Category: Animal Antics

Posted on

The Complete Peanuts volume 11: 1971-1972


By Charles M. Schulz & various (Fantagraphics Books/Canongate Books UK)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-1456-9 (US HB/Digital edition), 978-0857864079 (UK HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peanuts is unequivocally the most important comic strip in the history of graphic narrative. It is also the most deeply personal. Cartoonist Charles M Schulz crafted his moodily hilarious, hysterically introspective, shockingly surreal philosophical epic for half a century: 17,897 strips spanning October 2nd 1950 to February 13th 2000. He died – from complications of cancer and in suitably mythopoeaic manner – the day before his last strip was printed.

At its height, Peanuts ran in 2,600 newspapers, in 21 languages and 75 countries. Many of those venues still run it in perpetual reprints, as they have ever since his death. During his lifetime, book collections, a merchandising mountain and television spin-offs had made the publicity-shy doodler an actual billionaire at a time when that really meant something…

None of that matters. Peanuts – a title Schulz loathed, but one the Syndicate forced upon him – changed the way comics strips were received and perceived: proving cartoon comedy could have edges and nuance and meaning as well as soon-forgotten pratfalls and punchlines.

For this 11th compendium we begin with a photo-portait of the man at work followed by an effusive Foreword from film & theatre star Kristin Chenoweth, recalling her time (1998-1999) as part of the gang. This is thanks to her stage triumph as Sally in musical phenomenon You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and here she shares memories and thoughts on Schultz; and thoughts on what makes the little sister tick on stage and on page…

As always, however, our pictorial focus and primary point of contact remains quintessential loser Charlie Brown who, alongside and yet simultaneously far behind fanciful, increasingly multi-personalitied, high-maintenance mutt Snoopy, remains squarely at odds with a mercurial supporting cast. They all timelessly hang out, doing what at first sight looks like Kids Stuff in an ever-more complex and adverse universe of perverse happenstance. But remember now, with this collecton it’s the socially aware, all-change era of “the Seventies”, when lots of untouchable notions were being deconstructed and reconsidered everywhere… even on the funny pages.

Individual strip slices focus on play and copious leisure time; varying degrees of musicality; childish pranks; interpersonal alignments; mounting pressures of evermore oppressive education and mass media lensed through wide (but often squinty) young eyes that witness it all with unguarded openess. These moments come pre-leavened by agonised teasing, aroused and/or crushed hope, naïve, baffled generalisations and observations with our little tots occasionally acting a bit too much like grown-ups.

With this tome’s tales, themes and tropes defining the series (especially in the wake of so many animated TV specials) became mantra-like and endlessly variable for the growing radership. Focus now is less on Charlie Brown and more on those around him but this time everybody’s hunger for acceptance has been subsumed into a deliciously overarching environmental constant that grows more abundant in its fallout… everyone is growing aware  of relationships and LOVE…

Of course, most human interactions still find our boy a pitiable outlier who only really understands sports – or so he thinks. People come and go but although Mean Girl Violet and Pig-Pen might be fading into the background, a core grpup consisting of musical prodigy Schroeder, self-taught psychoanalyst/dictator-in-waiting Lucy van Pelt, her brilliant but off-kilter little brother Linus and Charlie’s sister Sally are all abundantly on view, but regularly ensnared in the sundry traps of romance and attraction, and seem to be leaving our boy behind…

Snoopy, by strutting his many and varied imaginry selves – such as a predatory vulture waiting to pick off frozen kids in the snow – plays many key roles. These include the savvy sports-beagle; the pronosticating owner of an eerily insightful “Beagle Board”; a reputed war hero/author and so many more, but he too has a dubious, inexplicable relationship. His time with his secretary – a tiny, ditzy bird called Woodstock – is open to frequent comment, much of it from the beagle himself…

Our titular star still pines for the unattainable  “Little Red-haired Girl” who so tragically moved away before he could summon the nerve to speak to her…

The kids and critters are primarily fixtures honed to generate joke-routines and gag-sequences around signature foibles, but some (like African American Franklin and even author-Snoopy) enjoy more serious roles too and have become signposts for specific cntemporary themes. In this book one extended instance is when Snoopy’s favourite writer (Helen Sweetstory of The Six Bunny-Wunnies fame) is removed from the school library, as the strip homed in on the then-growing real-world crime of parentally-steered book-banning…

Another star on the rise is Patricia Reichardt AKA tomboy Peppermint Patty (who had debuted four years earlier on August 22nd 1966). She had been a strong, opinionated female achetype and a counsellor to younger girls, when not inadvertantly outshining Charlie Brown in sporting endeavours, but here gains far greater feminist prominence. Her key moments include making a stand for personal female individuality after School introduces more feminine dress codes (but only for half the students); struggling with learning issues and slowly, painfully finding herself falling for utterly oblivious, deeply lonely “Chuck” Brown.

That overstrained relationship is agony to watch unfold (…crash, burn and then begin all over again) with Patty growing increasingly upset and unnerved by new kid Marcie (she of the bottle-specs and 1000-yard stare) who tags along, calling her “Sir”…

Sally Brown has grown from frail infant to needy complainer, and just enough to become another trigger for Charlie’s relentless self-excoriation. As she ages (a rare event in a strip about eternal tots) and forms her own anxieties, she declaims loud opinions and propounds steadfastly misinformed views, with him relegated to being her dumber, protective but outgunned and baffled big brother. Sally now gets all the best lines yet still struggles with school in many strips depicting her attitudes to study and homework, which reveal the contest is pretty even and not at all one-sided…

Resigned to – but far from uncomplaining about – life as a loser in the gunsights of cruel and capricious fate, the boy Brown is still helpless in the clutches of openly sadistic Lucy. When not sabotaging his efforts to fly a kite or kick a football or while endlessly sabotaging his beloved baseball games, she monetises his discomfort with spiteful verve via a 5¢ walk-in psychoanalysis booth, ensuring that whether at play, in competition, in despair, allowing hope to flower or just brooding, the round-headed kid truly endures the character-building trials of the damned.

In this era, the beagle is the true star of our show, with his primary quest for fame or at least more and better food playing out against a magnificently baroque inner life. There are wild encounters with birds, skateboarding, dance-offs, ice skating and snow-sport trysts, philosophical ruminations, martial assignations and ever-more-popular catchphrases to learn. As burgeoning whimsy and dreams of writing bestsellers blossom, we catch constant glimpses of the dog’s WWI other life, but also acknowledge the the world’s growing teen scene with his reinvention in new personas like college frat boy Joe Cool and cosmopolitan rake Joe French.

Perhaps his most momentous new alter ego is The Attorney who so often steps in to lend legal sagacity to the kids in times of growing litigiousness and political protest…

Naturally all of these shadow-dogs harbour fondness for little Woodstock and abiding animus for natural enemy Lucy, whose life is also plagued by mounting hurdles. Paramount are her weirdo brother Linus (who has become obsessed with undiscovered cryptids like Gully Cats and Queen snakes)  and his comfort blanket; that dog; failure to boss everyone around enough, that dog and piano-boy Schroeder’s utter inability to realise that he loves her…

Timeless episodes of play, peril, peewee psychoanalysis, philosophical ponderings, anxiously anticipatory cinema-visits and personal recrimination are cunning beards for some heavy topics. Always realised in stark monochrome are more new characters, more plot developments (like the threatened return of Snoopy’s childhood nemesis Lila!) and the founding of even more traditions we all revere to this day.

As suggested, the beagle is the only force capable of challenging – if not fully countering -Lucy. Over these two years, her campaign to curb the weird dog; cure her brother of comfort blanket dependency; seduce Schroeder and generally reorder reality to her preferences reach astounding heights and appalling depths, but Snoopy keeps trying and scores many minor victories. In the main, though, Lucy continues to consistently suck all the joy out of the white wonder stuff, green summers, fallen leaves, refreshing rain, hobbies, sports, music and anthing else other people like. Except skipping. Playing with a jump rope is still acceptable…

Hilariously, her reality takes a solid knock when Mr & Mrs Van Pelt announce the imminent arrival of a new baby sister, an intruder shellshocked Lucy instantly names “Rerun”…

From the start Schulz established way points in his year: formally celebrating certain calendar occasions – real or invented – as perennial shared events: St. Valentine’s Day, Mothers & Fathers’ Days, Fourth of July strips and the like are accompanied in their turn by yearly milestones lincluding Christmas, Easter, Halloween/Great Pumpkin Day and Beethoven’s Birthday.

Here they are augmneted by another American ritual as many of the cast return to (and are dismissed from) summer camp. This results in fresh heartbreak for all after Patty finally meets the nigh-legendary Little Red-haired Girl and realises all hope is lost. There’s even more endless heartbreak heading for Charlie Brown too, as he looks on and can do nothing. The poor oaf still has no idea how to begin to respond to closer ties with his dream girl or why even Patty cares…

Sports fun looms large and terrifying as ever, but star athlete-turned-coach/manager Snoopy is more interested in new passions than boring old baseball, hockey, tennis and football. These include fishing, swimming, skiing, skating and new sensation Frisbee-ing, as well as embracing the ups and downs of perilous passtime “Ha-Ha, Herman!” and watching Lucy learn some hard truths while rollerskating…

Even she finds far more absorbing pastimes but still revels in crushing the spirits of her teammates in whatever endeavour they are failing at. Linus endures more disappointment in two Great Pumpkin seasons as well as his rare-animal searches, and before you know it, there’s the traditional countdown to Christmas and another year filled with weird, woolly and wonderful moments…

Neatly interspersed with the daily doses of gloom, the Sunday page debuted on January 6th 1952: a half-page slot offering more measured fare than 4-panel dailies. Thwarted ambition, sporting failures, crushing frustration – much of it psychoanalysis or sport related – abound, alternating with Snoopy’s inner life of aviation, war stories, star gazing, shooting the breeze with bird buddies, weather woes, fame and food fiascos. These and other signature sorties across the sabbath indulgences afforded Schulz room to be his most imaginative, whimsical and provocative… or just plain jokey…

Tentpole moments to relish this time include intensification of the magnificently barbed romantic triangle involving Lucy, Schroeder & Beethoven; Linus kicking the blanket habit only to be dragged back in under again; more Snoopy v Lucy deathmatches as well as a claws & paws clash of our dog and the despised cat-next-door. Charlie Brown’s food feud with the beagle continues, as do assorted night terrors, Lucy’s unique solutions to complex questions; Valentines’ card coup counting, doggy dreams; sporting endeavours,  all counterpointed by Snoopy’s latest top secret mission for the Head Beagle and the paving over of his puphood home…

To Be Continued…

To wrap it all up, Gary Groth celebrates and deconstructs the man and his work in ‘Charles M. Schulz: 1922 to 2000’, preceded by a copious ‘Index’ offering instant access to favourite scenes you’d like to see again…

Readily available in many formats, this volume guarantees total enjoyment: comedy gold and social glue metamorphosing into an epic of spellbinding graphic mastery that still adds joy to billions of lives, and continues to make new fans and devotees long after its maker’s passing.
The Complete Peanuts: 1971-1972 (Volume Eleven) © 2009 Peanuts Worldwide, LLC. “Charles M. Schulz: 1922 to 2000” © 2009 Gary Groth. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Batman: Scarecrow Tales


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson & George Roussos, Gardner F. Fox, Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Gerry Conway, Mike W Barr, Peter Milligan, Devin Grayson, Sheldon Moldoff, Joe Giella, Ernie Chan & Dick Giordano, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell, Don Newton & Dan Adkins, Alan Davis & Paul Neary, Duncan Fegredo & Bjarne Hansen, Roger Robinson & John Floyd, with Paul Gulacy, Carmine Infantino, George Pratt, Mike Mignola, Arthur Adams, Dermot Power, Mark Stutzman, Jim Balent & Bill Sienkiewicz & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0443-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As is only sensible, when filmmakers unleash a comic book villain of any vintage, savvy publishers collate, curate and commercialise. Thus in 2007 when The Scarecrow was named a villain du jour on Batman Begins DC dashed out a fine volume of reprints featuring a few key and generally accessible comic book appearances. Although having a much shallower well to draw from, there are some wonderful tales on offer (and the occasional dog, it must be admitted) with various pin-up pages and a cover gallery closeted here in this out of print and begging for resurrection tome…

The obvious kick-off is the first appearance by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson & George Roussos. Alternatively entitled ‘The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow’ or simply ‘The Scarecrow’ from World’s Finest #3 (1941), it spookily introduced rather odd, painfully poor and book-obsessed college psychology professor Dr. Jonathan Crane (no relation to any comedy shrink). His ill-considered classroom antics forced him out of the teaching profession and started him pursuing his nefarious dreams by making his wealthy victims afraid… at least until Batman & Robin stepped in and stepped up…

Crane only appeared once more in the Golden Age and here is reintroduced in the Silver one, after patiently serving his time in jail, in ‘Fright of the Scarecrow’ (Batman #189, cover-dated February 1967) wherein scripter Gardner Fox – despite being rather handcuffed by the overwhelming popularity of the comedic TV show – introduced the Master of Terror’s abiding modern Modus Operandi of chemically or artificially inducing anxiety, fear and screaming heebie-jeebies. This has ever since stayed the way as Crane followed the twisting path of a deranged mad scientist rather the greedy crime bandit style which consisted mostly of shooting at you until you wet yourself and coughed up the valuables…

The spooky sage’s resumed rampage through Gotham was ultimately quashed here by the daredevil Dynamic Duo as fabulously finessed by illustrators Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella.

Then from a far less frightening but more carefully inclusive era come a brace of arguably lesser and decidedly off-kilter efforts. From Batman #262 (April 1975), Denny O’Neil, Ernie Chan & Dick Giordano ‘The Scarecrow’s Trail of Fear!’ finds the hero victim of a fear inducer machine whilst racing to uncover hidden loot squirreled away by a crook literally scared to his death. Then comes a frankly bizarre duel with Gotham’s other contender for Most Scary Villain (not counting Batman!). In The Joker #8 (August 1976). Gotham’s self-acclaimed Master of Terror instigates ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ by stealing from his rival and reaping the revolting results in a weird war tale crafted by Elliot S! Maggin, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell…

For Detective #503 (June 1981) Gerry Conway wrote ‘The 6 Days of the Scarecrow’, beautifully illustrated by sorely missed Don Newton, and inked by Dan Adkins, wherein The Deacon of Dread turns Batman into a being who can literally scare those around him to death. However, Crane foolishly discounts the fact that his foe has allies such as Robin & Batgirl willing to do anything to save him… not that the Gotham Gangbuster needs them to…

Then, in a revitalised new world stemming out of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a fresher Dynamic Duo (with young, callow Jason Todd as the second Robin), Mike W. Barr, Alan Davis & Paul Neary pursue lighter, more liberating tales but still convincingly convey the tragedy of ‘Fear For Sale’ in Detective #571 (February 1987), after Scarecrow charges desperate sports stars to remove their caution and ability to fear consequences and triggers a storm of callous carnage…

Next is ‘Mistress of Fear’ by Peter Milligan & Duncan Fegredo from one-shot New Year’s Evil: Scarecrow #1 (February, 1998): a truly exceptional low key, high-octane psychological thriller wherein Crane kidnaps law student Becky Albright. She had previously testified against him and still isn’t afraid, even after he begins the torturous process of converting her into his sidekick and accomplice…

Devin Grayson, Roger Robinson & John Floyd then display ‘Fear of Success’ (Gotham Knights #23, January 2002) to round out these scary stories with a swipe at corporate greed, as Dr. Crane is paroled from Arkham Asylum to lecture Gotham’s Movers & Shakers thanks to the sponsorship of business paragon Mulitigon. Thankfully, Bruce Wayne (and his new bodyguard Sasha Bordeaux) are invited as Scarecrow again unleashes his Fear Toxins just to see what happens. Although Batman quickly ends the threat, he is not quick enough to avoid a potentially deadly dose of the hallucinogenic horrors…

Also on show are a moody cover gallery and bonus material including pages from Who’s Who – The Definitive Directory of The DC Universe #20 (1986) & Who’s Who in the DC Universe #21 (1990) by Art Adams and George Pratt respectively; Mike Mignola’s Saga of the Dark Knight trading card (#51); Batman: Masterpieces (1998) by Dermot Power and an original pin-up by Mark Stutzman.

