Category: Best of British

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Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey Book 11: Intergalactic Monkey Business! TPB


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras, Paul Duffield & Armin Roshdi (The Phoenix Comic Books/ David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-362-t (TPB), 978-1-78845-416-2 (Tesco Exclusive Edition), 978-1-78845-417-9 (WHSmith Travel Exclusive Team Monkey Edition)

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

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

Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite every effort of genteel, contemplative, reasonably sensible 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 moment remains a rude, troublemaking, chaos-causing, noise-loving lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” and/or being a robot, with or without the aid of evil supergenius Skunky or tagalong useless “henches” Metal Steve & Action Beaver…

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

Now the Graphic Novel of the Year of the British Book Awards 2026 is out in time for the summer hols in a nifty paperback edition and will keep everyone stuck in the car or waiting to pass customs suitably amused. Best get a couple though – kids, dads and grandmas do not like to share…

So, what’s going on?

Here, with artistic fiddling about from design deputy Sammy Borras, the unending war of nerves and mega-ordnances resumes as if nothing cosmic or multiverse-changing had ever happened, or any hint of a restart after a cosmic culmination. See, that’s what happens if you let books pile up and don’t read them immediately! Go check out Bunny vs Monkey: The Great Big Glitch! and then come back and we’ll chat some more…

Okay then, new day, new start, same old mega mecha meta nonsense as ‘Clouding Over’ sees a suspiciously low-lying cirrus formation start dumping rain and then increasingly more noisome and noxious substances on the woods-folk in what appear to be targeted strikes. Could there possibly be some kind of intelligence behind the atmospheric attacks?

With propriety and good taste under attack (and soon in full retreat), the sensorial assaults resume in ‘Guts n’ Butts!’ as Monkey & Skunky debate the appalling assets and proposed “improvements” to the weaponised flatulence engine they call Bungamungus with no consideration of those in its path prior to the simian unleashing his own worst nightmare…

The giant ‘MonkeyBot 5000’ is supposed to make life hell for his fluffy white foe, but it appears Bunny can find plenty of uses for a mechanised personal organiser that can bench press trucks, topple buildings, file and colour co-ordinate…

Reality is rocked all over again when Monkey’s ‘Mum and Dad’ pop by for a visit and nice bit of tea, but nature’s innocents Weenie and Pig Piggerton are too busy having adventures with ‘Frogs!’ and their mystical king to really notice, whereas ‘Lucky… The Unluckiest Red Panda in the World!!’ stumbles into unbridled chaos (she’s used to it by now) when Skunky & Monkey decide to go through the forgotten inventions bin. Worried about declining productivity, the sinister science sinner then uses his 3D printer to unleash a horde of ‘Fun-Size Skunkies’ who are anything but, before Bunny learns where all the wreckage, rubbish and remains go when the latest catastrophe has finished unfolding. Sadly, there are good reasons nobody wants to see ‘Binbag Sam’ carry out his nasty but necessary job…

Always seeking peace and serene contemplation, mysterious Le Fox has found a wilderness to dig in, but when Monkey comes by and discovers gold in ‘Them Thar Hills’ that’s another dream dead, but only prelude to planet-shaking events when Skunky’s new signal array test coincides with Monkey’s latest eating challenge. ‘Message in a Butthole’ reveals how – after, inevitably – a monumental foofie erupts across the universe, the consequences will be appalling… but not at all unexpected.

In a fabulous tribute to Chuck Jones cartoons, ‘Monkey vs Ai’ sees the annoying ape test a bunch of inventions that should work “in theory”, before going back to stinky basics with a cheese cannon. Sadly, the anticipated “Cheesepocalyse” is definitively derailed by ‘The Turning of the Pig’ as pacifistic Piggerton reaches a limit and shows the monkey miscreant just what it all feels like…

‘Buzzing Off’ sees Skunky testing ways to end the really annoying fly suit he built for his partner in chaos and then hiding along with everyone else in ‘Who’s Afraid of the Monkey’ when the simian simpleton gets really, really hungry. Eventually sated, the little sod resumes pranks & pestiferations with a giant robot in ‘Close Encounters of the Bird Kind’. Remember that olfactory beacon blasted across infinity? This is the moment something answers that unique clarion call…

Suddenly, in ‘You Looking at Me?’ Crinkle Woods are alive with alien weirdoes, but it’s just Skunky messing about with quantum physics and nothing to do with Monkey, because he’s currently hurtling to the other side of the Universe, testing to destruction the super-high-tech toilets of the extraterrestrials who abducted him…

He can’t be blamed for the astonishing void discovered by Pig and Weenie prompting the chilling question ‘What Lies Inside… the Hole?!’ or sensible but naïve robot Metal E.V.E.’s attempts to balance out Lucky’s cosmic misfortunes in ‘What Luck Befalls’, or even Metal Steve’s crisis of confidence and inexplicable desire to ‘Destroy’ because Monkey is currently spreading his brand of chaos while ‘Hitching a Ride’ on the ship of judgemental civilisation-eradicating superior being Grand Master Nexus…

Meanwhile on Earth, Skunky discovers the missing co-miscreant has left his life unfulfilled and dissatisfied and switches to a copy to serve his unsuspected emotional needs. ‘Little Monkey’ is feral, bitey, uncommunicative, un-potty-trainable and disgusting… such an improvement on the original! Enjoying his fresh start the evil inventor unleashes ‘A Clever Endeavour’ in the compulsive form of a malign puzzle box that baffles and bamboozles everyone – except the mini monkey who might just be the smartest thing in the woods now…

Pig’s penchant for peculiar pets sees the adoption of an odd avian Blue-bummed Bimblebug. Inappropriately dubbed ‘Parpy’, the critter’s 24-hour lifespan brings near-instant woe, and leads to the advent of colossal hermit savant Capybara 5000 whose answers to all the ‘Big Questions’ are unexpectedly violent. That search for truth culminates in sage advice ‘Run!’ before calm returns as Pig explores wild water rafting and Le Fox confronts increasingly sinister Little Monkey in ‘The Happiness of the Kitsune’.

Far away in another beleaguered solar system, Monkey is slowly wearing down Nexus and his minions, before accidentally warping them all back to Earth to enjoy a spontaneous battle of ‘Rather Big Lasers’ with Skunky. When that eradicates the fuzzy mastermind’s secret underground lair all Skunky can think of is ‘Revenge’. With Little Monkey in tow the genius goes ‘On the Hunt’ in a unique battleship, pursuing ‘Space Wars’ even as his hirsute former best baddie buddy seizes control of the Nexus craft and drives it into ‘A Hella Interstellar Yeller’…

Marooned on a muddy morass world, Monkey establishes his dream dictatorship. Sadly, ‘Chutneyopia’ is right next to the equally barren planet Skunky crashed on and war is declared as the newcomer demands an apology that will never be forthcoming. Moreover, when Skunky took off after Monkey, most of Crinkle Wood went with him and as Bunny ruminates on ‘The Intergalactic Adventures of Weenie and Cinnamon Bun Pig!’, plans are underway to terraform the barren planetoid into ‘A New Home’. Unfortunately that’s being undertaken by ‘Even More Skunkies’…

With the enemy busy converting Chutneyopia into his other, better dream of Monkeyopia, ‘A New Plan’ is needed, but the still-active Grand Master finally concedes that its superior mentality and firepower are no match for the annoying Earth ape. With its minions in revolt and resolved to blow up Earth, there nothing left for Monkey to worry about ‘Apart from the Bomb’ that’s going to end his grotty mucky dream world…

What better time for a reconciliation with Skunky?

Back on Earth, other Crinkle Wood critters have briefly but wholeheartedly enjoyed a time of growth and limelight in ‘Not Bunny vs Monkey’ but the likes of Stan Stoat and Randolph Raccoon are helpless when the minions start blasting. As Monkeyopia becomes a vast spaceship, Skunky begins his ‘Race to Save the World’ with his secret weapon Little Monkey, but the outcome is never certain and our heroes all decide they’re ‘Best Off Out of It’, leaving a monumental deus ex machina to sort everything out…

Wrapping up these sidereal shenanigans and cosmic bum gags are related activities offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and yourself to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by Jamie Smart & Armin Roshdi detailing ‘How to draw King Frog!’, ‘A Bungamungous!’, ‘Capybara 5000!’ and ‘An Alien!’ before closing with an extensive plug for the Phoenix Comics Club website, complete with instant access via a QR code, plus previews of other treats & wonders to be seen in The Phoenix to wind down from all that cosmic kerfuffle…

Another book for your kids to explain to you, Bunny vs Monkey: Intergalactic Monkey Business! is weird wit, wild invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning all crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Is that you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.

