Mega Robo Bros Book 8: Final Form


By Neill Cameron & various (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-337-0 (Digest TPB)

Mightily momentous in metal and powerfully potent in plastic, here’s the ultimate upgrade of this solid gold all-ages sci fi saga from Neill Cameron (Tamsin of the Deep, Pirates of Pangea, How to Make Awesome Comics, Freddy) as originally published in UK weekly comic The Phoenix. Purpose-built paladins, the mecha-miraculous Mega Robo Bros have previously learned that even they can’t punch out intolerance or growing pains in electronic exploits balancing frantic fun with portents of darker, violent days to come…
One last time then… It’s still The Future!… but maybe not for much longer…

In a London far cooler but just as embattled as ours, Alex and his younger brother Freddy Sharma are still fooling themselves that they are typical kids: boisterous, fractious, perpetually argumentative yet devoted to each other. They’re not too bothered that they’re adopted. It’s really no big deal for them that they were meticulously and covertly constructed by mysterious Dr. Roboticus before he vanished, and are considered by those “in the know” as the most powerful and only fully SENTIENT robots on Earth. Sadly, recent events have severely challenged those notions…

Life in the Sharma household aimed to be normal. Dad is just your average old guy who makes lunch and does a bit of writing (he’s actually an award-winning journalist), but when not being a housewife, Mum is pretty extraordinary herself. Surprisingly famous and renowned robotics boffin Dr. Nita Sharma harbours many shocking secrets all her own. Little Freddy was insufferably exuberant and overconfident, and Alex had reached an age where self-doubt and anxiety hit hard and often.
The family’s other robot rescues were also problematic. Programmed to be dog-ish, baby triceratops Trikey was ok, but eccentric French-speaking ape Monsieur Gorilla could be tres confusing, whilst gloomily annoying, existentialist aquatic waterfowl Stupid Philosophy Penguin ambushed everyone with quotes from dead philosophers…

Crucially, the boys were part-time super-secret agents, but because they weren’t very good at the clandestine bit, almost the entire world knew of them. Nevertheless, the digital duo’s parents loved them, making life as normal as possible: sending them to human school, encouraging human friends as part of their “Mega Robo Routine”, combining dull human activities, actual but rare fun, games-playing, watching TV when not training in the combat caverns under R.A.I.D. HQ. When situations demanded, the lads undertook missions for bossy Baroness Farooq: head of British government agency Robotics Analysis Intelligence and Defence. The boys were told it’s because they were infinitely smarter and more powerful than the Destroyer Mechs and other man-made minions R.A.I.D. utilises. Now though, everything has changed and old lessons are subject to re-examination…

The saga reopens and concludes with the global heroes’ reputations ruined. After defeating menaces like Robot 23 and thwarting a rebellion sparked by artificial life activist The Caretaker, the Bros repeatedly battled monstrous, deadly damaged droid Wolfram and learned he might be their older brother. Eventually, they had to destroy him, leaving Alex traumatised by guilt and wracked by PTSD…

Over the course of that case they learned that fifteen years previously their brilliant young roboticist Mum worked under incomparable but weird genius Dr. Leon Robertus. His astounding discoveries earned him the nickname Dr. Roboticus. Perhaps that’s what initially pushed him away from humanity. Robertus allowed Nita to repurpose individually super-powered prototypes into a rapid-response team for global emergencies. Their Mum had been a superhero, leading manmade The Super Robo Six. Whilst saving lives with them, she met crusading journalist Michael Mokeme. He proudly took her name when they wed…

Robertus was utterly devoid of human empathy but – intrigued by the Seven’s acclaim and human acceptance – created a new kind of autonomous robot. More powerful than any previous construct, Wolfram was equipped with foundational directives allowing him to make choices and develop his own systems. He could think, just like Alex and Freddy can. Only, as it transpired, not quite…
Robertus demoted Nita and made Wolfram leader of a new Super Robo Seven, resulting in an even more effective unit… until Wolfram’s Three Directives clashed during a time-critical mission and millions of humans paid the price for his confusion and hesitation. In the aftermath, R.A.I.D. was formed and they sought to shut down Robertus and decommission Wolfram. When the superbot rejected their judgement, a brutal battle ensued causing Wolfram’s apparent destruction. Roboticus also disappeared…

Ultimately Wolfram returned, attacking vast polar restoration project Jötunn Base. Covering many miles it was carefully rebalancing the world’s climate, when Wolfram took it over: reversing the chilling process to burn Earth and drown humanity. Ordered by Baroness Farooq to stay put, Alex and Freddy rebelled, but by the time the Bros reached Jötunn, Wolfram had crushed a R.A.I.D. force led by their friend Agent Susie Nichols. After also failing to stop the attacker, kind, contemplative Alex found a way to defeat – and perhaps, destroy – his wayward older brother and save humanity…

Their exploit made the Bros global superstars. Freddy revelled in the attention but Alex could not adjust to the acclaim and horrifying new power levels he attained to succeed… and also the apparent onset of robot puberty. As anti-robot hysteria and skilfully orchestrated human intolerance brought violent incidents everywhere, friction between Alex and Freddy grew: petty spats driving a wedge between them. With hate group “Humanity First” agitating to destroy all robots, their spokesman named the Bros a threat to mankind. The Baroness – in a bid to promote inclusivity – ordered the Bros to appear on TV show Mega Robo Warriors -but it was another trap. As Freddy delightedly trashed an army of warbots, his self-control slipped and Alex realised his sibling’s hostile attitudes and violent overreactions had been building for some time…

When a Humanity First protest at Tilbury Port became a full-on meat vs metal riot, Freddy lost control, attacking humans trashing helpless droids. What might have happened next was thankfully forestalled when all the robots – even R.A.I.D.’s police drones – were corrupted by the pernicious “Revolution 23” virus, and Wolfram appeared, offering oppressed machines sanctuary in Steelhaven: a utopia of liberated mechanoids claiming independence from humanity.…

When Alex dodged his troubles for a day to go out with human friends Taia and Mira and – under duress – Freddy, their trip to Camden Lock was spiced up by holographically incommunicado Crown Prince Eustace (Alex’s best pal and next king of Britain). The trip also provided a huge prize when Mira found a junked bot and worked out the secret of Revolution 23 Malware. More importantly, common people began to turn against Humanity First’s fanatics…

Thanks to Mira’s discovery, the battling Bros had a lead on the mastermind behind all their current woes, but Freddy’s emotional problems reached a point where he couldn’t be talked down. Fired by uncontrollable fury, the younger bot hot-headedly streaked into a trap designed by their most cunning and patient foe. Seized by rage and madness, Freddy began razing London, and Alex was forced to stop him…

Now the final chapter opens in The Global Robotics Court, Alexandria, Egypt, where Mum shares her records of rearing the robot babies she adopted after Roboticus first dropped from sight, making an impassioned plea to save her boys from being destroyed. Against all odds she triumphs, but the boys don’t appreciate it. To keep them alive, Nita Sharma is forced to neuter their powers, reducing them to the same physical and intellectual levels as humans of their equivalent ages. Alex is almost relieved, despite an instant increase in bullying from former school classmates, but Freddy is inconsolable and furious. To compound the agony, his mechanical menagerie – even Stupid Philosophy Penguin – are confiscated by R.A.I.D.

Trapped and impotent as Wolfram’s robot refugees square up for war with humanity, the Sharmas retrench and try to make a new life for themselves. It’s helped slightly by Freddy’s new kitten (a real, organic one) and news that Mum is making a human sibling for the Bros, but the loss of powers, pals like Prince Eustace (commanded to stay away from the controversial robot people) and the ability to help anyone in trouble weighs heavily on Alex and increasingly drives Freddy to more violent acts.

As they are at their lowest ebb, the sadistic arch-nemesis who has secretly manipulated them and orchestrated all the Bros’ woes strikes. Capturing the boys, he reveals their true origins and seeking to complete his grand experiment, tortures Alex with words, moral challenges and the death of his parents… and all of London! The fiend has, however, utterly underestimated his victims, and not counted on the fact that his sentient toys have made many true friends in their short lives: beings willing to risk their own organic and/or mechanoid lives for Alex and Freddy…

In the end it’s a battle of wills and ideologies with Alex and Freddy overcoming their origins and programming to defeat true evil and build a better world for everyone and everything to live together in…

Interweaving real world concerns, addressing issues of gender and identity with great subtlety and in a way kids can readily grasp, this epic yarn has always blended fantasy, action and humour with superb effect. Excitement and tension greatly outweigh hilarity here however, with poignant moments of insecurity and introspection resulting in life-altering thrills, chills, and spectacular action scenes. Alex and Freddy are utterly authentic kids, irrespective of their origins, and their antics and anxieties strike exactly the right balance of future shock, family fun and superhero action to capture readers’ hearts and minds. What movies these tales would make – and now the saga is done let’s hope that jump comes soon!
Text and illustrations © Neill Cameron 2024. All rights reserved.

