Category: Animal Antics

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Dazzler Marvel Masterworks volume 2


By Danny Fingeroth, Steven Grant, Frank Springer, Mark D. Bright, Mike Vosburg, Vince Colletta, Danny Bulanadi, Jon D’Agostino & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2867-4 (HB), 978-1-3029-3678-5 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Until relatively recently US comics had very little in the way of positive female role models and almost no viable solo stars. That seriously started changing in the 1980s and look at us now. As part of its late-but-dedicated effort to involve women readers with women characters Marvel began a program of female versions of top stars but also devised original titles to expand audiences – and none more so than Alison Blaire AKA Dazzler.

Attempts in the early 1970s had added to the canon and character roster but not publishing charts for any length of time. Nevertheless, the company kept on plugging and eventually found the right mix when Ms. Marvel launched in her own title (cover-dated January 1977). She was followed by equally copyright-shielding Spider-Woman (Marvel Spotlight #32, February 1977), who secured her own title 15 months later) and Savage She-Hulk (#1 February 1980). That last one was supplemented by music-biz inspired (and hopefully trend-exploiting) Dazzler, who sagely premiered in issue #130 of top-selling title Uncanny X-Men the same month. She followed up with a few guest shots in other big star books and inevitably graduated to her own book, but it was a little more convoluted than that…

Dazzler the character was born of another of those 1980-1990s doomed-from-the-start cross-media deals wherein comics companies attempted to break out of their “ghetto” into the real money world – like toys, movies and TV shows. In 1979 Disco specialists Casablanca Records began a development project with Marvel to create a television character who would release records like The Archies or The Monkees, but be set in an animated Marvel Universe. A giant-sized comics special was begun but when the deal was cancelled, the House of Ideas was left with a lot of talented people going “now what?”

In the interim Dazzler had already launched: guesting in the company’s other top titles (Fantastic Four #217 and Amazing-Spider-Man #203, both cover-dated April 1980). Failing to find other record companies willing to commit, big boss Jim Shooter decreed the comics special would be expanded and recycled as #1 & 2 of her own title. The singer went dark for a year before landing her own starring vehicle and her rocky road to stardom has risen and fallen ever since.

Having crushed and disappointed her austere father Judge Carter Blair by quitting law school to pursue a frivolous, worthless life on stage, Alison’s life continued to spiral crazily after meeting the X-Men. After subsequently facing petty, spiteful Asgardian Amora the Enchantress with the entire Marvel Universe in attendance, Alison steadfastly pursued her career dreams. That meant clashing in rapid order with Doctor Doom; dream demon Nightmare; evil mastermind Techmaster; The Enforcers (Ox, Montanna & Fancy Dan); Federal nemesis Mr. Meeker of energy thinktank Project Pegasus; supervillain Klaw; Galactus, his herald Terrax and – after being remanded to Riker’s Island for “murdering” Klaw – Titania and the Grapplers (Screaming Mimi, Letha & Poundcakes).

She did make some friends on the way, ranging from mob-fixated street-level masked vigilante Blue Sheild to major players like Bruce Banner and The Hulk as well as former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent/occasional Avenger Quasar (Wendell Vaughn), but the real gamechangers were her fraught associations with W.C. Fields-channelling agent/promoter Harry S. Osgood who began shaping her music career; obnoxious Lancelot Steele (sexist macho jerk/stage manager/field rep for Harry) and increasingly controlling boyfriend Dr Paul Jansen. At least Alison’s Grandma Bella still supports her, confident that one day Dazzler will be a star…

A mix of mainstream level superheroics, soap opera romances, telenovela melodrama and the hoary plot of A Star is Born, the complicated life of Alison Blaire now included an increasingly unstable father who despised her for daring to disobey him; a long-missing mother: a succession of creepily uptight and frankly dubious boyfriends; the countless moral and physical perils besetting lonely, pretty girls who would do (almost) anything to achieve their dreams of fame and assorted gods, monster, terrors and supervillains who couldn’t believe Dazzler didn’t care about them and Did Not Want To Fight.

The idea was still to address and remedy the lack of a significant female readership (after all, what normal girl would read X-Men, Spider-Man or the Hulk?) that had presumably dropped to insignificance once the company’s romance, nursing and humorous fashion titles were cancelled.

In an effort to be daring and different but still keep attracting readers the only way they knew, the editors and writers and artists did what they always did but honestly sought a different path. However, for Marvel at the time the medium was the message and somehow that meant a super fight every issue and lots of underwear, shower, and getting dressed/undressed moments in the quiet times…

Somehow Blaire never truly escaped traditional Marvel tropes and superhero schtick while forging her own path, as seen in this second collection of comic sagas taken from Dazzler #14-25, plus a bonus yarn from What If? #33, collectively covering April 1982 – March 1983. Following scripter Danny Fingeroth’s context-packed Introduction ‘This Was a Long Time Ago’, the drama resumes with #14 ‘…Without Getting Killed or Caught…!’ as Fingeroth Frank Springer & Vince Colletta reveal how after making waves as an opener for aging stadium-filler Bruce Harris, Alison and her band are caught in the crossfire when a top hitman targets Blue Shield. As the would-be killer ludicrously believes Lance is the crime-crusher, the snafu then leads Dazzler into an ambush where she must battle a deranged, mesmerised She-Hulk temporarily mind-controlled by the Mob…

It’s still team-up time in #15 as ‘Private Eyes’ sees Harris’ tour hit San Francisco and Alison hiring investigator Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) to track down her long-missing mom after her own amateur snooping provokes a misguided clash that brings the wrath of S.H.I.E.L.D. down on both of them…

Dazzler arrives in Seattle with #16, despondent that Harris wants her fired for making him look old and tired. Things get even worse in when The Enchantress returns and even the sudden appearance of current beau – straitlaced lawyer Ken Barnett – cannot deflect the terror of a singing contest in Asgard, judged by the gods and with the odds heavily stacked in favour of the cheating scheming ‘Black Magic Woman!’

Victorius and returned to the Big Apple, Alison’s head is turned in #17 as ‘The Angel and the Octopus!’ finds her the object of unwanted affection of multi-millionaire mutant Warren Worthington III just as Ken is becoming overly clingy. She really doesn’t need this grief right now as her producer Harry is auditioning younger, prettier potential rival songstress Vanessa Tooks and her father is on the edge of a mental breakdown…

It’s almost a relief when The Angel sweeps her off her feet for wining, dining and a furious fight against mech-augmented multi-armed madman Doctor Octopus…

Her plans to be as normal as possible are further threatened when super-criminal Crusher Creel hunts her down to be his hostage in a planned ambush of the Avengers in ‘The Absorbing Man Wants You!’ Sadly, after the simple-minded thug overconsumes her energies and grows out of control, Dazzler endures ‘Creel… and Inhuman Treatment!’ until Inhuman king Black Bolt intervenes to avoid a escalating catastrophe. Meanwhile, as Judge Blaire deteriorates, Warren, Vanessa and Grandma Bella all take circuitous but convergent steps that will soon uncover the hiding place of Alison’s mother…

The roads meet in #20 as ‘Out of the Past!’ details the hows and whys of Barbara (Blaire) London’s absence and even fills in some hidden passages in the life of Alison…

The full story arrives behind a photo-cover by Eliot Brown, Bob Larkin and model June McDonald as double-sized Dazzler #21 declares ‘Alison Blaire, This is Your Life!’ with the singer headlining a major benefit gig that draws ALL of her family together for a major reconciliation and reset, with every superhero in town along for the show…

A new tone infects #22 as evil mutants ‘The Sisterhood’ maliciously target Angel. The larger goal of Mystique, Destiny and wild child Rogue is to destroy the entire X-Men team but after Alison humiliatingly defeats Rogue and her parents, the unbalanced teenager becomes obsessed with punishing Dazzler. However, before that ‘Fire in the Night!’ changes tack to find Alison and her newly-found half sister Lois London endangered by manic arsonist Flame and her own vile property speculating landlord. Meantime, believing the Sisterhood behind the attack Alison has contacted a certain Heroes for Hire team and soon Luke Cage and Iron Fist prove worth every discounted cent…

They continue earning their keep in ‘A Rogue in the House!’ (#24 and Fingeroth, Springer & Colletta’s last collaboration in this collection) as the uncontrollable young mutant mind & powers leech assaults Alison and Lois. Brave and bold the bodyguards are ultimately defeated by their own stolen abilities and, desperate and furious, Dazzler decides to settle the grudge her own way…

The main comics biography pauses here with Dazzler #25, wherein the living transducer experiences every performer’s greatest nightmare. Crafted by Steven Grant, Mark Bright & Danny Bulanadi, ‘The Jagged Edge’ exposes her response to an appreciative fan who slowly crosses the line from heartfelt appreciation to lethally psychotic stalker. Sweet, shyly attentive admirer Karl Fredericks rapidly devolves to possessive maniac after finally meeting his idol, thereafter attempting to own Alison by killing all her friends and relatives. This prompts an extreme reaction from the horrified mutant musician…

To Be Continued..