Today in 1923 comics artist and strip cartoonist Dan Barry (Airboy, Doc Savage, Tarzan, Flash Gordon) was born, with British whiz kid Phillip Bond (Wired World, Angel and the Ape, Kill Your Boyfriend, Vimanarama) turning up in 1966 and artist Eric Battle (Kobalt, Hardware, The Spectre) born in 1967.

Today in 1975 author and cartoonist Crockett Johnson (Barnaby, How to Make an Earthquake, Harold and the Purple Crayon) died.

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Jess Bradley’s Squid Bits! : That’s a Nice Hat!


By Jess Bradley with Emily Kimball, Kate Brown & various (DFB/Phoenix)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-395-0 (TPB)

The Phoenix has been the shining saving grace of traditional British kids’ comics since 2012, regaling rabid readers with anthology strips for girls, boys and all points between, offering humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. Although pretty strong in its action and mystery yarns, the publication is probably best known for its award-winning comedy stylings, and has always offered perplexing pages of puzzles, fun facts and info downloads in cartoon form.

And then there’s Squid Bits.

Concocted by Jess Bradley (Comic Strip Science series, Super Dweeb, A Day in the Life of…), the composite self (un)help feature offers advice, suggestions, recipes, style tips, listicles, little snippets of information and much more by dredging up (more like making up!!!) countless tips from all human knowledge: history to astrology, science to economics, baking to nonsense and beyond. These articles are all purportedly supplied by mystery cartoonist The Squid and THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED!

At the height of the Ritalin* Generation and after years of periodical dis, mis and even hiss information (there’s lots of stuff on lizards and reptiles) across many pages of octopoidal excess, the mix-&-match wonderment and sheer randomised inventiveness – undoubtedly sparked by an excess of imagination and too much tea and confectionary – has been compiled and curated into an almanac of absurdity, unleashed upon the reading public as Jess Bradley’s Squid Bits: That’s a Nice Hat. The perpetrators even have the temerity to threaten more books coming!

The seemingly utilitarian assemblages of pictorial bric-a-brac are manipulated and wrangled on-page by a Greek chorus of stick-figure doodles called “The Doodles” (individually Dog, Cat, Lizard, Rabbit, Mouse & Goat) seeking to please, placate and ingratiate their multi-tentacled Master/Benefactor/Employer. However, as the graffiti gang introduce themselves in an introductory chapter, old rivalries emerge and the linear sextet are consumed by millinery madness. From this point onwards all six lie, cheat, create, purloin, commandeer, otherwise obtain and steal – especially steal – a succession of staggering titfers and chapeaus to impress their unseen overlord.

Amidst and in between all bouts of hat madness and 2-dimensional personal quests for validation, a vast selection of exemplary, data-drenched drawings from the Squid Bits feature bombards your-ever-expanding brainpan, technically making you smarter, but absolutely no use at all in any kind of crisis…

Recurring features within the strip include the life of ‘Red Panda – Nature’s Jerk!’; the lectures of piscine critic ‘Art Shark’; the indescribable ‘Banana!’; ‘The Amazing Lizard Bros!’; ‘Werewolf Problems!’; ‘President Dog!’; ‘Undercover Pigeon!’; ‘Dr. Bacon, M.D.’; ‘Cecil P. Wombat – Expert on Everything!’;‘Adventures in Opposite Land!’ and so very much you never needed or wanted to know about slugs, shopping, fighting, monsters, ghosts, flatulence, vampires or other staples of modern childhood.

Also incrementally improving reader’s lives are such perennial favourites as ‘Totally Real Nature Guide’; ‘Squid Bits Horoscopes’; ‘In the Olden Days’; ‘Squid Bits Weather Report!’ ‘That Escalated Quickly…’; ‘For Sale!’; ‘Squid Bits Homework Help!’; ‘Job Interviews!’; ‘Monster Fashion!’; excerpts from ‘The Adventurer’s Guide’ and the ever-topical and handy “Check List!” of things you probably don’t need for a far better life.

These are counterbalanced by occasional or one-off events such as ‘5th Annual Nudibranch Festival!’, ‘Cut ‘n’ Keep Gentle Reminder!’; a visit to ‘The Evil Forest!’; ‘Stick Insect Romance!’ and ‘Time Travel Foibles’; ‘Too Many Guinea Pigs’ and ‘What Were You Before the Experiment?’…

As always, wrapping up these multi-pronged life-lessons and graphic shenanigans are opportunities to get creative and construct your own Fake News. This timely opportunity appears as activities offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils, a ruler, no respect for rules and especially You to a compact online course (QR code provided!), Alternatively, do it in the ancient ways as all aspects of comic strip creation are presented and supervised “in-book” by Bradley herself. The section details ‘How to Draw the Squid Bits Way!’ and individual lessons and topics include the draughting delights of Red Panda, Banana & Art Shark.

Also in view are ‘How to Draw Expressive Doodles’, ‘How to Draw Expressions’, ‘Have Fun With Hairstyles’, ‘Let’s Talk Body Language’, ‘Bringing it All Together’, ‘Lost in a Haunted House’, ‘Blowing Bubbles’, ‘Tentacle Attack’, plus extension specialisms ‘Guinea Pig Balancing Champions’ and – most crucially of all – ‘Sulky Pie Dropper’. Won’t get nowhere sketch-wise without knowing that one, Just ask Art Shark…

Hugely funny, infinitely (for a given value of infinite, of course) inventive and addictively, daftly and deftly drawn, Jess Bradley’s Squid Bits: That’s a Nice Hat is a wondrous “dipping book” and another item that your kids will have to explain to you. Thus, you’d be ill-advised to let your kids have a copy if you’re driving anywhere with them in the back. Otherwise, it’s great and worth your keenest attentions. I tip my hat to it, of course…
Text and Illustrations © Jess Bradley, 2026.

*Other forms of Methylphenidate are available, but should not be considered as a an alternative to study and diligent parenting.

Today in 1949, British all-rounder comics creator John Higgins (Judge Dredd, Watchmen, World Without End, Dr Who, Batman: The Killing Joke, Razorjack) was born, sharing the date with both Underground Commix star Bobby London (Dirty Duck, Air Pirates, Popeye) and writer-turned-producer & Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson (The Mask, Star Wars, Aliens, Predator, Cravan: Mystery Man of the 20th Century, Deep Gravity) in 1950. In 1951 Dean of Disney Duck delights Don Rosa arrived, as did realist comics artist Bo Hampton (Greylore, Viking Glory, Batman: Castle of the Bat) in 1954 and Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Young Avengers) in 1967.

1985 today saw the last published edition of UK comics bastion Jack and Jill after more than 1640 weekly issues.

Today in 1888, American cartoonist turned Comics pioneer Frank Bellew died, as did immortal legend Steve Ditko in 2018.

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Stabbed in the Front – Post-War General Elections through Political Cartoons


By various, edited by Dr. Alan Mumford (Centre for the Study of Cartoons & Caricature, University of Kent, Canterbury)
ISBN: 978-1-90267-120-8 (Album PB)

I thinks it’s time for another history lesson – or actually the same one. Normal service will be resumed one day.

“True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else” – Clarence Darrow

From its earliest inception cartooning was used to sell: initially ideas or values but eventually actual products too. In newspapers, magazines and especially comic books, the sheer power of narrative with its ability to create emotional affinities has been linked to the creation of unforgettable images and characters. When those stories affect the daily lives of generations of readers, the force that they can apply in a commercial or social arena is almost irresistible.

In Britain the cartoonist has held a bizarrely precarious position of power for centuries: a deftly designed bombastic broadside or savagely surgical satirical slice instantly capable of ridiculing, exposing and always deflating the powerfully elevated and apparently untouchable with a simple shaped-charge of scandalous wit and crushingly clear, universally understandable visual metaphor. For this method of concept transmission, literacy or lack of education is no barrier. As the Catholic Church proved millennia ago with the Stations of the Cross, stained glass windows and a pantheon of idealised superhero saints, a picture is absolutely worth a thousand words – and they controlled those if they could. Inner thoughts too. What cruel, cunning maniac came up with “the thought Is the deed”?

More so than work, sport, religion, fighting or even sex, politics has always been the very grist that feeds the pictorial gadfly’s mill. This gloriously informative book (sponsored by the marvellous Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, University of Kent at Canterbury), offers a fantastic overview of political adaptability and cultural life as Britain moved from Empire to mere Nationhood in the latter half of the 20th century, examined through General Elections and the wealth of cunningly contrived images and pictorial iconography they provoked and inspired. It’s one of my favourite things ever and crucially in need of updating and re-release.