Mega Robo Bros Final Form will be released on February 13th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

Stingray Comic Albums volumes 1 & 2 – Battle Stations! & …Stand By For Action



Written, edited and compiled by Alan Fennel with Dennis Hooper, illustrated by Ron Embleton, with Steve Kite (Ravette Books/Egmont)
ISBN: 978-1-85304-456-4 (Album TPB #1) 978-1-85304-457-1 (Album TPB #2)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The worlds of Gerry Anderson have provided generations of fans with life-changing, formative puppet-based entertainment since 1957’s The Adventures of Twizzle and 1958’s Torchy the Battery Boy (made with fellow fantasy puppetry pioneer Roberta (Space Patrol) Leigh before they went their separate ways). Anderson’s later TV efforts included Four Feather Gulch, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, and truly bizarre transition to live action feature The Secret Service. As was the nature of the times, these audio-visual delights spawned comics iterations, initially licensed to outside publishes but eventually via an in-house publishing venture created in collaboration with City Magazines (part of the News of the World group).

TV Century 21 (the unwieldy “Century” was eventually dropped) patterned itself on a newspaper – albeit from 100 years into the future – a shared conceit that carried the avid readership into a multimedia wonderland as television and reading matter fed off each other.

Stuffed with high quality art and features, tabloid sized TV21 featured Anderson strips such as Fireball XL5 and Supercar as well as the crack team of aquanauts pitted against a bizarre and malevolent plethora of beings who lived beneath the waves. Even the BBC were represented by a full-colour strip starring The Daleks. In-house crossovers were common and graphic adventures were supplemented with stills from the TV shows (and later, films). A plenitude of photos also graced the text features adding to the unity of one of the industry’s first “Shared Universe” products. The comic also offered features, gags, and other (US) television adaptations such as My Favourite Martian and Burke’s Law.

TV Century 21 #1 launched on January 23rd 1965 – Happy Birthday future-boys! – instantly capturing the hearts and minds of millions of children, and further proving to comics editors the unfailingly profitable relationship between television shows and healthy sales. Filled with high quality art and features, printed in glossy, gleaming photogravure, TV21 featured previous shows in strips including latest hit Stingray, prior to next big draw Thunderbirds beginning on 15th January 1966, and incredibly illustrated by Frank Bellamy. It also ran the adventures of future spy Lady Penelope in advance of her screen debut.

In an attempt to mirror real world situations and be topical, the allegorically Soviet state of Bereznik constantly plotted against the World Government (for which read The West) in a futuristic Cold War to augment aliens, aquatic civilisations, common crooks and cosmic disasters that perpetually threatened the general wellbeing of the populace. Even the BBC’s TV “tomorrows” were represented by a full-colour strip starring The Daleks. In that first year, Fireball XL5, Supercar, Lady Penelope and Anderson’s epic submarine series Stingray captivated fans and catered to their future shocks, with top flight artists including Mike Noble, Eric Eden, Ron Embleton, Don Lawrence and Ron Turner.

These collected comic albums stem from the early 1990s (when many of Anderson’s unforgettable creations enjoyed a popular revival on TV and in comics publishing), each reprinting three unforgettable strip thrillers from the legendary weekly, scripted by editor/writer Alan Fennel (and possibly studio partner Dennis Hooper) and limned by the incredible Ron Embleton (Strongow the Mighty, Wulf the Briton, Wrath of the Gods, Biggles, The Trigan Empire, Oh, Wicked Wanda! and many more, in Mickey Mouse WeeklyExpress Weekly, TV Century 21, Princess, Boys’ World, Look and Learn, Penthouse and others). For TV21, he especially distinguished himself on the Captain Scarlet and Stingray strips.

In September 2024 an epic hardback collection – the Stingray Comic Anthology Vol. 1: Tales from the Depths – was released by Anderson Entertainment: a hefty hardback with no digital edition available yet. That’s a book for another time and if it’s beyond your means at the moment, these paperback tomes are still readily available, remarkably cheap and eminently re-readable…

Although reproduction leaves something to be desired, and chronologically adrift in terms of running order, initial compilation Stingray Comic Album volume 1: Battle Stations delivers weekly undersea action by Fennel, Dennis Hooper & Embleton, collectively covering TV21 #23-44, cover-dated 26th June – 20th November 2065. As part of the conceit, every issue was forward dated by a century, so if you still need help that’s 26th June – 20th November 1965…

Spanning #23 to 30 (26th June – 14th August) ‘The Ghosts of Station Seventeen’ see trusty aquanauts Troy Tempest, Phones Sheridan and Commander Sam Shore investigating a research station no scientist can remain in, uncovering sly skullduggery by aquatic aliens, whilst ‘Aquatraz’ (#31-37, 21st August to 2nd October) offers a gritty yet fantastical prison break yarn as our heroes must spring WASP personnel held by Titan at the bottom of the ocean. The action ends with another calamitous battle bonanza as ‘The Uranium Plant Invasion’ (TV21 #38-44, 9th October 2065 November 20th 1965) sees Titan’s forces steal the secrets of atomic energy from the surface men and upgrade their Terror Fish fleet. The resultant war is spectacular, short, and a near-fatal wake-up call for humanity…

 

Stingray Comic Album volume 2 declares …Stand By for Action and re-presents the earliest episodes of the original run in staggeringly lovely 2-page weekly episodes by Fennel & Embleton as crafted for the incredibly rewarding but notoriously laborious and difficult to master photogravure print process. Throughout, these tales run in landscape format spreads – so read across, not down the page, guys…

Crafted by Fennel & Embleton, ‘The Monster Jellyfish’ (TV21 #1-7, 23rd January – March 6th 1965) sees subsea despot Titan of Titanica attack the World Aquanaut Security Patrol with a mutated sea predator, capable of sinking the most modern aircraft carriers in the fleets. Thankfully Troy, Phones and amphibian ally Marina are on the job and Marineville is saved by the sterling super-sub, before plunging on to face the astounding ‘Curse of the Crustavons’ (#8-14, March 13th – April 24th).

Once the threat of losing all Earth’s capital cities to talking lobster villains is dealt with, the drama descends into far more personal peril as ‘The Atlanta Kidnap Affair’ (#15-21, May 1st – June 12th 1965) sees Commander Shore’s capable daughter made a pawn in the ongoing war. Abducted by Titan’s agents whilst on a painting holiday, the incident incites Troy to go undercover to track her down and rescue her…

These are cracking fantasy rollercoaster rides full of action and drama and illustrated with captivating majesty by the incredible Ron Embleton, who supplemented his lush colour palette and uncanny facility for capturing likenesses with photographic stills from the TV shows. Whether for expediency, artistic reasons tor editorial diktat the effect on impressionable young minds was electric. This made the strips “more real” then and the effect has not diminished with time. These are superb treat for fans of all ages.
© 1992 ITC Entertainment Group Ltd. Licensed by Copyright Promotions Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

The Complete Just a Pilgrim


By Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra with Paul Mounts, Ken Wolak, Chris Eliopoulos & various (Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-60690-003- (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-60690-007-9 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As the entire planet ruminates on what about to happen and ponders how many different kinds of “American Dream” can coexist, let’s go back to a future that never happened – yet – but look less like harmless fiction every day…

Like its troubled protagonist, Just a Pilgrim is a much-travelled item that never sat comfortably anywhere, but still has much to recommend it. Originally miniseries Just a Pilgrim (2001) and sequel Just a Pilgrim: Garden of Eden (2002), the property started at Blackbull Comics with Britain’s Titan Books releasing trade paperback compilations, before this deluxe hardcover/soft cover/digital edition from Dynamite Entertainment.

Fleetway veterans Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra have a long association with war comics and the apocalyptic visions of alternate lifestyle bible 2000AD, so combining their kindred sensibilities for near-future post-apocalyptic adventures always pays off in visceral hits and giggles. Since the 5-part miniseries spawned an almost immediate follow-up, they must have been more or less correct, but as the volatile state of the comics industry ended many indie companies at that time, this compilation comes to us via media/intellectual property specialists Dynamite…

Moreover, co-creator Ennis stated that even after past works and collaborations with Carlos Ezquerra (such as Bloody Mary and Adventures in the Rifle Brigade) he was keen to push the envelope on the mythology and iconography of the classic movie western hero/antihero.

The black sardonic ironies of Judge Dredd, Preacher, Hellblazer and True Faith are not present in this exploration of Christian indoctrination ascendant produced with veteran combat illustrator Carlos Ezquerra for Black Bull Comics way back in 2001 and 2002.