With covers by Springer, Bill Sienviewicz, John Romita Jr., Bob Wiacek, John Romita Sr., and Dave Simons fronting each enthralling episode, the brief posterior Bonus Section opens with a tale from What If? #33 (June 1982), crafted by Fingeroth, Mike Vosburg & Jon D’Agostino asking and answering the burning question ‘What If The Dazzler Had Become the Herald of Galactus?’, supplemented by Dazzler’s entry from 1983’s Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe as supplied by Mark Gruenwald, Springer & Josef Rubinstein and the original character design for ‘Vanessa’ as crafted by then-current Marvel intern Lance Tooks.

Although very much of its troubled times, this collection sees the transformative shift in attitudes that resulted in women becoming less decorative and unshakably ornamental, and increasingly authors of their own fates. Even if not to everyone’s taste there is enough of significance here to make Dazzler worthy of any modern readers attention.
© 20201 MARVEL.

Today in 1934 comics loving speculative fiction iconoclast Harlan Ellison was born, followed in 1951 by Canadian superstar George Freeman (Captain Canuck, Green Lantern, Wasteland) and Mark Wheatley (Mars, Blood of the Innocent, Breathtaker, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall) in 1954)

On this date in 1949 we lost Robert Ripley (Ripley’s Believe It or Not!); Mark Trail creator Ed Dodd in 1991, ceiling shattering Japanese cartoonist Machiko Hasegawa (Sazae-san) in 1992 and Al Hartley (Archie Comics, Patsy Walker, Thor/Journey into Mystery) in 2003.

In 2006 Alex Toth died.

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Little Paintings


By James Kochalka (Top Shelf Productions)
ISBN: 978-1-60309-017-9 (HB/Digital edition)

James Kochalka is a prolific and always entertaining giant of comics creation, whose vast, sublimely surreal, enticing works range from kid-friendly romps such as the Glorkian Warrior and Johnny Boo series, to excoriatingly honest self-examining daily journal strip American Elf and the indescribably fun SuperF**kers – and that’s my censorious edit there, not his…

The author, artist, animator. educator and rock musician is utterly wedded to the energies of creativity and this tantalizing tome gathers hundreds of mini-paintings he knocked up to sell at various conventions between 2001 and 2007. All his old familiar faces are there: cats, ghosts, robots, monsters, aliens, cats, bathrooms, birds, chicks and dudes, mushrooms, animals, landscapes and weather, cats, machines and random images, all apparently arranged in no particularly order and inviting your response. Did I mention, there are some cats?

There is a narrative here, but it’s completely generated by the viewer who can’t help but create a story around the hundreds of thumbnail paintings of gloriously hued things and folks and stuff, and a lot to read in if you’re willing to take some time. This is one of my absolute favourite go-to books whenever I need a little pictorial pick-me-up and you should share the joy.

Go on, you know you want to…
© James Kochalka 2011. All rights reserved.

Today in 1939 artist and storyteller Herb Trimpe was born (Hulk, Iron Man, Godzilla, GI Joe) as was Tom Mandrake (The Spectre, Grimjack, Martian Manhunter) in 1956. In 1967 VIP creator and future Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont James Kolchaka (American Elf, Sketchbook Diaries) joined the party.

On this date in 1872, Punch artist & illustrator Alfred Henry Forrester died, as did prolific and multi-pseudonymous French comics creator Robert Dansler/“Bob Dan” (Bill Tornade, Jack Sport, La Jonque en Flammes) in 1972, and Canadian strip cartoonist Jim Unger (Herman) in 2012.

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Calling Dick Tracy! volume 1


By Mike Curtis, Joe Staton & various (Rabbit Hole)
ISBN: 978-0-930645-11-0 (digital edition)

Time for another anniversary celebration. Dick Tracy is 95 in five months’ time, so here’s a superb collection crying out for revival in either physical or digital forms. Another time to agitate against the publishing powers-that-be, I think…

All in all, comics have a pretty good track record for creating household names. We could play the game of picking the most well-known fictional characters on Earth – usually topped by Sherlock Holmes, Mickey Mouse, Superman Batman & Tarzan – and supplement the list with Popeye, Blondie, Charlie Brown, Tintin, Spider-Man, Garfield, and – not so much now, but once, most definitely – Dick Tracy…

At the height of the Great Depression cartoonist Chester Gould sought fresh strip ideas. The story goes that as a decent guy incensed by the exploits of gangsters like Al Capone (who monopolised front pages of contemporary newspapers) the doughty doodler settled upon the only way a normal man could fight thugs: Passion and Public Opinion.

Raised in Oklahoma, Gould was a Chicago resident who hated seeing his home town in the grip of such wicked men, with far too many honest citizens beguiled by the gangsters’ charisma. He decided to pictorially get it off his chest with a procedural crime thriller that championed the ordinary cops who protected civilisation.

He took his proposal –“Plainclothes Tracy” – to Captain Joseph Patterson, the legendary newspaperman and strips Svengali whose golden touch had already blessed strips like The Gumps, Gasoline Alley, Little Orphan Annie, Winnie Winkle, Smilin’ Jack, Moon Mullins and Terry and the Pirates among others. Casting his experienced eye on the work, Patterson promptly renamed the hero Dick Tracy, whilst also revising his love interest into steady, steadfast girlfriend Tess Truehart. The daily series launched on October 4th 1931 through Patterson’s own Chicago Tribune Syndicate, growing quickly into a phenomenon and monumental hit, with all the attendant media and merchandising hoopla that follows. Bolstered by toys, games, movies, serials, animated features, TV shows et al, the strip soldiered on, influencing generations of creators and entertaining millions of fans. Gould unfailingly wrote and drew the strip for decades until retirement in 1977.

The legendary lawman was a landmark creation who influenced not simply comics but the entirety of American popular fiction. Its signature use of baroque villains, outrageous crimes and fiendish death-traps pollinated the work of numerous strips (most notably Batman), shows and movies since then, whilst the indomitable Tracy’s studied, measured use – and startlingly accurate predictions – of crimefighting technology and techniques gave the world a taste of cop thrillers, police procedurals and forensic mysteries such as CSI decades before the modern fascination took hold.

As with many creators in it for the long haul, the revolutionary 1960s were a harsh time for well-established cartoonists. Along with Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon, Gould’s grizzled gangbuster especially foundered in a social climate of radical change where popular slogans included “Never trust anybody over 21” and “Smash the Establishment”. The strip’s momentum faltered, perhaps as much from a move towards trendy science fiction (Tracy went off-Earth into space and the character Moon Maid was introduced) as from those improbable, Bond-movie-style villains or perceived “old-fashioned” attitudes. Even the introduction of more minority and women characters – and hippie cop Groovy Groove – couldn’t stop the rot. However, the feature soldiered on regardless…

When Gould retired in 1977, 29-year old author Max Allen Collins (Road to Perdition, Nathan Heller, Mike Mist, Ms. Tree, Batman) won the prestigious role as scripter, promptly taking the series back to its crime-busting roots for a breathtaking run, ably assisted by Gould as consultant with his chief artistic assistant Rick Fletcher promoted to full illustrator. After 11 years, Collins was removed in 1992 and replaced by Mike Kilian – who apparently worked for half the up-&-coming novelist’s price – until his death in October 2005. Dick Locher took over story & art, with assistant Jim Brozman assuming drawing duties from March 2009. On January 19th 2011, Tribune Media Services announced Locher’s retirement and replacement by a new team. That’s where this digital-only book begins…

Atoudingly versatile and unbelievably prolific artist/inker Joe Staton (E-Man, Mike Mauser, The Avengers, Incredible Hulk, Green Lantern, Legion of Super-Heroes) has been an integral part of American comic books since the early 1970s and in later years made kids comics his metier. During a spectacular run on licensed classic Scooby Doo, he and series scripter Mike Curtis (Casper the Friendly Ghost, Richie Rich, Shanda the Panda) discovered a mutual love for Dick Tracy and – mostly for their own amusement – created a tribute strip entitled Major Crime Squad.

How that landed them the duty of continuing the ultimate cop’s official adventures is addressed in introductory text feature ‘Publisher’s Note – aka “The Dick Tracy vs. Major Crime Squad Caper”’ by Steve Tippie (VP of Licensing, TMS News & Features, LLC) before a stunning chronological re-presentation of all-new classics begins. Preceding those comic capers are more text-based insights and revelations: a Foreword by Mike Gold; former sheriff Curtis’ ‘How We Got the Job’ (supplemented by samples done in 2005 when they first tried to take on the strip) and Staton’s ‘Waiting For Dick Tracy’…

Next up is a brief visual refresher course of ‘Tracy and His Allies’ and the most nefarious of the repeat offenders in a ‘Rogues Gallery’ before the unending war on crime resumes in ‘Flyface and The Fifth Return’.

