the strangely ill-tempered Silent. Something is badly amiss in the household, but when Kane and the Baron ride out that morning, all suspicions are stayed by the discovery of another gibbet and another boy. This one, however, is nothing but ragged scraps for the crows that festoon his corpse, and Kane’s rage is dwarfed by the ghastly uncomprehending shock and disbelief of the Baron…

The servants are not so flustered and something about their muted conversations with the master sits poorly with the morose Englishman. In the castle, Mahasti finds Silent a far more amenable prospect, happy to listen to the secrets she wants to share…

‘Sound Reasons and Evil Dictates’ offer more insights into the incredible truth about von Staler, as Kane takes his countryman into his full confidence before Silent and Mahasti ride out into the wild woods, meeting a ghost who reveals the terrifying truth about Vater Stuttman and the appalling thing the monks uncovered two hundred years past…

The demonic cadaver whispered unknowable secrets to one of that long-gone congregation and has continued for all the days and years since. Now the man who was Father Albrecht is ready to welcome it and its appalling kin back to full, ravening life in these benighted grounds…

Von Staler and Kane are arguing and, as accusations become blows, the secret of ‘The Wolf’ is at last revealed, even as faithful retainers capture Mahasti and Silent, leaving them on the gibbets as fodder for a quartet of horrors returning for their fleshly tribute in ‘His Angels of the Four Winds’. Savagely battling his way free of the castle, Kane is only in time to save one of the monsters’ victims, but more than ready to avenge centuries of slaughter and blasphemy in ‘The Chapel of the Devil’: grimly cleansing the tainted lands in the ‘Epilogue: Wanderers on the Face of the Earth’…

The art is beguiling, emphatically evocative with Mario Guevara’s pencils astonishingly augmented by a painted palette courtesy of colourist Dave Stewart, and the book is packed with artistic extras and behind-the-scenes bonuses. These include a gallery of covers and variants and ‘The Art of Solomon Kane’ with sketches and designs by the penciller, architectural shaper Guy Davis and illustrators John Cassaday, Stewart, Laura Martin & Joe Kubert. The tome terminates with that aforementioned digital vignette wherein Kane applies his own savage wisdom of Solomon to a troubled village of ghost-bedevilled souls in ‘The Nightcomers’…

Powerful, engaging and satisfactorily spooky, this fantasy fear-fest will delight both fans of the original canon and lovers of darkly dreaming, ghost-busting thrillers.
© 2009 Solomon Kane Inc. (SKI). Solomon Kane and all related characters, names and logos are ™ © and ® SKI.

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The Demon by Jack Kirby


By Jack Kirby & Mike Royer & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7718-5 (HB/Digital edition)

Jack “King” Kirby shaped the very nature of comics narrative. A compulsive storyteller, Jack was an astute, spiritual man who had lived through poverty, gangsterism, the Depression and World War II. He had seen Post-War optimism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures. He was open-minded and utterly wedded to the making of comics stories on every imaginable subject.

He began at the top of his game, galvanising the comicbook scene from its earliest days with long-term creative partner Joe Simon: creating Blue Bolt, drawing Captain Marvel and adding lustre to Timely comics with creations such as Red Raven, Hurricane, Captain America and The Young Allies.

In 1942 Simon & Kirby moved to National/DC and hit even more stellar highs with The Boy Commandos, Newsboy Legion, Manhunter and The Sandman before the call of duty saw them inducted into the American military.

On returning from World War II, they reunited and formed a creative studio working primarily for the Crestwood/Prize publishing outfit where they invented the entire genre of Romance comics. Amongst that dynamic duo’s other concoctions for Prize was a noir-ish, psychologically underpinned supernatural anthology Black Magic and its short-lived but fascinating companion title Strange World of Your Dreams.

All their titles eschewed traditional gory, heavy-handed morality plays and simplistic cautionary tales for deeper, stranger fare, and until the EC comics line hit their peak were far and away the best and most mature titles on the market.

Kirby understood the fundamentals of pleasing his audience and always strived diligently to combat the appalling state of prejudice about the comics medium – especially from industry insiders and professionals who despised the “kiddies world” they felt trapped in.

When the 1950s anti-comics comics witch hunt devastated the industry, Simon & Kirby parted ways. Jack went back to DC briefly and created newspaper strip Sky Masters of the Space Force before partnering with Stan Lee at the remains of Timely Comics to create the monolith of stars we know as Marvel.