This treat is garnished and flavoured with all the iconic spaghetti western tropes and themes of Clint Eastwood via traditional “a man’s gotta do…” John Wayne nonsense taken to its outrageous but so logical extremes, but be warned: in this exploration of religious fanaticism there’s not much room (some, not a lot…) for the cruel, ultra-violent gross-out stuff that made Hitman, The Boys and A Train Called Love such guilty pleasures.

Behind that gripping Mark Texiera cover is a yarn steeped in classic western lore and references as an embattled wagon train picks its way through hostile territory and appalling predators. The kid who is our narrator and viewpoint is helplessly drawn to a charismatic stranger his parents fear but cannot survive without, and death is absolutely everywhere…

The saga of this particular Man With No Name happens on a parched Earth that has been subjected to a vast solar flare that dried up the oceans.

Following Mark Waid’s text preamble ‘If You Call This Introduction “Just an Introduction,” I’ll F***ing Kill You’ the story unfolds in little Billy Shepherd’s own diarised words. The kid is 10½ and riding across the dusty Atlantic floor from sunken wreck to sundered bleaching hulk in ‘Anno Domini’ when raiders attack the convoy of migrant families in search of better lives. Thankfully, the sea floor foragers are singlehandedly driven off by a big guy with a strange long gun and crucifix-scarred face.

The newcomer is murderously pious and after despatching the bandits to their final judgement, offers to guide the trekker through the wastes and awful mutant beasts inhabiting the region to possible wetter climes. Sadly, his staunch resistance has made them all the sole concern of obsessive psychotic quadriplegic blind pirate king Castenado, who diverts all his plundered resources and army of “Buckers” to destroying him and the intruders he’s protecting beginning in ‘To Reign in Hell’

Despite his upstanding Christian values, the Pilgrim terrifies everyone but Billy and as the brutal voyage and attacks continue, he is finally recognised for the monstrous infamous sinner he used to be – a grisly tale told in of cannibalism and redemption recounted in ‘Bloody Baskets’ before the inevitable showdown with Castenado and his horde in ‘Firestarter’ and blistering conclusion in the Alamo-like mouldering ruins of the Titanic in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’

One year later Just a Pilgrim: Garden of Eden sees the wanderer faithfully reading not only the Bible but also Billy’s diary as he discovers a recess in the pacific ocean floor where water still exists; supporting abundant vegetation and a small colony of scientists. The ‘Marianas’ oceanic trench is a staging post where techs seek to fix up a space shuttle to take them all to a new less hostile world. However, under constant insidious assault, and picked off by mutant creatures that reanimate the dead, they are willing to suspend their distrust of the religious maniac if he can stop the killings. It’s an ill-judged compromise as the deaths mount in ‘To the Stars by Hard Ways’ and the colonists are further split by the Pilgrim’s ruthless and sanctimonious safeguarding actions. Most vocal is Dr Christine Page who clashes with him constantly but after he gifts her Billy’s diary she begins to realise how much the fanatic has actually already softened…

When the dead-riders attack in force and torch the garden, little girl Maggy is taken below ground and the Pilgrim leads a doomed rescue party after her. In face of their latest losses, and a most appalling act that has debased them all, the scientists make ready to leave Earth, giving the outcast one last chance to save Maggy and join them in a ‘Last Supper’ that only goes even more wrong. As fate signals the end of humanity’s time on Earth and forces the fanatical zealot to reexamine his beliefs and ask ‘Why Has Thou Forsaken Me?’ the apostle of the apocalypse ends his crusade in the only way he ever could…

If you were wondering, colours come courtesy of Paul Mounts & Ken Wolak, with Chris Eliopoulos lettering this violently engaging, sublimely cathartic and painfully accurate prognostication of what lies in store for us…

Supplementing the iconographic saga is a map of the dry world and travel progress of the Pilgrim, a Cover Gallery of 15 variants by Steve Dillon, Joe Jusko, Mark Texiera, Tim Bradstreet, J.G. Jones, Glenn Fabry, Kevin Nowlan, Bill Sienkiewicz, John McCrea and Dave Gibbons, backed up by an 8-page Pin-Up Gallery from Amanda Conner, McCrea, Nelson, Darick Robertson, Paul Mounts and Jimmy Palmiotti, before closing with a Sketchbook section packed with roughs and character designs by Ezquerra, Jusko and Jones.

Excessively violent, trenchant, savagely satirical, gripping and never less than totally thrilling, this slice of dark, theology shows Ennis and much-missed Ezquerra at their anarchic best, offering an everyman view of all the hell-and-stupidity we can expect.

These are grown-up comics at its very best and long overdue for their rightful place on your bookshelf or in your digital library.
™ & © 2008 Wizard Entertainment. All rights reserved.

Judge Anderson PSI Files volume 01


By Alan Grant, John Wagner, Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson, Robin Smith, Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, Mark Farmer, Mick Austin, David A. Roach, Arthur Ranson, Carlos Ezquerra, Kim Raymond & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-90673-522-7 (TPB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

A wellspring of spin-off creativity, Britain’s last great comic icon can be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s also well on the way to becoming the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD. As such he’s also spawned a rich world where other stars have been born and thrived…

Judge Dredd and the ultra-dystopian environs of Mega-City One were created by a creative committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others, with the majority contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner, who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own and several pseudonymous names.

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

They are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realised is that the entire milieu is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action. Just keep telling yourself, some situations demand drastic solutions…

In 1980 and Progs (that’s tomorrow-talk for issue number) #149-151 – January 26th-February 9th – with continuity and scenario firmly established, Wagner, writing as John Howard, introduced Judge Death: an undead lawman from an alternate Earth, whose Judges, faced with the same interminable problems as our world, took their creed to its only logical conclusion. If all crime is perpetrated by the living, then to eradicate crime…

After ending all life in his own dimension, the ghostly ghoul extended his mission to ours, wiping out criminals and law-abiding citizens alike, with the Judges – even Dredd – unable to stop him… until the flamboyant and unconventional psychic recruit Judge Cassandra Anderson of PSI Division sacrificed herself to trap the evil spirit forever…

With Wagner clearly on a creative roll, the fans spoke long and loud. Both the Zombie Peacemaker and Anderson returned within a year. Credited to T.B. Grover (still Wagner in Progs #224-228/August 8th to September 5th 1981), ‘Judge Death Lives’ saw a desperate citizen releasing the horror from his eternal tomb at the behest of three more expired Judges: Mortis, Fire and Fear.

Reunited with their leader the Dark Judges went about their lawful occasions, executing vast numbers of Mega-City citizens. It took a trans-dimensional trip to their origin realm – “Deadworld” – before Dredd & Anderson could stop the slayers; and even then, only temporarily. Those magnificent yarns appear often in other collections, and I’ll surely revisit them again soon, but the most important aspect of all that is how both Anderson and Death went on to their own series… which brings us to here, because this book is not about Joe Dredd but rather what can bloom in his honking, big-booted shadow…

Cassandra Anderson, as part of the Judges’ psychic/weird phenomena division is given far more leeway than her straitlaced, buttoned-down street cops colleagues. That made her own exploits far quirkier, outrageous and experimental, thereby guaranteeing her a solo series…

Spanning 1983-1990 and collecting early cases as originally seen in anthological weekly 2000AD #416-427, 468-478, 520-531, 607-609, 612-613, 614-612, 635-644, 645-647, 657-659, 669-670, 712-717 and 758-763, plus self-contained episodes from 2000AD Annual 1984 and 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988, the eerie off-kilter terrors begin with another outing for the ‘Four Dark Judges’ as detailed by new lead scripter Alan Grant and Wagner in Progs #416-427, with illustrators Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson and Robin Smith tag-teaming the art. As with the majority of these yarns, veteran letterer Tom Frame made sense of it all…

The opening tale details how the essences of Death and his subordinate Judges Fear, Fire and Mortis mentally bombard the psychic peacekeeper until she breaks regs and dimension hops to their deceased dimension – “Deadworld” – to sort them out once and for all. However, they quickly overpower her consciousness and use her to unleash themselves on the puling masses of Mega-City One. With another kill-spree in full flow, suspended Anderson breaks a few more rules and finds a way to despatch one Dark Judge and force the remaining trio to retreat. She’s ready for them when they strike again and end up banished to Limbo thanks to fortitude, determination and new Judge tech. It’s the only thing that saves her from her own commanding officers…

Grant, Wagner, Ewins & Frame catered Anderson’s second solo-starring soirée (#468-478) as ‘The Possessed’ sees Anderson investigating a poltergeist at Ed Poe “hab-block” (big, Big apartment buildings) and inexorably drawn into a war with demons led by child-possessor Gargarax. Even PSI-Division’s exorcists are outgunned when Cassandra’s gifts lead her to block satanists secretly summoning the arcane entities by sacrificing relatively innocent waif Hammy Blish, and the conflict and carnage soon spread far, wide and even deep under the mass-metropolis into its appalling Undercity…