The strip has sadly long passed its heady glory days of mass sales, but that’s more about the death of print periodicals than this material. It still appears in a number of papers and as a potent online presences which means every episode is in full colour, with half-page Sunday strips still offering extras such as the ‘Crimestoppers Textbook’. One welcome addition is full credits so we can thank Shelley Pleger and Shane Fisher for their inks, colours and lettering. When Staton retired in October 2021, Pleger drew the feature, which these days is limned by Charles Ettinger…

The plot here sees the long separated traditional squad fully reunited to combat right wing terrorism and gradually reintroduced to the fanciful gadgets and controversial space tech after Tracy’s inventor pal Diet Smith gets in touch. A disgruntled former employee has stolen plans for his energy-beam weapon “Thor’s Hammer”…

After selling it to old lags Flyface and The Fifth – who kidnap officer Lizz Worthington to set a trap for their old nemesis – events spiral out of control, but only the wicked pay the final price this time…

Longtime comedic characters B.O. Plenty and his wife Gravel Gertie then resurface, celebrating the birth of their second child – the ugliest boy on Earth! – before falling foul of a manipulative foodie TV celebrity who sees a chance to own the airwaves with the stomach-churning infant in ‘Flakey Biscuits Makes the Dough’. Sadly, her bribing gifts to the couple include a shipment of cocaine being secretly couriered by her assistant Hot Rize, and soon bodies start dropping as the city’s top drug lord seeks to recover his missing product. Once Tracy realises what’s what, it’s all over bar the shooting…

‘Doubleup and the Scarlet Sting’ features the making of a movie starring a fictional superhero and depicts how childhood fan and modern-day gangster Doubleup barges in: infiltrating the cast to shakedown the production. Soon he’s too involved and after murdering his girlfriend all that’s left is being caught facing real-world justice…

At this time alternate Sunday extra ‘Tracy’s Hall of Fame’ (celebrating police officers) began, days before an officially deceased and clearly incorrigible arch enemy reappeared in ‘B-B Eyes and Honeymoon’. When Tracy’s adopted son Junior goes undercover to investigate a video piracy ring, the case quickly drags in the old cop’s granddaughter too, after Honeymoon Tracy tries to help out and almost dies because of her enthusiasm and lack of training.

Even with the comics component concluded, there’s more informational extras to enjoy as Curtis offers ‘Dick Tracy vs. the Villains: A Comparison’ and we meet the current creators in ‘Joe Staton’s Bio’, ‘Mike Curtis’ Bio’ and ‘Team Tracy Bios’ to close this initial casebook – hopefully the first of many.

Dick Tracy has always been a fantastically readable feature and this potent return to first principles is a terrific way to ease yourself into his stark, no-nonsense, Tough Love, Hard Justice world. Comics just don’t get better than this.
© 2013 TMS News & Features, LLC. All rights reserved.

On this day in 2003, Jerry Bittle’s redneck-ribbing strip Geech appeared for the final time, but the date is shared by a host of birthday boys and girls including French illustrator Paul Léonnec in 1842; publisher Clay Geerdes in 1934; Argentinian Lucho Olivera (Nippur de Lagash, Gilgamesh the immortal) in 1942 and undying legend Barry Windsor-Smith in 1949. Stan (Usagi Jojimbo) Sakai arrived in 1953; both Mark (Breathtaker, Tug & Buster, Sandman) Hempel and Publisher Terry Nantier in 1957 and mangaka Tomoko Ninomiya (Nodame Cantabile) in 1969.

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Walt Disney’s Donald Duck by Carl Barks: volume 6 – The Old Castle’s Secret


By Carl Barks & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-653-9 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Donald Duck ranks among a small number of fictional characters who have transcended the bounds of reality to become – like Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Popeye and James Bond -meta-real. As such, his origins are complex and convoluted. His official birthday is June 9th 1934: a dancing, nautically-themed bit-player in the Silly Symphony cartoon short The Wise Little Hen. However, that date is based on the feature’s release, as announced by distributors United Artists and latterly acknowledged by the Walt Disney Company. Recent research reveals the piece was initially screened at Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles on May 3rd, part of a Benefit show. The Wise Little Hen officially premiered on June 7th at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, before a general release date was settled.

The animated feature was adapted by Ted Osborne & Al Taliaferro for the Silly Symphonies Sunday comic strip and thus classified by historians as Donald’s official debut in Disney comics. Controversially, though, he was also deemed to have originated in The Adventures of Mickey Mouse strip which had begun 1931. Thus the Duck has more “birthdays” than the Queens and Kings of England (plus the generally dis-United Kingdom and gradually diminishing Commonwealth) which probably explains why he’s such a bad-tempered old cuss. Today is not so much a birthday as graduation party…

Visually, Donald Fauntleroy Duck was largely the result of animator Dick Lundy’s efforts, and, with partner-in-fun Mickey Mouse, is one of TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time. The Duck has his own star on the Hollywood walk of fame and has appeared in more films than any other Disney player. During the 1930s his screen career grew from background/supporting roles to a team act with Mickey and Goofy, to a series of solo cartoons that began with 1937’s Don Donald, which also introduced love interest Daisy Duck and nephews Huey, Louie and Dewey.

By 1938 Donald was officially more popular than signature company icon Mickey, especially after the brash bird’s service as a propaganda warrior in a series of animated morale boosters and information features during WWII. The merely magnificent Der Fuehrer’s Face took the 1942 Academy Award (that’s an Oscar to you and me) for Animated Short Film…

Crucially for our purposes, Donald is also planet Earth’s most-published non-superhero comics character, and has been blessed with some of the greatest writers and illustrators ever to punch a keyboard or pick up a pen or brush. A publishing phenomenon and mega star across Europe – particularly Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland – Donald & Co have spawned countless original stories and characters. Sales are stratospheric there and in the more than 45 other countries they export to. Japanese manga publishers have their own carefully-tailored iterations too…

The aforementioned Silly Symphonies adaptation and Mickey Mouse newspaper strip guest shots were trumped in 1937 when Italian publisher Mondadori launched an 18-page story by Federico Pedrocchi in comic book format. It was quickly followed by a regular serial in Britain’s Mickey Mouse Weekly. The comic was produced under license by Willbank Publications/Odhams Press and ran from 8th February 1936 to 28th December 1957.

In #67 (May 15th 1937) it launched Donald and Donna (a prototype Daisy Duck girlfriend), drawn by William A. Ward. Running for 15 weeks it was followed by Donald and Mac before ultimately settling on Donald Duck, and became a solid fixture until the magazine folded. That comic inspired similar Disney-themed publication across Europe, with Donald regularly appearing beside company mascot Mickey.

In the USA, a daily Donald Duck newspaper strip launched on February 2nd 1938, with a colour Sunday strip added in 1939. Writer Ted Karp joined Taliaferro in expanding the duck cast, adding a signature automobile, dog Bolivar, cousin Gus Goose, grandmother Elvira Coot and even expanded the roles of both distaff ducks Donna and Daisy…

In 1942, Donald’s licensed comic books canon began with October cover-dated Dell Four Color Comics, Series II #9. As Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold it was conceived by Homer Brightman & Harry Reeves, scripted by Karp and illustrated by Disney Studios employees Carl Barks & Jack Hannah. That was the moment everything changed…

Carl Barks was born in Merrill, Oregon in 1901, and raised in rural areas of the West during some of the leanest times in American history. He tried his hand at many jobs before settling into the profession that chose him. His early life is well-documented elsewhere if you need detail, but briefly, Barks was an animator before quitting in 1942 to work in the new-fangled field of comic books. With studio partner Jack Hannah (another future strip illustrator) Barks adapted Karp’s rejected script for an animated cartoon short into Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold, and although not his first published comics work, it was the story that shaped the rest of Carl’s career.

From then until his official retirement in the mid-1960s, Barks operated in self-imposed seclusion: writing, drawing and devising a vast array of adventure comedies, gags, yarns and covers that gelled into a coherent Duck Universe of memorable – and highly bankable – characters. These included Gladstone Gander (1948), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Magica De Spell (1961) and the nefarious Beagle Boys (1951) to supplement Disney’s stable of cartoon actors. The greatest creation was undoubtedly the crusty, energetic, paternalistic, money-mad giga-gazillionaire Scrooge McDuck: the World’s wealthiest winged nonagenarian.

Whilst producing all that landmark material Barks was also just a working guy, generating cover art, illustrating other people’s scripts when asked, and contributing stories to a burgeoning canon of Duck Lore. After Gladstone Publishing began re-packaging Barks material amongst other Disney strips in the 1980s, he discovered the well-earned appreciation he never imagined existed. So potent were his creations that they inevitably fed back into Disney’s animation output, even though his brilliant comic work was done for Dell/Gold Key and not directly for the studio. The greatest tribute was undoubtedly animated TV series Duck Tales: heavily based on his classic Uncle Scrooge tales.

Barks was a fan of wholesome action, unsolved mysteries and epics of exploration, and this led to him perfecting the art and technique of the blockbuster tale: blending wit, history, plucky bravado and sheer wide-eyed wonder into rollicking rollercoaster romps that utterly captivated readers of every age and vintage. Without the Barks expeditions there would never have been an Indiana Jones…

During his working life Barks was blissfully unaware that his efforts (uncredited by official policy, as was all Disney’s comics output) had been recognised by a rabid and discerning public as “the Good Duck Artist”. When some of his most dedicated fans finally tracked him down, a belated celebrity began.