After an effusive Foreword from professional politician and celebrated cartoon aficionado (the Rt. Hon.) Lord Kenneth Baker of Dorking, author Alan Mumford – a specialist in management training – covers the basic semiology and working vocabulary of the medium in his copious Introduction. Designating definitions and terms for his splendid treatise, he subdivides the territory into ‘Origins’; ‘Criteria for Selection’; ‘Newspapers and Magazines’; ‘The Longevity of Political Cartoonists’; ‘References, Symbols and Metaphors’; ‘The Impact of Cartoons on General Elections’ and ‘Savagery in Political Cartoons’ as an effective foundation course in how to best contextualise and appreciate the plethora of carefully crafted mass-market messages which follow.

The format is extremely ergonomic and effective. Thus, Philip Zec’s iconic cartoon and caption/slogan “Here You Are. Don’t Lose it Again!” begins the Great Endeavour with historical background in The Run-up to the General Election of 1945, followed by Election Issues and the 1945 Campaign; Major Personalities of the 1945 General Election; Results of… and finally a nominated “Cartoonist of the Election” whose work most captured the spirit of, or affected the outcome of, a particular contest. This methodology then proceeds to efficiently and comprehensively recreate the tone of each time, augmented whenever possible by a personal interview or remembrance from one of the campaigners involved. Telling vignettes include contributions such mythic personalities as Frank Pakenham/Lord Longford, Barbara Castle, Edward Heath, Denis Healey, Roy Jenkins, Kenneth Baker again, Jim Prior, Jim Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, David Steel, Norman Tebbit, John Major and Tony Blair…

Each fact-packed, picture-filled chapter dissects every succeeding campaign: 1950’s tame ‘Consolidation not Adventure’, which resulted in Labour and Clement Attlee’s second victory by the narrowest – practically unworkable – of margins; Churchill’s resurgence in 1951 as ‘The Grand Old Man Returns’ and a slow steady decline in fortunes and growth of a New Politics after Anthony Eden’s star rose for the 1955 General Election when ‘The Crown Prince Takes Over’…

In an era of international unrest, Harold McMillan eventually became Tory top gun and in 1959 was ‘Supermac Triumphant’, but domestic troubles – race, unionism and the always struggling economy – wore away his energies. In a minor coup he was ousted and Sir Alec Douglas Home took over mid-term, consequently losing to glib, charismatic new Labour leader Harold Wilson. This entire era is one of aged and infirm Big Beasts passing away suddenly with too many lesser lights to succeed them; further complicated by both Labour and Conservative parties riven by infighting and jockeying for position with wannabe upstarts such as the Liberals cruising the room looking to pick up what scraps they could (so it’s not a new thing, OK?).

In 1966 ‘Labour Government Work’ took them to a second term, but social turmoil in the country, with unions demands spiralling out of control, enabled Edward Heath to lead the Conservatives into the most dangerous and turbulent decade in modern British history (this statement might need revising). The General Election of 1970 proved ‘Wilson Complacent, Heath Persistent’…

There were two General Elections in 1974.

The ongoing crisis in industrial relations and growing racial tensions caused by maverick Tory Enoch Powell’s continual cries to “end Immigration or face rivers of blood in the streets” forced Prime Minister Heath to ask in February ‘Who Governs Britain?’ He was informed by the disaffected electorate “Not you, mate.” Even though Wilson and Labour were returned to power, the majority was miniscule and by October the people were compelled to do it all again and ‘Vote for Peace and Quiet’.

Although he’d again narrowly led them to victory, Wilson’s time was done. He abruptly resigned in 1976 to be replaced by deputy Jim Callaghan. The Conspiracy Theorists queue begins on the left…

Heath too was reduced to the ranks and relegated to the Tory Back Benches, replaced by a rising star from Finchley. As Britain staggered under terrifying economic woes in 1979, Callaghan called an election and lost to Margaret Thatcher, who had famously said “No Woman in My Time” would ever be Prime Minister. I believe that was the last time she ever admitted to being wrong. Despite horrifying and sustained assaults on the fabric of British society – and monumental unpopularity – she enjoyed two more election victories: in 1983 – “The Longest Suicide Note in History” – and again in 1987 as ‘Thatcher Moves Forward’ before finally being turned on by her own bullied and harried Cabinet… a tradition that has become the biggest perk in politics…

The best political cartooning comes from outrage, and the Tory administrations of the 1980’s provided one bloated, bile-filled easy mark after another. Just look at TV’s Spitting Image which grew fat and healthy off that government’s peccadilloes, indignities and iniquities (as well as Reagan’s America and the Royal Family) in just the way that millions of unemployed and disenfranchised workers, students and pensioners didn’t. Election cartoons reproduced here from that period come from a largely Tory Press, and whilst contextualised and accurate, do not approach the level of venom she engendered in certain sections. For a more balanced view one should also seek out Plunder Woman Must Go! by Alan Hardman; Drain Pig and the Glow Boys in Critical Mess; You are Maggie Thatcher: a Dole-Playing Game or even Father Kissmass and Mother Claws by Bel Mooney & Gerald Scarfe, not to mention any collection of the magnificent pitiless Steve Bell’s excoriating If…

In 1992, the only thing stopping a Labour landslide was the party itself, which had so dissolved into factional infighting and ideological naval-gazing that not even the fiery oratory of Welsh Wizard Neil Kinnock could pull them together. Once again, the newspapers claimed the credit when Tory consensus/concession leader John Major pulled off a surprising ‘Triumph of the Soapbox?’

That Labour Landslide had to wait until 1997 and the ‘Teeth and Sleaze’ of Tony Blair (although at that time we all thought the latter term only applied to corrupt Tory MPs selling parliamentary time and attention to business interests). That moment of fond memory brings this incredibly appealing tome to a close. I said it before and I’m saying it again: since then a whole lot has happened and I think its long past time for a new, revised and updated edition…

As well as making our subjugation addictively accessible over half a century of venal demagoguery, hard work, murky manipulations, honest good intentions and the efforts of many men and women moved in equal parts by dedication and chicanery, this oversized monochrome tome is also literally stuffed with the best visual work of some of the very best cartoonists ever to work in these Sceptred Isles.

The art, imagination, passion and vitriol of Abu, Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Dave Brown, Michael Cummings, Eccles, Emmwood, Stanley Franklin, George Gale, Nick Garland, the Davids Gaskill & Ghilchik, Les Gibbard, Charles Griffin, Graham High, Leslie Illingworth, Jak, John Jensen, Jon, Kal, David Low, Mac, Mahood, Norman Mansbridge, Sidney Moon, Bill Papas, Chris Riddell, Paul Rigby, Rodger, Stephen Roth, Martin Rowson, Willie Rushton, Peter Schrank, Ernest Shepard, Ralph Steadman, Sidney Strube, Trog, Vicky, Keith Waite, Zec and Zoke are timeless examples of the political pictorialist’s uncanny power and – as signs of the times – form a surprising affecting gestalt of our never happy nation’s feeling and character…

None of that actually matters now, since these cartoons performed the task they were intended for at the time of deployment: shaping the opinions and intentions of generations of voters. That they have also stood the test of time and remain as beloved relics of a lethal art form is true testament to their power and passion, but – to be honest and whatever your political complexion – isn’t it just a guilty pleasure to see a really great villain get one more good kicking?

Stuffed with astounding images, fascinating lost ephemera and mouth-watering tastes of comic art no fan could resist, this colossal collection is a beautiful piece of cartoon history that will delight and tantalise all who read it.
© 2001. Text © 2001 Alan Mumford. All illustrations © their respective holders or owners. All rights reserved.

Writer/inker Al Gordon (Wildstar, Legion of Super-Heroes, X-Men) arrived today in 1953, with writer/translator Jean-Marc Lofficier (The Airtight Garage: The Elsewhere Prince, Onyx Overlord, Dr. Strange, Arzach) joining one year later, and cartoonist Kevin Fagan (Drabble) arriving in 1956. Artist Bill Jaaska (Jon Sable, Teen Titans) was born in 1961; cartoonist, critic, editor publisher Eric Reynolds in 1972: artist Jae Lee (Namor the Sub-Mariner, The Sentry, Inhumans) in 1972 and Barcelona born illustrator Daniel Sampere (Wonder Woman) in 1985.