Anderson’s hunt for Gargarax ultimately leads her to its private hell and war against a host of devils, but her escape and the ensured safety of Mega-City One come at a grave cost…

The rich history of the City and Anderson’s precognitive visions fuel the next epic yarn as illustrators Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, John Aldrich, and letterers Frame & Steve Potter join Grant & Wagner for ‘Hour of the Wolf’ (#520-531). As vague, surreal dream portents plague the rule-breaking Judge, seeking to warn her of a deadly plot, Sov-City psychic sleeper agents attempt to wreck her city, kill her and liberate the Judges’ greatest opponent – arch terrorist Orlok the Assassin of East-Meg One…

The campaign almost succeeds and costs many more lives before the mass murderer is (barely) thwarted…

Grant, Mark Farmer & Frame deliver a shorter pace-changing romp in Progs #607-609 as ‘Contact’ sees Anderson sent to the far end of the solar system to scope out a strange alien ship that has ignored all other forms of communication or investigative scanning. Good call too, as what she finds are liars and deeply predatory…

Mick Austin joins Grant & Frame across #612-613 as ‘Beyond the Void’ sees Anderson despatched to handle a transcendental incident at the Mahatma Cote monastery. There she finds a Lama’s spiritual journey has taken him to the gateway of Judge Death’s cosmic cell, and must act accordingly. David A. Roach then assumes control of the vision-making for Grant as ‘Helios’ (#614-622) sees her and occasional partner Judge Corey on the trail of a long-dead, vengeance-crazed killer using mind-control and surgical alteration to carry out his schedule of slaughter.  Grant, Austin & Gordon Robson then sort out a solo saga in 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988. ‘Judge Corey: Leviathan’s Farewell’ finds the empath chasing ruthless sugar smugglers to the toxin-blighted coastal shores, only to have a deep encounter with something old, uncanny and irresistibly tragic…

Arthur Ranson illustrates Grant’s next extended storyline as ‘Triad’ (#635-644) reveals the true nature of an ethereal serial killer with a penchant for baroque monsters and Fortean events hunting in Mega-City One. The connection to an abused boy is not clear at first but as more bodies spectacularly drop, Anderson’s visions become clearer and much more insistent and soon the hand of an old enemy can be seen.

An unhealthy obsession with robots grips a unique spree killer in ‘The Prophet’ (#645-647 by Grant, Roach & Potter) whilst #657-659’s ‘The Random Man’ – illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra – sees Anderson in pursuit of a sex-&-gambling-obsessed perp in the throes of transition, before Roach returns to limn #669-670’s ‘The Screaming Skull’: a deviously twisted macabre mystery of ghosts, assassins and the world’s oldest motive for murder…

One last extended epic brings the psionic shenanigans to a close as Grant, Roach and Potter take two bites of the cherry (Progs #712-717 and 758-763) to explore the meaning of ‘Engram’ in a Shakespearean saga of Cursed Earth witches, a child of destiny and Anderson in hot pursuit of pyrokinetic mass murderer Verona Rom. One threat ended, a bigger one emerges and the Judge-out-of-water must contend with a ghostly stalker only she can see, not-so-slowly driving her insane. After mounting bouts of madness Anderson is sectioned to an Iso-Cube, whilst her colleagues and superiors dig deep to find what really happened in the Cursed Earth, leading to staggering revelations of her own childhood, a game changing reunion with the witches in the scarred wastelands and rebirth of intent in Mega-City One…

To Be Continued…

Rounding out this initial monochrome compendium is ‘Bonus Strip: The Haunting’ by Grant, Kim Raymond & Tony Jacob from 2000AD Annual 1984 with the Judge battling demonic usurper Dahak for the mind and soul of impulsive scholar Dr Levin who should have kept his hands off the treasures of the Mega-City One Museum of Antiquities…

Supplemented by Ewins’ cover for 2000 AD Prog #468, and biographies of the ‘Writers’ and ‘Artists’ involved, these groundbreaking tales are amongst the very best action adventures Apocalypse-obsessed, dystopia driven Britain has ever produced, neatly balancing paranoia with gallows humour and innate anarchic disrespect for authority (any authority) with pulse-pounding thrills, spills and chills.

This is sheer addictive nostalgia for my generation, but the stories hold up against anything made for today’s marketplace. Buy it for the kids or keep it for yourself; this cheap-&cheerful tome is glorious, funny challenging and beautifully realised… and steel yourself for even better yet to come…
© 1983, 1985,1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 & 2012 Rebellion A/S. All rights reserved.

Buster Book 1974


By many and various (IPC)
No ISBN: ASIN: 85037-054X

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The 1950s ushered in a revolution in British comics. With wartime restrictions on printing and paper lifted, a steady stream of new titles emerged from many companies, and when Hulton Press launched The Eagle in April 1950, the very idea of what weeklies could be altered forever. Fleetway was an adjunct of IPC (at that time the world’s largest publishing company) and had, by the early 1970s, swallowed or out-competed all other English companies producing mass-market comics except the exclusively television-themed Polystyle Publications. As it always had been, the megalith was locked in a death-struggle with Dundee’s DC Thomson for the hearts and minds of their assorted juvenile markets – a battle the publishers of The Beano and The Dandy would finally win when Fleetway sold off its diminishing comics line to Egmont publishing and Rebellion Studios in 2002.

At first glance, British comics prior to Action and 2000 AD seem to fall into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and/or fantastic preschool fantasy; a large selection of licensed entertainment properties; action; adventure; war; school dramas, sports and straight comedy strands. Closer looks would confirm that there was always a subversive merging, mixing undertone, especially in such antihero series as Dennis the Menace or our rather strained interpretation of superheroes. Until the 1980s, UK periodicals employed a traditional anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character on a weekly – sometimes fortnightly – basis. Primarily humorous comics like The Beano were leavened by action-heroes like The Q-Bikes or General Jumbo whilst adventure papers like Smash, Lion or Valiant always carried palate-cleansing gagsters like The Cloak, Grimly Feendish, Mowser and other laugh treats. Buster offered the best of all worlds.

Accomplishing 1902 issues from May 28th 1960 to 4th January 2000,(plus specials, spin-offs and annuals), Buster juggled drama, mystery, action and comedy, with its earliest days – thanks to absorbing Radio Fun and Film Fun – heavily spiced with celebrity-licensed material starring popular media mavens like Charlie Drake, Bruce Forsyth and Benny Hill backing up the eponymous cover star who was billed as “the son of Andy Capp” – cartoonist Reg Smyth’s drunken, cheating, skiving, wife-beating global newspaper strip star. The comic became the final resting place of many, many companion papers in its lifetime, including The Big One, Giggle, Jet, Cor!, Monster Fun, Jackpot, School Fun, Nipper, Oink! and Whizzer and Chips, so its cumulative strip content was always wide, wild and usually pretty wacky…

From 1973 (all UK annuals are forward-dated to next year), just as Marvel UK was making inroads with its own brand of comics madness, comes this experimental collation. Fleetway’s hidebound, autocratic bureaucracy still ruled the roost, even though sales had been steadily declining in all sectors of the industry – Pre-school, Juvenile, Boys and Girls, Educational – since the 1960s closed, and increasingly the company were sanctioning niche products to shore up sales rather than expand or experimental endeavours like the Buster Book of Scary Stories and others.

That’s all reflected here in the oversized, soft-card covered Buster Book 1974 which opens with a sporty fishy visit to Buster’s Dream-World (probably scripted by editor Nobby Clark and illustrated by Spanish mainstay Ángel Nadal Quirch) wherein our lad conflates rugby with angling, before dipping into drama with a tale of Fishboy – Denizen of the Deep: a kind of undersea teen Tarzan mostly produced by Scott Goodall & John Stokes but is here limned by possibly Fred Holmes or an overseas artist unknown to me. Here the briny boy hero scuppers the schemes of sinister, polluting, illegal uranium prospectors, before we segue to spooky nonsense in Rent-A-Ghost Ltd., courtesy of Reg Parlett, as the haunts for hire discourage someone’s noisy neighbour, whilst domestic sitcom clones The Happy Family endure a nosy noisome aunt’s visit and The Kids of Stalag 41 (by Jimmy Hansen or Mike Lacey?) face another cold Christmas outwitting Colonel Schtink and his oafish Nazi guards whilst Clever Dick – by Leo Baxendale – builds another labour-intensifying manic invention.