After more than a decade there he felt increasingly stifled and side-lined and in 1970 accepted an offer of complete creative freedom at DC. The jump resulted in a root and branch redefinition of superheroes in his quartet of interlinked Fourth World series.

After those controversial, grandiose groundbreaking titles were cancelled Kirby looked for other concepts to stimulate his vast creativity and still appeal to an increasingly fickle market. General interest in the Supernatural was rising, with books and movies exploring the unknown in gripping and stylish new ways, and the Comics Code Authority had already released its censorious choke-hold on mystery and horror titles, thereby saving the entire industry from implosion when the superhero boom of the 1960s fizzled away.

At DC’s suggestion, Kirby had already briefly returned to his supernatural experimentation in a superb but poorly received and largely undistributed monochrome magazine. Spirit World launched in the summer of 1971, but as before, editorial cowardice and back-sliding scuppered the project before it could get going. You can see what might have been in a collected edition re-presenting the sole published issue and material from a second, unreleased sequel in Jack Kirby’s Spirit World…

With most of his ideas misunderstood, ignored or side-lined by the company Kirby opted for more traditional fare. Never truly defeated though, he cannily blended his belief in the marketability of the mystic unknown with flamboyant super-heroics to create another unique and lasting mainstay for the DC universe: one that lesser talents would make a pivotal figure of the company’s continuity.

This compilation gathers the entire eerie 16-issue run from August/September 1972 through January 1974 and opens with a fulsome Introduction detailing how The Demon came to be from Kirby’s then-assistant Mark Evanier before the astounding adventures begin…

Inked by Mike Royer, The Demon #1 introduces a howling, leaping monstrosity (famously modelled after a 1939 sequence from Hal Foster’s Arthurian epic Prince Valiant) battling beside its master Merlin as Camelot dies in flames: a cataclysmic casualty of the rapacious greed of sorceress Morgaine Le Fey.

Out of that apocalyptic destruction, a man arises and wanders off into the mists of history…

In our contemporary world (or at least the last quarter of the 20th century) demonologist and paranormal investigator Jason Blood has a near-death experience with an aged collector of illicit arcana. This culminates in a hideous nightmare about a demonic being and the last stand of Camelot. He has no idea that Le Fey is still alive and has sinister plans for him…

And in distant Moldavia, strange things are stirring in crumbling Castle Branek, wherein lies hidden the lost Tomb of Merlin…

Blood is wealthy, reclusive and partially amnesiac, but one night he agrees to host a small dinner party, entertaining acquaintances Harry Mathews, psychic UN diplomat Randu Singh, his wife Gomali and their flighty young friend Glenda Mark. The soiree does not go well.

Firstly, there is the painful small talk, and the sorcerous surveillance of Le Fey, but the real problems start when an animated stone giant arrives to “invite” Blood to visit Castle Branek. This shattering voyage leads to Merlin’s last resting place but just as Blood thinks he may find some answers to his enigmatic past, Le Fey pounces. Suddenly he starts to change, transforming into the horrific beast of his dreams…

Issue #2 – ‘My Tomb in Castle Branek!’ – opens with wary villagers observing a terrific battle between a yellow monster and Le Fey’s forces, but when the Demon is defeated and Blood arrested, only the telepathic influence of Randu in America can help him. Le Fey is old, dying, and needs Merlin’s grimoire, the Eternity Book, to extend her life.

Thus, she manipulates Blood – who has existed for centuries unaware that Merlin’s hellish Attack Dog the Demon Etrigan is chained inside him – to regain his memories and awaken the slumbering master mage. It looks like the last mistake she will ever make…

Kirby’s tried and trusted approach was always to pepper high concepts throughout blazing, breakneck action, and #3 was one the most imaginative yet. ‘The Reincarnators’ finds Blood back in the USA, aware at last of his tormented history, and with a small but devoted circle of friends. Adapting to a less lonely life, he soon encounters a cult able to physically regress people to a prior life – and use those time-lost beings to commit murder…

The Demon #4-5 comprise one single exploit, wherein a simple witch and her macabre patron capture the reawakened, semi-divine Merlin. ‘The Creature from Beyond’ and ‘Merlin’s Word’s … Demon’s Wrath!’ introduced cute little monkey Kamara the Fear-Monster (later used with devastating effect by Alan Moore in Saga of the Swamp Thing #26-27) and features another startling “Kirby-Kritter” – Somnambula, the Dream-Beast…

It seems odd in these blasé modern times but The Demon was a controversial book in its day – cited as providing the first post-Comics Code depiction of Hell and one where problems were regularly solved with sudden, extreme violence.