Some of these scurrilous scare-sagas made it into the 2015 compilation Batman: Arkham – Scarecrow but that book has enough different and darkly desirable material to warrant its own review… possibly even before the month is out…

As a trawl through the changing nature of the industry, Batman: Scarecrow Tales is quite illuminating although one glaring omission is the utter shunning of the numerous exploits featuring the creepy character that appeared in assorted issues of the TV cartoon based Batman Adventures comic book. Now those were thrilling…

Absolutely worth re-issuing with a few of the newer tales (especially those sublime all-ages versions Batman Animated franchise), perhaps DC could award the other, OTHER Dr Crane his own 85-year Celebration album, like all those other A-lister Bat-villains. Now that’s a scarily comforting thought…
© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey Book 12: Day of the Heroes!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras, Paul Duffield & Armin Roshdi (DFB/Phoenix)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-391-2 (HB), 978-1-78845-434-6 (Waterstones Exclusive Edition)

Bunny vs Monkey has been the inspirationally bonkers breakout star of The Phoenix since the premiere issue back in 2012, cataloguing a madcap vendetta gripping animal archenemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia, masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully gusto – but increasingly with a cerebral cosmic crescendo in mind – by cartoonist/comics artist/novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember, Find Chaffy; Megalomaniacs), these trendsetting, mindbending yarns have been wisely retooled as multi award-winning, bestselling graphic albums available in digest softcover such as this one hardback and sponsored special editions and even as AUDIOBOOKs. Just let that one last one sink in…

All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in after a disastrous British space shot. OR DID IT?

Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite every effort of genteel, contemplative, reasonably sensible resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and refined breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this moment remains a rude, troublemaking, chaos-causing, noise-loving lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” and/or being a robot, with or without the aid of evil supergenius Skunky or useless “henches” Metal Steve & Action Beaver…

All those daily wonders and catastrophes were exacerbated by a mixed melange of mildly unconventional Crinkle creatures, none more so than aforementioned monochrome mad scientist Skunky, whose intellect and cavalier attitude to life and consequences presents as a propensity for building dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons. He is, at his core, a dangerously inquisitive thinker and tinkerer…

With artistic fiddling about from design deputy Sammy Borras, the unending war of nerves and mega-ordnances assumes a posture of asymmetric – if not arrhythmic and asthmatic – warfare as a series of sequences starring assorted minor artisans sees much of the cast taking a bit of a breather… at least on paper. It all opens with a few fluffy tales of ‘Bunny in… “Home is Where the Heart is”.’ It all begins one not so very ‘Good Morning’ as Monkey’s thoughtlessness and Skunky’s careless use of volcanoes and microwave ovens finally provokes the wracked rabbit to pack up and leave. Still hungry for ‘The Good Life’ our gentle hero seeks an isolated wilderness to be ‘A New Home’ but discovers all the best spots of perfect peacefulness have been previously “bagsied” by enigmatic furry Thoreau Le Fox…

However things turn really odd when Bunny uncovers sacred standing stones and manifests a sentient palatial edifice that floats on air and offers to cater to every whim…

Meanwhile back wherever Crinkle Woods is, Monkey & Skunky are missing their old niceness nemesis and unleash colossal mutant hybrid shark ‘Hammer Honk’ to keep the ADHD-ape amused, even as, far away on “A Day in the Life of Bunny … and his enchanted House!” arachnophobe Bunny adopts an 8-legged housemate in ‘“Brenda”’. Thanks to her passion for digging, before long she has uncovered ‘A New Guest’ who turns out to be the miraculous Grand Spirit of the Woodland… and a bit of a nuisance…

Nothing lasts forever, and the peaceful days end in ‘Underpants!’ when Monkey & Action-Beaver invade the magical kingdom with newly-minted monster Terror-Dactyl in search of entertainment and encounter a very unwelcoming Woodland Spirit…

As if anticipating Bunny’s imminent return, sensible but naïve robot Metal E.V.E. is trying to build him a perfect new home, but the good deed is hijacked by time-warping Skunky who casually turns all involved into ‘Old Folks’ just as disorder is fully restored and the Grand Spirit evicts all the crazy critters and despatches them ‘Home’…

As they all resettle in, focus shifts to superfast sweetheart aye-aye Ai in “Ai’ll Be Back!” – a relay race of rapid-fire adventures that opens with ‘Thants!’ as a REALLY GIANT giant anteater is turned loose during National Ant Day and only Ai can stop the tongue-lashing it begins, after which chaos is unleashed when our misplaced Madagascan finds Skunky’s Graveyard of Failed Scientific Experiments and is bitten by a disembodied undead head, sustaining a nasty ‘Zombiebooboo’…

Whilst Monkey indulges in a spot of robotic ‘Dino-War!’ – and briefly acquires the stern maternal influence he always needed – Squirrel Weenie, Pig Piggerton and Metal E.V.E. become the first of many woodfolk turned ‘Tiny and Whiney’ and stuffed in Skunky’s Jar of Idiots. Sadly one of them is bitey, zombie-contagious Ai and before long the plague of the gambolling dead is everywhere, as seen in apocalyptic vision ‘Guhhhh!’, prompting the evil genius to sideline his attempts to build/grow a superbrain ‘From Scratch’ to sort things out. Of course, said brain ‘Smartypants’ has ideas of its own, and once Monkey meddles some more, the war of Zombies vs Supercomputer! rages out of control until the mighty mind in a jar devises a cure for undead bitey-ness which it then cruelly locks away in ‘The Box’…

However, despite being afflicted with zombie hunger, the aye-aye has enough grit and resolve to step up and sort it, to become ‘Ai, Saviour of the World’…

With what passes for normality restored to the Woods we next pay some attention to ‘Pig + Weenie in “Pig & Weenie Fun Police”’ as after five days of noxious obnoxiousness and Monkey playing with his ‘Fart Face’ chemical weapon, the sweet simpletons found an official vigilante team to stop the horror. However once the job is done it’s hard to stop and soon they are annoying/cheering up Underwater Adventurer Le Fox as he tries to be a ‘Water Grump!’ and unwelcomely refereeing the 563rd Annual ‘Bonk Bonk’ Race, befriending and defending Skunky’s runaway terror ‘Robotron’ before confronting Pig’s potent desire to be a poodle in ‘Arf!’

‘A Day in the Life of “Pig & Weenie Fun Police!”’ sees the variety of purely existential perils involved in cheering folk up, after which a family visit to Jonty, Monty, Ponty and Big Bertha Piggerton broadens Weenie’s horizons and highlights who is ‘The Wrong Pig’ whilst preceding a genuine rescue mission as the Fun Police save beleaguered Bunny from a House of Nightmares in ‘The Winchester’ and overindulge in one final mission to stop Skunky’s recently-mined ‘Shiny Pebbles’ fuelling an arsenal to techno terrors…

Generally regarded as “The Unluckiest Red Panda in the World!!”, next to shine here is ‘Lucky in “Stay Lucky!”’ with a simple fun session with the gang going awry in ‘Card Luck’, and doubled down on in ‘Statuesque’ as Monkey’s latest Bunny-bothering collaterally lands Lucky in the muck, prior to everything changing after encountering mystic monument ‘The Tablet’ in the really deep, dark woods…

‘Brown Duck’ then details a noisome scatological sidestep, but if we all hold our noses it’s soon over and the fallout of a cosmic change sparked by latrine lunacy and toilet terrorism can be registered as a ‘Lucky Chance’ and heralding a flipping of fortune for the pitiable panda…

As she becomes “the Luckiest Red Panda in the World!”, her ‘Attitude Adjustment’ scuppers a potentially lethal attempt to blow Action Beaver into space. Karmically, her new status doesn’t extend to those around her, so when ‘The Decoy’ finds a duplicate of Monkey making mayhem for all and his acts as Cardboard Samurai Monkey creating a cascade of all-conquering ‘Cardboard Creations’ she steps in to shield them. However, confusion and carnage culminate in a cross-chronological panda pair-up as time-travel allows ‘The Next Lucky’ to come back from the future to warn that her fortunes are about to change again…

The animal assemblage concludes for now with a look at enigmatic sage ‘“Le Fox in “Big ol’ Grump!”’ It opens long ago as an impressionable fox cub meets a crusty hibernating bruin who shapes his mental and philosophical growth in ‘Bearing It’… but not as much as the pesky bees buzzing him…

In the present, perpetually irritable Le Fox is caught in Monkey’s latest attempts to annoy Bunny in ‘Natural Mystery’ and retaliates with devasting aplomb, before ‘Ah, Poop!’ sees Skunky unwisely boast to his partner in perfidy that his poo collection is now perfectly complete even as deep underground, Le Fox shares his views on despondency with sad Metal E.V.E. and demonstrates vengeance as a means of ‘Coping’ when Monkey interrupts their musings…

Eternally anarchic Monkey’s meddling with Skunky’s reality-warping Wishinator leads to Le Fox achieving Godzilla-like size and temperament in ‘Wish Big’ but all his rampaging and ‘Stomping About’ is rightly directed at one small hairy nutcase, before a calamitous event heralds big changes for everybody as eerie, appalling Signalmen invade the wood and all those left free must find ‘A Place to Hide’…

As those few survivors seek ways to make Le Fox ‘Smaller’ desperation forms an alliance of former foes, but no one made them joint pilot the ridiculous mega-mecha Bunny vs Monkey-a-tron in a last-ditch duel of colossi, even if it does somehow save the day and create ‘An Understanding’ and peaceful resolutions not even one last unleashed tentacle monster can disrupt…

Wrapping up these sidereal shenanigans, farty fooffawraws and monster bum gags are a few related activities offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and yourself to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by Jamie Smart and Armin Roshdi. This time the subjects are ‘How to draw the Floating Island’, including tips on The Cosy Cabin, Pond and Sewer Waterfalls before closing with an extensive plug for the Phoenix Comics Club website, complete with instant access via QR codes, plus previews of other treats & wonders to be seen in The Phoenix to wind down from all that philosophical fun and Kaiju kerfuffle…

Another book for your kids to explain to you, Bunny vs Monkey – Day of the Heroes! is weird wit, wild invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning incautiously crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Is that you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Just Trust Me… It’s Beyond Your Control But Worth It … 10/10

Bunny vs Monkey – Day of the Heroes! will be released on October 8th 2026 and is favailable for pre-order now.

Posted on

Ugly Mug Issue Nine


By many and various anonymous aligned to The House of Harley, but particularly including Julian Geek, Denny Derbyshire, Ed Pinsent, Alberto Monteiro, John Bagnall, Dave Kilburn, Miranda Smart, Adam Falp & various (House of Harley)
ISBN: 978-1-0669144-1 (A4 Card cover TPB)

In these, my elderly end-times, a year goes by just like 365¼ days, which means that (notionally) I only have to blink or slip into a brief nap/coma for something fun or welcoming to pop up. Of course that can apply to nasty stuff too, but that is SO NOT the case here…

Comics can be a billion dollar business these days, but thankfully remains at its heart & soul a form of expression all about doing something creative for people to react to. Hopefully, they’ll be appreciative and give you lots of money and offer to have your babies… or at least try to swindle you out of your rights. That latter one’s not actually so bad, as it does mean you’re doing something others appreciate…

What I crave – and can now revel in again – is the latest extravaganza from unchecked artistic iconoclasterers The House of Harley; who have completed one more supercharged, in-your-facial-area assemblage of stories, cartoons, thoughts and even characters from people who don’t care if pastors complain, Mumsnet worries or The Telegraph pitches a disingenuous, profit-seeking hissy-fit. Self-chained to this fertile, dynamic pictorial coalface are folk who would draw strips and tell tales even if the act carried the threat of exile, death penalty or mandatory Ed Sheeran tickets. They go on concocting and unleashing the sort of word-wedded images the industry and art form continually refreshes, renews and reinvents itself with.

Every year since they started, shady, covert Art-Quango The House of Harley has unleashed an annual (well duh!) anthological aggregation of short stories, poster-works, diagrammatic diatribes and tableaux, augmented by further exploits of ongoing made-up individuals, new characters and pictorial serials. They also invite guests to aid & abet those efforts by getting what’s needful off their artistic chests, so it’s now well past time you indulged their splendid efforts.

This year’s model puts its foot down on the side of LAW & ORDER, proudly presenting old guard and new models (in Quarter, Half, Single and multi-page narrative outbreaks and graphic outbursts) all set between nostalgia-kicking covers by Julian Geek. Within, strangely fresh yet familiarly comforting fare nestles menacingly between full-colour poster-art homage frontispiece ‘Beware! The Claws of the Cat!’ and closing apocalyptic vision ‘Project Final X’ – both from Jason Atomic.

The interior trigger-edged, truncheon-terse treats unfold after the customary wild contents and introductory section, announcing the reserve forces of returning resident Ugly Mug contributors whilst welcoming new kids on the block Miranda Smart, Adam Falp & Dave Kilburn. The overall effect is shocking insights into “the causes of social collapse” and a potent invitation to the final showdown of our kind…

Stationed within and throughout are works by old lags of the House of Harley studio, seeking to keep things from spinning out of control with tales of enforced health like ‘The Cancer Detection Dogs’, revealing what is ‘Tender to the Touch’ and exactly when ‘Cometh the Hour’ or even a sharing a home visit from ‘Dr. Anadi (With Curses She is Handy)’…

‘Scatter’ is a suburban probe into abandoned rental bikes, ‘Seb, Superimposed’ follows one woman’s personal quest to be drunk and disorderly courtesy, as an extended cartoon chat exposes what happens ‘While the City Slumbers’, and there’s even a spot of recreational downtime in ‘Let’s Bake Up a Batch of Ugly Mugs’…

Shorter call-ups to duty include further forays for Mark E Smith Music Teacher (promoting plastic bags and work experience gigs whilst exposing The Truth about Taylor Swift), and more naked exposures via Life with Freda Nipple (nudist, career woman, penal reformer, rag ‘n’ bone man nostalgist) as well as a Q&A on 2-tier policing with PCSO Dan and Busy Lizzie revealing what is not right about Woody Allen…

Regular guest Ed Pinsent is much represented, pictorially prognosticating thanks to ‘Hex Patterns’, tuning in on R.S.D. Laing, Record Collector after ‘He Suffers a Chemical Reaction’, exposing ‘The Horrible Story of Monster Pig – and How He Became So Fat!’ before climaxing big with the ninth arcane instalment of Pinsent’s beguiling ‘Windy Wilberforce’ serial The Saga of the Scroll (fear not, back issues of Ugly Mug are available to all with the wherewithal) as Harry Excess finds fun and fish in the desert….