In 1984 today, the last TV Comic (of 1696 weekly editions) was published,

Today in 1928 pioneering US comics artist A.B. Frost died, as did French creator Alain Saini-Ogan (Zig et Puce) in 1974 and, in 2001, EC Comics all-star and strip supremo George R. Evans (Terry and the Pirates, Secret Agent X-9, Flash Gordon).

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A Thousand Coloured Castles


By Gareth Brookes (Myriad Editions)
ISBN: 978-0-993563-30-0 (HB)

The world is filled with amazing women passing largely unnoticed by the loud, shouty males with their hands on the tillers of history and chokehold on the media, but seldom a kettle or shopping bag. This amazing tale is broadly based on one of them…

It comes to us from an equally intriguing source. Gareth Brookes is a “capital-A” Artist, printmaker, textile creator and educator who began literally crafting comics in 2015 with his astounding and disturbing epic The Black Project. With A Thousand Coloured Castles, RCA graduate Brookes confirmed a growing reputation for challenging and rewarding graphic narratives of the artisanal kind. Brookes is a deep and slyly humorous thinker with his roots in the Littlest of Englands, and a skewed eye to storytelling. This captivating hardback tome was created solely from dark wit and wax crayons, resulting in a truly tactile and absurdly otherworldly viewing experience…

Myriam is in her declining years: married to a set-in-his-ways old know-it-all curmudgeon, as seen in most traditionally happy families and captured on paper by Raymond Briggs and TV sitcoms starring Richard Wilson.

Fred spends most of his time complaining about everything, which is why it takes a very long time for him to notice that Myriam’s eyesight is fading. It takes even longer for him to grasp that she’s increasingly subject to wild, abstract and absolutely convincing hallucinations: vivid visions and shapes that baffle and bewilder even as they light up her drab, interminable existence.

Of much more concern to Fred is “The Wife’s” increasing fascination with the overgrown, unkempt back garden next door. He’s happy to moan about it in private but doesn’t want to engage in potential suburban hostilities with the woman living there. Myriam, however, keeps seeing a strange bedraggled little boy trapped in there, even though everybody knows that’s not possible.

… All except her toddler grandson Jack, who’s always happy to see things her way…

And thus unfolds a multi-layered observation of social norms and aberrant behaviours, supposition and expectation, declining faculties and domestic evil that is truly magical to behold and impossible to predict.

Despite her condition, Myriam proves that she knows what’s what and what’s right, as events spiral to an inevitable conclusion and all the answers are shockingly forthcoming…

Gentle, genteel and utterly beguiling, this is a masterpiece of British fantasy understatement with a potent underpinning of quietly desperate lives truly lived. Track it down and take a long hard look. You will believe your eyes.
© Gareth Brookes 2017. All rights reserved.

Today in 1912 Finnish comics pioneer Ami Hauhio (Maan mies Marsissa) was born, with master inker George Klein (The Whizzer, Miss America, Superman, Daredevil, The Avengers,) arriving in 1915 (or possibly 1920!) and troubled Golden Age comic book veteran Bob Wood (Target, Silver Streak Comics, Daredevil Comics, Boy Comics, Crime Does Not Pay) born in 1917.

Artist Sam Grainger (The Sentinels, X-Men, Incredible Hulk, Avengers, Ka-Zar) was born today in 1930; Jordi Bernet (The Legend Testers, Jonah Hex, Clara del Noche, Torpedo 1936) in 1944; writer Paul Kupperberg (Supergirl, Phantom Stranger, World of Krypton, Doom Patrol) in 1955 and David Lapham (Warriors of Plasm, Stray Bullets, Batman) in 1970.

This date in 1914 William Donahey’s long-running The Teenie Weenies strip debuted, as did UK weekly Monster Fun in 1975. In 1932 we lost Seattle cartoonist John “Dok” Hager (Dok’s Dippy Duck) and in 2006 Belgian comics megastar Jean Roba (Boule et Bill/Billy and Buddy, La Ribambelle, Spirou and Fantasio).

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The Michael Moorcock Library – Elric: the Eternal Champion Collection


Adapted by James Cawthorn and Philippe Druillet, & various (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78586-955-6 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Michael Moorcock began his career at age 15; writing and editing classic British comic strips like Dogfight Dixon, Jet Ace Logan, Captain Condor, Olac the Gladiator, Tarzan and many, many other weekly favourites. As the swinging Sixties dawned he made the transition to prose fiction where he single-handedly revitalised a genre via the creation of Elric and the high-concept notion of an Eternal Champion.

Debuting in 1961, Elric is a landmark of fantasy and particularly its Sword & Sorcery subdivision: the foretold, fore-doomed last ruler of pre-human civilisation Melniboné, a race of cruel, nigh-demonic sorcerers. These arrogant, dissolute creatures are at the end of a slow, decadent decline after millennia of dominance over Earth. Albino Elric is physically weak, buoyed up by drugs, blood and dark magic, and of a brooding, philosophical temperament. He cares for little save his beautiful cousin Cymoril, who will die one day whilst he battles her loathsome usurping brother Prince Yyrkoon in service to a manipulative god of Chaos.

In this collection that day is right now as primary and premiere Elric artist Jim Cawthorne limns that final clash in a hugely personal adaptation from 1976, first and privately published by British concern Savoy Books in an edition that never really reached its natural audience…

“White Wolf” Elric doesn’t even want to rule, but it is his duty, and he is the only one of his debased race to see the (comparatively) freshly evolved race of Man as a threat to the Empire. He is owned if not actually possessed by terrible black sword Stormbringer: one of a matched pair of sorcerous weapons that steal the souls of their victims and feed that stolen life and vitality to the wielder…

Elric is a tragic incarnation of the restless Eternal Champion, reincarnated in every time, place and alternate dimension. His life is violence, blood and unending tragedy, exacerbated by dependence on that soul-drinking ebony blade and his sworn – if somewhat compelled and thus reluctant – allegiance to the chimerical Lords of Chaos.

Everybody knows all that, right?

The 13th volume in a proposed complete Michael Moorcock Library of comics adaptations (as well as reissue of the prose works), these yarns – chronologically at least – are the very first pictorial narratives of the doomed king; given an archival polish and pictorial upgrade by way of a brace of Introductions from Moorcock himself and Philippe Druillet. They are bolstered by a substantial contextual essay at the end. First, though, is time for a little history…

A migrated Tynesider lodged surreptitiously and contentedly in Ladbroke Grove at a time of great turmoil in the UK, James Cawthorn was an old friend, comics co-worker and always Moorcock’s preferred illustrator of the Last Emperor. Driven, solitary, universally respected and wedded to his craft, he wrote strips for Lion, Tiger and the UK weekly comics mill, painted murals and probably book covers; made backdrops for theatre productions; private art commissions; decorated apparel and/or instruments for musicians and bands like Hawkwind and Motörhead while toiling laboriously (and far too slowly and meticulously to be commercial) on beloved passion pieces like Stormbringer.

Cawthorne’s unique and potent adaptation of Moorcock’s epic book (a reworking of novellas Dead God’s Homecoming, Black Sword’s Brother, Sad Giant’s Shield and Doomed Lord’s Passing) was his masterpiece: released by admirers at Savoy because its owners Dave Britton & Michael Butterworth were prepared to pay in advance and wait for him to finish according to his own excoriatingly exaction standards. It was worth the wait when that epically huge cardstock album (600 x 430mm – 24 inches by 17!) finally blew away those lucky enough to get a copy. This reproduction gives readers everything they could want, but sadly cannot impart the wonderous sheer bloody size of it in your hands…

It was mostly missed here but hugely popular in German…

The complex convoluted story of that book’s creation holds even more revelations but are Moorcock’s to share, so let’s turn briefly to the tale itself.

Michael Moorcock’s irresistible blend of brooding Faustian tragedy and all-consuming action is (arguably) best enjoyed in his stories of Elric, but that restless imagination crafted many incarnations of his Eternal Champion able to stand on their own bloody merits and constantly shaped and reinterpreted by a vast and varied array of unique artistic visions. Elric is one doom-drenched, tragedy-attracting incarnation of the Eternal Champion, an aspect of a heroic force reincarnated in every time, place and alternate dimension. His specific life is bound to blood and self-torment, exacerbated by his dependence on a soul-drinking black sword and his sworn allegiance to callous and chimerical Lords of Chaos.

Here that angst-filled destiny come crashing around the hero’s head as brief moments of domestic contentment are washed away in blood when the eternal war between the Lords of Chaos and Order leads to the abduction of his human wife Zarozinia and Elric taking up the black blade for the final times. He reunites with old companion Moonglum and hunts down Jagreen Lern, Theocrat of Pan Tang as he attempts to conquer the world for his allies, the Dukes of Hell. The battles are long, savage, brutal and fantastical and result in the end of all that exists. However, it’s never been about when or where one dies but how and why…

Admit it, you should read more books, right?