‘The Howler!’ in issue #6 is a truly spooky yarn with Blood hunting a primal entity of rage and brutal terror that transforms its victims into murderous lycanthropic killers, whilst #7 debuts a spiteful, malevolent young fugitive from a mystical otherplace.

‘Witchboy’ Klarion and his cat-familiar Teekl were utterly evil little sociopaths in a time where all comicbook politicians were honest, cops only shot to wound and “bad” kids were only misunderstood: another Kirby first…

An extended epic, ‘Phantom of the Sewers’ skilfully combines movie and late-night TV horror motifs in the dark and tragic tale of actor Farley Fairfax, cursed by the witch he once spurned. Unfortunately, Glenda Mark is the spitting image of the departed Galatea, and when, decades later, the demented thespian kidnaps her (in ‘Whatever Happened to Farley Fairfax?!!’) to raise the curse, it could only end in a flurry of destruction, death, consumed souls and ‘The Thing That Screams’…

This 3-part thriller is followed by another multi-part masterpiece (The Demon #11-13). ‘Baron von Evilstein’ is a powerful parable about worth and appearance featuring the ultimate mad scientist and the tragic, misunderstood monster he so casually builds. It’s a truth that bears repeating: ugly doesn’t equal bad…

Despite all Kirby’s best efforts The Demon was not a monster hit – unlike his science-fiction disaster drama Kamandi – and by #14 it’s clear that the book was in its last days. Not because the sheer pace of imagination, excitement and passion diminished – far from it – but because the well-considered, mood-drenched stories were suddenly replaced by rocket-fast eldritch romps populated with returning villains.

First back was Klarion the Witchboy who creates a ‘Deadly Doppelganger’ to replace Jason Blood and kill his friends in #14-15, before the series – and this wonderful treasury of wicked delights – ended in a climactic showdown with the ‘Immortal Enemy’ Morgaine Le Fey…

Kirby carried on with Kamandi, returned to The Sandman, explored WWII in The Losers and created the magnificent Omac: One Man Army Corps, but still could not achieve the all-important sales the company demanded. Eventually he returned to Marvel and new challenges such as Black Panther, Captain America, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Devil Dinosaur, Machine Man and especially The Eternals.

As always in these wondrously economical collections it should be noted that the book comes stuffed with un-inked pencilled pages and roughs in bonus feature ‘The Art of Jack Kirby’, and Evanier’s fascinating, informative Introduction is, as ever, a fact-fan’s delight.

Jack Kirby was and is unique and uncompromising: his words and pictures are an unparalleled, hearts-and-minds grabbing delight no comics lover could resist. If you’re not a fan or simply not prepared to see for yourself what all the fuss has been about then no words of mine will change your mind.

That doesn’t alter the fact that Kirby’s work from 1937 to his death in 1994 shaped the entire American comics scene and indeed the entire comics planet – affecting the lives of billions of readers and thousands of creators in all areas of artistic endeavour for generations and still winning new fans and apostles every day, from the young and naive to the most cerebral of intellectuals. His work is instantly accessible, irresistibly visceral, deceptively deep and simultaneously mythic and human.

He is the King and time has shown that the star of this book is one of his most potent legacies.
© 1972, 1973, 1974, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Scared to Death volumes 1 & 2: The Vampire From the Marshes & Malevolence and Mandrake


By Mauricet & Vanholme, with Lee Oaks: colours by Laurent Carpentier and translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978- 1-905460-47-2 (Album PB Vampire) 978- 1-905460-77-9 (Album PB Mandrake)

There’s a grand old tradition of scaring, empowering and entertaining kids through carefully crafted horror stories with junior protagonists, and this occasional series is one of the better modern examples.

Conceived and executed by Belgian journalist Virgine Vanholme and youthful-yet-seasoned illustrator Alain Mauricet, the Mort de Trouille series of graphic albums was launched by Casterman in 2000 resulting in five further sinister sorties until everything paused in 2004.

Whilst I’ve not been able to find out much about the author, the artist is well travelled, having worked for CrossGen, Image and DC as well as on a wide variety of features in Europe. He’s also been in David Lloyd’s magnificently wonderful digital delight Aces Weekly.