Other contributions from those bearing visitor passes include Social Historian Gareth Corduroy (AKA John Bagnall) unearthing the lost working class blessing of ‘The Pit Pool’; a dose of abstract impressionist portraiture in Denny Derbyshire’s ‘Twin Peeks’; Julian Geek’s controversial TV debate stance in ‘321 with Mean Bean and Da Bug’; Miranda Smart’s challenging tableau ‘The Art of Complaining’ and Adam Falp’s vision of ‘Seven Sisters Road’ all counterpointed by Brazilian creator Alberto Monteiro ‘Several Intense Scenes’…

… And about us leprechauns pop up as Dave Kilburn offers contemporary Celtic mythology via a succession of scandalous exploits starring Irish fae folk The Leps (Seamus & Eamonn, St Patrick, His Lordship, The Vulnerable Lord Cecil and others), beginning with ‘The Shillelagh of Temptation’ and supplemented by an untitled boozing binge, a ‘Mid-week drinking’ session and a spot of bonfire building…

Innocuously including and pointedly presenting “robot dogs, radioactive popcorn, broken glass, canoodling couples, different kinds of dealers, stale beer & chips, ADHD, a black-&-white rainbow, pavement potholes, symbolic sheep, naked giants, shopping receipts, miracle cures, crime scene cakes, savage cabbage and the proverbial two birds with one stone”, this doughty dossier delivers more racy, pacey fun fare than any British X-mas Annual of yore. These cunning creations teem with turbulent observation and force, and come armed to the nines with wryly witty visual oomph, making it the ideal example of where we will draw the line and leave our marks…

Buy one. Read one. Do one yourself. You know you want to…
All contents © their respective creators.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Wild Fun and the Latest Last Word in Sheer Creativity Perfection… 8/10

For all this and so much more please check out houseofharley.net/shop or their Etsy shop.

If you’re still keen to embrace the dying embers of old world transactionalism, you can support enlightened capitalism and get a copy from a real world retailer like Gosh! Comics, London.

My spiffy review copy came with a bunch of extra goodies “From the Sketchbooks of The House of Harley” – Limited Edition minicomics Boat Race #1, Scratch An Itch #1 and Hands Up #1 – each offering even more contentious Comics & Improper art vouchsafing visual verve and vitality in strict monochrome and/or assorted multi-hued palettes. Maybe yours will too; or perhaps it’s simply that age and rank still hath their privileges…

Posted on

Batman: A Celebration of 75 Years


By Bob Kane & Bill Finger, Gardner F. Fox, Don Cameron, Edmond Hamilton, John Broome, Bob Kanigher, Dennis J. O’Neil, Archie Goodwin, Steve Englehart, Mike W. Barr, Peter Milligan, Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Greg Rucka, Paul Dini, Scott Snyder, Brad Metzer, Jack Burnley, Sheldon Moldoff, Jerry Robinson, Dick Sprang, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Win Mortimer, Carmine Infantino, George Roussos, Charles Paris, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella, Sid Greene, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Alex Toth, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin, Frank Miller & Steve Mitchell, Michael Golden & Mike DeCarlo, Alan Davis & Paul Neary, Tom Mandrake, Jim Aparo, Graham Nolan & Cam Smith, Rick Burchett & Rodney Ramos, J.H. Williams III, Simone Bianchi, Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion, Chip Kidd & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4758-4 (HB) 978-1-4012-5186-4 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Somehow, I never got around to covering many of the best anthologised DC “Celebration” collections, and with another (possibly last!) Christmas coming, what better time to explore the delights of genuinely guaranteed comic book good times? This one’s a cracker too…

Batman is a creature of the night. Batman is the world’s greatest detective, escapologist and master of disguise. Batman fights criminals, madmen and bad women, aliens and monsters. Batman is all that and more. He apparently sees in black-&-white in world of fabulous hues and constantly shifting blinding colour – mostly red.

Batman is in many ways the ideal superhero: uniquely adaptable and able to work in any type or genre of story, as is clearly evident from the dazzling plethora of vintage tales collected in so many captivating volumes over the years. These vie equally with immediately recent tales collected into albums scant moment after going off-sale as periodical comic books.

Launching a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as market frontrunner and conceptual leader of a burgeoning new publishing industry: comic books.

Having established the fantastic parameters of metahumans with their Man of Tomorrow, the strictly mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of DC’s Dynamic Duo became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were measured. The epitome of swashbuckling, Batman bloomed at this time and the impetus enabled him to endure and survive the decline of superheroes at the end of the 1940s.

Although he’s frequently played second fiddle to his pioneering predecessor Superman (who debuted in Action Comics #1, June 1938), the Dark Knight has, over his 87 years, grown to become the planet’s most popular superhero. He does have some bragging rights to longevity, however, as he debuted in the company’s most prestigious – and arguably premiere – comics title.

Detective Comics #1 had a March 1937 cover-date and was the third and last anthology title devised by luckless pioneer Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. In 1935, the entrepreneur had seen the potential in Max Gaines’ new invention (comic books) and quickly conceived and released packages of all-new material entitled New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine and follow-up New Fun/New Adventure (which ultimately became Adventure Comics) under the banner of National Allied Publications. March 30th 1939 saw Batman‘s debut in May cover-dated Detective Comics #27. About one year after that dynamic debut Batman’s resounding growth in popularity resulted in a bombastic bold boy sidekick and the launch of Batman #1 (cover-dated “Spring” 1940 and released on April 25th of that year). At that time, only precursor/stablemate Superman was more successful…

This book was compiled in 2014 to celebrate The Dark Knight’s 75th Anniversary and still only scratched the surface. Imagine the page count in 13 years’ time when it’s a centenary! Seen here are contents and extracts from Detective Comics #27, 33, 83, 211, 216, 327, 359, 395, 442, 474, 574, 633, 711, 757 & 821; Batman #1, 49, 181, 497, 608; Batman (vol. 2) #2; World’s Finest Comics #94, DC Series #21, Batman Special #1 plus Detective Comics #27 – an all-new vintage treat that we’ll get to in due course…

Divided into category-chapters preceded by a text overview, we begin Part I (1939-1954): The Dynamic Duo with originating escapade ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’ by Bob Kane and as yet still anonymous close collaborator/co-originator Bill Finger. A spartan, understated yarn introduced dilettante playboy criminologist Bruce Wayne, drawn into a straightforward murder-mystery as a cabal of industrialists were successively murdered. The killings stop when an eerie figure dubbed “The Bat-Man” intrudes on Police Commissioner Gordon’s stalled investigation, ruthlessly exposing and dealing with the hidden killer.

Following on, Batman’s first ever origin moment. It came in Detective Comics #33 (November 1939, on sale from September 30th), scripted by Gardner F. Fox and Finger in lead story ‘The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom’ . This cunningly included 2-page prologue ‘The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came to Be’ and revealed how a young boy witnessed his parents’ hold-up and murder by a petty thug, consequently dedicating his life to becoming a perfect human specimen to avenge them and punish all criminals. Those 12 panels were reprinted at the beginning of Batman #1 (Spring 1940 and included here) and, with occasional minor tweaking, stayed the official version for 50 years.

Next – and taking as read years of baroque villain debuts and the heroes’ war efforts – we jump to Detective Comics #83 (January 1944) when the team supreme are growing comfortable in their endeavours and the mysteries are often cosy and gently humorous. Here, courtesy of Don Cameron, Kane & George Roussos, Wayne’s portly British butler Alfred augments his diet regime with exercise and an abrupt disappearance, leading the Gotham Guardians to a murderous mesmerising medic and criminal insurance scam in ‘Accidentally on Purpose!’, after which we close-up on two debuts in one sitting as seen in Batman #49, (October 1948, by Finger, Kane & Lew Sayre Schwartz). When a madman called the Mad Hatter goes on a crime spree, newly arrived press photographer Vicki Vale is on scene to capture evidence that the mighty hero might also be socialite Bruce Wayne… and nothing our heroes can do will dissuade her from enjoying ‘The Scoop of the Century!’

The archest of archfoes briefly gains the upper hand in ‘The Jungle Cat-Queen!’ (Detective #211, September 1954 and written by Edmond Hamilton) when the Caped Crusaders are trapped on a wild atoll without their modern tools and must face wild beasts and furious feline felon Catwoman. Thanks to artists Dick Sprang & Charles Paris, she never looked better…

Dick Sprang (July 28th 1915 – May 10th 2000) began earning money from art and narrative as a designer and illustrator in Ohio whilst still in high school. He edited and contributed art to magazines and pulps from the early 1930s onwards. On graduation in 1934 Sprang joined the bullpen of Toledo, Ohio publishing chain Scripps-Howard delivering deadline-busting ads, editorial cartoons and illustrations. Working with the company engravers Sprang mastered every aspect of print technology before moving to New York City in 1936 to illustrate pulps; everything from westerns to detective to general adventure yarns. Regular clients included Popular Detective, Popular Western, Phantom Detective, G-Men, Detective Novels Magazine, Crack Detective & Black Hood Detective/Hooded Detective, for which he also wrote stories. In 1937, Sprang began ghosting/assisting on newspaper strips including Secret Agent X-9 and The Lone Ranger, which led to his writing episodes of the latter’s radio show.

As pulps declined and comic books proliferated, he capitalised on the trend, forming a studio shop with Ed Kressy (Fact Finders, The Lone Ranger, Power Nelson) & Norman Fallon (Speed Comics, Shock Gibson, World’s Finest Comics). In 1941 they were hired by DC supremo Whitney Ellsworth who anticipated with dread Bob Kane being drafted. The trio began crafting inventory material to offset that inevitable day, which gradually slipped out over the course of the conflict. His first newsstand appearance was on part of the cover for Batman #18 (August/September 1943) whilst his first full outing was the next issue.

For Batman #19, he pencilled all four stories and the cover, but only inked the first three (!) leaving Fallon to embellish the fourth yarn. By 1946, and although utterly uncredited, Sprang was the leading artist on Batman comic book material, which marrying and moving to Sedona, Arizona barely impacted. In fact, he taught commercial photographer/new bride Lora Ann Neusiis to letter and colour his pages and, as “Pat Gordon”, she took off some of the load until their divorce in 1951. Gordon carried on working for DC until around 1961…

In 1955, despite still being unknown to fans, Sprang took on the Superman/Batman team-up feature in World Finest Comics and soldiered on with it, as well as newspaper strips, countless covers and more. His astounding artistry enhanced DC titles for 20 years, including Real Fact Comics #1-3, 18, Strange Adventures #1, Superman, Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane & Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, and he fully recreated Batman’s look for the forward-facing 1950s, with a new Batplane, Batmobile and other paraphernalia. Sprang’s Joker was definitive and he co-created the Riddler and prototype of Supergirl.

That all ended on his retirement in 1963. When he wasn’t beguiling sedentary adventure fans, Sprang had become a noted explorer and historian of Arizona, Utah and Colorado, and happily commenced a career that brought him the fame comics hadn’t. His many celebrated discoveries and contributions are on show at Northern Arizona Universities Cline Library Special Collections in Flagstaff and the Utah Historical Society in Salt Lake City.

More of his wonders adorn Part II (1955-1969): The Caped Crusader which assesses that evolution via further fascinating examples. Next comes Hamilton, Sprang & Paris’ sold gold sci fi crime masterwork. ‘The Batman of Tomorrow!’ (DC #216, February 1955) visits the 20th century from his home in 3054 to save injured Bruce Wayne from Vicki Vale’s latest exposé and catch a cunning crook in a fast paced and fantastical romp.

‘The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team’ was seen in original team up title World’s Finest Comics (#94 by Hamilton, Sprang & Stan Kaye, June 1958) showing how the Man of Tomorrow seemingly replaces the Caped Crusader with a new partner, thereby provoking a close review of facts and a startling revelation for all concerned…

The Silver Age of US comic books utterly revolutionised a flagging medium, bringing a modicum of sophistication to the returning sub-genre of masked mystery men. However, for quite some time, changes instigated by Julius Schwartz in Showcase #4, which rippled out to affect all National/DC Comics’ superhero characters, generally passed Batman & Robin by. Fans buying Batman, Detective Comics, World’s Finest Comics and even Justice League of America would read adventures that in look and tone were largely unchanged from the safely anodyne fantasies that had turned the grim Darknight Detective into a mystery-solving, alien-fighting costumed boy scout as the 1940s became the largely non-superhero 1950s.

Although individual yarns could still amaze, the Gotham Gangbusters were in a perilous rut and risked being forgotten, even as they were being readied for small screen stardom. Change was needed and stolid, stable Batman scripter-turned-editor Jack Schiff was moving on to more amenable pastures and editorial environs.

By the end of 1963 Schwartz had revived much of DC’s superhero line – and the entire industry – with his modernized masked champions and costumed characters. Now he was tasked to work his magic with the Caped Crusader.

Bringing his usual team of creators with him, he stripped down the trappings and returned to the core-concept, bringing a modern take to the capture of criminals, whilst downplaying all the aliens, outlandish villains and daft transformation tales. He even oversaw a streamlining and rationalisation of the art style itself. The most apparent change to us kids was a yellow circle around the Bat-symbol, but more fundamentally the stories themselves changed. Subtle menace re-entered the comfortable and abstract world of Gotham City. The revolution began with Detective Comics #327 (May 1964, by John Broome, Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella) as ‘The Mystery of the Menacing Mask!’ presented a baffling “Howdunnit?” steeped in action and suspense.

Tracking an underground pipeline of missing crooks and encountering a wise guy who was literally untouchable underlined the renewed intention to emphasise the “Detective” part of the title for the foreseeable future. This comic was to be a brain-teaser from now on, and the advent of the Batman TV show soon followed… and the world went Bat-manic. The series inevitably influenced the comics and, as well as a lightening of tone, threw up new characters. The next new villain was not one of them…

‘Beware of… Poison Ivy!’ in Batman #181 (June 1966) introduced a deadly damsel seeking to be top banana in the ladies criminal ranks and an addition to the Caped Crusader’s Rogues Gallery that owed much to her appearance in the Batman syndicated newspaper strip of the era. However, in this tale she’s only a criminal boss using sex appeal and hallucinogenic perfumes as her tools to split up the Dynamic Duo and defeat rival villainesses in a sly tale from Robert Kanigher, Moldoff & Joe Giella.

The TV show had premiered on January 12th 1966 and ran for 3 seasons (120 episodes in total), airing twice weekly for its first two seasons. It was a monumental worldwide hit sparking a wave of trendy imitation. Resultant media hysteria and fan frenzy generated an insane amount of Bat-awareness, no end of spin-offs and merchandise (including a still-fabulously watchable movie) while introducing us all to the phenomenon of overkill. Batmania exploded across the world and then as almost as quickly turned toxic and vanished. To this day, no matter how much we might squeal and foam about it, or what has occurred since in terms of comics, games or movies, to a huge portion of this planet’s population Batman is always going to be that “Zap! Biff! Pow!” costumed buffoon…

This next innovation was the biggest change in Bat-lore for decades. ‘The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!’ (Detective Comics, #359, cover-dated January 1967, by Fox, Infantino & Sid Greene) introduced Barbara Gordon, mousy librarian and daughter of the venerable Police Commissioner into the superhero limelight. By the time the third TV season began on September 14, 1967, she was well-established.

A previous different Batgirl (Betty Kane, niece of the 1950s Batwoman), was already a comics fixture, but for reasons far too complex and irrelevant to mention, was conveniently forgotten to make room for the new, empowered woman in the fresh tradition of Emma Peel, Honey West and the Girl from U.N.C.L.E. She was pretty hot too, which is always a plus for television…

Whereas she fought the Penguin on the small screen, Batgirl’s paper premiere features the no less ludicrous but at least visually forbidding Killer Moth in a clever yarn that still stands up today. The Lethal Lepidopteran was about to kidnap Bruce Wayne until Babs – dressed up for a fancy dress party – stumbles in and busts up his scheme…

Part III (1970-1986): Creature of the Night shows how – in purely comic book terms – after the TV show did terrible things to Batman’s reputation, the efforts to return respect, awe and majesty to the character begam almost as soon as the show stopped. The efforts were greatly aided by another phenomenon beyond editorial control.