Drifter Long – The Football Wanderer finds his superstitious nature works to his advantage in a short tale by someone doing a passing impression of Tony Harding, as a selection of cartoon gags offer Fun Time! apre Parlett’s Dim Dan the Film Stunt Man and idiot pet shop pooch Bonehead leading into a dentist dodging caper for Face Ache (possibly by Ken Reid but more likely unsung substitute hero Ian Mennell), before fish out of water drama ‘The Laird of Lazy Q’ sees kilt-wearing Scottish highlander Duncan MacGregor inherit a ranch in Kansas and face hostility, gunfighters, fake “injuns” and murderous gold-stealing owlhoots before making the place his home. The tale was a reformatted serial from companion comic Knockout in 1967 which originally ran as ‘McTavish of Red Rock’.

Well-travelled veteran strip kid Smiler (by Eric Roberts, as also seen in Whoopee and Knockout) loses a pin next, whilst Sam Sunn – the Strongest Boy in the World finds circus life profitable, after which classic monster yarn Galaxus – The Thing from Outer Space finds the size-shifting alien ape and his human pals Jim & Danny Jones still hunted by humanity but finding time to save an explorer from lost Inca tribesmen in a cracking tale from the Solano Lopez studio.

More Clever Dick by Baxendale precedes car crash yarn Buster Tells a Tale before Eric Bradbury shines in a short tale of evil hypnotist Zarga – Man of Mystery and Face Ache visits a haunted house whilst Hobby Hoss – He knows it all!– sees the smug mansplainer prove his lack of equestrian expertise in advance of more gags in Linger for a laugh and fresh jungle hijinks for old Valiant expat/lion lag Tatty-Mane – King of the Jungle (Nadal again?)

Baxendale cowboy spoof Pest of the West segues into more mirthful magical mystery with Rent-A-Ghost Ltd., and Dim Dan the Film Stunt Man prior to clueless cub scout Bob-A-Job wrecking a jumble sale before western drama The Laird of Lazy Q (drawn by Mike Western?) concludes and Baxendale’s anarchic pachyderm Nellyphant debuts, just as The Happy Family go treasure hunting even as Another Tale from Buster reveals bath night woes with a guest appearance by Andy Capp’s long suffering “missus” – AKA Buster’s mum – Flo

Willpower Willy – The Coward who Turned Tough details how a bullied schoolboy turns the tables after becoming a boffin’s human guinea pig, and model plane enthusiasts fail to benefit from their lecture by Hobby Hoss (who still knows it all!) before more Bonehead antics, Sam Sunn exertions and Smiler capers bring us to time travelling thievery courtesy of Jack Pamby whose rendition of The Astounding Adventures of Charley Peace find the old rogue on the right side of the law for once…

Animal fun and frolics then wrap up festivities with Tatty-Mane – King of the Jungle facing imminent usurpation and Nellyphant learning to fly…

Eclectic, eccentric, egalitarian  and always packed with surprises, Buster offered variety in all forms for any palate, and could well be a still-accessible treat you should seek out and share.
© IPC Magazines Ltd., 1973 All rights reserved throughout the world.

The Dandy Book 1978


By Eric Roberts, Bill Holroyd, Hugh Morren, Jimmy Hughes, George Martin, Jack Prout, Charles Grigg, Ron Spencer, Ken H. Harrison, & many & various (DC Thomson & Co, Ltd.)

ISBN: 978-0-85116-043-6 (HB) ASIN ? : ?B004WY70VW

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For generations of British (and – Tharg help us! – former colonial) fans, Christmas means The Beano Book, The Broons, Oor Wullie and making every December 25th magical. There used to be many more DC Thomson titles, but the years have gradually winnowed them away. Thankfully, time means nothing here, so this year I’m concentrating on another Thomson Christmas cracker that made me the man wot I am. As usual my knowledge of the creators involved is woefully inadequate but I’m going to hazard a few guesses anyway, in the hope that someone with better knowledge will correct me whenever I err.

The Dandy comic predated The Beano by eight months, utterly revolutionising the way children’s publications looked and – most importantly – how they were read. Over decades it produced a bevy of household names that delighted millions, with end of year celebrations being bumper bonanzas of the weekly stars in magnificent hardback annuals.

Premiering on December 4th December 1937, The Dandy broke the mould of its hidebound British predecessors by utilising word balloons and captions rather than narrative blocks of text under sequential picture frames. A colossal success, it was followed on July 30th 1938 by The Beano. Together they revolutionised children’s publications. Dandy was the third longest running comic in the world (behind Italy’s Il Giornalino – launched in 1924 – and Detective Comics in March 1937). Over decades the “terrible twins” spawned countless cartoon stars of unforgettable and beloved household names who delighted generations of avid and devoted readers…

The Christmas Annuals were traditionally produced in the wonderful “half-colour” British publishers used to keep costs down whilst bringing a little spark into our drab and gloomy young lives. The process involved printing sections with only two (of potentially 4) plates, such as blue/Cyan and red/Magenta as seen in this majority of this tome. The versatility and palette range provided was astounding. Even now the technique screams “Holidays” to me and my contemporaries, and this volume uses the technique to stunning effect.

As you can see, the fun-filled action begins on the covers and continues on the reverse, with front-&-back covers occupied by superstar Korky the Cat (Charlie Grigg) setting the tone with a sequence of splendid seasonal sight gags that begins with a suitably destructive Desperate Dan frontispiece spread – which concludes on the inner back pages at the end, all limned by Grigg.

Framed in blue and red, Korky’s playing foosball on the Introduction pages as D.C. Thomson confirm again how adept they were at combining anarchic, clownish comedy with solid fantasy/adventure tales. Peter’s Pocket Grandpa (Ron Spencer) sees the pint-sized pensioner creating chaos after using a roller skate and unwilling mutt as his chariot after which Jimmy Hughes’ feuding fools The Jocks and the Geordies renew their small nationalistic war in a duel of soap box carts.

In a quick switch to blue & black and all the tones between, cowboy superman Desperate Dan’s Christmas morning is spent trying to free his nephew Danny and niece Katey’s football from arboreal bondage. It should have been quick work but they told him it was a lost cat not mislaid toy and he applied due caution if not reason…

The daftness drifts into sublimely entertaining drama as Black Bob the Dandy Wonder Dog – presumably by veteran Jack Prout – sees shepherd Andrew Glenn and his canine companion solve the mystery of a persistent – and violent – hole excavator over four thrilling chapters prior to Korky renewing his decades-old conflict with gamekeepers and fishing wardens before Bill Holroyd switches us to blue and red while detailing how alien schoolboy Jack Silver – still visiting Earth from fantastic planet Marsuvia – joins human pal Curley Perkins in battling an apelike giant thieving bazzoon employed by supervillain Captain Zapp.

From there we revert to the cheeky comfort of simpler times as Dirty Dick – by the incredibly engaging Eric Roberts (no, not the actor) – finds our perennially besmudged and befouled boy profiting from turning a tip into a sports ground whilst George Martin’s mighty pooch/sheriff Desperate Dawg benefits from a brief diet and Holroyd’s young DIY enthusiast disastrously modify grandad’ pipe in The Tricks of Screwy Driver

Back in blue, it all goes typically wrong in Bully Beef and Chips (Hughes) when the bullied boy builds a yeti before the second Black Bob instalment carries us away into the big bad dirty city before The Smasher enters the picture. A brawny lad hewn from the same mould as Dennis the Menace, in the first of his vignettes (drawn by Hugh Morren or perhaps David Gudgeon?) he attempts to score boxing match tickets go awfully awry, just as Desperate Dan resurfaces in a bad odour over poor quality eggs and Martin’s Izzy Skint – He Always Is! finds the youthful entrepreneur failing spectacularly to secure an archery kit of his own…

Korky the Cat clashes with old enemies the house mice whilst the snack-deprived students of Martin’s arch nosh-stealer Greedy Pigg (ever-attempting to confiscate and scoff his pupils’ treats) score a singular triumph.

Prolific Eric Roberts always played a huge part in making these annuals work and next up his signature star – schoolboy grifter Winker Watson – scores for the Third Form lads of Greytowers School not only a forbidden trampoline but also an illicit pet dog, despite the worst efforts of form master Mr. Creep. As usual Winker’s a cunning scheme – worthy of Mission Impossible or Leverage – makes the teacher the butt of a joke and star of the show but does so with spectacular slapstick panache…

Desperate Dawg goes camping and spars with assorted wildlife in advance of the third Black Bob chapter (where the wonder dog is captured by crooks) before Holroyd – or perhaps Steve Bright – conjures up confusion and excitement for schoolboy Charley Brand and robotic pal Brassneck when the pals mistakenly bring home an escaped convict rather than the visiting uncle they had never met…

Another spate between The Jocks and the Geordies at a camping site leads to civic minded good Samaritan Desperate Dan turning vigilante to capture gunslinging bank bandits after which Ken H. Harrison’s Rah-Rah Randall plays hooky in stolen boots and Peter’s Pocket Grandpa discovers the disadvantage of his height when beekeeping…

In a non-existent (if not wholly imagined on my part) homage to the rise of Punk, there’s a concatenation if not concentration of violent young offenders next as The Smasher indulges in indoor/domestic mountain climbing and Bully Beef and Chips clash over water, whilst scuff supreme Dirty Dick goes dousing – for trash – before Black Bob part 4 brings the mystery to a solid conclusion.