Counterpointing that epic comics narrative is a contemporaneous appreciation from across the channel, where Europe also caught the cosmic zeitgeist of the era..

In the 1960s Elric’s oeuvre was translated by Moorcock & author Maxim Jakubowski introducing an up and coming illustrator to the world of Heroic Fantasy. Comics and fantasy storytelling took a huge leap forward in 1975 when Gallic comics collective Les Humanoides Associes began publishing groundbreaking magazine Métal Hurlant. However, one of their future visual mainstays had begun breaking borders and boundaries almost a decade earlier.

Photographer/artist Philippe Druillet started his comics career in 1966 with apocalyptic science fiction epic Le Mystère des abîmes (The Mystery of the Abyss) which introduced doom-tainted intergalactic freebooter and nomadic wanderer Lone Sloane in a tale of a far distant tomorrow thematically influenced in equal measure by H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and A.E. Van Vogt. We will get to his other works in the courses of times…

Born in Toulouse in 1944, Druillet was raised in Spain, and his comics work was grandiose, panoramic, deeply baroque and overwhelmingly cosmic in scope. He also pretty much rejected standard formats and panels layouts in favour of boldly shocking graphics. Druillet began working for Pilote in 1969 and revived his star-rover in numerous shorter pieces, initially published together in 1972 as The Six Voyages. This collection, however, focuses on his brief but inspirational dealings with Moorcock’s primary ill-fated cosmic traveller…

After preliminary tentative spreads in Moi Aussi, in 1969, a 21-plate portfolio entitled La Saga d’Elric le Necromancien was published. In 1973 Moorcock’s reworking of Michel Demuth’s text for the portfolio became Elric: The Return to Melniboné as published by Unicorn Bookshop in 1973. Its influence was far-reaching: just ask American creators like Keith Giffen, who repatterned his entire drawing style on what he saw…

Reproduced in its original monochrome, the brief interlude spectacularly and mind-alteringly details how the former Emperor reclaims his throne and position from apparently-ascendant rival Prince Yyrkoon and reacquaints himself with his bride-to-be Cymoril. Elric has no conception that the Lords of Chaos are closely watching and laying their plans for his future…

Closing the arcana and antiquities is ‘Elric and the Artists’ an incisively informative briefing by John Davey, detailing earlier efforts to visualise the Last Emperor, concentrating on his prose debuts, before going on to summarise and scrutinise the long history of graphic novel and comics interpretations.

Moorcock and his visual collaborators changed the comics world forever, This is how that all started…

Adapted from the works of Michael Moorcock related to the character of ELRIC © 2021, Michael & Linda Moorcock. All characters, the distinctive likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are TM & © Michael Moorcock and Multiverse Inc.
Elric the Return to Melniboné was first published by Unicorn Bookshop, 1973. Stormbringer was first published by Savoy Books in 1976.

EC horror and romance maestro Jack Kamen was born today in 1920, and shares the date with eco-activist cartoonist Larry Marder (Tales of the Beanworld) from 1951; editor and scripter Jim Salicrup in 1957; British comics veteran/educator Nigel Kitching (Sonic the Comic) in 1959 and The Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder in 1974.

Today in 1960 an era ended with the final page published of Warren Tufts’ Lance.

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Garth: The Cloud of Balthus (volume 1)


By Frank Bellamy & Jim Edgar, with John Allard (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-0-90761-034-2 (Album TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Frank Alfred Bellamy (21st May 1917 – 5th July 1976) is one of British Comics’ greatest comics artists. In the all-too-brief years of his career he produced magnificent, unforgettable visuals for Eagle, TV21, Radio Times (Doctor Who) before taking over The Daily Mirror newspaper strip Garth in 1971. He turned that long-running yet meandering and occasionally lacklustre strip into a magnificent masterpiece of unmissable adventure fantasy, with eye-popping, mind-blowing monochrome art other artists were proud to boast they swiped from. However, after only 17 stories, Bellamy died suddenly in 1976; and it’s absolutely criminal that his work isn’t in galleries, let alone in permanent collected book editions.

Bellamy was born in 1917 but didn’t begin comic strip work until 1953: the Monty Carstairs strip for Mickey Mouse Weekly. From there he moved on to Hulton Press and drew features starring Swiss Family Robinson, Robin Hood and King Arthur for Swift, the “junior companion” to Eagle. In 1957, he moved on to the star title, producing standout, innovative work on a variety of strips, beginning with a biography/hagiography of Winston Churchill. ‘The Happy Warrior’ was followed by ‘Montgomery of Alamein’, ‘The Shepherd King – the story of David’ and ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’, from which Bellamy was promptly pulled only a few months in. As Peter Jackson took over the back page historical adventure, Bellamy was on his way to the front cover and The Near Future.

When Hulton were bought by Odhams Press there soon manifested irreconcilable differences between Frank Hampson and the new management. Dan Dare’s creator left his superstar baby and Bellamy was tapped as replacement – although both Don Harley & Keith Watson were retained as Frank’s assistants. For a year Bellamy produced “The Pilot of the Future”: redesigning the entire look of the strip at management’s request, before joyfully stepping down to fulfil a lifetime’s ambition.

For his entire life Frank Bellamy had been fascinated – almost obsessed – with Africa. When asked if he would like to draw a big game hunter strip he didn’t think twice and Fraser of Africa debuted in August 1960, a single page per week in the prestigious full-colour centre section. Fraser of Africa was an artistic landmark and Bellamy’s techniques of line and hatching, in conjunction with sensitive, atmospheric colours, and even his staging and layout of pages, led to majestic Heros the Spartan and eventually the bravura creativity displayed in Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet strips for TV21, before he opted for the strictures of monochrome and a single tier of 3-4 panels a day…

British Superman Garth first appeared in The Daily Mirror on Saturday, July 24th 1943, the creation of professional cartoonist Steve Dowling and BBC radio producer Gordon Boshell, at the behest of the editor who wanted an adventure strip to complement their other comic strip features: Buck Ryan, Belinda Blue Eyes, Just Jake and immortal, demi-immoral, morale-boosting Jane.

A blond giant and physical marvel with no memory of who he was, Garth washed up on an island shore and into the arms of a pretty girl… Gala. Nonetheless, he saved the entire populace from a brutal tyrant and a legend began. Boshell never had time to write the series, so Dowling – already producing successful family strip The Ruggles – scripted Garth until a new writer could be found. Don Freeman dumped the amnesia plot in ‘The Seven Ages of Garth’ (which ran from September 18th 1944 until January 20th 1946) by introducing imposing jack-of-all-sciences Professor Lumiere, whose subsequent psychological experiments regressed the burly hero back through some past lives.

In the next tale ‘The Saga of Garth’ (January 22nd 1946 – July 20th 1946) the origin was revealed. As an infant, “Garth” had been found floating in a coracle off the Shetlands and adopted by a kindly old couple. When full grown he became a Navy Captain until he was torpedoed off Tibet in 1943…

Freeman continued as writer until 1952 (‘Flight into the Future’ was his last tale), and was briefly replaced by script editor Hugh McClelland (who only wrote ‘Invasion From Space’) until Peter O’Donnell took over in February 1953 with ‘Warriors of Krull’. O’Donnell penned 28 adventures until resigning in 1966 to devote more time to his own strip: a little something called Modesty Blaise. His place was taken by Jim Edgar; a short-story writer who also scripted such prestigious newspaper strips as Matt Marriott, Wes Slade and Gun Law.

Dowling retired in 1968 and his long-time assistant John Allard took over the strip until a suitable permanent artist could be found. Allard completed ten complete tales until Frank Bellamy began a legendary run with the 13th instalment of ‘Sundance’ (which ran from 28th June to 1 October 11th 1971). Allard remained as background artist and assistant until Bellamy took full control during ‘The Orb of Trimandias’.

One thing Professor Lumiere had discovered and which gave this strip its distinctive appeal even before the fantastic artwork of Bellamy elevated it to dizzying heights of graphic brilliance, was Garth’s involuntary ability to travel through time and re-experience past and future lives. This simple concept lent the strip an unfailing potential for exotic storylines and fantastic exploits, pushing it beyond its humble beginning as a British response to Siegel & Shuster’s American phenomenon Superman.