When superheroes waned in the 1950s reader tastes turned to traditional genres like westerns, war, science fiction, romance and especially horror. That cycle repeated again as the 1960s closed, with supernatural themes primary piquing the interests of jaded readerships. It took very little effort to shift Batman back into the gothic shadows of his own early days…

Dennis O’Neil’s script for Detective #395’s ‘The Secret of the Waiting Graves’ (January 1970, limned by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano and recoloured for this edition by Cory Adams) instituted a far more mature – even sinister and almost gothic – take on the Caped Crusader here. In central Mexico the hero finally tracks down and barely survives confrontation with psychotic, nigh-immortal lovers Juan and Delores Muerto… whose passion for each other was fuelled by deadly drugs and sustained by a century of murder…

Adams’ captivating dynamic hyperrealism was a key cog in the reconstruction of the epic Batman edifice but it was also an irresistibly compelling one, and worked well against eerie backdrops of the resurgent horror boom, but all trends tail off. Now confirmed as a truly scary mortal manhunter, Batman’s scope widened and straight crime and adventure sagas also featured heavily. When Archie Goodwin became writer/editor of Detective Comics he generated a string of top tales (for the rest, check out Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin) of which the next item is indisputably the best. A stylistic masterpiece, Goodwin’s ‘Death Flies the Haunted Skies!’ (DC #442, September 1974) is a magnificent barnstorming thriller of aviators apparently picked off by a random assassin and a high point in an era of landmark tales. It is illumined by the unique Alex Toth (Zorro, Green Lantern, The Witching Hour, Space Ghost, Bravo for Adventure, Torpedo, Johnny Thunder, Eclipso, X-Men) and is as potent today as it ever was.

With the supernatural fading for fans, action-adventure and retro were the next big deal and ‘The Deadshot Ricochet!’ (DC #474, December 1977) was the penultimate exploit of dream team Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin, who had utterly revitalised the Batman mythos with a string of sharp thrillers reinventing the hero’s classic rogue’s gallery.

The single-issue saga updates an old loser for the second ever appearance of a murderous high society dilettante sniper (after his initial outing in Batman #59, 1950). The tale so reinvigorated third-rate trick-shooter Floyd Lawton that he’s seldom been missing from the DC Universe since, starring in series such as Suicide Squad and Secret Six: in a couple of eponymous miniseries and on both silver and small screens.

The tradition of Batman Christmas Miracle tales (maybe we should say “mystery plays”?) is seen next in a short punchy redemption yarn about a bad man who sees the light in ‘Wanted: Santa Claus – Dead or Alive’ by O’Neil, Frank Miller & Steve Mitchell from DC Special Series #2/Super-Star Holiday Special (April 1980) after which Mike W. Barr, Michael Golden & Mike DeCarlo deliver an epic stand-alone saga via Batman Special #1 (April 1984) by introducing the hero’s ultimate antithesis in ‘…The Player on the Other Side!’

The night Bruce Wayne’s parents died, elsewhere two career criminals were killed by police patrolman Jim Gordon. As young Bruce trained himself to be the enemy of all crime, so too did the son of those thieves, becoming over decades the exact equivalent and moral opposite of the hero who would one day safeguard Gotham. Now, as assassin and nemesis of decency and lawmen everywhere, the greatest criminal on Earth comes for Commissioner Gordon. The Wrath will let nothing and no-one get in the way of his vengeance and only Batman even knows he exists…

After fifty years, DC rewrote and reinvented itself with a company-wide reboot. Landmark maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths streamlined and retconned the entire ponderous continuity; rejecting the concept of a vast multiverse and re-knitting timelines so that there had only EVER been one Earth. For new readers, this solitary DC world provided a perfect place to jump on at a notional starting point: a planet literally festooned with iconic heroes and villains draped in a clear and cogent backstory that was now fresh and newly unfolding. Many of their greatest properties got a reboot, all enjoying the tacit conceit that the characters had been around for years and the readership were simply tuning in on just another working day.

As witnessed in Part IV (1986-2011): The Dark Knight with Batman’s popularity at an intoxicating peak, Crisis on Infinite Earths transformed the entire DC Universe and reinvented big guns like Superman and Wonder Woman, but left the Bat corners of it all largely untouched apart from some careful tweaking. Robin Dick Grayson had still been followed by new recruit Jason Todd, but this new kid was now a troubled runaway plucked off the streets and a true wild card. His exploits were seen as way to imbue verve and a bit of fun into the mythology as well as revive the classic villains, primarily in a strand from Detective Comics by Barr and “British Invaders” Alan Davis & Paul Neary.

From DC #574 (May 1987) the introspective ‘…My Beginning… and My Probable End.’ sees Batman on deathwatch and pondering so many bad decisions as his confidante Dr. Leslie Thomkins struggles to save Todd from his own bravado, prior to Peter Milligan & Tom Mandrake detailing a case of duplication, deception and impossible substitution in ‘Identity Crisis’ Detective #633 (August 1991).

The Nineties were filled with eye-catching publishing stunts and in 1992 DC began their epic Death of Superman story-arc, and its instant success led to a similar tradition-shaking, continuity-shattering epic for their other iconic household-name property. Groundwork had already been laid with the introduction of steroid-pumped archvillain Bane and Jean-Paul Valley, a mild-mannered student programmed since birth by an ancient warrior-cult to be their hereditary instrument of assassination, so all that was needed was to sort creative personnel and decide just how best to shake up the life of the Gotham Guardian. KnightFall and the subsequent arcs KnightQuest and KnightsEnd follow the brutal fall, replacement and inevitable return of Bruce Wayne as the indomitable, infallible Batman and was another spectacular success from the old guard which showed all the comic book upstarts and Young Turks the true value of proper storytelling. It also proved the unshakable power of established characters, as the world was gripped by the Dark Knight’s horrific defeat at the hands of a blatantly superior nemesis.

The crossover publishing event impacted many comics outside the usual Bat-book suspects, spawned a bunch of toys, three novelisations, many (necessarily incomplete) trade paperback collections and even jumped the pond to Britain’s staid BBC who turned it into a serialised audio-play on Radio One. You can find the saga in its own triptych of collections, but here we sample the shock and awe through 11th chapter ‘Broken Bat’ (Batman #497, July 1993, courtesy of Doug Moench, Jim Aparo & Giordano) wherein the brutal Bane utterly defeats and destroys the overmatched hero…

Returned reinvigorated, Batman blossomed in many directions thereafter and next Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan & Cam Smith reveal a relatively peaceful party-going Bruce enjoying a clandestine ‘Knight Out’ (Detective #711 (July 1997), tackling opportunistic thieves without breaking out the batsuit, whilst DC #757 (2001, by Greg Rucka, Rick Burchett & Rodney Ramos) sees the hero under pressure to catch murdering bandits and rescue a family trapped at the bottom of the river in ‘Air Time’.

Paul Dini & J.H. Williams spectacularly expose ‘The Beautiful People’ (DC #821, September 2006) working for merciless, murderous identity-stealing maniac Facade as the High Society predator overreaches himself facing the Dark Knight…

Bringing us up nearly to date, Part V (2011 and Beyond): Rebirth focuses on 2011 and DC’s New 52: a second continuity-wide reboot revising the opposing forces into even grimmer, Darker Knight and sundry. The Batman of this hellish vision debuted in Detective Comics volume 2 #1 with what might then have been assumed to be the last Joker story, whilst here from Batman (vol. 2 #2 December 2011) ‘Trust Fall’ by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion sees Bruce Wayne meeting Gotham’s Mayor (who will turn out to be hugely significant to his family life) and discovering his beloved city is actually ruled by a secret society dubbed “The Court of Owls”…

Adapted from 2014’s anniversary release Detective Comics (vol. 2 #27) this book concludes with a tasty treat as Brad Metzer adapts his own updated script for the tribute to the original Kane & Finger tale. Here, however, thanks to super-designer Chip Kidd, ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’ weds the modern words to the original pictures for a truly stunning marriage of old and new: the spartan, understated yarn introducing again dilettante playboy criminologist Bruce Wayne, drawn into a crime-caper as a cabal of industrialists are successively murdered. The killings only stop when eerie figure “The Bat-Man” intrudes on Police Commissioner Gordon’s stalled investigation to ruthlessly expose and deal with the hidden killer.

Augmented by covers by Kane, Burnley, Win Mortimer, Moldoff, Curt Swan, Stan Kaye, Infantino, Anderson, Giella, Adams, Aparo, Rogers & Austin, Davis & Neary, Golden, Jones, Nolan, Tom Palmer, Dave Johnson, Simone Bianchi, Capullo & Glapion, this crime compendium is a true wonder of wit and wild times and you should not be without it.
© 1939, 1940, 1944, 1942, 1948, 1945, 1954, 1955, 1858, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1984, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless Ever-Evolving Wonderment… 9/10

Posted on

The Pony Express – A Lucky Luke Adventure (volume 46)


By Morris, scripted by Xavier Fauche & Jean Léturgie & coloured by Studio Leonardo, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-194-5 (Album PB), 978-1-84918-880-7 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also contains Discriminatory Content added for comedic effect.

Time for another Anniversary announcement, non?

Lucky Luke is a rangy, good-natured, “lonesome cowboy” able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. Doughty, dashing, dependable Lucky is an implacably placid do-gooder roaming the mythical Old West, having light-hearted adventures with his wonder horse Jolly Jumper whilst interacting with a host of historical and/or fictionally famous figures of the genre.

It’s Jolly & Lucky’s 80th birthday this year and their continued exploits have made him one of the bestselling comic characters in Europe, encompassing 83 albums, numerous spin-off books and series comprising more than 300 million albums in at least 31 languages thus far. That has all generated a mega-mesa of merchandise: posters, toys, games, apparel, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies.

Lucky was dreamed up by western-loving Maurice de Bévère AKA “Morris”: a Belgian-born animator, illustrator and cartoonist. His sagebrush star debuted in the summer of 1946, initially in Le Journal de Spirou in mid-summer sans title or banner logo, and only in the French-language edition of the multinational kids comic. The Lone Rider’s official launch came in autumn of that year in Christmas Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947, before opening his first official serial in the pan-regional, multilingual weekly edition cover-dated December 7th 1946.

After a relatively slow start for such a fast gun, Lucky’s global dominance came via Morris’ decades-long collaboration with superstar scripter René Goscinny. The official partnership spanned Rails on the Prairie (from August 25th 1955) to The Ballad Of The Daltons And Other Stories in 1986, during which time the sixgun straight-shooter switched teams, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with The Stagecoach in 1967, with guest appearances all over the European publishing scene after that.

Goscinny co-crafted 45 albums before his death in 1977, after which Morris continued both singly and with new literary pardners, ultimately recruiting a posse of legacy creators including Lo Hartog van Banda, Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Benacquista & Pennac, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shots at the venerable vigilante. Morris continued until his own death in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar and spin-off whimsical western tales.

His grande idée draws on western history less than movie mythology, but – as here – our hero regularly met historical figures as well as famous fictional folk in tales drawn from classic cowboy lore, lensed through uniquely European notions and interpretations… as also seen here. Moreover, our sharpshooting star is never averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire, as well as spoofing his own antecedents whilst wallowing in movie schtick to trigger delicious drives down memory lane in the eternal game of cowberks and imbeciles…

Le Pony Express was the 59h European album, first seen serially in monthly magazine Pif Gadget #997 – 999 in 1988 before being collected into book form that same year. As the self-explanatory adventure The Pony Express, it was Cinebook’s 46th English-language outing of hijacked history, scathing satire and horselaugh hijinks.

Morris always drew from a deep, shared well of cinematic motifs, gilded with authenticity and tempered with veracity as required. Here, with prolific scripters Xavier Fauche (Lucky Luke, Rantanplan, Percevan, Marsupilami) & Jean Léturgie (Lucky Luke. Rantanplan, Kid Lucky, Percevan, Gastoon, Space Cake) he put his unique brand on the epic but short-lived myth of a crucial communications experiment: one that actually lasted 18 months (April 3rd 1860 to October 26th 1861) but which has gripped imaginations forever-after…

The sly, wry, action-packed yarn opens in Washington DC as Senators welcome California into the United States of America whilst complaining of the administrative problems of its immense distance. Faced with a 30-day stagecoach journey from new State Capital Sacramento to notional outpost of civilisation of St. Joseph Missouri, the government gasbags demand a faster way. However, when their chosen pathfinding frontiersman agent Edson Cody fails to find better more expedient route, the lawmakers offer a reward of $50,000 to anyone able to cut that onerous time lag.

Thus, when inspired entrepreneur William H. Russell has his great idea for a non-stop, horse-powered relay system staffed by a trained team of specialist riders sworn to carry mailbags from coast to heartland in just ten days, hopes are high even though expectations are guarded. There is, of course, opposition from the slowly progressing Pacific Railway Company who want that fifty grand for themselves and immediately begin sabotaging every aspect of the enterprise via the extremely long reach of Sacramento stationmaster Ted Ballast and his mean minions…

Russell’s plan submitted to and accepted by the Senate envisions relay stations of fresh horses and riders every 75 miles of the prospective 1,840 mile route. As it is intended to be non-stop day & night, riders would have to be the best of the best. Thankfully, Russell and ferociously supportive wife Imelda have just made the acquaintance of a quietly capable cowboy…

This Lucky Luke will be vetting candidates, training successful applicants (such as Charley Cliff, Johnny Fry, Nick Wilson, Billy Richardson and 15-year-old living legend in waiting William “Buffalo Bill” Cody) and putting them through the most torturous toughening-up regime imaginable, even as Imelda concerns herself with their emotional, spiritual and physical wellbeing. The lads would rather be brutalised again and again than swear off drink, gambling and wimmin, but a job’s a job…

Also heavily involved in the testing and training stage, Jolly Jumper personally ends many applicant riders’ hopes of the fabulously well-paid positions, but also ensures that every steed under them will be at least as fit and twice as smart as its rider…

… And then it’s April 3rd and time for the initial run that will secure the enterprise or crush all their dreams. This is when Ballast’s boys – already a permanent thorn in the Express’ side – go into spoiler overdrive, spreading lies and disinformation, rousing local Indian tribes, faking a Dalton Brothers jailbreak, planting diabolical honeytrap Lola and Her Girls in the couriers’ path, wrecking relay stations along the way, and even tampering with the heartbreaking, arduous wilderness-spanning route.

Lucky & Jolly Jumper handled the first 75 miles with little trouble, but soon after handing over to Charley Cliff, our heroes discover that the Pony Express man has been nobbled and is actually working for Ballast. Not knowing who to trust, Luke decides it’s probably best if he and his trusty horse do the entire 10-day nonstop run themselves…

It’s a sound decision, but one fraught with peril and wonder before they make it to St. Joseph, and even after triumphantly arriving, the weaselly rail ramrods have one last wheeze to employ… which only Luke’s cool calculations can counter…

These youthful forays of an indomitable hero offer grand joys in the tradition of Destry Rides Again and Little Big Man, superbly executed by master storytellers: a brilliant introduction to a unique genre for modern kids who might have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was…
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1988 by Morris and Xavier Fauche & Jean Léturgie. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2014 Cinebook Ltd.

Posted on

Asterix and Obelix All at Sea


By Uderzo, translated by Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Sphere)
ISBN: 978-0-75284-778-8 (Album PB), 978-0-75284-717-7 (Album HB), 978-1-44401-337-5 (Digital edition)

This book contains Discriminatory Content included for comedic effect.

It’s still Asterix & Obelix’s 87th Anniversary (for the strip) and 85 years since the first collected Album!