Desperate Dawg effectively but accidentally captures renegades and The Tricks of Screwy Driver bring poachers to justice even as Greedy Pigg settles his own nefarious hash, although an incensed teacher intervenes in the final mismatched battle between Bully Beef and Chips, before The Smasher’s attempts to share his violent skillset leads to injury all around…

One last Korky yarn, involving cannon and football training, bring us to an ad for more Dandy delights to close this year’s treasury of wonders (via that aforementioned Desperate Dan frontispiece… back-ispiece? spread). Stuffed with glorious gag-pages and bursting with classic all ages’ adventure, this remains a tremendously fun read and even in the absence of the legendary creators such as Dudley Watkins, Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid, there’s still so much merriment on offer I can’t believe this book is over 45 years old. If ever anything needs to be reissued as commemorative collections it’s D.C. Thomson annuals such as this one.

The only thing better would be curated archive reissues and digital editions…
© D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd, 1977.

Batman Annual 1967


By Bill Finger, Jack Miller, Sheldon Moldoff, Joe Certa, Dick Sprang, Henry Boltinoff & various (Atlas Publishing & Distributing Co. Ltd/K. G. Murray Publishing)
No ISBN: ASIN: B000SBX0N0

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As stated below, before DC Comics and other US publishers exported directly into Britain, our exposure to their unique brand of fantasy fun came from licensed reprints. As well as monochrome anthologies from UK publishers and/or printers like Miller, Class & Co, Australian outfit K. G. Murray there were  many sturdy Annual compilations.

Britain saw hardcover Atlas Batman Annuals from 1960 but, due to vagaries of licensing, once the 1966 TV series started were soon inundated with a wealth of choices as World Distributors’ released their own collections Batman Story Book Annuals – between 1967 and 1970. Since then a variety of publishers have carried on the tradition but only one at a time…

This particular tome – Batman Annual 1967 – was the eighth UK-targeted US comics compilation, released the same year as the other Bat-book seen here today and possibly offering grandparents and other elders a moment of agonised total recall as they flash back to the moment at the start of that Batman phenomenon when they stood arguing with equally harassed and panicked shopkeepers over which was the right book “from the telly”…

Printed in the cheap and quirky mix of alternatively monochrome, dual-hued and full-colour pages which made Christmas books such bizarrely beloved treats, and re-presenting material from before all Earth went Camp-Crazed and Bat-Manic, this book delivers a delightfully eclectic mix of material crafted just before Julie Schwartz’s 1964 stripped-down relaunch of the character. Here crimebusting mixes with alien fighting and idle daydreaming, as the world’s greatest crime-fighters indulge in a comfortably strange, masked madness that was the norm in the Caped Crusader’s world.

The sublime suspense and joyous adventuring begins with ‘The Return of the Second Batman and Robin Team’ (by Bill Finger & Sheldon Moldoff from Batman #135, October 1960): a sequel to a tale within a tale wherein faithful butler Alfred postulated a time when Bruce Wayne married Batwoman Kathy Kane and retired to let their son join grown-up Dick Grayson as a second-generation Dynamic Duo. Here the originals are forced to don the bat mantles one last time when an old enemy captures the new kids on the block…

British books always preferred to alternate action with short gag strips and the Murray export publications depended heavily on the amazing output of DC cartoonist Henry Boltinoff. Delivery man ‘Homer’ then suffers a canine interruption before Batman invades ‘The Lair of the Sea Fox’ (Batman #132; June 1960, by Finger, Moldoff & Charles Paris). The nefarious underwater brigand’s scheme to use Gotham City’s watery substructure to facilitate his plundering soon founders when the Caped Crusaders break out the Bat-Sub…

Boltinoff’s crystal-gazing ‘Moolah the Mystic’ clears up the ether his way as a prelude to the introduction of this Annual’s engaging co-star. John Jones, Manhunter from Mars debuted at the height of American Flying Saucer fever in Detective Comics #225. He was created by Joe Samachson, and is now generally accepted as the first superhero of the Silver Age, beating by a year the new Flash (in Showcase #4. cover-dated October 1956). The eccentric, often formulaic but never disappointing B-feature strip depicted the clandestine adventures of stranded alien J’onn J’onzz. Hardly evolving at all – except for finally going public as a superhero in issue #273 (November 1959) – the police-centred strip ran in Detective until #326 (1955- 1964 and almost exclusively written by Jack Miller from issue #229 and illustrated from inception by Joe Certa), before shifting over to The House of Mystery (#143 where he continued until #173) and a whole new modus vivendi. J’onzz temporarily faded away during the Great Superhero Cull of 1968-70 but is back in full fettle these days.

His origins were simple: reclusive genius scientist Dr. Erdel built a robot-brain which could access Time, Space and the Fourth Dimension, accidentally plucking an alien scientist from his home on Mars. After a brief conversation with his unfortunate guest, Erdel died of a heart attack whilst attempting to return J’onzz to his point of origin. Marooned on Earth, the Martian discovered that his new home was riddled with the ancient and primitive cancer of Crime and – being decent and right-thinking – determined to use his natural abilities (telepathy, psychokinesis, super-strength, speed, flight, vision, super-breath, shape-shifting, invisibility, intangibility, invulnerability and more) to eradicate evil, working clandestinely disguised as a human policeman. His only concern was the commonplace chemical reaction of fire which sapped Martians of all their mighty powers…

With his name Americanised to John Jones he enlisted as a Middletown Police Detective: working tirelessly to improve his new home; fighting evil secretly using inherent powers and advanced knowledge with no human even aware of his existence. Here in a thriller from Detective #299 (January 1962) Miller & Certa’s ‘Bodyguard for a Spy’ sees the mighty Manhunter almost fail in his mission, because his human assistant Diane Meade is jealous of the beautiful Princess in his charge…

The magnificent Dick Sprang – with Paris inking – astoundingly illustrated Finger’s script for ‘Crimes of the Kite Man’ (Batman #133, August 1960): a full-colour extravaganza with the Caped Crusader hunting an audacious thief plundering the skyscrapers of Gotham whilst ‘The Deadly Dummy’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris; Batman #134, September 1960) pitted the heroes against a diminutive showman-turned-bandit fed up with being laughed at.

Reverting to monochrome, ‘The Martian Show-Off’ (Detective #295, September 1961) poses a confusing conundrum as the eerie extraterrestrial connives to inexplicably deprive a fellow cop of his prestigious 1000th arrest after which ‘Batman’s Interplanetary Rival’ (Detective Comics #282, August 1960) by Finger, Moldoff & Paris finds the human heroes constantly upstaged by an alien lawman hungry for fame and concealing a hidden agenda before the interplanetary intrigue – and the Annual action – ends with ‘The Mystery of the Martian Marauders’ (Detective Comics #301, March 1962) as deranged scientist Alvin Reeves fixes Erdel’s robot brain and accidentally brings Martian criminal invaders to Earth. After battling impossible odds, the Manhunter triumphs and wins the ability to return at any time to his birthworld…

Cheap, cheerful and deliriously engaging, this is a fantasy masterwork and nostalgic treat no baby-boomer could possibly resist.
© National Periodicals Publications Inc., New York 1967. Published by arrangement with the K. G. Murray Publishing Company, Pty. Ltd., Sydney.

Bunny vs Monkey volume 9: Bunny Bonanza!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-307-3 (Digest PB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Continuous, Chronologically Catered Cosmic Nonsense …9/10

Million-selling, chart-topping Bunny vs Monkey has been the bonkers bristly backbone of The Phoenix since the first issue back in 2012: recounting 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 gentle mania by cartoonist, comics artist, novelist and educational Man-about-Towns/2024 Illustrator of the Year Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember), these trendsetting, mind-bending yarns are wisely retooled as graphic albums available in delightful digest editions like this one – a paperback version of the epic hard cover that opened the year just ending.