In 2013, Fantagraphics Books began chronologically collecting Barks’ Duck stuff in wonderful, carefully curated archival volumes, tracing his output year-by-year in hardback tomes and digital editions that finally do justice to the self-closeted creator. These will comprise the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. The physical copies are sturdy and luxurious albums – 193 x 261mm – that would grace any bookshelf, with volume 6 re-presenting works from 1948 – albeit not in strict release order. I should also note that all Four Color issues come from Series II of that mighty anthological vehicle and all covers are by Barks.

It begins eponymously with ‘The Old Castle’s Secret’ (FC #189, June 1948) as a financial crisis in McDuck’s empire triggers a mission for Donald and the nephews: accompanying Scrooge to the ancestral pile in Scotland to search for millions in hidden treasure. Apparently the craggy citadel is haunted, but what they actually encounter is both more rationalistically dangerous and fantastically unbelievable…

Two single-page gags from the same issue follow, with ‘Bird Watching’ exposing the hidden perils of the hobby before superstition is painfully debunked in ‘Horseshoe Luck’ after which ‘Wintertime Wager’ (Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #88, January) introduces annoying cousin Gladstone Gander. Amidst chilling winter snows, the miraculously lucky, smugly irksome oik invites himself over for Christmas and soon he and Donald are involved in an escalating set of ordeals that might cost the Duck his house. Thankfully, Daisy and the boys are there to solve the problem…

Gainful employment was a regular dilemma for Donald, so February’s ‘Watching the Watchman’ (WDC&S #89) finds him taking a midnight-to-daybreak job at the docks, despite being pitifully unable to alter his sleep patterns. Once again, Huey, Louie & Dewey offer outrageous assistance but this time it’s the Duck’s failure to stay awake that foils a million dollar heist. The kids are actually Donald’s rivals in ‘Wired’ (WDC&S #90, March) when all seek big bucks as telegram messengers. Sadly, millionaires are not generally friendly, welcoming or prone to giving giant gratuities…

A dedicated social climber, Donald plans a garden party in WDC&S #91 (April), but his notion of fancy dress and family solidarity utterly enrage the boys, who retaliate with manic mesmerism in ‘Going Ape’, after which March of Comics #20 finds butterfly-hunter Donald at war with avaricious lepidopterist Professor Argus McFiendy across two continents. Donald’s sharp and ruthless tactics inspire onlooker Sir Gnatbugg-Mothley to fund a safari to ‘Darkest Africa’ in search of the rarest butterfly on Earth. The daunting quest for Almostus Extinctus is frenetically fraught, astoundingly action-packed and fabulously fun-filled but please be aware that despite Barks’ careful research and diligent, sensitive storytelling some modern folk could be upset by his depictions of indigenous peoples in terms of the accepted style of those decades-distant times…

Nevertheless, the bombastic war ends with a delicious sting in the tail.

In case you were wondering: March of Comics releases were prestigious promotional giveaways tied to retail products and commercial clients like Sears, combining licensed characters from across Whitman/KK/Dell’s joint catalogue. The often enjoyed print runs topping 5 million copies per issue. Being a headliner for them was a low key editorial acknowledgement of a creator’s capabilities and a franchise’s pulling power…

In the regular comics world, Donald’s eternal war of nerves with the kids boiled over in FC #189 (June) as ‘Bean Taken’ saw his obsessive side dominant in a guessing game, a single-pager preceding another exploring the downside of sandlot baseball in ‘Sorry to Be Safe’ (FC #199, October) and standard 10-page romp ‘Spoil the Rod’ (WDC&S #92, May). Here passing do-gooder Professor Pulpheart Clabberhead seeks to stop Donald’s apparent abuse of Huey, Louie and Dewey – but only until he gets to know them…

Although the science fiction boom and flying saucer mania was barely beginning in 1948, Barks was an early advocate and ‘Rocket Race to the Moon’ (WDC&S #93, June) sees newspaper-seller Donald suckered into piloting an experimental lunar exploration ship. Sadly, Professors Cosmic and Gamma seem more concerned with a large cash-prize contest than advancing knowledge, and rival rocketman Baron De Sleezy is a ruthless schemer, but no one – not even the stowaway nephews – was prepared for what lived on the moon…

Patriotism inspires our bellicose birdbrain to enlist as ‘Donald of the Coast Patrol’ (WDC&S #94, July) but it’s his gullibility and bad temper that helps him bag a bunch of spies before true wickedness rears its downy head as ‘Gladstone Returns’ (WDC&S #95, August). The ghastly Gander was designed as a foil for Donald, intended to be even more obnoxious than the irascible, excitable film fowl and this originally untitled tale reintroduces him as a big super-lucky noxious noise every inch as blustery a blowhard as Donald. Here, both furiously boast and feud, trying to one-up each other in a series of scams that does neither any good – especially once the nephews and Daisy join the battle…

Arguably Barks’ first masterpiece, ‘Sheriff of Bullet Valley’ was the lead tale from Dell Four Color Comics #199, drawing much of its unflagging energy and trenchant whimsy from Barks’ own love of cowboy fiction, albeit seductively tempered with his self-deprecatory sense of absurdist humour. For example, a wanted poster on the jailhouse wall portrays the artist himself, offering the princely sum of $1000 and 50¢ for his inevitable capture.

Donald is, of course, a self-declared expert on the Wild West (he’s seen all the movies) so when he and the boys drive through scenic Bullet Valley, a wanted poster catches his eye and his imagination. Soon he’s signed up and sworn in as a doughty deputy, determined to catch rustlers plaguing the locals. Unfortunately for him, the good old days never really existed and today’s bandits use radios, trucks, tommy guns and ray machines to achieve their nefarious ends. Can Donald’s impetuous boldness and the nephews’ collective brains and ingenuity defeat the ruthless high-tech raiders? Of course they can…

That same issue provided a brace of short gags, beginning with ‘Best Laid Plans’ as Donald’s feigned illness earns him extra hard labour rather than a malingering day in bed, and closing with ‘The Genuine Article’, wherein suspicions of an antique’s provenance leads to disaster…

The lads’ plans to go fishing are scuppered – but not for too long – when Donald demands their caddying services in ‘Links Hijinks’ (WDC&S #96, September), but it all really goes south once Gladstone horns in and Donald’s competitive spirit overwhelms everybody…

That tendency to overreact informs ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ (WDC&S #97, October) when the nephews find a small pearl in a locally-sourced oyster and big-dreaming Donald goes overboard in exploiting the “hidden millions” presumably peppering the ocean floor, before we close with another mission for Uncle Scrooge.

To close a deal with British toff Lord Tweeksdale, McDuck must prove his family pedigree by excelling in the most “asinine, stupid, crazy, useless sport in the world”: fox hunting. Designating Donald his champion, the Downy Dodecadillionaire of Duckburg is thankfully unaware Huey, Louie & Dewey also consider themselves ‘Foxy Relations’ (WDC&S #98, November), injecting themselves covertly into proceedings with catastrophic repercussions…

The visual verve over, we move on to validation as ‘Story Notes’ offers commentary for each Duck tale and Donald Ault relates ‘Carl Barks: Life Among the Ducks’, before ‘Biographies’ explain why he and commentators Alberto Beccatini, R, Fiore, Craig Fischer, Jared Gardner, Leonardo Gori, Rich Kreiner, Ken Parille, Stefano Priarone, Francesco (“Frank”) Stajano and Mattias Wivel are saying all those nice and informative things. We close with examination of provenance as ‘Where Did These Duck Stories First Appear?’ explains the somewhat byzantine publishing schedules of Dell Comics.

Carl Barks was one of the greatest exponents of comic art the world has ever seen, and almost all his work featured Disney’s Duck characters: reaching and affecting untold millions of readers across the world and he all too belatedly won far-reaching recognition. You might be late to the party but it’s never too soon to climb aboard the Barks Express.

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck “The Old Castle’s Secret” © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All contents © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Today in 1937 Donald Duck began his solo comics career.

In 1897 journalist turned strip writer Glenn Chaffin (Tailspin Tommy) was born, as was legendary fan artist John G. Fantucchio (Rocket’s Blast Comicollector (RBCC), The Collector, The Buyer’s Guide for Comic’s Fandom, Fantastic Fanzine, Comic Crusader) in 1938, and inker, illustrator and production god John Verpoorten in 1940. A year later along came Underground Commix and Graphic Novel pioneer Jaxon AKA Jack Jackson (God Nose, Comanche Moon, The Secret of San Saba)…

The date saw the deaths of both Golden Age star/political cartoonist Gill Fox (Torchy, Plastic Man, The Spirit daily) and Disney animator and story-maker Jack Bradbury in 2004, and legendary humour artist Will Elder (Mad, Little Annie Fanny) in 2008.