A son of Italian immigrants, Alberto Aleandro Uderzo was born on April 25th 1927 in Fismes on the Marne. As a child reading Mickey Mouse in Le Pétit Parisien he showed artistic flair from an early age and dreamed of becoming an aircraft mechanic. Alberto became a French citizen when he was seven and found employment at thirteen, apprenticed to the Paris Publishing Society, where he learned design, typography, calligraphy and photo retouching.

When World War II began he spent time with farming relatives in Brittany and joined his father’s furniture-making business. Brittany beguiled and fascinated Uderzo: when a location for Asterix‘s idyllic village was being mooted, the region was the only choice. In the post-war rebuilding of France, Uderzo returned to Paris and became a successful artist in the recovering nation’s burgeoning comics industry.

An inveterate traveller, the artistic prodigy met Rene Goscinny in 1951. Soon becoming fast friends, they resolved to work together at the new Paris office of Belgian Publishing giant World Press. Their first collaboration was in November of that year; a feature piece on savoir vivre (how to live right or gracious living) for women’s weekly Bonnes Soirée, following which an avalanche of splendid strips and serials poured forth. Jehan Pistolet and Luc Junior were created for La Libre Junior and they resulted in a western starring a “Red Indian” who eventually evolved into the delightfully infamous Oumpah-Pah. In 1955, Uderzo drew Bill Blanchart for La Libre Junior, replaced Christian Godard on Benjamin et Benjamine and in 1957 added Charlier’s Clairette to his portfolio.

The following year, he made his debut in Tintin, as Oumpah-Pah finally found a home and a rapturous audience. Uderzo also drew Poussin et Poussif, La Famille Moutonet and La Famille Cokalane. When Pilote launched in 1959, Uderzo was a major creative force for the new magazine, collaborating with Charlier on Tanguy et Laverdure and launching – with Goscinny – a little something called Asterix…

Although the gallant Gaul was a massive hit from the start, Uderzo continued working on Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure, but once the first hilarious historical romp was collected in an album as Astérix le gaulois in 1961 it became clear the series would demand most of his time – especially since the incredible Goscinny never seemed to require rest or run out of ideas.

By 1967 Asterix occupied all Uderzo’s time and attention, so in 1974 the partners formed Idéfix Studios to fully exploit their inimitable creation. In case you were unaware, Idéfix is also the Franco-Belgian name for Obelix’s little white dog. When Goscinny passed away three years later, Uderzo had to be convinced to continue the adventures as writer and artist,  but eventually resumed to produce a further ten volumes up until 2010 when he retired.

After nearly 15 years as a weekly comic serial subsequently collected into book-length compilations, in 1974 the 21st (Asterix and Caesar’s Gift) was the first published as a complete original album before serialisation. Thereafter each new release was an eagerly anticipated, impatiently awaited treat for the strip’s millions of fans…

Like all the best stories the narrative premise works on more than one level: read it as an action-packed comedic romp of sneaky and bullying baddies coming a-cropper if you want or as a punfully sly and witty satire for older, wiser heads. We Brits are further blessed by the brilliantly light touch of master translators Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge who played no small part in making the indomitable little Gaul so very palatable to English tongues.

Many of the intoxicating epics are set in various exotic locales throughout the Ancient World, with these Garrulous Gallic Gentlemen reduced to quizzical tourists and bemused commentators in every fantastic land and corner of the civilisations that proliferated in that fabled era. The rest – more than half of the canon – unfold in Uderzo’s beloved Brittany, where, circa 50 B.C., a little hamlet of cantankerous, proudly defiant warriors and their families resisted every effort of the mighty Roman Empire to complete the conquest of Gaul.

The land is divided by the notional conquerors into provinces of Celtica, Aquitania and Amorica, but the very tip of the last just refuses to be pacified…

Whenever the heroes were playing at home, the Romans, unable to defeat the last bastion of Gallic insouciance, futilely resorted to a policy of absolute containment. Thus the little seaside hamlet was permanently hemmed in by heavily fortified garrisons Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium. The Gauls couldn’t care less, daily defying and frustrating the world’s greatest military machine simply by going about their everyday affairs, protected by the miraculous magic potion of resident druid Getafix and the shrewd wits of the diminutive dynamo and his simplistic, supercharged best friend Obelix.

Firmly established as a global brand and premium French export from the mid-1960s onwards, Asterix the Gaul continues to grow in quality as new creators toil ever onward, crafting further fabulous sagas and building a stunning legacy of graphic excellence and storytelling gold…

Uderzo’s sixth solo session was Asterix and Obelix All at Sea (released in 1996 as La Galère d’Obélix) as the 30th volume of the ever-unfolding saga. It opens in the cruel and callous capital of civilisation wherein the Master of the World is having a bit of a bad day. Not as bad, however, as his Grand Admiral Crustacius, who has just allowed a bunch of oar slaves to mutiny and steal Julius Caesar’s personal galley…

As the severely tongue-lashed mariner and his browbeaten aide Vice-Admiral Nautilus scurry away to pursue the fugitives, aboard the magnificent vessel magnificent Greek rebel Spartakis – bearing a striking resemblance to the magnificent actor Kirk Douglas in all his chinny glory – debates with some recently-liberated comrades from many nations on where in the Rome-ruled world they can go to remain free.

A British oarsman then suggests a Gaulish village on the coast of Armorica which the empire has never conquered…

Meanwhile, in the faraway subject of the rebels’ discussions, Asterix & Obelix are in argumentative mood too, but their clash is put aside when word comes that the entire complement of all four encircling garrisons are massing on the far side of the forest. Always eager for a little martial recreation, the villagers dose up on Druid Getafix’s strength-boosting potion. Once again, Obelix is frustrated in his attempt to get a share of the tantalising elixir and stumbles off in high dudgeon. The generally genial giant had fallen into a vat of potion as an infant and grown up a permanently superhuman, eternally hungry hulk who hates being told no and doesn’t believe more of the mouth-watering miracle mixture might harm him…

The Romans are utterly unaware of the danger insouciantly sauntering towards them, engaged as they are in military drills to celebrate the imminent arrival of Admiral Crustacius. Thoroughly thrashing the amassed legions, the victorious Gauls wonder why Roman-bashing addict Obelix is absent and Getafix, dreading the worst, dashes back to discover his greatest fears realised. The intransigent idiot has foolishly imbibed deeply from the potion and been turned to stone and nothing the druid can conceive will cure the calcified colossus!

It’s during this time of trouble that Spartakis and his freed men arrive, seeking sanctuary. As the welcoming villagers carry the huge ornate galley into the village, the Obelix ordeal takes a strange turn as his stony spell wears off and the former fighting fool returns to flesh and blood – albeit as the feeble little boy he was before ever falling into the potion pot. The little wimp can’t even eat roast boar anymore…

The puny pipsqueak is the darling of the town but cannot abide his weak, ineffectual status. The situation becomes truly intolerable after he is captured by Crustacius and shipped off to Rome. After suitably castigating the troops, Asterix, Getafix and faithful mutt Dogmatix give chase in Caesar’s ship, crewed by Spartakis and his valiant band of brothers. Powered by potion, the pursuers easily overtake the Romans, who have been hampered by Obelix’s obnoxious antics and the predations of the perennially, phenomenally unlucky pirates to whom (after the period of traditional chastisement) Asterix awards Caesar’s appropriated galley. Crucially, however, in his haste the little warrior leaves behind a barrel of potion when his comrades and little Obelix all transfer to a new, less conspicuous vessel.

As the Gauls sail off in the pirate’s battered ship, Getafix has an inspired idea, suggesting to Spartakis that they make for the last remnant of Atlantis, explaining that the idyllic Canary Islands survived the inundation of the magic continent and the people living there now are reclusive beings of great power and knowledge who might be able to restore Obelix to his natural state…

When they arrive in that beautiful land of miracles, they are greeted by aged Absolutlifabulos and hordes of beautiful, happy children riding dolphins, centaurs, swans and winged cattle. The jolly dotard explains the Atlanteans reverted themselves to carefree immortal childhood, but their powers cannot do anything to cure Obelix. As the downhearted Gauls make their way home, Spartakis and his men opt to stay and become forever kids too…

Meanwhile on Caesar’s galley, Crustacius has found Getafix’s stashed potion and powered up, dreaming of ousting his foul-tempered boss and making himself Emperor, even as leagues away, a Roman boarding party invades the pirate galley and menaces the powerless Gauls. With Asterix about to be killed, little Obelix goes berserk and the emotional overload restores him to his corpulent, hyper-charged older self, much to the distress of the Roman soldiers…

By the time Crustacius reaches Rome, he has made the same mistake Obelix did and his rapid overdosing on potion only provides Caesar with another statue for the Circus Maximus…

In Gaul, however, Obelix – with a lot of frustration to work through – debarks at recently repaired Aquarium for a spot of cathartic violence before accompanying his faithful chums back to the village for a celebratory feast…

This rollicking fantasy and paean to family and friendship cemented Uderzo’s reputation as a storyteller whilst his stunning illustrative ability affords glimpses of sheer magic to lovers of cartoon art. Asterix and Obelix All at Sea proves the potion-powered paragons of Gallic Pride will never lose their potent punch. If you still haven’t experienced this sublime slice of French polish and graphic élan, it’s never too late…
© 1996 Les Editions Albert René Goscinny/Uderzo. Revised English translations © 1998, 2002 Les Editions Albert René, Goscinny/Uderzo. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Marvel Firsts: The 1960s


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Larry Lieber, Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Arnold Drake, Steve Parkhouse, Don Heck, Bill Everett, Dick Ayers, Gene Colan, John Buscema, George Tuska, Christpher Rule, George Klein, Paul Reinman, Joe Sinnott, George Roussos, Sol Brodsky, Vince Colletta, Chic Stone, John Verpoorten, Syd Shores, Frank Giacoia, Sid Greene, Stan Goldberg, Sam Rosen, Art Simek, Terry Szanics, John Duffy & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5864-6 (TPB), 978-1-3025-0063-4 (Digital edition)

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

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless Fantasy Masterpiece for All Old Alike… 9/10

For most fans, the Marvel Age of Comics began with Fantastic Four #1 at the tail end of 1961, but the company itself cites Marvel Comics #1 from 1939, when the outfit was called Timely, as the big natal event. That means this year is their 87th anniversary. The first modern (for which read Post-War) comic books badged with a Marvel Comics brand were mystery anthology Journey into Mystery #69 and teen-humour hit Patsy Walker #95 (both cover-dated June 1961), each displaying an “MC” box on the cover. These soon proliferated until iconic storyteller Steve Ditko redesigned the masthead corner box for Amazing Spider-Man #2 (cover dated May 1963 and on sale from February 12th). By the July releases the name was on all issues and Marvel was forever linked to a comics revolution…

Whenever the event was, has been celebrated in a number of big-ticket compilations. This hefty carefully curated edition from 2011 wasn’t one of them, but is a superb overview of the decade of innovation that made the House of Ideas a global force and household name. It collects the first story of each character’s own series (not necessarily the same as a debut appearance), highlighting key moments through material taken from Rawhide Kid #17, Amazing Adventures #1, Fantastic Four #1, Tales to Astonish #27, 51 & 70, Incredible Hulk #1, Amazing Fantasy #15, Journey into Mystery #83, Strange Tales #101, 110 & 135, Two-Gun Kid #60, Tales of Suspense #39, 49 & 59, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes #1, The Avengers #1, X-Men #1, Daredevil #1, Ghost Rider #1, Marvel Super-Heroes #12, 19-20, Captain Savage #1 & Silver Surfer #1. These collectively cover August 1960 to May 1969 and also incorporate a vast gallery of covers from the other titles that came and went with such breathtaking rapidity in those days.

As stated, the company that would be Marvel was still going (albeit in dire straits) when Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Ditko and a select band of other multi-genre creators started that revolution, and these tales offer unmatched insights into how it all happened by re-presenting official first appearances…

Opening in January 1960 with 16 genre covers ranging from Battle #70 to Love Romances #87 to Patsy Walker #89, the first inklings of what’s to come are seen in narrative components taken from Rawhide Kid #17, by Lee, Kirby and inker Dick Ayers.

The Kid was one of Atlas’ older icons, having starred in his own title since 1955. A stock sagebrush centurion clad in buckskins, he was an early casualty when Atlas’ distribution crisis forced the company to cut back to 16 titles in the autumn of 1957. With westerns huge on TV and youthful rebellion a hot topic in 1960, Lee & Kirby conceived a brand-new sixgun stalwart – and a teenager to boot! – and launched him in the summer of the year, economically continuing the numbering of his cancelled predecessor.

It’s important to remember that these yarns aren’t trying to be gritty or authentic: they’re accessing the vast miasmic morass of wholesome, homogenised Hollywood mythmaking that generations of consumer preferred to learning the grim everyday toil, travail and terror of the real Old West, so sit back, reset your moral compass to “fair enough” and revel in simplistic Black Hats vs White Hats with all the dynamic bombast and bravura Kirby & Ayers could muster.

It all begins with adopted teen Johnny Bart teaching all and sundry in a cow-town named Rawhide to ‘Beware! The Rawhide Kid’ after his retired Texas Ranger Uncle Ben (!) is gunned down by fame-hungry cheat Hawk Brown. After very publicly exercising his right to vengeance, the naive kid flees Rawhide before offering justifications or explanation, resigned to living as an outlaw forevermore. His reputation is further enhanced when he routs a masked gang robbing the ‘Stagecoach to Shotgun Gap!’, after which Don Heck delivers one of his slickly authentic western yarns as a veteran gunslinger devises a way to end his own fearsome career ‘With Gun in Hand!’ The issue closed with by Lee, Kirby & Ayers revealing how another tragic misunderstanding confirms Johnny Bart’s destiny ‘When the Rawhide Kid Turned… Outlaw!’

Following a trio of romantic comedy covers (My Girl Pearl #7; Teen-Age Romance #77 & Life with Millie #8) we turn to the splendidly addictive men-vs-monsters anthology titles wherein Amazing Adventures #1 (cover-dated June 1961) begins a cautious experiment by launching a low-key – un-costumed even – paranormal mystically empowered investigator for a short run of pre-superhero escapades. ‘I Am the Fantastic Dr. Droom!’ (Lee & Kirby with Ditko inking) sees a seemingly sedate American drawn to Tibet to be trained in ancient mysteries before returning home as an occult consultant. The cover for Linda Carter, Student Nurse #1 then takes us to the big moment when everything changed…

Cover-dated November 1961 and on sale from August 8th, Fantastic Four #1 introduced a brave new world in eponymous epic ‘The Fantastic Four’ as maverick genius Reed Richards summons his fiancée Sue Storm, their pilot pal Ben Grimm and Sue’s teenaged brother Johnny before heading off on their first mission. Via flashback we learn they are driven survivors of a private spaceshot that went horribly wrong after Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding. On crashing back to Earth, they found they’d all been hideously mutated into outlandish freaks.

Richards’ body became elastic, Sue could become invisible, Johnny Storm could turn into living flame and tragic Ben was reduced to a shambling, rocky living horror. Shaken but unbowed, they vowed to dedicate their new abilities to benefiting mankind. Crafted by Lee & Kirby. inked by George Klein & Christopher Rule, the drama intensified with ‘The Fantastic Four meet the Mole Man’ as they foil another outcast who tyrannically controls monsters and slave humanoids from far beneath the Earth. This summation of the admittedly mediocre plot cannot do justice to the engrossing wonder of that breakthrough issue… we really have no grasp today of just how different in tone, and how shocking it all was.