The tales in this criminally out of print monochrome tome begin with the aforementioned ‘Sundance’ as mighty Garth is drawn back to 1876 to relive his life as an officer of George Custer’s 7th Cavalry on the eve of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

The time-tossed titan has a brief but passionate love affair with Indian maiden Falling Leaf before dying valiantly for his beliefs and their love. It is an evocative, powerful tale that totally captures the bigotry, arrogance and futility of the White Man and the tragic demise of the Indian way of life…

Then eponymous epic ‘The Cloud of Balthus’ shows the potent but simple elegance of the narrative concept sustaining Garth. Whilst vacationing in the Caribbean our hero becomes embroiled in an espionage plot involving freelance super-spies and a US space station, but even that is mere prelude to fantastic adventure and deadly terrors when he and delectable, double-dealing companion Lee Wan are abruptly abducted by nebulous energy beings in a taut, tension-fraught thriller.

‘The Orb of Trimandias’ plunges Garth back in time to Venice of the Borgias, when/where he becomes again English Soldier-of-Fortune Lord Carthewan: a decent man battling an insane and all-powerful madman for the secret of a supernaturally potent holy relic. This gripping, exotic yarn is replete with flamboyant action, historical celebrities, sexy men and women and magnificently stirring locales. It’s a timeless treasure of adventure that has the added fillip of briefly reuniting Garth with his star-crossed true love, ethereal Space Goddess Astra.

This lovely volume (long overdue for re-issue – at least in digital form if no other way is possible) concludes with a high-octane gothic horror story.

‘The Wolfman of Ausensee’ sees Garth as a rather reluctant companion of movie starlet Gloria Delmar on a shoot at the forbidding Austrian schloss (that’s a big ugly castle to you) of a playboy whose family was once cursed by witches. Despite the title giving some of the game away, this is still a sharp and savvy spook-fest comparing well to the best Hammer Horror films that no doubt inspired it, and just gets better with each rereading.

Garth is the quintessential British Action Hero: strong, smart, fast and good-looking with a big heart and nose for trouble. His back-story granted him all of eternity and every genre to play in, and the magnificent art of Frank Bellamy also made his too-brief tenure a stellar one.

Comic-strips seldom get this good, and even though this book and its sequel are still relatively easy (if not cheap) to come by, it is still a crime and an utter mystery that all these wonderful tales have been out of print for so long.
© 1984 Mirror Group Newspapers. All rights reserved.

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Garth: The Women of Galba (volume 2)


By Frank Bellamy & Jim Edgar (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-0-90761-049-6 (Album TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

A bold and daring blond giant and physical marvel, Garth was Britain’s answer to the blockbusting sensations of Superman, with the added advantage that the feature was officially aimed at adults rather than kids of all ages.

Originally released in 1985, this second Titan Books collection of Garth’s Frank Bellamy era spans 7th September 1972 to 25th October 1973 with the artist shown at the absolute peak of his powers, and opens with eerie chiller ‘The People of the Abyss’ wherein Garth and subsea explorer Ed Neilson are taken prisoner by staggeringly beautiful (what other kind are there?) naked women who drag their bathyscaphe to a city at the bottom of the Pacific. The undersea houris are at war with horrendous aquatic monstrosities and urgently need outside assistance, but even that incredible situation is merely prelude to a tragic love affair with Cold War implications…

Next up is eponymous space-opera romp ‘The Women of Galba’, wherein an alien tyrant learns to rue the day he abducted a giant Earthman to fight and die as a gladiator. Exotic locations, spectacular action and oodles more astonishingly beautiful females make this an unforgettable adventure for what the editors of the era still believed was a strip only grown men read…

‘Ghost Town’ is another western tale, and a very special one. When Garth, vacationing in Colorado, rides into abandoned mining outpost “Gopherville”, he is irresistibly drawn back to a past life as Marshal Tom Barratt who lived, loved and died when the town was a hotspot of vice and easily-purloined money. When Bellamy died suddenly in 1976 this tale – long acknowledged as his personal favourite – was rerun until Martin Asbury (who painted both Titan Book album covers here) was ready to take over the strip.

The final adventure re-presented here – ‘The Mask of Atacama’ – sees Garth & Lumiere in Mexico City. Whilst sleeping, the blonde colossus is visited by the spirit of Princess Atacama (also beautiful, of course) who escorts him through time to vanished Aztec city Tenochtitlan where, as the Sun God Axatl, Garth attempts to save their civilisation from the voraciously marauding Conquistadores of Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano (as shortened for these brief 3-panel strip episodes to far more manageable Hernan Cortés)…

Tragically, neither Garth nor the Princess have reckoned on the jealousy of the Sun Priests and their High Priestess Tiahuaca…

Adding extra value to this volume are a draft synopsis and actual scripts for ‘The Women of Galba’, all liberally illustrated.. There has never been a better comic adventure strip than Garth as drawn by Bellamy: a daily rip-roaring romp combining action, suspense, glamour, mystery and the uncanny in a seamless blend of graphic wonderment. In recent years, the comic strip colossus has fallen from memory as well as favour, but I’m still fervently praying that one day, Garth (and while I’m dreaming, Jeff Hawke too) will make the jump to curated complete archive editions. Go on, make on old man happy why don’t you? There’s certainly a grateful, appreciative and vast audience waiting…
© 1985 Mirror Group Newspapers/Syndication International. All Rights Reserved.

This day in 1915 Henry Sunday page illustrator Don Trachte was born, followed two years later by British legend Frank Bellamy (Fraser of Africa, Dan Dare, Garth, Heros the Spartan, Thunderbirds) and Mancunian émigré Lee Elias (Beyond Mars, Black Cat, Flash, Green Arrow, Eclipso, Luke Cage, Human Fly, Goblin, Rook) in 1920.

In 1943 French writer-artist Jean-Claude Fournier (Spirou and Fantasio, Bizu) was born as was writer/publisher Gary Reed (Sherlock Holmes, Deadworld, Saint Germaine, Baker Street, Caliber Comics) in 1956.

We lost pioneering Canadian cartoonist and animator Vital Achille Raoul Barré in 1932 and in 1977 gained a UK animal icon when Gnasher’s Tale (by David Sutherland) began, launching the manky mutt into his own Beano series detailing his life as a puppy before being adopted by Dennis the Menace…

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The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs Spider-Boy (volume 4)


By Jerry Siegel & Reg Bunn with John Burns, Geoff Campion and various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-560-4 (Album TPB/Digital edition), 978-1-83786-685-4 (Webshop Exclusive edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Another triumph of Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics line, The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs. Spider-Boy is the latest offering in what I pray will be a complete revival of the UK’s most marvellous vintage comics fantasies (bring on Thunderbolt the Avenger, Smoke Man, Tri-Man, Gadget Man & Gimmick Kid and even the Phantom Viking… we can take it!).

Gathering material from peerless weekly anthology Lion, originally spanning May 27th to October 7th 1967 and including material from a later reprinting (Lion December 8th 1973), this collection also includes a prose done-in-one yarn from Lion Annual 1970 to complete another wildly whacky superhero romp as only the cocreator of Superman could envision it…

Mystery criminal genius and eventual superhero The Spider debuted on June 26th 1965 and reigned supreme until April 26th 1969. He has periodically returned in reprints and occasional new stories ever since. As first introduced by Ted Cowan (Paddy Payne, Adam Eterno, Robot Archie) & William Reginald Bunn.

“Reg” was an absolute master of his field and much beloved. His other work in comics (like Robin Hood, Buck Jones, Black Hood, Captain Kid and Clip McCord) spanned 1949 to his death in 1971 as, once the industry found him, he was never without work. Reg died on the job and is still much missed. For The Spider there was the ultimate accolade as, after opening on 2 pages per episode, the feature kept winning a bigger page count. Even so, lots had to happen in short order and Bunn never stinted or short-changed his audience. Played out for months at breakneck rollercoaster pace, each monochrome episode positively bulged with imaginative ingenuity, manic combats and crazy inventions peppering wide-eyed British kids with a bizarre conception of the USA…

Originally The Spider was man of unbelievably colossal vanity: a moody malcontent super-scientist whose goal was to be acclaimed the greatest criminal of all time. A flamboyantly wicked narcissist, he began his public career by recruiting crime specialists – scurvy, skeevy safecracker Roy Ordini and genteelly timid evil genius inventor Professor Pelham – prior to a massive gem-theft from America’s greatest city. He was foiled by cruel luck and resolute cops Gilmore &Trask: crack detectives cursed with the job of catching the arachnid archfiend. Cowan scripted the first two serialised sagas before handing over to comics royalty: Jerry Siegel (Superman, Superboy, The Spectre, Doctor Occult, Slam Bradley, Funnyman, The Mighty Crusaders, Starling), who had been forced to look elsewhere for work after an infamous dispute with DC Comics over the rights to the Man of Steel. His supervision of UK arachnid amazement began just as Britain and the entire, but somehow less fab & groovy, world succumbed to “Batmania”…