In 2006, Mark Tatulli’s silent strip Li? launched today.

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Elephant Man


By Greg Houston (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-588-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for comedic effect.

Cartoonist, caricaturist, designer, educator, actor and major fan of old movies, Greg Houston delights in the baroque and comically grotesque; positively revelling in taking taste-free pot-shots at societal and popular culture icons (see Vatican Hustle for more of his measured, manic musings) and this marvellous and madcap monochrome missal has a go at the very bedrock of our medium by parodying and pastiching the classic superhero scenario.

Baltimore has its own Costumed Crusader and he is the perfect symbol of a city with so little to recommend it. This crusading costumed boy scout doesn’t have any proper powers, but the people love him and on the fifth anniversary of his first appearance the minor metropolis is holding a week of commemorative events…

Local paper The Daily Crab is following events, particularly feisty journo Tracie Bombasso, cub reporter Dud Cawley and mild-mannered, colonically-challenged reporter Jon Merrick (yes, that kind of Elephant Man), despite the rantings of unpopular on-air TV presenter Handsome Dick Denton – but he’s just jealous, right?

Also determined to spoil everything is sinisterly macabre conjoined villain The Priest, the Rabbi and the Duck: twisted victim(s?) of an old joke and a tragic accident involving alcohol and Science…

Can Merrick keep his identity secret from his fellow reporters, foil the machinations of Denton and stop the three-headed Hydra of Pique? Of course he can, but along the way there are bizarre characters old and new (keep your eyes peeled for cameos from Boss Karate Black Guy Jones and other uber-odd Vatican Hustle alumni), cripplingly painful embarrassing moments and enough ugly hilarity to have a very good time indeed.

And lest you think we’re being unkind to the place let me reveal that Houston is Baltimore born-and-bred, and gets a pass on being nigh-litigiously critical…

Beneath the outrageous parody and extreme mock-heroics is a witty and genuinely funny adult romp poking edgy fun at everything from politicians to donuts, and weathermen to beauticians, gleefully making some telling observations about Heroes and how to treat them, all rendered in a busy, buzzy, black-&-white line that appeals and appals in equal amounts.

Warning: this book contains six-foot talking flies and shaved, car-racing monkeys.
© 2010 Greg Houston. All rights reserved.

Today in 1952 scriptwriter Hilary Bader (Batman, Superman, Star Trek) was born, followed by Brazilian Rafael Grampá in 1978; Christina Strain in 1981 and Zeb Wells in 1983.

1902 today saw the start of Ed Payne’s strip Professor O. Howe Wise and Professor I.B. Schmart with Stan Lynde’s outrageous comedy western feature Rick O’Shay launching this date in 1958. However in 1991, Spirou’s creator Rob-Vel (François Robert Velter) passed away.

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Comic Therapy – Meditations for Reflection


By Kay Medaglia (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-39-3 (pocket HB)

Author and graphic artist Kay Medaglia moved from Ontario, Canada to wild & woolly Reading in Britain nearly twenty years ago and ever since has sought ways to share their ideas of better living through enhanced wellbeing. In a prodigious outpouring of gently stated, multimedia-delivered suggestions, they have advocated calmer ways to get along and stay stable through such varied avenues as the UK small press scene; self-published sensation Wu Wei, and global arenas like The Huffington Post and Elephant Journal. As well as editing issues-based publications dealing with autism, dementia, mental health and sexual assault, their hugely successful One Year Wiser series has brought those notions to ever-wider audiences. They have even explored modern metaphysics with their bestselling Luna Sol Tarot.

Here drawing together genteel humour, funny animals (and bugs, actually) and traditional philosophical observations lensed through practicality and common sense, Medaglia offers self-contained, image-led emotional pep-talks as Comic Therapy: spiritually enriching reminders of who and where you are – or could be. These graphic epigrams compile and project easily assimilable visual life-coaching and pictorial pick-me-ups, broaching topics from the minute and mundane to the cosmically crushing, or life-changing. As well as encouraging loving others and yourself, the image interludes especially confront themes of rejection, dejection, hopelessness, self-worth, self-compassion, resilience and mindfulness and lack of direction with breezy light humour and whimsy.

Resembling still-running romance homily panel Love Is… (created by New Zealand cartoonist Kim Grove/latterly Kim Casali) and delivered in Japan’s popular Yonkoma manga format, these four panel public service announcements for the soul are personal common sense messages from a global traveller seasoned with flavours of Hindu imagery and basic Buddhist tenets wedded to primal western gag delivery systems.

Employing and urging the deployment of wit, patience, whatever faith or spirituality you can accept, and subtle but constant reminders that you don’t have to wallow alone, this is a book that should perk up most moody buggers and provide a judgement free first nudge to fix whatever ails you from within and because You want to…

If you can’t actually hug a kitten or juggle ducklings in moments of crisis or despondency, dipping unto this handy pocket-sized package might just restore equilibrium and restart your jammed perspective generators…
© Kay Medaglia, 2026. All rights reserved.

Today in 1915 Mort Weisinger was born, with Johnny Craig arriving in 1926 and Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo coming one year later. In 1952 historian researcher and uberfan Peter Sanderson was born.

In 1940 today Batman #1 went on sale. Four years later the utterly unique George (Krazy Kat) Herriman passed away.

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Marney the Fox


By Scott M. Goodall & John Stokes (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-598-1 (HB/Digital edition)

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

At first glance British comics prior to the advent of 2000 A.D., Action and Misty seemingly fell into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and fantastic preschool fantasy; a prodigious selection of adapted TV and media properties; action; adventure; war and comedy strands. A closer look, though, would confirm that there was always a subversive undertone, especially in such antihero series as Dennis the Menace, The Spider or the early Steel Claw.

…And then there was Marney the Fox.

Created and scripted by prolific Scott Goodall (Captain Hurricane, Kelly’s Eye, Cursitor Doom, Captain Scarlet and dozens more), the series ran in all-purpose anthology Buster from June 22nd 1974 to September 4th 1976 and – even in a weekly periodical notorious for its broad and seemingly mismatched mix of themes and features – stuck out like a sore thumb.

Not for any lack of quality, of course.

Compellingly scripted by Goodall and set in his beloved Devonshire country, the serial was lavishly, almost hauntingly illustrated by frequent collaborator John Stokes (Black Knight, Father Shandor, Maxwell Hawke, L.E.G.I.O.N., Aliens, Star Wars, The Invisibles), with whom the writer had already crafted for Buster seminal classics Fishboy and The War Children.

Marney the Fox was very much a passion project and a creature of its times. If you look at the ordering descriptions online or even revel in the gorgeous and serene cover embellishing this luxurious hardback/digital compilation, you might conclude it’s a natural history strip or animal adventure along the lines of Lassie or Black Beauty.

Don’t be deceived. The books you should be thinking of here are Ring of Bright Water, Tarka the Otter and A Kestrel for a Knave (or Kes, if you don’t read As Much As You Should, but do watch movies). The deftly-constructed atrocities beautifully limned in every 2-page monochrome instalment were – and remain – brilliant nature propaganda and should be mandatory reading for every person who lives in, near or with the natural environment…

For two years the weekly trials and tribulations of barely-weaned orphaned fox cub Marney the Wandering One were a painfully beautiful, frequently harrowing account of the horrors rural folk – from poachers to soldiers on manoeuvres to roadbuilders to landed gentry and their bloody hounds – all casually inflicted on unwelcome wildlife: ones that must have traumatised and successfully indoctrinated a generation of kids.

From his first encounter with and narrow escape from despicable mankind, young Marney endures a ghastly litany of close shaves, bolstered by far too few happy, peaceful moments as he flees from crisis to crisis until mercifully finding refuge and contentment. I had to put that last bit in because this is a sublime piece of comics wonderment that everybody should read, but the seven-day-cliffhanger cycle and sheer mental and physical abuse the little guy barely survives every week would have Batman, Daredevil and Judge Dredd rushing for Valium and comfort blankies in an instant…

So take it from me: the fox lives happily ever after, okay?

Augmented by an Introduction from John Stokes, this is magical and unique comics entertainment, suitably acid-coating the hard, harsh life of British wildlife and the ignorance and cruelty of many – but not all – people. It’s also a story you must see and will never forget…
™ & © 1974, 1975, 1976, & 2017 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1923 Marvel’s man behind the curtain Sol Brodsky was born, as was writer Steve Englehart in 1947; editorial whirlwind Marie Javins in 1966; British boys Ian Churchill in 1969 and Bryan Hitch one year later.

Today long ago, Machiko Hasegawa’s yonkoma manga Sazae-san began its epic 68-volume run (April 22nd 1946 – February 21st 1974) and in 1990, Scott Stantis began the still-running family strip The Buckets. In 2002 we lost British journeyman illustrator Denis (The Shark, Commando, Buffalo Bill, Wizard) McLoughlin.