Next comes Ditko’s cover to Amazing Adult Fantasy #7, preceding a throwaway vignette from another of the company’s anthological monster mags. Taken from Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962) a 7-page short introduces Dr Henry Pym, the maverick scientist who discovered a shrinking potion and invoked peril, wonder and a kind of companionship amongst the lowliest creatures on Earth and under it. This engaging piece of fluff – which owed more than a little to movie The Incredible Shrinking Man – was plotted by Lee, scripted by his brother Larry Lieber and stunningly illustrated by Kirby & Ayers.

The Incredible Hulk smashed right into his own bi-monthly comic and, after some classic romps by Young Marvel’s finest creators, crashed right out again. After 6 issues the series was cancelled and Lee retrenched, making the Gruff Green Giant a perennial guest-star in other Marvel titles until such time as they could restart the drama in their new Split-Book format in Tales to Astonish where Ant/Giant-Man was rapidly proving to be a character who had outlived his time.

Cover-dated May 1962, that first issue observes puny atomic scientist Bruce Banner, sequestered on a secret military base in the Midwest desert, perpetually bullied by bombastic commander General “Thunderbolt” Ross as a clock counts down to the world’s first Gamma Bomb detonation. Besotted by the General’s daughter Betty, Banner endures the General’s constant jibes as the timer ticks on and tension increases. At the final moment Banner sees a teenager lollygagging at Ground Zero and frantically rushes to the site to drag the boy away. Unknown to everyone, the assistant he’s entrusted to delay the countdown has an agenda of his own…

Rick Jones is a wayward but good-hearted kid. After initial resistance he lets himself be pushed into a safety trench, but just as Banner prepares to join him The Bomb explodes…

Somehow surviving the blast, Banner and the boy are secured by soldiers, but that evening as the sun sets the scientist undergoes a monstrous transformation. He grows larger and his skin turns stony grey…

In 6 simple pages that’s how it all starts, and no matter what any number of TV or movie reworkings or comicbook retcons and psycho-babble re-evaluations would have you believe that’s still the best and most primal take on the origin. A good man, an unobtainable girl, a foolish kid, an unknown enemy and the horrible power of destructive science unchecked…

Written by Lee, drawn by Kirby & inked by Paul Reinman, ‘The Coming of the Hulk’ barrels along as the man-monster & Jones are kidnapped by Banner’s Soviet counterpart The Gargoyle for a rousing round of espionage and Commie-bashing…

Crafting extremely well-received monster and mystery tales for and with Stan Lee, Ditko had been rewarded with his own title. Amazing Adventures/Amazing Adult Fantasy featured a subtler alternative kind of yarns other than Rampaging Aliens or Furry Underpants Monsters, which – though individually entertaining – had been slowly losing traction in the world of comics ever since National/DC had successfully reintroduced costumed heroes.

Lee & Kirby had responded with Fantastic Four and the ahead-of-his-time Hulk, but there was no indication of the renaissance to come when the cover of officially just-cancelled Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962) highlighted a brand new and rather eerie adventure character. The wonderment came and went in 11 captivating pages as ‘Spider-Man!’ told the parable of Peter Parker, a smart yet alienated kid bitten by a radioactive spider on a high school science trip. Discovering he has developed arachnid abilities (which he augments with his own natural engineering genius) Parker does what any lonely, geeky nerd would do when given such a gift… he tries to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Creating a costume to hide his identity in case he makes a fool of himself, Parker becomes a minor celebrity and a vain, self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief flees past, he doesn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returns home that his Uncle Ben has been murdered. Crazy for vengeance, Parker stalks the assailant who made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, to find that it is the felon he couldn’t be bothered with. Since his irresponsibility led to the death of the man who raised him, the boy swears to always use his powers to help others…

It wasn’t a new story, but the setting was familiar to every kid reading it and the artwork was downright spooky. This wasn’t the gleaming high-tech world of moon-rockets, giant aliens and flying cars, this stuff could happen to anybody. The tragic last ditch tale struck a chord with the readers and by Christmas a new comic book superstar was ready to launch in his own title, with Ditko eager to show what he could do with his first returning character since the demise of Charlton action hero Captain Atom.

The Mighty Thor was the comic series in which Kirby’s restless fascination with all things Cosmic was honed and refined through his dazzling graphics and captivating concepts. The King’s examination of space-age mythology began in modest fantasy title Journey into Mystery where, in the summer of 1962, a tried-&-true comic book concept (feeble mortal transformed into god-like hero) was revived by the fledgling outfit to add a Superman analogue to their growing roster of costumed adventurers. Journey into Mystery #83 (August 1962) saw a bold costumed warrior jostle aside the regular fare of monsters, robots and sinister scientists in a brash, vivid explosion of verve and vigour. The initial exploit follows crippled US doctor Donald Blake vacationing in Norway and encountering the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing, he is trapped in a cave and finds an old, gnarled walking stick. In his frustration, he smashes the stick into a huge boulder obstructing his escape and his spindly frame transforms into Norse God of Thunder Mighty Thor!

Plotted by Lee, scripted by Lieber and illustrated by Kirby & inker Joe Sinnott (at this juncture a full illustrator, Sinnott would become Kirby’s primary inker for most of his Marvel career), ‘The Stone Men of Saturn’ is pure early Marvel: bombastic, fast-paced, gloriously illogical and captivatingly action-packed. The hugely under-appreciated Art Simek was the letterer and logo designer.

It was clear that they were making it up as they went along (not in itself a bad thing) and all that infectious enthusiasm showed. Amazing Fantasy #15 came out the same month as JiM #83 and a month later Tales to Astonish #35 – the first featuring Henry Pym as Astonishing Ant-Man in costumed capers appeared. In this volume you’ll find the cover to TtA #35 to mark that occasion…

Hot on the heels of the runaway success of the FF, Stan & Jack spun the most colourful – and youngest – member of the team into a solo series, seeking to recapture the glory of the 1940s when the original Human Torch was one of the company’s “Big Three” superstars. Within a year, magic-&-monsters anthology Strange Tales became home for the hot-headed hero. ST #101 saw Johnny Storm start his off-duty career with eponymous exploit ‘The Human Torch’. Scripted by Lieber (over a plot by brother Stan) and sublimely illustrated by Kirby & Ayers, the plucky lad investigates sabotage at a seaside amusement park and uncovers Commie-conniving by Red spy The Destroyer. Kirby pencilled the first few adventures before moving on, with Ayers assuming artistic control for most of its run, although The King generated some of the best covers of his Marvel career throughout the Torch’s Strange Tales tenure.

An odd inconsistency – or, more likely, tension- and drama-inducing gimmick – did crop up here. Although public figures in the FF, Johnny and sister Sue lived part-time in Long Island hamlet Glenville, where, despite the townsfolk being fully aware of her as the glamorous and heroic Invisible Girl, they seemed oblivious to the fact that her brother is the equally famous Torch. Many daft-but-ingenious pages of Johnny protecting his “secret identity” ensued before the situation was brilliantly resolved…

Despite the runway success of its new-fangled superheroes, Marvel still offered a range of genres like westerns. August 1962 saw the retooling of another retired Atlas property when Two-Gun Kid #60 (cover-dated November) introduced Eastern lawyer Matt Hawk. He moved to barbarous, unruly Tombstone, Texas in ‘The Beginning of the Two-Gun Kid’ (Lee, Kirby & Ayers). After merciless and relentless bullying, the tenderfoot is mentored by aged gunslinger Ben Dancer and becomes a powerful, ultrafast deadly accurate shootist.

When Ben is driven out of town by thugs working for land baron Clem Carter, Hawk adopts a masked identity to see that justice is done. Heck then limns stand-alone tale ‘The Outcast’, exposing the naked ambition of a Navajo warrior, before Hawk returns to complete his origin story in ‘I Hate the Two-Gun Kid!’ as romantic interest Nancy Carter succumbs to a scheme by her stepbrother to defraud her and frame the new hero in town…

More striking covers – Modelling with Millie #21 & Amazing Spider-Man #1 – precede the debut of Marvel’s next milestone in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963 and on sale for Christmas 1962). Created in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis at a time when “Red-baiting” & “Commie-bashing” were national obsessions in the U.S. the emergence of a brilliant new Thomas Edison employing Yankee ingenuity and invention to safeguard the World was an inevitable proposition.

Combining the cherished belief that (US) technology could solve every problem with universal imagery of noble knights battling evil, the proposition became certainty. Of course, kids thought it great fun and very, very cool. Scripted by Lieber (over Lee’s plot) and illustrated by the criminally unappreciated Don Heck, ‘Iron Man is Born’ saw electronics wizard turned arms maker Tony Stark field testing inventions in Vietnam when he is wounded by a landmine. Captured by Viet Cong leader Wong-Chu, Stark is given a grim ultimatum. Create weapons for the Reds and a doctor will remove from his chest the shrapnel that will kill him within seven days. If not…

Knowing Commies can’t be trusted, Stark and aged Professor Yinsen – another captive scientist – build a mobile iron lung (remember this is years before transplants or pacemakers) to keep his heart beating, equipping it with all the weapons their ingenuity and resources can secretly build. Naturally they succeed, defeating Wong-Chu, but not without tragic sacrifice.

Next was a new genre title, again given a fresh treatment by Lee, Kirby & Ayers. Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (May 1963) was an improbable, over-the-top WWII combat comics series similar in tone to later ensemble action movies like The Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch or The Dirty Dozen. The surly squad of sorry reprobates were the first of three teams concocted by men-on-fire Kirby & Lee to secure Marvel’s growing position as the publisher to watch. Sgt. Fury started out as a pure Kirby creation. As with his various war comics, The King made everything look harsh and real and appalling: the people and places are all grimy and tired, battered yet indomitable. Jack had served in some of the worst battles of the war and never forgot horrific and heroic things he saw. These he more graphically expressed in his efforts during the 1950s genre boom at many different companies. However, even at kid-friendly, Comics Code-sanitised Marvel, those experiences perpetually leaked through onto his powerfully gripping pages.

The saga began with blistering premier ‘Sgt. Fury, and his Howling Commandoes’ (that’s how they spellleded it in the storrie-title – altho knot enneewaire else): a rip-snorting yarn bursting with full-page panels interspersed with ‘Meet the Howling Commandos’ – a double-page spread spotlighting the 7-member First Attack Squad; Able Company, comprising Fury himself; former circus strongman/Corporal “Dum-Dum” Dugan and privates Robert “Rebel” Ralston (a Kentucky jockey); college student Jonathan “Junior” Juniper; jazz trumpeter Gabe Jones; Brooklyn mechanic Izzy Cohen and glamorous movie heartthrob Dino Manelli.

Controversially even for the 1960s, this battle Rat Pack was an integrated unit with Jewish and black members as well as Catholics, Southern Baptists and New York white guys all merrily serving together. The Howling Commandos pushed envelopes and busted taboos from the very start and the first mission was a non-stop riot pitting ‘Seven Against the Nazis!’ whilst putting the squad through their unique paces. The ragged band of indomitable warriors took on hordes of square-necked Nazis to save D-Day and rescue a French resistance fighter carrying vital plans of the invasion and is counterpointed by a far more low-key introduction for the next debut.

Something definitely different debuted at the back of Strange Tales #110.

When the budding House of Ideas introduced a warrior wizard to their proliferating pantheon in the summer of 1963 it was a bold but curious move. Bizarre adventures with menacing monsters were still incredibly popular both in and outside comics but mention of magic or the supernatural – especially vampires, werewolves and their eldritch ilk – were savagely proscribed by the censorship panel which dictated almost all aspects of story content. At this time (nearly a decade after an anti-comics public campaign led to Senate hearings) all comics were ferociously monitored and adjudicated by a draconian Comics Code Authority. Even though some of smaller company’s strongest sellers were mystery mags, their underlying themes and premises were almost universally mad science & alien wonders, not necromantic or thaumaturgic horrors. That might explain Lee’s unobtrusive introduction of Ditko’s mystic defender: an exotic, twilit troubleshooter inhabiting the shadowy outer fringes of rational, civilised society in one of those aforementioned monster titles.

Tales of Suspense #41 (May 1963) saw neophyte Iron Man battle crazed tech-wizard Doctor Strange, and with the codename successfully and legally in copyrightable print, preparations began for a truly different kind of ongoing hero. Marvel had recently published a quasi-mystic champion in balding, trench-coated Doctor Droom (later rechristened – or is that re-paganed? – Dr. Druid) and when Stephen Strange scored big, the prototype was retro-written into Marvel continuity as an alternative candidate and precursor for the ultimate role of Sorcerer Supreme.

Thus, without any preamble, our first meeting with the man of mystery comes courtesy of a quiet little chiller which has never been surpassed for sheer mood and imagination. Lee & Ditko’s ‘Doctor Strange Master of Black Magic!’ (Strange Tales #110, July 1963) saw a terrified man troubled by dreams approach an exceptional consultant in his search of a cure. That perfect 5-page fright-fest introduced entire fresh realms and featured deceit, desperation, double-dealing and the introduction of both a mysterious, aged oriental mentor and devilish dream demon Nightmare in an unforgettable yarn that might well be Ditko’s finest moment.

After a period of meteoric expansion, by mid-1963 the ever-expanding Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the successful DC concept that cemented the legitimacy of the Silver Age of American comics. The notion of putting a bunch of all-star eggs in one basket had made Justice League of America such a winner it inspired fading Atlas to try superheroes again. Nearly 18 months after FF #1, Marvel had a viable stable of leading men (but only sidekick women) so Lee & Kirby assembled a handful of them and moulded them into a force for justice and soaring sales. Seldom has it ever been done with such style and sheer exuberance. Cover dated September 1963, The Avengers #1 kicks off with ‘The Coming of the Avengers’: one of the industry’s cannier origin tales. Instead of starting at a zero point and acting as if the reader knew nothing, Stan & Jack (plus inker Ayers) assumed consumers had at least a passing familiarity with their other titles and wasted very little time or energy on introductions.

In Asgard, God of Mischief Loki is imprisoned on a dank isle, hungry for vengeance on his half-brother Thor. Observing Earth, the wicked godling espies monstrous, misunderstood Hulk and engineers a situation wherein the man-brute seemingly goes on a rampage, simply to trick the Thunder God into battling the brute. When the Hulk’s sidekick Rick Jones radios the FF for assistance, devious Loki diverts the transmission and smugly awaits the outcome of his trickery Sadly, Iron Man, Ant-Man & The Wasp also pick up the redirected SOS and respond. As heroes converge in the US Southwest to search for the Jade Giant, they realize that something is oddly amiss…

This terse, epic, compelling and wide-ranging yarn (New York, New Mexico, Detroit and Asgard in 22 pages) is Lee & Kirby at their bombastic best, but that same month they also premiered another super squad that was the hero team’s polar opposite. X-Men #1 introduced gloomy, serious Scott Summers (Cyclops), ebullient Bobby Drake/Iceman, wealthy golden boy Warren Worthington III codenamed Angel, and erudite, brutish genius Henry McCoy as The Beast. The teens were students of wheelchair-bound telepath Professor Charles Xavier, dedicated to broker peace and achieve integration between sprawling masses of humanity and Homo Superior: an emergent off-shoot species of mutants with incredible extra abilities.

Scripted by Lee ‘X-Men’ opens with the boisterous boy students welcoming newest classmate Jean Grey (promptly dubbed Marvel Girl): a young woman possessing the ability to move objects with her mind. Whilst Xavier is explaining the team goals and mission in life, actual Evil Mutant Magneto is single-handedly taking over US missile-base Cape Citadel. A seemingly unbeatable threat, the master of magnetism is nonetheless valiantly driven off by the young heroes on their first outing in under 15 minutes. It doesn’t sound like much, but the gritty, dynamic power of Kirby’s art, solidly inked by veteran Paul Reinman, imparted raw aggressive energy to the tale which carried the bi-monthly book irresistibly forward.