Born in 1967, Mauricet inherited the comic bug from his parents and, after studying at the Academy of Fine Arts under legendary creator Eddy Paape, began his own career aged 20: another recruit for major magazine Le Journal de Spirou. From spot cartoons he graduated to strips, creating superhero parody Cosmic Patrouille with Jean-Louis Janssens and Les Rastafioles with Sergio Salma. Following the aforementioned stateside sojourn he resumed his Franco-Belgian efforts with the strip under review here, as well as basketball comedy Basket Dunk (with Christophe Cazanove) and Boulard (with Erroc) and others.

A resident of Brussels, he also designs for computer games whilst working on a more personal graphic enterprise entitled Une Bien Belle Nuance de Rouge and in latter days worked for DC on Superman and Batman. In 2021 he released Porchery – On n’attrape pas les cochons avec des saucisses.

Back in early 2000, though, he was detailing the first of a sequence of spooky yarns starring studious Robin Lavigne and boisterous, overly-imaginative Max Mornet: a couple of lads with an infallible instinct for ferreting out the weird and uncanny. Cinebook translated Mort de Trouille: Le vampire des Marais in 2008: inviting British, Antipodean and American kids to solve the mystery of The Vampire from the Marshes, which began when the boys first snuck a peek at forensic scientist Dr. Lavigne‘s locked files…

The well-travelled medic has been called in to examine a body found in rural Deadwater Swamp: a corpse stinking of booze, drained of blood and completely covered in hundreds of tiny triangular bite marks. His son Robin and especially horror-story obsessed Max are fascinated by the case. The latter envisions all manner of ghastly and vivid vampiric scenarios, despite his more prosaic pal’s protestations. All too soon the lads are invading the (still “potential”) crime scene, recording their own findings and suppositions. They are pretty freaked out when they find a strangely slaughtered bird and completely terrified when they disturb a poacher who chases them away with murderous curses. Unbeknownst to all involved, their prying has also alerted and disturbed a clan of far more dangerous and unnatural creatures…

Soon the boys are being shadowed by an uncanny, cloaked figure. He/she/it even breaks into the Lavigne home: striving to preserve anonymity and ancient secrets from the eyes of prying, violent mankind. However, when it is noisily disturbed as it closes in on the boys, they can only thank their lucky stars that the household cat is such a noisy and vicious beast when stepped upon…

Events peak to a cursed crescendo next day after Max falls into his own hastily dug vampire trap and is taken by the noisome Nosferatu. Whilst Robin anxiously and urgently searches for his missing friend, Max is learning the tragic secret history of the bloodsuckers.

His oddly ambivalent abductor is Janus who seems rather reluctant to bleed him as a proper vampire should. The creature has, however, no problem leaving him – and freshly captured Robin when he stumbles upon them – to drown in a deep well…

Next morning, Dr. Lavigne and the cops are frantically but methodically searching the swamp for the missing boys, but only find them thanks to some unknown person leaving Max’s camera on the rim of a well…

As the frightened lads are pulled to safety, Robin’s dad questions them and goes ballistic on learning they’ve been looking through his confidential files. He also utterly trashes their ridiculous theory of vampire killers, patiently explaining the true and rational – if exceedingly grim and grisly – cause of death of the drunk in the swamp.

Chastened but undaunted and sharing an incredible secret no adults will ever believe, the boys are taken home whilst deep in the wooded mire an ancient family of incredible beings pulls up stakes and moves restlessly on to who knows where…

 

With additional art assistance from Lee Oaks, the schoolboy spook-chasers resurfaced in Scared to Death volume 2: Malevolence and Mandrake. Scholarly Robin and rowdy, horror-fan Max are still chasing every implausible rumour and probing unknowns but becoming increasing dependent – though they’d never admit it – on the wit and bravery of Robin’s brilliant little sister Sophie Lavigne…

Cinebook’s second translated selection was actually the third Franco-Belgian chiller chronicle Mort de Trouille: Maléfice et mandragora: suitably set around All Hallows Eve and posing uniquely terrifying problems for the young trouble-magnets…

It begins a little before the much-anticipated night, with Elizabeth Simon Secondary School abuzz with worries over missing student Thomas and the seemingly simultaneous arrival of oddly-attractive, exotic transfer student Emma Corpescu. She comes from Romania and Max is strangely antipathic to her at first. That soon changes, though…

Robin also feels a bit off as the newcomer blatantly insinuates herself into their lives, paying particular attention to Max. Soon, so-savvy Sophie is paying closer attention. Far more so than the idiot boys do…