In case you’re not old, that term covers a period of global hysteria sparked by the 1966 Batman TV show, when the planet went crazy for superheroes and an era dubbed “camp” saw humour, satire, and fantastic psychedelic whimsy infect all categories of entertainment. It was a time of peace, love, wild music and radical change, and I believe there were lots of drugs being experimented with at the time…

British comics were always especially vulnerable to any passing trend or zeitgeist, and a host of more conventional costumed crusaders sprang up in our traditionally unconventional pages. Scripted by the godfather of the genre – and an inveterate humourist – The Spider remained an utterly arrogant sod even as he skilfully shifted gears without a squeak to become a superhero. Battling in rapid succession The Exterminator, Crime Incorporated, The Silhouette, Dr. Mysterioso, The Android Emperor, The Infernal Gadgeteer, The Crook From Outer Space, an evil Genie, transdimensional monstrogs and immortal Queen Lana of Valley of the Doomed he starts here as global figure of approbation and acceptance, only to see all his glittering glories plucked away…

As previously stated, the strip had grown ever more popular, and by the time of this epic encounter demanded a full 5 pages per episode, in a periodical where 1 or 2 pages a week was the norm. Another masterclass of illustrative wonderment displaying Bunn’s incredible gift for visualisation, the lengthy campaign finds The Spider, Pelham & Ordini targeted by honest greed, dastardly ambition and cruel misunderstanding as the tale in this tome reconnects with normal(ish) Good, Evil and Vengeance. Here The Spider duels a deadly criminal scientist only to find himself distracted and diverted by a young and ferocious deadly doppelganger…
When criminal inventor Sylvester Jenkins (DO NOT call him “Silly”) teams up with Fury Gang boss “Turk” Dobbs, the first results are a wave of super-powered bandits such as The Bolt and insulting defeat by The Spider and his crew. In response Jenkins murders Dobbs (who coined the “Silly” moniker) and frames the hero for it. With the Spider on the run and unable to clear his name, let alone face a rush of mutated mobster/monsters, the situation grows truly complicated as a brilliant but vicious teenager wearing stolen Spider gear hunts and humiliates the great hero time and again.

Outfought, outmanoeuvred and on the run, the prospects are dire after Jenkins recruits Spider-Boy and orchestrates his following forays against the despised fallen hero, until the kid learns a bitter truth and shares a tragic secret that changes everything…

A far darker and more traditionally motivated tale, the delivery still rockets along with wild invention as incidental dangers pile up: horrors such as trigger-happy cops, Jenkins’ relentless monster experiments, naturally-occurring rival bio-terrors, rampaging bug-bots, flying castles, mutated circus and zoo animals and a climactic showdown in a lost city of super technologies, before all the truths come out and justice is served…

The Extras section then offers a rare treat from a later era, as – when the serial was truncated and re-run in 1973 – the editors opted to commission a new final episode and alternate conclusion; scripted by an unknown writer but illustrated by John Burns as seen in Lion December 8th 1973. It’s followed by text thriller ‘The Spider Meets the Fly’. Illustrated and written by hands unknown for Lion Annual 1968 this yarn pits the Spider and Co. against a world-conquering science villain and his volcano-dwelling army of high-tech assassins… with the usual results, and is accompanied by the book’s original full-colour frontispiece highlighting the clash as painted by Geoff (Battler Britton, Captain Condor, Typhoon Tracy, The Spellbinder, D-Day Dawson) Campion.

This titanic tome confirms that the King of crime crushes is still top of the heap and should find a home in every kid’s heart and mind, no matter how young they might be, or threaten to remain. Batty, baroque and often simply bonkers, The Spider proves that although crime does not pay, it can offer a huge amount of white-knuckle fun…
© 1967, 1969, 1973 & 2025 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1777 English caricaturist and illustrator Richard Newton was born, followed in 1903 by Jimmy Olsen, Captain Marvel artist Pete Costanza; Ralph Reese (Solomon Kane, Witzend, One Year Affair) in 1949, and Argentine cartoonist Maitena Burundarena (Mujeres Alteradas) in 1962.

In 2017, comic book chameleon Rich Buckler (Deathlok, Fantastic Four, All-Star Squadron, Batman, Superman vs Shazam, Red Circle Comics) died.

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The James Bond Omnibus volume 001


By Ian Fleming; adapted by Anthony Hern, Peter O’Donnell, Henry Gammidge & John McLusky (Titan Books)
ISBN: 987-1-84856-364-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s sad to admit but there are very few British newspaper strips to challenge the influence and impact of classic daily and Sunday “funnies” from America, especially in the febrile but slowly expiring the field of adventure picture-fiction.

The 1930’s and 1940’s were rich in popular, not to say iconic, creations. You would be hard-pressed to come up with homegrown household names to rival Popeye, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon, let alone Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon, or the likes of Little Lulu, Blondie, Li’l Abner, Little Orphan Annie or Popeye and yes, I know I said him twice, but Elzie Segars’s Thimble Theatre was funny as well as thrilling, constantly innovative, and really, really good.

What strips can you recall to equal simple popularity let alone longevity or quality in Britain? Rupert Bear? Absolutely. Giles? Technically, yes. Nipper? Jane? The Perishers? Garth? Judge Dredd? Scorer?

I’d like to hope so, but I doubt it. The Empire didn’t quite get it until it wasn’t an empire any more. There were certainly very many wonderful strips being produced: well-written and beautifully drawn, but that stubborn British reserve plus a completely different editorial view of the marketplace (which just didn’t consider strips infallible, readership-attracting magnets, as American did) never seemed to be in the business of creating household names – until the 1950’s. Something happened in ‘50s Britain, but I’m not going to waste any space here discussing it. It just did.

In a new egalitarian spirit that seemingly craved excitement and accepted previously disregarded, comics (as well as all tawdry “entertainment” media from radio serials to paperback novels) got carried along on the wave. Just like television, periodicals such as Eagle, the regenerated Dandy and Beano and girls’ comics in general all shifted into creative high gear… and so at last did newspapers.

And that means that I can properly extol the virtues of a graphic collection with proven crossover appeal for once. Debut 007 novel Casino Royale was published in 1953 and was subsequently serialised – after much dithering and nervousness on behalf of author Fleming – as a strip in The Daily Express from 1958. It was the start of a beguiling run of novel and short story adaptations scripted by Anthony Hern, Henry Gammidge, Peter O’Donnell and Kingsley Amis, before Jim Lawrence, a jobbing writer of US features (and who’d previously scripted the aforementioned Buck Rogers) came aboard for The Man With the Golden Gun, completing the transfer of the Fleming canon to strip format. Thereafter Lawrence was invited to create new adventures, which he did until the strip’s demise in 1983.

The art on the feature was always of the highest standard. Initially John McLusky handled the illustration until 1966’s conclusion of You Only Live Twice and, although perhaps lacking in flash or verve, the workmanlike clarity of his drawing easily coped with a daunting array of locales, technical set-ups and sheer immensity of cast members, whilst satisfying the then-novel directive of advancing a plot daily whilst ending each episode on a cliff-hanging hook every time.

McLusky was succeeded by Yaroslav Horak, who debuted on Man with the Golden Gun, offering a looser, edgier style, at once more cinematic and with a closer attention to camera angle and frenzied action that seemed to typify the high-octane 1960’s. Horak limned 26 complete adventures until 1977 when The Daily Express axed the Bond feature with a still-running adventure suddenly switching to The Sunday Express from January 30th until conclusion on May 22nd. Later adventures had no UK presence at all, and only appeared in syndication in European papers. This state of affairs continued until 1981 when British paper The Daily Star restored the feature to Britons with ‘Doomcrack’.

Titan Books re-assembled those scarce-seen tales – a heady brew of adventure, sex, intrigue and death – into addictively accessible monochrome Omnibus Editions, (sadly not available digitally at present) with a dedicated band of creators on top form proving how the world’s greatest agent never rests in his mission to keep us all free, safe, shaken (if not stirred) and thoroughly entertained…

This premier no-nonsense paperback gem adapting 11 of Fleming’s best, frantic derring-do and dark, deadly diplomacy commences with ‘Casino Royale’ as British operative Bond is ordered to gamble with and bankrupt Le Chiffre: a communist agent who has insanely embezzled away his Soviet masters’ operating capital.

The moodily compelling tale of tension that results depicts torture and violent death as well as oppressively suspenseful scenes of graphic gambling, heady stuff for newspaper readers of 1958, when it first ran.