As Henry Pym matured from Ant-Man to Giant-Man, he took on a crimefighting partner in Janet Van Dyne: The Wasp. Although she almost never got a chance to solo star, with Tales to Astonish #52 (January 1964) Jan was granted a back-up series where she narrated horror stories like the one included here. Crafted by Lee, Lieber & George Roussos, ‘Somewhere Waits a Wobbow!’is a standard cautionary tale of fate and justice catching up to a crooked ne’er-do-well, and is followed here by a similar new position for an alien first introduced in Fantastic Four #13. From the same team and the same month, Tales of the Watcher began in Tales of Suspense #49 with the omnipotent intergalactic voyeur sharing ‘The Saga of the Sneepers!’ with predatory extraterrestrials observing Earth and making plans of conquest…

As the evolved Atlas Comics grew in popularity, it gradually supplanted its broad variety of genre titles with more and more superheroes. The recovering powerhouse was still hampered by a crippling distribution deal that limited the company to 16 titles per month (which would restrict their output until 1968), so each new untried book would have to fill the revenue-generating slot (however small) of an existing title.

Moreover, as costumed characters were selling, each new similarly-themed title would limit the monster, western, war, humour or girls’ comics that had been the outfit’s recent bread and butter. It was putting a lot of those eggs in one basket, and superheroes had failed twice before for Marvel. So Daredevil, the Man Without Fear (April 1964) might have seemed a risky venture. Yes, the artist was one of the industry’s most talented veterans, but not to the young kids who were its audience. Most importantly, he wasn’t Kirby or Ditko…

‘The Origin of Daredevil’ sees how young Matthew Murdock grew up in the slums, raised by his dad Battling Jack Murdock, a second-rate prize-fighter. Determined that his boy will be someone, Jack extracts a solemn promise from his son that he will never fight. Mocked by other kids who sarcastically dub him “Daredevil”, Matt abides by his vow, but secretly trains his body to physical perfection. One day he saves a blind man from being hit by a speeding truck, only to be struck in the face by its radioactive cargo. His sight is burned away forever but his other senses are super-humanly enhanced and he gains a sixth: “radar-sense”. He tells no-one, not even his dad.

Jack is in dire straits. As his career declined, he signed with The Fixer, knowing full well what the corrupt promoter expected from his fighters. Yet Jack’s star started to shine again and his downward spiral reversed itself. Unaware that he was being set up, Murdock got a shot at the Big Time, but when ordered to take a dive, refused. Winning was the proudest moment of his life. When his bullet-riddled corpse was found, the cops had suspicions but no proof…

Heartbroken Matt graduates college with a law degree and sets up in business with old room-mate Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. They hire young secretary Karen Page and, with his life on track, Matt now has time to solve his father’s murder. His promise had stopped him from fighting but what if he became somebody else? Scripted by Lee and moodily illustrated by Bill Everett (with assistance from Ditko) this is a rather nonsensical yet visually compelling yarn that just goes through the motions, barely hinting at the magic yet to come.

A cover gallery highlighting Marvel Tales Annual #1, Tales to Astonish #60 and photo-satire mag Monsters to Laugh With #1 then leads to the return of Captain America in his own series. After his resurrection in Avengers #4, the golden Age Cap exponentially grew in popularity and was quickly awarded his own solo feature, sharing Tales of Suspense with Iron Man. Sparsely scripted by Lee with the staggeringly perfect team of Kirby & Chic Stone illustrating, ‘Captain America’ is one phenomenal extended fight as an army of thugs invade Avengers Mansion because “only the one without superpowers” is at home. They soon learn the folly of that misapprehension…

Veteran war-hero Nick Fury was reimagined in Fantastic Four #21 (December 1963) as a grizzled, world-weary CIA Colonel at the periphery of really big events in a fast-changing world. Fury’s latter-day self then emerged as a big-name star once espionage yarns went global in the wake of popular TV sensations like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The elder iteration was given a second series in Strange Tales #135 (August 1965). Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which back then stood for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division) combined Cold War tensions with sinister schemes of World Conquest by a subversive, all-encompassing, hidden enemy organisation. The unfolding saga came with captivating Kirby-designed super-science gadgetry…

Kirby’s genius for graphic wizardry and gift for dramatic staging mixed with Lee’s manic melodrama to create a tough, tense series which the writers & artists who followed turned into a non-stop riot of action and suspense. The main event opens in ST #135 as the Human Torch lead feature was summarily replaced. In the rocket-paced first episode, Fury is asked to volunteer for the most dangerous job in the world: leading a new counter-intelligence agency sworn to stop secret subversive super-science organisation Hydra. With assassins dogging his every move, the Take-Charge Guy with the Can-Do Attitude proves he is ‘The Man for the Job!’ in a potent 12-page thriller by Lee, Kirby & Ayers.

Originally devised by Bill Everett in 1939, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the offspring of a water-breathing Atlantean princess and a US polar explorer: a hybrid being of immense strength, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly and exist above and below the waves. Namor technically predates Marvel/Atlas/Timely Comics. He first caught public attention as part of the fire vs. water headlining team in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939 and Marvel Mystery Comics from the second issue onward), sharing honours and top billing with the original Human Torch, but he had originally been seen (albeit in a truncated monochrome version) in Motion Picture Funnies: a weekly promotional giveaway handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year.

Rapidly emerging as one of the company’s biggest draws, Namor gained his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941) and was one of the last super-characters to go at the end of the first heroic age. In 1954, when Atlas briefly revived its Big Three super characters, Everett returned for an extended run of superb fantasy tales, but even so the time wasn’t right and the title sunk again. When Lee & Kirby began reinventing comic books in 1961 they retooled the forgotten awesome amphibian as a troubled, semi-amnesiac, decidedly regal and grandiose antihero in FF #4. Namor despised humanity; embittered at the loss of his sub-sea kingdom (which was seemingly destroyed by atomic testing) whilst being simultaneously besotted with Sue Storm.

Namor knocked around the budding continuity, squabbling with assorted heroes like Hulk, Avengers & X-Men, before winning his own series as half of Tales to Astonish. Marvel’s split-books had been devised as a way to promote their growing stable of stars whilst toiling under a highly restrictive distribution deal limiting the number of titles they could release each month. In 1968 the company ended this commitment and expanded exponentially.

After spectacularly battling Daredevil in the Scarlet Swashbuckler’s 7th issue, TtA #70 heralded ‘The Start of the Quest!’ as Lee, Gene Colan (in pseudonymous disguise as Adam Austin) & Vince Colletta set Sub-Mariner to storming an Atlantis under martial law ordered by his usurping Warlord Krang. The effort is for naught and our returning hero is rejected by his own people. Callously imprisoned, the troubled Prince is freed by his oft-neglected and ignored paramour Lady Dorma, charging him to undertake a mystical quest to find the lost Trident of King Neptune… which only the rightful ruler of Atlantis can hold.

More covers follow: Monsters Unlimited #1, Patsy Walker’s Fashion Parade #1, reprint anthologies Marvel Collectors’ Items Classics #1, Fantasy Masterpieces #1, Marvel Tales #3, King Size Special Marvel Super-Heroes #1 & Thor #126 (a first issue as Journey into Mystery was sensibly retitled here) before a new masked-&-costumed western hero debuted in Ghost Rider #1 (December 1966).

‘The Origin of the Ghost Rider’ by Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas, Ayers & Colletta revealed how Eastern teacher Carter Slade is shot by fake Indians and brought back from the brink of death by real ones. Saved by recently-orphaned Jamie Jacobs, Slade is healed by shaman Flaming Star who trains Slade in combat and grants him gifts enabling him to perform tricks of stage magic (such as night time invisibility, image projection and bodily discorporation). Creating a glowing costume, Slade goes after plundering white men impersonating native tribes – and who killed Jamie’s parents – as a spectral avenging spirit “He who rides the Night Winds”…

Older fans – or their grandparents – might possibly recognise this hero as a western legend created by Ray Krank & Dick Ayers for Tim Holt #11 (Magazine Enterprises, 1949) and later immortalised by Frank Frazetta. They are stunningly, litigiously similar and Marvel made good use of the original’s reputation and recently voided copyright ownership. The same holds true for their next superhero addition, who crops up following another cover gallery featuring Not Brand Echh #1 and animated cartoon tie-in one-shot America’s Best (TV) Comics #1.

After years as an also-ran/up-and-comer, by 1968 Marvel Comics was in the ascendant. Their sales were catching up with industry leaders National/DC Comics and Gold Key, and they at last secured a new distribution deal that allowed them to expand their titles exponentially. Once the doubled-up stars of split-books Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish & Strange Tales all got their own titles, the House of Ideas just kept on going. One dead-cert idea was a star named after the company… one with a vast amount of name-recognition and nostalgic pedigree as well.

After the DC/Fawcett court case of the 1940s-1950s, the name Captain Marvel disappeared from newsstands, but in 1967, during the superhero boom and camp craze generated by the Batman TV show, publisher MLF secured rights to the name and produced giant-sized comics featuring an intelligent robot who could divide his body into segments and shoot lasers from his eyes. Quirky, charming and devised by the legendary Carl (Human Torch) Burgos who had recently worked for Marvel, the comic nevertheless did not attract a large following. Upon its demise, the name was quickly snapped up by the resurgent Marvel Comics Group. Marvel Super-Heroes was a brand-new title. It had been giant-sized reprint title Fantasy Masterpieces, combining monster & mystery tales with Golden Age Timely classics. With #12, it added an all-new experimental lead section for characters without homes. These would include Inhuman Queen Medusa and a new Black Knight when not debuting new concepts like Guardians of the Galaxy, Phantom Eagle (oddly omitted from this volume) and, to start the ball rolling, an troubled alien spy sent to Earth from the Kree Galaxy. He held a Captain’s rank and his name was Mar-Vell.

Crafted by Lee, Colan & Giacoia, initial 15-page MS-H instalment ‘The Coming of Captain Marvel!: Phase One!!’ devolved directly from FF #64-65 wherein the quartet defeated a super-advanced Sentry robot from a mythical space empire, only to be attacked by a high official of those long-lost extraterrestrials in their very next issue! After defeating Ronan the Accuser, the FF heard no more from the far-from-extinct Kree, but the millennia-old civilisation was once again interested in Earth. Dispatching a surveillance mission, the Kree wanted to know everything about us. Unfortunately, the agent they chose was a troubled man of conscience; whilst commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was a ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una. No sooner has the good captain made tentative planetfall and clashed with the US military from the local missile base than this first instalment ends…

Although cover-dated January 1968, Capt. Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #1 was released in November of the previous year, literally promoting a long-running supporting character from Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos to lead status and the Pacific Theatre of War in WWII. Crafted by Friedrich, Ayers & Syd Shores ‘The Last Banzai!’ sees US submarine commander Simon Savage reluctantly appointed the head of a squad of elite (multicultural/multi-ethnic) marines to clear the way for imminent Allied landings on the fortified atoll of Tarawa. It’s a dirty job but…

The aforementioned expansion is celebrated by a gallery of debuting series covers for Groovy #1, Captain America #100, Incredible Hulk #102, Iron Man and The Sub-Mariner #1, Iron Man #1, Sub-Mariner #1, Captain Marvel #1, Doctor Strange #169, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 and Spectacular Spider-Man #1 and cemented by the first full solo tale of one the company’s breakthrough stars.

Although pretty much a last-minute addition to Fantastic Four #48-50’s ‘Galactus Trilogy’, Jack Kirby’s scintillating creation the Silver Surfer swiftly became a watchword for depth and subtext in the Marvel Universe and one Lee kept as his own personal toy for many years. Tasked with finding planets for space god Galactus to consume and, despite the best efforts of intergalactic voyeur Uatu the Watcher, one day the Surfer discovers Earth, where the latent nobility of humanity reawakens his own suppressed morality; causing the shining scout to rebel against his master and help the FF save the world. In retaliation, Galactus imprisons his one-time herald on Earth, making him the ultimate outsider on a planet remarkably ungrateful for his sacrifice. The Galactus Saga was a creative high from a period when the Lee/Kirby partnership was absolutely on fire. The tale has all the power and grandeur of a true epic and has never been surpassed for drama, thrills and sheer entertainment. It’s not included here: for that treat you’ll need to see a Fantastic Four Epic Collection or many another Marvel collection…

In May 1968, after frequent guest-shots and even a solo adventure in the back of Fantastic Four Annual #5, the Surfer finally got his own (initially double-length) title at long last. Illustrated by John Buscema & Joe Sinnott, ‘The Origin of the Silver Surfer!’ finds the drama opening on a prolonged flashback sequence of the outcast’s forays on Earth and repeated examples of crass humanity’s brutal callousness and unthinking hostility. Then we see how Norrin Radd, discontented soul from an alien paradise Zenn-La, became the gleaming herald of a planetary scourge. Radd had constantly chafed against a civilisation in comfortable, sybaritic stagnation, but when Galactus shattered their cosy million years of progress in a fleeting moment, without hesitation the discontented dissident offered himself as a sacrifice to save the world from the Devourer’s hunger. Converted into an indestructible, gleaming human meteor, Radd agreed to scour the galaxies looking for uninhabited worlds rich in the energies Galactus needs to survive, thus saving planets with life on them from destruction. He didn’t always find them in time…

The stories in this series were highly acclaimed – if not commercially successful – both for Buscema’s agonised, emphatic and lush artwork as well as Lee’s deeply spiritual and cod-philosophical scripts. The tone was accusatory; with the isolated alien’s travails and social observations creating a metaphoric status akin to a Christ-figure for an audience that was maturing and rebelling against America’s creaking and unsavoury status quo.

Marvel the business had early learned the value of reprinting past glories; both to update new readers and to cheaply monopolise sales points. Here a gallery blends ongoing titles like newly retitled Captain Savage and his Battlefield Raiders #5 and adult-oriented comics magazine Pussycat #1 with double-sized classics reprint compilations Tales of Asgard #1 and The Mighty Marvel Western #1 before Marvel Super-Heroes #19 (March 1969 and on the stands in December 1968) sees Tarzan analogue Ka-Zar in his first solo story ‘My Father, My Enemy!’ courtesy of Arnold Drake, Steve Parkhouse, George Tuska & Sid Greene. Beginning as a barbarian wild man in a lost sub-polar realm of swamp-men and dinosaurs, Ka-Zar eventually evolved into one of Marvel’s more complex – and exceedingly mutable – characters. Wealthy heir to one of Britain’s oldest noble families, his best friend is a sabre-tooth tiger, his wife is feisty jungle warrior/zoologist Shanna the She-Devil and his brother is a homicidal super-scientific bandit. He is one of Marvel/Timely’s oldest heroes; pulp hero predated Martin Goodman’s first foray into comics and strip incarnation Kazar the Great was in Marvel Comics #1, right beside Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and The Angel…

Lord Kevin Plunder was perpetually torn between the clean life-or-death simplicity of the jungle and the bewildering constant compromises of modern civilisation as he guest-starred in titles as varied as X-Men, Daredevil & Amazing Spider-Man. As this enjoyable, under-appreciated tale unfolds many of the modern hero’s inconsistencies and conflicts are squared as the aristocratic outsider quits his English castle for the Antediluvian Savage Land to investigate claims that his dead father was a scientific devil intent on using his discovery of anti-metal for evil. Tragically, his warped brother Parnival is ruthless and determined to hide the truth for his own vile ends. A consequent wild excursion to Antarctica sees the discovery and obfuscation of the truth, strange aliens, dinosaurs, lost cities, spectacular locations, pervasive mystery and all-out action. Comics don’t get better than this…

Ending these astounding formative adventures is a tale from February 1969, just as comics began experiencing another downturn in superhero sales and the resurrection of other, more traditional genres with fresh modern tones. Co-written and pencilled by Lieber with Thomas, Giacoia & Vince Colletta, ‘This Man… This Demon!’ was the final solo try-out in Marvel Super-Heroes (#20, cover-dated May) before it became an all-reprint vehicle. It restated Dr. Victor von Doom’s origins and revealed his tragic, doomed relationship with “insignificant” Roma girl Valeria. That relationship is then exploited by demon alchemist Diablo who claims to need an ally but actually wants a new slave. The terrifying monarch of Latveria deals with the charlatan in typically effective style…

Marvel continued expanding for the remainder of the decade, but not with superheroes, as a final clutch of covers – Mad About Millie #1, Chili #1, My Love #1, Tower of Shadows #1, Chamber of Darkness #1, Our Love Story #1, Marvel’s Greatest Comics #22, Homer, the Happy Ghost #1, Peter the Little Pest #1, the revived Kid Colt Outlaw(#140), Ringo Kid #1 and Where Monsters Dwell #1 – highlights the publisher’s return to broader choices and themes, following as always the trends of TV and movies. Also included is a brief bonus section sharing Stan Lee’s original synopsis for FF #1 and iconic contemporary house ads.