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. Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite all efforts from reasonable, sensible, genteel, contemplative forest resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and good breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this day remains a rude, noise-loving, chaos-creating, troublemaking lout intent on building his idealised “Monkeyopia” with or without the aid of evil supergenius ally Skunky or their unhelpful “henches” Metal Steve and Action Beaver

Problems are exacerbated by other unconventional Crinkle creatures, especially monochrome mad scientist Skunky whose intellect and cavalier attitude to life presents as a propensity for building extremely dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons…

Here – with artistic assistance from design deputy Sammy Borras – the war of nerves and mega-ordnances resumes even though everybody thought all the battles had ended. They even seemingly forgot the ever-encroaching Hyoomanz

Eternally divided into seasonal outbursts, this ninth magnificent hardback archive of insanity opens in the traditional manner: starting slowly with a sudden realisation, by building on the shocking denouement of the last book when the lop-eared good guy cried enough and quit. The cosmically surreal shenanigans resume on New Year’s Day with the woods gripped in snowy winter and still utterly ‘Bunnyless’ after the steadfast voice of reason surprisingly ascended to higher realms to get a little peace and quiet…

As the shellshocked populace (Ai, Pig Piggerton, Weenie Squirrel, Metal E.V.E., Le Fox and Lucky the Red Panda) meander and moan, seeking someone to fill that vacant place, even the anthropoid antithesis feels the loss and builds a replacement but it’s simply ‘Not Bunny’ and ends up scrapped like so many dastardly ploys, compelling morally ambiguous outsider Le Fox to seek change for its own cathartic sake. As he makes his companions ‘Switch Up’, it results in a huge explosion that unearths and awakens their long-lost companion… or does it?

Although apparently back from the Puddle of Eternity thanks to a fluke of the Molecular Stream, “Bunny” has total amnesia and utter incredulity regarding Monkey’s antics – and even more so after he unleashes scatological atrocity weapon ‘Stickleplops’ and learns with some shock that this rabbit has no tolerance for nonsense…

Spring arrives, heralding another harsh lesson after the simian starts lobbing ‘Eggy Drops!’ and Bunny again acts contrary to expectations, before Monkey’s reality-bending ‘Flying Fun’ starts grinding down the forgetful rabbit’s resilience and ongoing attempts to restore lost memories result in a true theatrical travesty in ‘The Show Must Go On’. To facilitate another DNA experiment, Skunky and Monkey raid the Human farm Pig came from and force the tender-hearted refugee to guide them on their ‘Mouldy Mission’ after which an untitled (unless you read music) and silent – but deadly – tale of Skunky’s wind-borne ultimate weapon leads to ‘A Moment of Calm’ for Le Fox, shattered by incessant stupid questions like “where are my socks?” and “have you seen that black hole I made and lost?”

Events take an even stranger turn and Bunny starts being weirdly changeable when Weenie and Pig discover something strange in ‘The Cave’ just as Skunky & Monkey deal with the ghastly contents of the ‘Bin of Doom!’ prior to indulging in pranks and ‘Birthday Wishes!’ for Bunny…

A revolting mess goes on ‘A Blobby Journey’ and attains transcendent loveliness just before ‘The Day the Sky Fell In! (Part one and two)’ sees imminent lunar catastrophe barely averted by the advent of “Danger Sausage” even as Bunny experiences virtual (un)reality in ‘Plugged In’: but still can’t stop Summer starting with ‘The Fastest Monkey in the World’ when the ape idiot gets hold of a super-speed suit…

It’s time for some tragic origin-ing courtesy of ‘Action Beaver: The Early Years’ after which Pig gets a unique pet in ‘Old!’ whilst a diversion to times past sets the scene for future frolics as a couple of pirates bury their ‘Hidden Loot’ blithely unaware how their actions will annoy a monkey centuries from then. Ungracious and solitary, Le Fox dabbles with Skunky’s devices to create a beast able to enforce some ‘Shush!’ just as the evil genius is busy probing the captive Red Panda and discovering exactly what ‘A Little Bit Unlucky’ feels like at ground zero. Maybe that’s what causes the period of intellectual funk and lack of creativity that necessitates holding an ‘Invent-a-thon’ to restore appropriate levels of chaos and carnage to Crinkle Woods…

With Bunny seemingly resolved to endure Monkey’s incessant antics, ‘Nice Neighbours’ displays the ingrained idiocy of Weenie & Pig as seen in a windblown Fantastic Voyage tribute before ‘Butterflew’ sets teeth firmly on edge and ‘The Shubmarine’ that swims through soil meets an inevitable fate…

Events take a strange turn as Autumn begins and ‘Dig Up!’ reveals an incredible subterranean civilisation and fantastic big beasts before ‘Muckey’ sees the simian sod achieve a lifelong dream to become “the stinkiest monkey in the universe” – a situation only remedied by an ancient process hidden in Metal E.V.E’s memory banks…

The ongoing mystery of our hero’s amnesia is slowly solved when cyborg ‘Bunny Law’ targets Monkey, but with Skunky distracted by a cosmic calculation and unable to ‘Work it Out’ the brutal invasion by a really ‘Big Bunny’ proves to the creeped-out Crinkle critters that there is more than one of their friend around. At last galvanised into affirmative action, Monkey resolves to build his Monkeyopia before it’s too late and begins his campaign in ‘Squeak-ooooo’ unaware that his latest superweapon has a fatal flaw. Undeterred, he’s back with cybernetic ‘Fists of Fun’ and able to decimate the woods at will just as ‘Happy Birthday Bunny (Part one & two)’ reveal what really happened to Monkey’s nemesis… and how a terrifying ‘Shadow Bunny’ has come to take care of his unfinished business.

Winter returns with Christmas well on the way and ‘Super-powered Monkey!’ in charge of everything, crushing opposition with his “Doom Fists” under ‘A New Regime’. Happily, ‘A Very Hoppy Christmas!’ signals a true miracle as the proper Bunny returns with all those other rabbit replacements in tow…

The agonised, anxiety-addled animal anarchy might have ended for now, but there’s a few more secrets to share, thanks to detailed instructions on ‘How to Draw Shadow Bunny’, ‘…Rock Bunny’ and ‘…Bunny Law’ as well as handy previews of other treats and wonders available in The Phoenix to wind down from all that angsty furore…

The zany zenith of absurdist adventure, Bunny vs Monkey is weird wild wit, brilliant invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning all crammed into an eccentrically excellent sequence of pictorial packages.

However, this particular MonkeyPuzzle Madness isn’t actually on sale until January 2nd next year!!!.

Don’t let that deter you, nor should any kids in your orbit suffer for the vagaries of publishers’ scheduling. The hardback version of Bunny vs Monkey: Bunny Bonanza! is still available and it’s the bloody Season of Good Will so there’s no need to wait! These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups and pint-sizers of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Shouldn’t that be you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.

Bunny vs Monkey: Bunny Bonanza! will be published on January 2nd 2025. You can preorder now or not let time hold you back…

The Leopard From Lime Street Book Three: Rise of the Snow Beast!


By Tom Tully, Mike Western, Eric Bradbury & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78618-830-4 (TPB/Digital edition) 978-1-83786-036-4 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Traditional True Brit Comic Treats …8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Other than lawyers, most people claim imitation as the sincerest form of flattery. You can make your own mind up on that score when seeking out these quirky and remarkable vintage treats offering a wonderfully downbeat, quintessentially British spin on a very familiar story. UK comics always enjoyed a strange, extended love affair with what can only be described as “unconventional” (for which feel free to substitute “weird” or “creepy”) heroes. So many stars and putative role models of our serials and strips have been outrageous or just plain “off”: self-righteous voyeurs-vigilantes like Jason Hyde, sinister masterminds in the manner of The Dwarf, self-absorbed outsiders like Robot Archie, arrogant former criminals like The Spider or outright racist supermen such as Captain Hurricane

Joking aside, British comics were unlike any other kind: having to be seen to be believed and enjoyed – especially if “homaging” such uniquely American fare as costumed crimefighters…

Until the 1980s, UK periodicals employed an anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character on a weekly – sometimes fortnightly – basis. Humorous comics like The Beano were leavened by action-heroes like The Q-Bikes or General Jumbo whilst adventure papers like Smash, Lion or Valiant always carried palate-cleansing gagsters like The Cloak, Grimly Feendish, Mowser and other laugh treats. Buster offered the best of all worlds.