She’s wise to do so: Emma is soon revealed as an ancient shapeshifting sorceress named Malevolence, who steals the youth of boys to restore her own life force… and to – one day – resurrect her properly dead sister Mandrake…

After doing desperate research online, Sophie arms herself with anti-witch tricks and gadgets and – after discovering the incredible fate of Thomas – eventually convinces her incredulous brother to stalk the wicked enchanter to her lair in Deadwater Swamp and rescue the now officially-missing Max. The poor oaf has fully succumbed to Emma’s wiles and now resides in her lair, transformed into the same uncanny form as Thomas was…

Arriving just in time, the rescuers are set for an incredible clash of wills and powers – especially Sophie, who’s borrowed a few supernatural forces for the ordeal…

Of course, good triumphs in the end, but can such seductive evil truly die?

Deliciously delivered in the manner of Goosebumps and Scooby-Doo – if not Stranger Things – these superb slices of spooky fun work classic kids’ horror tropes and style to enthral and enchant everyone who has suffered from “father knows best” syndrome and loves tall tales with devilish twists. Seamlessly mixing fear with hilarity to enthral and enchant all generations equally, these tales should be resuurected and completed for all of us in need of scary relaxation.
Original edition © Casterman, 2000 and 2003 by Mauricet & Vanholme. English translation © 2008 by Cinebook Ltd.

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A Spirou and Fantasio Adventure volume 20: The Dark Side of the Z


By Fabien Vehlmann & Yoann, designed by Fred Blanchard, colored by Hubert & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-103-3 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Boyish hero Spirou (which translates as both “squirrel” and “mischievous” in the Walloon language) was created by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter AKA Rob-Vel. This was before the Second World War for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis in response to the phenomenal success of Hergé’s Tintin at rival outfit Casterman.

Soon-to-be legendary weekly comic Le Journal de Spirou launched on April 21st 1938 with a rival red-headed lad as lead feature in an anthology which bears his name to this day. The eponymous hero was a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed in the Moustique Hotel – a sly reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique. His improbable adventures with pet squirrel Spip gradually evolved into far-reaching, surreal comedy dramas.

Spirou and his chums have helmed the magazine for most of its life, with a cohort of truly impressive creators carrying on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939. She was assisted by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943, when Dupuis purchased all rights to the property, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (Jijé) took the helm. In 1946, his assistant André Franquin assumed the creative reins: gradually ditching the well-seasoned short gag vignettes format in favour of epic adventure serials. He also expanded the cast, introducing a broad band of engaging regulars and eventually creating phenomenally popular magic animal Marsupilami.

Franquin was followed by Jean-Claude Fournier who updated the feature over nine stirring adventures tapping into the rebellious, relevant zeitgeist of the times: offering tales of environmental concern, nuclear energy, drug cartels and repressive regimes.

By the 1980s, however, the series seemed outdated and lacking direction, so three separate creative teams alternated on it. Eventually overhauled and revitalised by Philippe Vandevelde (writing as Tome) and artist Jean-Richard Geurts – AKA Janry – adapting, referencing and in many ways returned to the beloved Franquin era, the strip found its second wind.

Their sterling efforts revived the floundering feature’s fortunes, generating 14 wonderful albums between 1984 and 1998. As the strip diversified into parallel strands (Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and Guest-Creator Specials A Spirou Story By…), the team on the core feature were succeeded by Jean-David Morvan & José-Luis Munuera. Then Yoann & Vehlmann took over the never-ending procession of amazing adventures…

Multi-award-winning French comics author Fabien Vehlman was born in 1972, began his comics career in 1996 and has been favourably likened to René Goscinny. He’s probably still best known for Green Manor (illustrated by Denis Bodart), Seven Psychopaths with Sean Phillips, Seuls (drawn by Bruno Gazzotti and available in English as Alone), Wondertown with Benoit Feroumont and Isle of 1000,000 Graves with Jason.

Yoann Chivard was born in October 1971 and was drawing non-stop by age five. With qualifications in Plastic Arts and a degree in Communication from the Academy of Fine Arts in Angers, he became a poster advertising artist whilst just dabbling in comics. His creations include Phil Kaos and Dark Boris for British Indie publications Deadline and Inkling, Toto l’Ornithorynque, Nini Rezergoude, La Voleuse de Pere-Fauteuil, Ether Glister and Bob Marone and he has contributed to Trondheim & Sfar’s Donjon.