The 1960s was the turning point in the history of US comic books: the moment a populist industry became an art form. These tales helped sparked that renaissance and remain some of the best stories and art you will ever experience. Nuff Said?
© 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Lucky Luke volume 54: Rodeo and volume 55: Arizona


By Morris, with Louis De Bevere translated by Jerome Saincantin  (Cinebook)
ISBN Rodeo: 978-1-84918-259-1 (Album PB), 978-1-84918-833-3 (Digital edition)
ISBN Arizona: 978-1-84918-268-3 (Album PB), 978-1-84918-739-8 (Digital edition)

These book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Our Continental cousins have a mature relationship with comics, universally according them academic and scholarly standing as well as nostalgic value and the validation of acceptance as an art form. These particular tomes collect one long lived western hero’s earliest material: stories that shaped that accepting, and formative yarns of a fictional wonder who is certainly a national treasure in Belgium and France if not America…

Fair warning, there are images (very few but nonetheless…) here that utilise the ubiquitous, unreconstructed and casually racist narrative shorthand seen in so many areas of popular media – and actual history books – of this post-war era. Thus, here is where informed consent and parental responsibility are required. This does not mean knee-jerk overreactions. This is history. It can’t and must not be painted over and if such matters are important to you, please look at the material here and make a reasoned judgement (in this instance and in all others) before someone perilously impressionable does.

As we know him now, Lucky Luke is a rangy, good-natured, lightning-fast cowboy roaming the mythic Old West, enjoying light-hearted adventures with and astride his super-smart, hyper-sarcastic steed Jolly Jumper whilst interacting with a host of historical and legendary figures of the genre.

His unceasing exploits over 80 years (Happy Birthday Lucky and Jolly Jumper!) have made him one of the best-selling comic characters in Europe (83 albums, at least 13 spin-off books and more than 300 million albums in at least 31 languages thus far), with a mega-mesa of merchandise: posters, toys, computer games, apparel, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies.

He was created in 1946 by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de Bévère (“Morris”). For years we all believed it was for Le Journal de Spirou Christmas Annual (L’Almanach Spirou 1947), before being launched into his first weekly adventure ‘Arizona 1880’ on December 7th 1946. However, scholarly research and rereading old comics with a calendar at hand have revealed that I’ve been inadvertently lying to you all these years…

In fact, the strip debuted in the multinational weekly comic, but without a title banner or logo and only in the edition released in France…

Morris was a precocious, westerns-&-art-mad kid unhappily educated by Jesuits, but who escaped via pranks at school and who sought out “useless” work after leaving. His pre-comics cartooning led into film animation before he settled into his true vocation. Working at the CBA cartoon studio, Morris met future comics superstars Franquin & Peyo, and toiled for weekly magazine Le Moustique as a caricaturist. Morris became one of la Bande des quatre – The Gang of Four – comprising Jijé, Will and old comrade Franquin – all leading proponents of the loose-limbed, free-wheeling art style dubbed the “Marcinelle School” which soon dominated Le Journal de Spirou. This was in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style utilised by Hergé, EP 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, meeting fellow traveller René Goscinny, scoring commissions from newly-formed EC sensation Mad and making copious notes and sketches of the swiftly vanishing Old West. That research would resonate on every page of his life’s work.

Working solo (with script assistance from his brother Louis De Bevere) until 1955, Morris produced ten albums worth of affectionate sagebrush parody before reuniting with Goscinny, who became regular wordsmith as Luke attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with Des rails sur la Prairie (Rails on the Prairie), which began serialisation in LJdS on August 25th 1955. In 1967 the 6-gun straight-shooter switched teams, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with La Diligence (The Stagecoach).

Goscinny produced 45 albums with Morris before his death, from whence Morris continued both singly and with fresh collaborators. Morris died in 2001, having drawn 70 books worth of adventures, plus spin-off sagebrush sagas of Rantanplan (“dumbest dog in the West”) whilst Achdé, Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac took on the franchise, producing another five tales to date.

Lucky Luke first appeared in Britain in the fifties, syndicated to weekly anthology comic Film Fun and again in 1967 in Giggle where he was renamed Buck Bingo. In all these venues – as well as the numerous attempts to follow the English-language successes of Tintin and Asterix albums from Brockhampton and Knight Books – Luke had a trademark cigarette hanging insouciantly from his lip. In 1983 Morris, amidst both pained howls and muted mutterings of “political correctness gone mad”, substituted a piece of straw for the much-travelled dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization. The most recent and successful attempt to bring Lucky Luke to our shores and shelves comes from Cinebook who have rightly restored the foul weed to his lips on the interior pages if not the covers and also recently translated every last official album into our mother tongue…

Lucky Luke volume 54: Rodeo

Originally seen in Europe in 1951 as second collected hardback album Rodéo, the material contained within were extended simplistic romps and western movie riffs from the cowboy’s youngest, brashest moments.

It opens with ‘Grand Rodeo’ which first ran in Le Journal de Spirou #528-545, ending in September 1948. The art took a major upturn towards what we are familiar with today as Lucky arrives in Navajo City to compete in a legendary competition and uncovers both skulduggery and poor sportsmanship. Most of that comes from cheating  scoundrel and poor loser turned prize-money bandit Cactus Kid, but Lucky – and his steed – soon teach him the meaning of sportsmanship…

Without a pause, fresh escapade ‘Lucky Luke in Desperado City’ followed on (LJdS #546-566, ending 17th February 1949), as Lucky becomes sheriff of an embattled frontier town to defeat tyrannical owlhoots The Pistol Brothers. They prove to be far tougher to stop than expected, implicating the lone rider in stage coach robberies and even nearly having him lynched. Eventually, however, they are caught and exposed as the stooges of a hidden criminal mastermind posing as decent, law-abiding citizen.

When the dust settles and smoke clears, our hero rides off into the sunset bidding farewell to newly tamed town Justice City…

‘The Buffalo Creek Goldrush’ (serialised in LJdS #567-584 as La ruée vers l’or de Buffalo Creek, and ending 23rd June 1949), filled out the tome with a delicious satire on greed as a supposedly harmless prank on Lucky’s part goes horribly wrong. Surreptitiously dropping a gold nugget into the pan of a down-on-his luck prospector proves to be huge mistake as greed and wild rumours grip the entire region, turning a barren wasteland into an ephemeral metropolis of miners – until the penny finally drops and reality is painfully restored…

Lucky Luke volume 55: Arizona (& Lucky Luke Versus Cigarette Cesar)

Although the third album (published in November 1951), Arizona re-presents the very first exploit from 1946 and another primal perambulation across the mythic wild west.

Still very much delivered in all action mode as most similarly seen in Fleischer Popeye, Warner Brothers and MGM cartoons of the era, the original untitled debut tale was re-designated Arizona 1880 (LJdS #443-462) and details an archetypical wandering cowboy tenaciously tracking down stagecoach bandits Big Belly and Cheat.

Le Journal de Spirou #585- 601 revisited the fourth saga, by which time the Lonesome Cowboy was clearly here to stay. It was back to outright villains for ‘Lucky Luke versus Cigarette Cesar’ (ending October 20th 1949), as Lucky trails a deadly and devious escaped convict south of the border and indulges in the kind of animal cruelty gags we just don’t tolerate these days where and when bullfighting is largely discredited (please consider that a gentle warning…)

This book restores many serial pages that were edited out of the first albums for brevity and comes with extras including a Lucky pin-up, recurring cast crowd shot and a colourised contemporary woodcut print of a stage coach robbery.

Packed with contemporaneous extras, commentary, creator biographies and more, these will delight older kids with a bit of perspective and historical understanding, although the action and comedy set pieces are no more contentious than any Laurel and Hardy film (perfectly understandable as Morris was a devout fan of the bumbling duo).

The first forays of an indomitable hero, these grand old hoots stand in the tradition of Destry Rides Again and Support Your Local Sheriff, superbly executed by a master storyteller finding his feet, and are splendid introductions to a unique genre for modern kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was…
Rodeo © Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Morris. © Lucky Comics. English Translation ©  Cinebook Ltd.
Arizona © Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Morris. © Lucky Comics. English Translation ©  Cinebook Ltd.

Posted on

Spirou and Fantasio volume 23: The Moray’s Lair (A Spirou and Fantasio Adventure)


By André Franquin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-194-1 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also contains Discriminatory Content included for comedic effect.

André Franquin was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3rd 1924 and died on January 5th 1997. In between there were good times and bad, which he handled by creating the most incredible characters and stories, and by making people laugh and think… but mostly laugh. This is one of the very best you can find translated into English.

Adventure-seeking brave lad Spirou headlined the magazine he was named for from the first issue (dated April 21st 1938). He was devised and realised by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter (“Rob-Vel”) for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis in direct response to the success of Hergé’s Tintin over at rival outfit Casterman. Originally a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (a sly reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique), his improbable exploits with pet squirrel Spip gradually but steadily evolved into highflying, far reaching, surreal comedy dramas. That evolution was mainly thanks to Velter’s wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939 and Belgian artist/assistant Luc Lafnet – at least until 1943 when Dupuis purchased all rights to the property, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (Jijé) took over.

When Jijé handed his own trainee/assistant total responsibility for the flagship feature part-way through serial Spirou et la maison préfabriqué (Le Journal de Spirou #427, June 20th 1946), André Franquin ran with it for the next 20 years. He enlarged the scope and expanding horizons until the feature was purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters such as comrade/rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics The Count of Champignac. Spirou and Fantasio became globetrotting journalists, travelling to exotic places, uncovering crimes, exploring the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Fantasio’s unsavoury cousin Zantafio.

Gradually sidelining short, done-in-one gag vignettes in favour of longer epic adventure serials, Franquin’s growing cast of engaging regulars soon included one of the first strong female characters in European comics (rival journalist Seccotine AKA Cellophine in the current English translation) and ultimately led to the debut of a scene-stealing, phenomenally popular apparently-magic animal. Marsupilami arrived during 1952’s serial Spirou et les héritiers and never really left…

Franquin, plagued in later life by bouts of depression, died in 1997 but his legacy remains and still grows; a vast body of work which reshaped the landscape of European comics, and inspiring many others to carry on in his name and manner.

As Le Repaire de la murène this eccentric epic was Franquin’s ninth solo affair, originally serialised in LJdS #871-904 from December 23rd 1954 to August 11th 1955. It was eventually collected as an album in 1957. Here, as The Moray’s Lair it directly follows The Wrong Head, scoping out a soupçon of nautical naughtiness as the freshly minted investigative reporting team tackle scientific quandary and marine mystery all whilst simply trying to earn extra cash by attempting a scientific challenge.

Vacationing with mycoprotein mate Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas de Champignac at his ramshackle rural estate in Champignac-in-the-Sticks, the idling lads spot a magazine ad offering a startlingly specific engineering exploit with a hefty cash reward for its completion. “Fabulously rich ship owner” Xenophon Hamadryas seeks someone who can invent a means of descending 650 feet underwater and carry out unspecified tasks at that depth in complete safety, and they are up for it.

Perhaps distracted by the absurd and distressing antics of Spip, local postman Mr. Zenobius and the Marsupilami, our heroes’ usual caution is overwhelmed by greed and they soon convince The Count to use mushroom science to (temporarily) boost his own formidable brainpower. The result is detailed plans for scuba diving gear, unique new breathing gases, underwater communications systems and even personal minisubs to reach the required depths whilst allowing freedom of movement under the greatest most unfathomable pressures ever recorded.

At least it momentarily stops Pacôme from doing whatever it was he had started to “improve” the estate’s chickens…

The brainstorming meets with initial success, but once the team submit their plans and commission construction of the kit, a wave of suspicious accidents and plain sabotage at the factories building Champignac’s innovations put Spirou & Fantasio on high alert, but not as much as when their incredible elastic-tailed anthropoid pal discovers – and brutally chastises – someone closely observing their every move…

Grudgingly accepting that an over-competitive rival inventor must be behind the campaign, the team continue with enhanced security, which only leads to intimidation, explosions and the destruction of their declared competitors’ efforts. Increasingly wary, Spirou identifies his own stalker after the poor villain is savagely attacked by Marsupilami and convinces the comrades to relocate and continue working in hiding. The plan is actually a trap for watching villains and leads to an epic victory using the Count’s other bizarre science weapons on the spies…

Regarding themselves safe at last, Spirou, Fantasio, the Count and the critters relocate to the shores of the Mediterranean to test their completed prototypes in peace. Barring some minor teething troubles, results are ideal and lead to another amazing discovery in the miraculous Marsu’s biological armoury! Soon they meet competition sponsor Mr. Hamadryas: a most untrustworthy, obnoxious individual who clearly has a secret agenda, plenty of personal goons and lots of unspoken pressures of his own to deal with. Unaware that Spirou has already encountered a mystery sub at the specified subsea location, the shipping magnate claims all other teams have dropped out due to the sabotage campaign, before explaining what he needs… but not really why…

Spouting a ludicrous tale of his best ship (The Discreet) and best friend (Captain John Helena) both being lost in those cold dark depths, the money Midas wants our adventurers to locate the wreck in Helena’s honour and memory, but although they accept the task, the lads are on the lookout for sinister surprises…

What follows is epic spectacle as the marine mission trawls up even more deadly traps, a hidden underwater base, lost treasures, what Hamadryas truly needs and the reason why plundering pirate “The Moray” has been plaguing and confounding the entire endeavour all along. That leads to discovering who he actually works for, and what Marsupilami’s newly revealed power means to the bad guys threatening his human friends…

Soaked in sublime slapstick schtick with gallons of gags throughout, this explosively exuberant exploration is packed with cunning crooks coming a-cropper, animal animosity expressed, angst-free action, thrills & spills. It also offers another early ecological message and an always-timely moral regarding the humane treatment of animals. There’s even a fascinating technical overview of nautical facts at time of printing in back-up text feature ‘A Conference by Mr de Champignac’ answering the most telling questions thrown up the mushroom scientist’s apparent flouting of physical law and engineering expertise…

The Moray’s Lair is the kind of lightly-barbed, comedy romp to delight readers fed up and saturated by adults-only carnage, testosterone-fuelled breast-beating, teen-romance monsters or sickly-sweet fantasy. Easily accessible to readers of all ages, drawn with all the beguiling style and seductive yet wholesome verve and panache which make Asterix, Lucky Luke, and Yakari so compelling, these are enduring landmark tales from a long line of superb exploits, deserving to be a household name as much as those series… and even that other kid with the white dog.
Original edition © Dupuis, 1957 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation 2026 © Cinebook Ltd.