Running 1902 issues from May 28th 1960 to 4th January 2000, it juggled drama, mystery, action and comedy, with its earliest days – thanks to absorbing Radio Fun and Film Fun – heavily spiced with celebrity-licensed material starring media mavens like Charlie Drake, Bruce Forsyth and Benny Hill backing up the eponymous cover star who was billed as “the son of (newspaper strip star) Andy Capp”. The comic became the final resting place of many, many companion papers in its lifetime, including The Big One, Giggle, Jet, Cor!, Monster Fun, Jackpot, School Fun, Nipper, Oink! and Whizzer & Chips, so its cumulative strip content is wide, wild and usually pretty wacky…

At first glance, British comics prior to the advent of 2000AD -seem to fall into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and/or fantastic preschool fantasy; a large selection of licensed entertainment properties; action; adventure; war; school dramas, sports and straight comedy strands. Closer looks would confirm that there was always a subversive merging, mixing undertone, especially in such antihero series as Dennis the Menace or our rather strained interpretation of superheroes. Just check out The Phantom Viking, Kelly’s Eye or early Steel Claw. We had dabbled with the classic form in the early Marvel and Batman-influenced 1960s (and slightly before and beyond), but Tri-Man, Black Sapper, Red Star Robinson, Gadgetman & Gimmick Kid, Thunderbolt Jaxon and Johnny Future remained off-kilter oddities. In the March 27th 1976 edition of Buster everything changed…

Part of Rebellion Publishing’s British Comics Classics line, The Leopard from Lime Street originally ran 470 episodes (50 adventures) until May 18th 1985 – and even later as colorized reprints and in a wealth of foreign-language and overseas editions. For most of that time it was a barely-legal knock-off of Marvel’s Spider-Man – with hints of DC Thomson’s Billy the Cat – as viewed through a superbly time-stamped English lens of life in a Northern Town. It was utterly unmissable reading…

This third compilation volume gathers Buster and Buster & Monster Fun strips spanning July 22nd 1978 through September 29th 1979: a period of intense political and social change, and one barely touching the residents of a typical British small city…

What you need to know: Somewhere in middle(ish) England lies Selbridge, where scrawny 13-year-old Billy Farmer was constantly bullied, by kids at school and especially his Uncle Charlie. Billy’s abiding interests were journalism and photography. He started a school newspaper (Farmer’s World) all by himself, probably to compensate for his home life. He lived with loving but frail Aunt Joan and her vicious, indolent, physically abusive partner Charlie Farmer who avoided honest work like the plague, but was always ready to deliver a memorable life-lesson with fist, boot or belt to those under his shoddy roof…

Billy’s life forever changed after visiting the Jarman Zoological Institute where he was accidentally scratched by Sheba, an escaped leopard being treated with radioactive chemicals for an unspecified disease. In the days before Health and Safety regulations or a culture of litigation, Billy was given a rapid once-over by the boffins in charge, declared fine and sent home. When Uncle Charlie tried to hit him. he was casually chucked into the dustbins and the lad realised he had developed the strength, speed, stamina and agility of a jungle cat, as well as enhanced senses, empathic feelings, a paralysing roar and a predator’s “danger-sense”…

Soon, clad in a modified pantomime costume, Billy prowled Selbridge’s dark streets and low rooftops, incurring the curiosity and animosity of Thaddeus Clegg: editor of local rag The Selbridge Sun. Soon the ever-more confidant Billy was selling exclusive photos of burglars, crooks and kidnappers preyed upon by the vigilante “leopardman”. Somehow, the raw kid could also get candid shots of secluded celebrities no adult journo could get near…

Moreover, the lad’s earnings – grudgingly paid by Clegg – started making life easier for Aunt Joan, whilst the Beast’s constant proximity to Lime Street ensured Charlie kept his outbursts verbal and his drunken fists unclenched. School remained a nightmare of bullies and almost-exposure of Billy’s secret, but home life improved further once police identified Billy as an official confidante of the vigilante. They even noted how Charlie was regularly brutalised by the feral fury in defence of his “friend”…

Over months the leopard man caught many criminals, was implicated – and cleared – of arson and theft, was abducted by a crooked circus owner, caught child abductors, battled a fame-obsessed masked wrestler and circus acrobat mimicking his abilities to frame the catman for crimes. On a school trip to a Safari Park, Billy was reunited with his accidental creator Sheba and his powers seemed to exponentially increase beyond his ability to control them…

The costumed melodramas resume now as author Tom Tully scripts for unknown (presumably Spanish or South American) fill-in artists as a mysterious new headmaster acts up at Billy’s school before being ultimately and spectacularly exposed as a crime boss with a need for a nice flat playing field. Artists extraordinaire Mike Western & Eric Bradbury pick up the pace for the next saga as a simple game of cricket exposes Billy’s secret to thuggish motorcycle bullies who try – and fail – to trap the leopardman and cash in, just as the local police adjust to a manic new boss with an animal hunting agenda and a gung-ho firearms unit. Eventually. even brutal Bulldog Brady will admit when he’s beaten, but that’s many episodes down the line…

Billy meanwhile, has dusted off an old makeup kit and cobbled together a cunning scheme to fool the bikers once and for all…

Billy’s occasional exhibitions of extreme sporting prowess get in him trouble with teachers who can’t understand why he can’t repeat his feats while in school teams (it’s unfair and cheating!), but he has no such compunctions in his clashes with a fame-seeking punk rock band. As impostor leopard men the brutes almost kill aunty Joan during one of their attention seeking stunts and, again needing money to support her, Billy pulls out all the stops and even start working with Clegg again. His good intentions only make his alter ego a bigger pariah, as shutting them down scuppers a forthcoming local musical festival. Vilified in public, guilty again and resolved to fix things, Billy explores how he can make the leopardman a paying proposition for bored music fans…

After a rare moment of popular triumph and well-deserved acclaim, it’s back to being wanted as a minor cold snap sees an icy, gem-swiping supervillain hit Selbridge, with the leopard blamed for the Snow Beast’s depredations… until Billy outsmarts the bad guy and cops too…

Another stint by fill-in artists sees Billy’s masked other save a classmate’s farm from crooked property speculators (is that a thing?) prior to Western & Bradbury detailing how the media arrives in force to solve the mystery of the Leopard From Lime Street, sparking greed, panic and mob madness in equal amounts. With a high profile reward on offer, madness grips Selbridge – especially uncle Charlie – and as a friend of the fugitive Billy is tortured by school bullies and stalked by opportunists looking for tips…

The situation spirals into pure insanity when another leopardman impostor shows up, hunting Billy and threatening his family. Facing someone who is his physical equal and totally ruthless, there’s is only one thing the real deal can do…

Beguilingly scripted by British comics superstar Tully (Roy of the Rovers; Heros the Spartan; Janus Stark; Mytek the Mighty; Adam Eterno; Johnny Red; Harlem Heroes and many of the strips cited above) these tales are magnificently illustrated. Working collaboratively British comics royalty Mike Western (Lucky Logan; No Hiding Place; The Avenger; Biggles; The Wild Wonders; Darkie’s Mob; The Sarge; HMS Nightshade; Jack O’Justice; Billy’s Boots; Roy of the Rovers) shared pencilling and inking with mood master Eric Bradbury (Mytek the Mighty; Maxwell Hawke; Cursitor Doom; Von Hoffman’s Invasion; House of Dolmann; Death Squad; Hook Jaw; Rogue Trooper; Doomlord; Invasion; Mean Arena; Tharg the Mighty and more) to craft a pre-modern masterwork affording a fascinating insight into the slant a different culture can bring to a genre.

The concept of a “real-life” superhero has never been more clearly and cleverly explored than in these low-key tales of the cat kid who survives not supervillains but a hard-knock life…
The Leopard from Lime Street and all related elements featured ™ & © 1978, 1979, 2023, Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Edifice


By Andrzej Klimowski (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-25-6 (TPB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Christmas treat for Sentimentalists Who Can’t Switch Their Brains Off …9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

Born in London in 1949 of proudly Polish heritage (me too!), Andrzej Klimowski studied at St. Martin’s School of Art in London and the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. A world-renowned designer, poster maker, illustrator, writer, political satirist, filmmaker and graphic novelist (go check out collaborations and adaptations like The Master and Margarita, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robot and Behind the Curtain or solo efforts The Depository, The Secret and Horace Dorlan), he was Head of Illustration at the Royal College of Art until they promoted him to Professor Emeritus. With his wife Danusia Schejbal, Klimowski still produces graphic art and profound works like this book. You probably didn’t see his retrospective at the National Theatre, London, but you really should have.

At least you can compensate by falling in love, in awe and in wonder at this dark wry, twisty exploration of human nature and polite foibles at Christmas…

Set in the iconic and dankly expressionistic city of Engelstadt (City of Angels!), a broad, socially disparate group congregate in and around one certain building. Each has a remote, compartmentalised life, full of secrets and desires, but occasionally the so-civilised residents grudgingly get together. It’s the done thing after all, and who would be so churlish as to decline an invitation from formidable matriarch Lady Dendrite poised at the peak and at the top of this heap?

However, strange events are unfolding in run-up to that much-anticipated soiree. All those isolated, iconic lives (a domestic, her kid, a strange foreigner, clerics, pontificating professor, hero/victim, love interest and a monster… just like some bleak game of Cluedo!) are about to intrude and burst in upon each other… at least if sudden disappearances and odd phenomena outside the tall straight walls don’t upset everyone’s plans…

Comfortingly macabre, and unravelling at its own mesmeric, seductive pace, Edifice is a captivating visual treat, a sinister social comedy of errors if not terrors and a puzzle-game/trick played on and for you. This is a purely pictorial extravaganza you will either love or hate, but should not ignore.

(PS. I loved it.)
© Andrzej Klimowski, 2024. All rights reserved