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Spirou and Fantasio volume 7: The Rhinoceros’ Horn


By André Franquin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-224-9 (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 offset 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 created by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter using his pen-name Rob-Vel for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis in direct response to the success of Hergé’s Tintin for rival outfit Casterman. Originally a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (a puckish reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique), his improbable exploits with pet squirrel Spip gradually but steadily grew into high-flying, 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 the helm.

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, enlarging the scope and horizons until it 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 globe-trotting 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.

Franquin, plagued in later life by bouts of depression, passed away in 1997 but his legacy remains; a vast body of work which reshaped the landscape of European comics.

With that brave experiment clearly having paid dividends over decades it’s perhaps timely to remind readers that times and taste having changed radically since then, and as such current UK publisher Cinebook felt the need to issue a heartfelt warning and carefully considered apologia regarding some content of The Rhinoceros’ Horn…

I’ll précis it here: it was seventy years ago and our attitudes to hunting, other ethnicities and especially the modern obscenity of killing for ivory and horn have thankfully changed. Please read this book with that in mind. The publishers, of course, phrased it much better…

The Rhinoceros’ Horn was originally serialised in two sequences in Le Journal de Spirou: #764-787 (Spirou et la Turbotraction) and #788-797(La corne de rhinocéros), and spanned 1952 and early 1953 before being united in 1955 hardback album La corne de rhinocéros. The story begins with Spirou exulting over the success of Fantasio’s latest enterprise – personal helicopters worn as backpacks – but discovers his pal is rather down in the dumps. The ingenious journo’s just been dressed down by his editor on The Mosquito and warned that the paper has hired a new reporter: a real go-getting hotshot. Dejected and desperate, Fantasio resolves to revive his flagging career by staging a publicity stunt: robbing the Good Bazaar Department Store…

As the rattled reporter draws up his plans and sends a warning to the store of his intentions, a colossal explosion shakes the town. Persons unknown have blown up the nearby Turbot car plant. With even more to prove now, Fantasio proceeds…

Dragged along for the ride and to photograph the stunt, Spirou and snarky squirrel Spip reluctantly join their pal in the harebrained venture. Alighting on the roof of the emporium courtesy of those petrol-powered “Fantacopters”, they deftly break in through the fire-door, Spirou recording everything with his gigantic flash camera. Of course, our lead-footed burglars make an appalling clatter and tremendous mess, but no night-watchmen confront them. They’ve all been incapacitated and tied up by real robbers…

Hearing villains approaching, the lads take refuge in a wardrobe in the bedrooms department and discover an old acquaintance already there. Behring works for Turbot and was wounded in the explosion earlier. Moreover, he’s carrying the company’s blueprints for their latest advancement. The burglars in the darkened store are actually trying to finish him off to get them. Handing the boys an envelope and begging them to get it to his employer Mr. Martin, the troubleshooter loses consciousness just as the involuntary heroes are challenged by a shadowy figure demanding the precious prize. It’s not the bad guys, however, but Fantasio’s journalistic nemesis…

Cellophine is already streets ahead of them: she knows of the plot to steal Turbot’s revolutionary supercar. All she needs is the address Behring muttered to secure an interview with the in-hiding Martin and her next terrific scoop.

…And that’s when the gun-toting goons make their move, demanding blueprints and the rendezvous address. Thankfully, Spirou is still holding the camera and super-bright flashgun…

Calamitously – and hilariously – fleeing for their lives through the darkened store, the guys eventually escape via fantacopters from the top storey, allowing Cellophine to lock the bandits up on the roof before dragging Behring to safety. Next morning the boys are in Whistleton but Martin has already fled. His note reveals nothing, but later a sinister stranger in a café advises them to surrender the blueprints and warns them not to join Mr. Martin at Bab-el-bled in North Africa.

Ignoring him and returning home, they encounter distressingly persistent Cellophine and Spirou clues her in. Sadly, the thugs have also tracked them down and overhear the plans, so when the boys catch a jet liner to Africa, heavily disguised heavies are in the seats behind them…

These villains are on the lads’ tails all though the avenues and alleyways of Bab-el-bled, before a wig malfunction in the Souk warns Spirou that they’re being shadowed and another hectic chase ensues. Thinking they’ve at last shaken their pursuers our heroes go to Martin’s house only to learn he was ambushed by the bandits…

Happily the troubled Turbot exec had escaped and fled further into North Africa. He’s apparently rushing off to the M’saragba Animal Reservation but as the boys try to follow Cellophine appears and pips them to the last spot on the plane – stowed away in the baggage hold.

Forced to follow by train, it is eight days later when Fantasio & Spirou finally reach the Reserve and yet again – as infinitely aggravating Cellophine explains – they’ve just missed Martin. He was chased into the bush by the implacable bandits…

Going after him they find him just after the thugs do. Having shot Martin, the villains are smugly gloating when the sinister stranger from Whistleton café appears. He’s a cop and finally has enough evidence to arrest them for blowing up the factory, but they are all too late. The harassed entrepreneur has already got rid of his portion of the plans, giving them to a local friend to hide.

As Martin is carried to hospital, Spirou & Fantasio volunteer to retrieve those accursed documents but have not reckoned on the quirky ingenuity of the chief of the Wakukus, the vastness of the reserve and the sheer bloody-mindedness of local flora and fauna. After days of unpleasant and painful adventures, they finally locate the safeguarding tribe and, following even more nerve-wracking moments convince the chief that they too are friends of Martin. That’s when the king delivers his bombshell…

Tasked with keeping safe the plans – now contained on a spool of microfilm – the wily Wakuku had his subjects capture a rhino before drilling a hole in its horn and sealing the container within. They then released it back into the wild. He has no idea where it is now or even which of the 200 in the park it might be…

Determined to complete their mission, the lads spend months tracking and capturing assorted beasts. The task becomes only slightly easier after they find a dipsomaniac white trader who sells them hunting gear and latterly, yellow paint so that they can tell the rhinos they’ve already checked from the ones so cunningly evading them…

It’s a backbreaking, heartbreaking and increasingly pointless task but only when their resolve crumbles and they brokenly give up and head for home do they find the prize in the very last place they looked…

Even the trip back is a tribulation, and eventually they collapse only to awake in a nice clean hospital with Martin and Cellophine offering to fill in the blanks on this baffling case. Six weeks later the lads are recuperating at home when Behring shows up. He’s got a little reward for them from the grateful Turbot Company but, as usual, Cellophine is on hand to spoil it for Fantasio…

Stuffed with superb slapstick situations, riotous Keystone Cops chases and gallons of gags, this exuberant, high-spirited yarn is a true celebration of angst-free action, thrills and spills. accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the beguiling style and seductively wholesome élan which makes Asterix, and Lucky Luke so compelling, this is an enduring comics treat from a long line of superb exploits, certain to be as much a household name as those series – and even that other kid with the white dog…
Original edition © Dupuis, 1955 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation 2014 © Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1942 Underground Commix pioneer Dan O’Neill (Air Pirates Funnies, Odd Bodkins) was born, preceding both Teris Sue Wood (Wandering Star) in1965 and super-glamour artist Michael Turner (Witchblade, Fathom, Superman/Batman) in 1971.

Deaths on this date include British satirist & caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson in 1827. In 1962 Golden Age cartoonist/animator Robert Winsor McCay (Nemo in Adventureland, Impie, Bulletman, Ajax the Sun Man, Blackstone the Magician) and animator turned cartoonist Bob Wickersham (Spencer Spook, Funny Films, Ha Ha Comics, The Kilroys, The Kellys, Flippity and Flop, Colonel Punchy Penguin) both passed on as did veteran comics book illustrator Art Saaf (Sheena, Jumbo Comics, Princess Pantha, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, The Twilight Zone, Supergirl) in 2007.

In 1938 on this date, Tif et Tondu and Spirou premiered in the debut issue of Le Journal de Spirou.

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The Phantom – The Complete Series: The Charlton Years Volume Two


By Pat Boyette, Joe Gill, D. J. Arn
eson & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-032-1 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the 17th century a British sailor survived an attack by pirates, and, washing ashore on the African coast, swore on the skull of his murdered father to dedicate his life and that of all his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights crime and injustice from a base deep in the jungles of Bengali, and throughout Africa is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”…

His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice have led to him being considered an immortal avenger by the credulous and the wicked. Down the decades one hero after another has fought and died in an unbroken family line, and the latest wearer of the mask, indistinguishable from the first, continues the never-ending battle.

Lee Falk created the Jungle Justice dealer at the request of his syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician, and although technically not the first ever costumed hero in comics, The Phantom’s astounding popularity made him the prototype paladin: wearing the later demi-compulsory skintight bodystocking and mask with opaque eye-slits.

He debuted on February 17th 1936 (Yep! Ninety nonstop years!!) in an extended sequence pitting him against a global confederation of pirates called the Singh Brotherhood. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over the illustration side to artist Ray Moore. A hugely successful Sunday feature began in May 1939. However, for such a long-lived and influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom has been very poorly served by the English language market – except in Australia where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god.