In 2006, Yoann was the first artist to produce a Spirou et Fantasio one shot Special. It was scripted by Vehlmann…

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since 2009, alternating between the various superb reinterpretations of Franquin and earlier efforts from the great man himself.

When Jijé handed Franquin the strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriqué (LJdS #427, June 20th 1946), the new guy ran with it. Over two decades he enlarged the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters like loyal comrade and rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas de Champignac – The Count of Champignac…

Spirou and Fantasio became globe-trotting journalists, travelling to dangerously exotic places, uncovering crimes, exploring the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies such as Fantasio’s deranged and wicked cousin Zantafio and that maddest of scientists, Zorglub.

This old school chum and implacable rival of Champignac is an outrageous Bond-movie-tinged villain constantly targeting the Count. A brilliant engineer, his incredible machines are far less dangerous than his mind-controlling “Zorglwave” and his apparently unshakable hunger to conquer Earth and dominate the solar system from a base on the Moon…

This tale – originally in 2011 La face cachée du Z – opens with our happily argumentative chums repairing the collaterally damaged Champignac chateau yet again. Exhausted, they go to indoors to sleep… and wake up in a horrific and tawdry casino resort. Compounding the shocks are weird, painfully unpredictable tricks of gravity, as it’s apparently built only for the super-rich and on the moon!

Worst of all, explaining the transition is smugly sanctimonious old enemy Zorglub…

Still agonisingly hungry for his rival’s approval, the evil genius blathers on about his triumphs and his Great Masterwork since last seen (in volume 18’s Attack of the Zordolts): escaping from dirty, dying Earth to the stars with hot Swedish science students Astrid and Lena. Now they’ve gone off together, leaving the science troll to carve out his interplanetary empire alone.

At least, he would be, if certain funding shortfalls hadn’t forced him into bed with One-percenters who think his citadel could be the most exclusive resort off Earth…

Zorglub still needs to be the virtuous Architect of Humanity’s Future, but the people he has are nothing like the ones he wants: bold Fantasio, ingenious Spirou and brilliant ethically pristine Pacôme de Champignac…

That’s why – for the most logical and moral reasons – he drugged and abducted them…

Without question, the lunar outpost is a technological wonder, with advances and advantages even the kidnapped admire, but the beloved holy Science is being increasingly sidelined, for bigger and better gambling rooms, ski slopes, surfing beaches, sports complexes, nature sideshows and glitzy restaurants.

It does not go down well when Spirou points out that Zorglub could have cleaned up and saved Earth for less money and effort…

Further debate is forestalled when a solar flare is announced and Spirou refuses to join everyone else in radiation-shielded shelters until he recovers his wandering wild pal Spip. Locked out, our hero spectacularly finds a way to survive the cosmic storm, but it’s not for a while that we realise it’s come at a severe mutagenic cost…

The pauper lad’s suicide run across the resort’s attractions was televised and has made him a minor celebrity amongst the movie stars like Blythe Prejlowieky (who soon seduces the kid for her own shocking purposes!), overly-competitive sporting gods like Mike Adibox, faceless money-moguls and flagrantly ostentatious oligarchs such as Igor. Not so much impressed as cautious is the investors’ appointed fixer and ultimate mercenary Poppy Bronco. He’s recognized something in the survivor that bodes badly for all…

The sun starts setting on the project after Champignac chides Zorglub for the worthlessness of his achievements and surrendering of his principled dreams. It coincides with a series of potentially lethal sabotage attempts and – defined by true devotion to their precious skins – the one-percenters commandeer the transport back to Earth, with only few such as Blyth and Igor choosing to stay behind with the peons and paid staff…

Finally rid of his annoying paymasters, Zorglub then executes his long-term plans but is completely unprepared for what happens to Spirou when the lunar night begins. Bronco isn’t though and organises a monster-hunt through the abandoned resort and across the moon…

The outcome is tense, gripping unexpected and so very To Be Continued.

Rocket-paced, action-packed, compellingly convoluted and with just the right blend of perfectly blending helter-skelter excitement and sheer daftness, The Dark Side of the Z is a terrific witty romp to delight devotees of easy-going adventure, drawn with beguiling style and seductive energy. This is pure cartoon gold, truly deserving of reaching the widest audience possible.
Original edition © Dupuis, 2011 by Vehlmann & Yoann. All rights reserved. English translation 2023 © Cinebook Ltd.