Numerous companies had begun releasing books of the strips – one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history – but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success, but, even if only of historical value (or just printed for Australians), surely the mysterious Mr. Kit Walker was worthy of a definitive chronological compendium series?

Happily, and perhaps because of the tights and mask, his comic book adventures have fared slightly better – especially in recent times. From November 1962 through July 1966, all new adventures were published by West Coast giant Gold Key Comics after which King Features Syndicate dabbled with a comic book line of their biggest stars – including Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Mandrake and The Phantom – between 1966 and 1967. When they gave up the ghost (see what I did there?), plucky dependable, cheap Charlton Comics were there to pick up the slack…

The Phantom was no stranger to funnybooks, having appeared since the Golden Age in titles like Feature Book and Harvey Hits, albeit only as reformatted newspaper strip reprints. Gold Key’s efforts were tailored to a big page and a young readership, a model King Features maintained for their own run, but which was carefully tweaked when Charlton acquired the license. This splendid full-colour tome gathers the contents of The Phantom #39-47 (originally released between August 1970 and December 1971) and opens with an erudite Introduction and appreciation from Don Mangus who reveals everything of the history and involvement of a much-sidelined star in ‘Sworn to the Oath of the Skull – Pat Boyette’.

San Antonio born on 27th July 1923, Aaron P. Boyette was pure mythical Texan: self-taught in everything that mattered and unstoppably confident. A true and tireless entrepreneur, he was a key component of the development of commercial radio in Texas: a journalist who researched, wrote, broadcast, managed, and presented shows. If you’ve read Golden Age Green Lantern, everyman hero Alan Scott – who did all the jobs – could have been patterned on Pat…

Boyette forsook burgeoning stardom to become a cryptographer during WWII. Coming out, he performed the same do-it-all trick with early television and later moved into making movies. After anchoring TV news, he abruptly moved sideways again, and took to comics: writing, editing, lettering, painting and illustrating as Pat Boyette, Sam Swell, Alexander Barnes & Bruce Lovelace.

Working for Charlton, DC, Warren, Archie, Acclaim; a host of eighties indie outfits and as a self-publisher, he produced newspaper strip Captain Flame; drew prestigious DC title Blackhawk; and found a lasting home at Charlton Comics. Here Boyette co-created The Peacemaker and assumed creative duties on Pete (“PAM”) Morisi’s Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. As the superhero boom faded he increasingly output on their anthological lines, crafting hundreds of genre short stories for romance, war, western horror, science fiction, fantasy and other titles. Boyette also handled Charlton’s biggest and most high-profile licensed features including The Six Million Dollar Man; Space: 1999; Korg: 70,000 B.C; Flash Gordon; Jungle Jim and the company’s runaway top seller: The Phantom. Boyette’s work was continually published at Charlton until at least 1986 when the outfit was being wrapped up. He readily adapted to the growing indie market, with his last work appearing in DC/Paradox Press’s The Big Book of the Weird Wild West in 1998.

Pat Boyette died of oesophageal cancer on January 14th, 2000 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The majority of the bi-monthly yarns here are scripted by Boyette, backed up by Joe Gill in #40, 41 & 45 (and also perhaps occasionally by predecessor scripter D.J. Arneson?): utterly workmanlike and hitting all the expected bases, with each issue offering a pictorial Contents Page teaser and terse, spartan, stripped-back action; mystery yarns with themes and plots that readers of newspapers and dyed-in-the-wool superhero fans could appreciate equally. There are plenty of mad scientists, aliens, monsters, war criminals, brutal beasts, sadistic potentates, thieves & pirates and many admiring women, but no costumed villains…

We open with The Phantom #39 as ‘A Small War!’ sees a ruthless filmmaker provoke conflict between old tribal friends until the Ghost-Who-Walks steps in, after which the hero foils thinly-disguised Nazis seeking to recover lost gold from the ‘Canyon of Death!’, and scuppers ‘The Silent Thieves!’ using their U-Boat to raid a river-adjacent diamond mine…

Boyette and his associates often sagely left their time period vague and unconfirmed, allowing creative anachronism to play out in tales that could often be starring earlier Phantoms of the undying dynasty. In #40, following a sample of original art pages, a wryly fond homage to earlier legends sees the masked marvel battle once again a giant warrior with quarterstaffs over a river crossing in ‘The Ritual’, before a vengeful criminal frames the Phantom for multiple murders with a diabolical device leaving his death’s head signature – ‘The False Mark’ – on native victims. The issue closes with a distraught heiress seeking her long-missing father and momentarily gulled by ‘The Second Phantom’ until the true titan turns up…

Scripted by Joe Gill, #41’s opener ‘Slave of Beauty’ sees our hero captured by an immortal queen resurrecting her fallen desert empire through slavery. However, Hegara is not all she seems and the Jungle Juggernaut readily crushes her dream before chasing a stolen Bandar treasure across the world. Savagely seized by murderous white hunter Waldo Brunn, ‘The Idol’ is only ultimately recovered after a bizarre alliance, and is followed by a devious clash with a ‘Deadly Foe’ developing viruses in the wilderness who proves to be anything but…

The Phantom #42 opens with a cruel high-tech attack on elephants perpetrated by plutocratic monster Rama Jahn and requiring all the ingenuity of the Ghost-Who-Walks to save the ‘Keeper of the Herd!’, before a simple good deed generates chaos in ‘Who Needs Enemies?’ Seeking to repay his debt, multi-millionaire E.R. Randall bombards the Bengali villagers with gifts and money that disrupt their lives. Moreover, he’s extremely unhappy when they begin to reject his unwanted largesse…

‘Prey of the Hunter’ then reveals what must be done when hunter Hugo Lusk becomes addicted to killing and the Judge of the Jungle must stop the slaughter, Sadly, that involves first becoming Lusk’s latest trophy…

Up front in #43 ‘Test of an Idol!’, finds fabulously attractive, utterly spoiled screen star Iris Benton attempting – and initially succeeding – in beguiling the hero and making The Phantom her latest conquest. Thus he permits a movie of his exploits and even participates but is tragically unprepared when her allure crosses the species barrier and leads to her abduction by apes!

A clever use of the hero’s historical longevity drives ‘Paid in Full’ when the descendent of a long-dead British victim of jungle larceny (saved by a Ghost who Walked in 1653) demands reparations – and compound interest – on a sum of money that went missing at the time. Happily Edward Cowper-Smythe is reasonable man…

The issue closed with a clash against most modern witchdoctor Medugli, who refused to follow the Phantom’s Peace and returned to torment the Bandari with a technological terror-weapon provided by colonising secret allies. Happily, ‘The Rain Stopper!’ was no mystery to the hero and ecological catastrophe was averted in the nick of time

In #44, ‘To Right a Wrong!’ sees marauding Achmid Raj successfully plunder the fabled Skull Cave only to be hunted down by the Ghost Who Walks, after which ‘Danger in Bengali’ reintroduces the contemporary hero’s true love Diana Palmer who regrettably arrives at the Cave just as a diabolical, piratical impostor is plundering it. Taken hostage she soon learns that her man – and his wolf Devil – are not dead, but in hot pursuit and really, really angry…

When replacement Bandari witch-man Zulanga proves just as nefarious as his predecessor, The Phantom again exiles him, and almost pays a fatal price as the wily rogue covertly returns with serpents and poisons to inflict ‘Death from Far Away!’ Almost…

A rare Phantom failure is rectified after 105 years in #45’s opening saga ‘Return of the Ruby!’ as the descendent of the hero who lost an unparalleled gem to bandits locates the precious prize. Now he must solve the moral dilemma of depriving its current – honest and innocent – owner to restore it to the family of the original ones…

In 1777, as tyrannical Captain Mustaphi ravaged the seas around Tripoli, an alliance to scuttle the slavers’ schemes paired an earlier Ghost Guardian with a Revolutionary War icon in ‘Phantom and John Paul Jones’ before a return to the present sees the death of the Bandar monarch and a vigil in the ‘Cave of Kings’. Happily The Phantom is paying his respects when hostile blood-enemies the Yumyu attempt to slaughter the grieving subjects and steal the incomparable grave goods…

The Phantom and Diana face devilish duplicates and legendary cult terrors the Leopardmen in #46’s lead yarn ‘Last of the Cat’, only to learn that vengeful old enemy Felix Cattmann is out of jail and behind all the Leopard-y jeopardy (sorry not sorry!) after which fantasy blends with larceny as Piranha Men raid the Skull Cave from the lakes and rivers beneath it. Of course, ‘The Vanishing Thieves!’ grievously underestimated the hero’s lung capacity and resolve, and their defeat lonely led to the Ghost Who Walks daring a deadly mountain peak to rescue abducted princess Inja from slave-raider Kruug and the eagles defending the ‘Nest of the Man-Eaters’…

Last issue in this tome of thrills and terrors, The Phantom #47 offered another trio of wild adventures beginning with entry into ‘The False Skull Cave’ constructed after avaricious Busas used government spy-plane systems to map vast “undiscovered” Bengali and ferret out the location of the world’s greatest treasure store. Of course, finding either cave or escaping alive were entirely different matters…

In ‘Soundless Voices!’ another cunning attempt to replace the Ghost with a diabolical doppelganger is foiled by the hero’s ferocious will to live and the long-range communications net of whale song, before the episodes pause after exposure to ‘The Vapors of Vulcan’. When Morpheus Negri, the mostly-dormant volcano in a remote corner of Bengali erupts again, the incredible immortals who live within it again plunder and ravage the land, seeking slave-prospects from the fittest of surface dwellers Who could they possibly pick this millennium?

Undying ruler Brilla has faced a Phantom long before and this one also rejects her offer of eternal “companionship” and escapes her alternate tactic of being consumed to sustain her energies for another century…

Packed and peppered throughout with pages of Boyette original art, this is another riveting, nostalgia-drenched triumph: straightforward, stripped down, nonstop rollicking action-adventure that has always been the staple of comics fiction and the Ghost Who Walks. If that sounds like a good time to you, this is a traditional action-fest you must not miss…
The Phantom® © 1970-1971 and 2013 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Today in 1946 horror story mangaka Hideshi Hino (Hell Baby, Hino Horrors, Panorama of Hell) was born, whilst strip debuts include Russell Myers’ Broom Hilda in 1970 and Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks in 2006. We lost crucial Disney animator Milt Kahl in 1987, DC cartoonist Henry Boltinoff in 2001 and Mexican creator/founder of their Academy of Arts Alberto Beltrán a year later.

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Mandrake the Magician: The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers – Sundays 1935-1937


By Lee Falk & Phil Davis (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-0-85768-572-8 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Regarded by many as comics’ first superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip on June 11th 1934, although creator Lee Falk had sold the strip almost a decade previously. Initially drawing it too, Falk replaced himself as soon as feasible, allowing the early wonderment to materialise through the effective understatement of sublimely solid draughtsman Phil Davis. An instant hit, Mandrake was quickly supplemented by a full-colour Sunday companion page from February 3rd 1935.

Falk – as 19-year-old college student Leon Harrison Gross – had sold the strip to King Features Syndicate years earlier, but asked the monolithic company to let him finish his studies before dedicating himself to it full time. Schooling done, the 23-year-old born raconteur settled into his life’s work, entertaining millions with astounding tales. Falk also created the first costumed superhero in moodily magnificent generational manhunter The Phantom, going on to spawn an entire comic book subgenre with his first creation.

Most Golden Age publishers boasted at least one (and usually many) nattily attired wizards in their gaudily-garbed pantheons: all roaming the world(s) making miracles and crushing injustice with varying degrees of stage legerdemain or actual sorcery – characters like Mr. Mystic, Ibis the Invincible, Sargon the Sorcerer, and an assortment of “…the Magician”’s like Zatara, Zanzibar and Kardak. In the Antipodes, Mandrake was a suave, stalwart of Australian Women’s Weekly and a cherished icon of adventure in the UK, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and across Scandinavia: a major star of page and screen, pervading every aspect of global consciousness.

Over many decades he has been a star of radio, movie chapter-serials, a theatrical play, television and animation (as part of series Defenders of the Earth). With all that came the usual merchandising bonanza – games, toys (including magic trick kits), books, comics and more…

Falk worked on Mandrake and “The Ghost who Walks” until his death in 1999 (even on his deathbed, he was laying out one last story), but also found a few quiet moments to become a renowned playwright, theatre producer and impresario, as well as an inveterate world-traveller. A man of many talents, Falk drew the first few weeks himself before uniting with sublimely imaginative cartoonist Phil Davis, whose sleekly understated renditions took the daily strip – and especially these expansive full-page Sunday offerings – to unparalleled heights of sophistication: his steady assured realism the perfect tool to render the Magician’s mounting catalogue of wondrous miracles…

Those in the know are well aware that Mandrake was educated at the fabled College of Magic in Tibet, thereafter becoming a suave globe-trotting troubleshooter, always accompanied by his faithful African partner Lothar and beautiful, feisty companion (and eventually, in 1997 (!), bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne, solving crimes and fighting evil. Those days, however, are still to come as the comics section opens in this splendidly oversized (315 x 236 mm) full-colour luxury hardback – and digital equivalents – with ‘The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers’ (running from February 3rd to June 2nd 1935) as the eccentrically urbane Prince of Prestidigitation and his herculean companion are approached by members of the international police to help expose a secret society of criminals and killers acting against the civilised world from their own hidden country.

After officer Duval is assassinated, Mandrake and Lothar – accompanied by panther woman Rheeta and surviving cop Pierce – embark upon a multi-continental search which, after many adventures, eventually brings them to a desolate desert region where they are confronted by bloody-handed Bull Ganton, King of Killers. With the master murderer distracted by Rheeta, Mandrake easily infiltrates the odious organisation and quickly begins dismantling a secret society of two million murderers. By the time Ganton wises up and begins a succession of schemes to end Mandrake, it’s far too late…

That deadly drama concluded, Mandrake & Lothar head to India to revisit old haunts and end up playing both peacemaker and cupid in the ‘Land of the Fakirs’ (June 9th – October 6th). When Princess Jana, daughter of Mandrake’s old acquaintance Jehol Khan, is abducted by rival ruler Rajah Indus of Lapore, the Magician ends his mischievous baiting of the street fakirs to intervene. In the meantime, Captain Jorga – who loves Jana despite being of a lower caste – sets off from the Khan’s palace to save her or die in the trying…

After many terrific and protracted struggles, Mandrake, Lothar & Jorga finally unite to defeat the devious duplicitous Rajah before the westerners set about their most difficult and important feat – overturning centuries of tradition so that Jorga and Jana might marry…

Heading north, the peripatetic performers stumble into amazing fantasy after entering the ‘Land of the Little People’ (13th October 1935 – March 1st 1936), encountering a lost race of tiny people embroiled in centuries-long war with brutal cannibalistic adversaries. After saving the proud warriors from obliteration, Mandrake again plays matchmaker, allowing valiant Prince Dano to wed brave and formidable commoner Derina who fought so bravely beside them. With this sequence, illustrator Davis seemed to shake off all prior influences and truly blossomed into an artist with a unique and mesmerising style all his own.

That is perfectly showcased in the loosely knit sequence (8th March to 23rd August 1936) which follows, as Mandrake & Lothar return to civilisation only to narrowly escape death in an horrific train wreck. Crawling from the wreckage, our heroes help ‘The Circus People’ recapture and calm the animals freed by the crash, subsequently sticking around as the close-knit family of nomadic outcasts rebuild. Mighty Lothar has many clashes with jealous bully Zaro the Strongman, culminating in thwarting attempted murder, whilst Mandrake uses his hypnotic hoodoo to teach sadistic animal trainer Almado lessons in how to behave, but primarily the newcomers act as a catalyst, making three slow-burning romances finally burst into roaring passionate life…

Absolutely the best tale in this tome and an imaginative tour de force that inspired many soon-to-be legendary comic book stars, ‘The Chamber into the X Dimension’ (30th August 1936 to March 7th 1937) is a breathtaking, mindbending saga starting when Mandrake & Lothar seek the missing daughter of a scientist whose experiments have sent her literally out of this world. Professor Theobold has discovered a way to pierce the walls between worlds but his beloved Fran never returned from the first live test. Eager to help – and addicted to adventure – Mandrake & Lothar volunteer to go in search of her and find themselves in a bizarre timeless world where the rules of science are warped and races of sentient vegetation, living metal, crystal and even flame war with fleshly humanoids for dominance and survival.

After months of captivity, slavery, exploration and struggle our human heroes finally lead a rebellion of the downtrodden fleshlings and bring the professor the happiest news of his long-missing child…

Concluding this initial conjuror’s compilation is a whimsical tale of judgement and redemption as Mandrake uses his gifts to challenge the mad antics of ‘Prince Paulo the Tyrant’ 14th (March 14th – 29th August 1937). The unhappy usurper had stolen the throne of Ruritanian Dementor and promptly turned the idyllic kingdom into a scientifically created madhouse. Sadly, Paulo had no conception of what true chaos and terror were until the magician exercised his mesmeric talents…

This epic celebration also offers a fulsome, picture-packed and informative introduction to the character – thanks to Magnus Magnuson’s compelling essay ‘Mandrake the Magician Wonder of a Generation’ – plus details on the lives of the creators (‘Lee Falk’ and ‘Phil Davis Biography’ features) plus a marvellous Davis pin-up of the cast to complete an immaculate confection of nostalgic strip wonderment for young and old alike.
Mandrake the Magician © 2016 King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. “Mandrake the Magician Wonder of a Generation” © 2016 by Magnus Magnuson.

MAD day today. Al Jaffee was born in 1921 and Sam Viviano turned up in 1953. In between, Italian creator of Zagor Franco Donatelli was born in 1924 and Spain’s Superlópez creator Jan (Juan López Fernández) arrived in 1939.

As you are already aware today was the Day Lee Falk embarked on his final voyage.