Without pausing for breath or a fresh martini, the Bond briefing segues straight into ‘Live and Let Die’ which sees 007 and US agent Felix Leiter tackle Mr. Big, another scurrilous commie agent/devious genius who rules the Harlem underworld through superstition, voodoo and brutal force. Then, ‘Moonraker’ details the attempt by ex-Nazi officer Hugo Drax to drop a guided missile on London, a task made far simpler since the maniac has infiltrated the British aristocracy…

These newspaper strips come from a period when dependable John McLusky was developing a less formal approach, before going on to produce some of his best work. ‘Casino Royale’ was the opening strip in a near 25-year run, and the somewhat muted artwork shows an artist still not completely comfortable with his task. It was adapted and scripted by Anthony Hern, who had won the author’s approval after writing condensed prose versions of the novels for the Daily Express. Live and Let Die and Moonraker were both adapted by Henry Gammidge.

As McLusky settled in for the long haul, he warmed to the potentialities of the job with cracking tales of Cold-War intrigue and fast, dangerous living set in a multitude of exotic locales, and provides here a welcome return to public gaze of some of the most influential – and exciting – comic strips in British history.

The adaptation of ‘Diamonds are Forever’ pits Bond against an insidious diamond smuggling criminals, in an explosive if uncomplicated all-action romp before shifting into terse, low-key thriller ‘From Russia With Love’ (both courtesy of Gammidge & McLusky). The artist hit a creative peak with ‘Dr No’ – perhaps because of the sparkling script from Peter O’Donnell before he sloped off to create the amazing Modesty Blaise. As Bond returns to Jamaica and investigates the disappearance of two operatives he stumbles upon a plot to sabotage the US rocketry program. These stories come from an age at once less jaded but more worldly; a place and time where readers lived daily with the very real threat of instant annihilation. As such, the easy approachability of the material is a credit to the creators.

‘Goldfinger’ faithfully adapts Fleming’s novel of the world’s most ambitious bullion robbery, so if you’re only familiar with the film version there will be some things you’ve not seen before. The action fairly rockets along and tense suspense is maintained throughout this signature tale. Following that is ‘Risico’ as 007 is tasked with stopping heroin smugglers whose motive is not profit but social destabilisation. Next is ‘From a View to a Kill’: a traditional, low-key Cold War thriller with Bond trailing gangsters stealing state secrets by ambushing military dispatch riders…

In the Roger Moore film incarnation Risico was folded into ‘For Your Eyes Only’ but here you get the real deal with a faithful adaptation of Fleming’s short story, wherein Bond is given a mission of revenge and assassination. Set in Jamaica with Nazi war-criminal Von Hammerstein as culprit and target for the man licenced to kill, it’s a solid piece of dramatic fiction that again bears little similarity to the celluloid adventure.

The volume concludes with the then-controversial ‘Thunderball’ adaptation. That particular tale was savagely censored and curtailed at the behest of Daily Express owner Lord Beaverbrook. Five days of continuity were excised but what remains is still pretty engrossing comic fare and at least some effort was made to wrap up the storyline before the strip ended. In case you don’t recall: When Bond is sent on enforced medical leave, he stumbles into a deadly plot to steal nuclear weapons by a subversive organisation calling itself Spectre…

These grand stories are a must for not only aficionados of Bond but for all thriller fans, as an example of truly gripping adventure uncluttered by superficial razzamatazz. Get back to basics, and remember that classic style is never out of fashion.
All strips are © Ian Fleming Publications Ltd/Express Newspapers Ltd 1987. James Bond and 007 are ™ & © Danjaq LLC used under license from Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.

In 1915 prolific scripter Hank Chapman was born, with artistic maestro John Cullen Murphy (Prince Valiant) coming along four years later. Miss Pearl and Momma creator Mel Lazarus popped up in 1927, and Belgian Sammy draughtsman Berck (Arthur Berckmans) in 1928. Comic book legend Denny O’Neil was born in 1939 and Bill Sienkiewicz in 1958. German cartoonist Jan-Michael Richter – of Jamiri fame – came along in 1966 as did Nina Paley in 1968, and Mexican Gerardo Sandoval (Tomb Raider, Venom), and the date saw the first appearance of Zig et Puce (by Alain Saint-Ogan) in 1925; the premiere of Donald Duck (a bit player in Silly Symphony: The Wise Little Hen) in 1934; the launch of Dutch silent comic Fred’nand in 1937and the debut of Tiger by Bud Blake in 1965.

Milton Caniff died today in 1988.

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Legacy: The Shadow Rises (volume 1 of 3)


By The Fickling Brothers & Zak Simmonds-Hurn, with additional colours by Lou Ashworth, Alice Leclert & Ellie Wright (DFB/Phoenix)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-198-7 (TPB)

The Phoenix has been the shining saving grace of British kids’ comics since 2012, regaling rabid readers with anthology comics for girls, boys and all points between, offering humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. Although probably best known for its award-winning comedy stylings, the comic has always been pretty strong in its action and mystery yarns too, and this latest offering – by writers “The Fickling Brothers” (Tom & Will) and illustrator Zak Simmonds-Hurn (Dragon Guard, Know Your Monsters) – delivers the first full-on, all-action fantasy tome in a prospective trilogy aimed at the growing market for juniors-based magical adventure.

Flavoured with hints and notes of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings franchises and the glorious classic movie Willow, this cunningly contrived confection takes us to the embattled lands of the Jindari Empire, laying ground rules for a war of conquest by malign forces lurking beyond the Edge of the Great Void and craving control of all that lives free. The cruelly avaricious observer is Obaga, Queen of Shadows and as her minions constantly confirm, “the Shadow rises”…

With ebon emissaries sowing terror and discord, the crisis begins when blithely unaware ruler of Hightown Lord Edar of House Thawn, his sons Tarik and Lorban and faithful warrior mage Kal Jotan are ambushed by marauding dark raiders. Thankfully, before his defeat, Kal sends a magical message to Heaven’s Blade, the fortress-citadel that is home to all arcane knowledge and the current boarding school of Edar’s mystically-gifted daughter Scarlett Thawn.

When her studies are interrupted by tidings that she is now last surviving Thawn and ruler of Hightown, she accepts that she must leave. Her potent but daunting tutor Lord Igon soon despatches Scarlett (and her beastly familiar Rumpus) on the long journey home, and offers sage advice and an ancient scroll that is far from what it seems…

The scholar has long anticipated trouble and knows the world’s governing Council of Flowers is not up to confronting the forces of evil; The Shadow has contingency plans of her own. Most critical of these is having an impostor already in place governing Hightown by the time Scarlett arrives to take up the onerous responsibilities of command…

Thus begins a rousing quest saga as Scarlett treks across a weird, wild world to find bizarre animal allies, face incomprehensible threats and forsake her dreams of magical study for the duties of rulership, and discovers that friends and foes are impossible to distinguish and that “her” problems affect far more than just her subjects…

Also drafted and crafted by Zak and the Fickling lads is a fulsome supplementary section detailing background lore under the aegis and escutcheon of ‘A Compendium of the Creatures, Customs and Culture of Jindar and Other Curious Miscellany by Penadot Shrewd’. These context-compliant complimentary case histories include all you need to know now regarding ‘The Ancients’, ‘The Shadow’, ‘The Council of Flowers’, and all you might want about ‘Magic’ including ‘A Brief Lesson in Magic for Novices’ concentrating on ‘Fire, Ice and Acid Magic’.

If epic adventure and growing pains in the depths of the dark are your taste, this is an epic you’ll want to follow from the first step to the last gasp…
Text  and Illustrations © The Phoenix Comic  2026.

Legacy: The Shadow Rises will be published on May 7th 2026 and is available for pre-order now.

Today in 1912 groundbreaking Dutch comics god Marten Toonder (Tom Puss, Panda, Oliver B. Bumble) was born, followed in 1922 by legendary raconteur Dog Wildey (Tarzan, Outlaw Kid, Jonny Quest, Rio); Howard Cruse (Wendel, Stuck Rubber Baby, Barefootz) in1944; multi-syndicated strip cartoonist Jerry Scott (Zits, Baby Blues) in 1955 and modern comic book mavens Liam Sharp (Deaths Head II, Wonder Woman, Testament) in 1968 and Simon Spurrier (Harry Kipling, X-Men, Ghost Rider) in 1981.

Today in 1912, US political cartoonist Homer Davenport died, with later losses including Wonder Woman co-creator William Moulton Marston in 1947; John Forte (Legion of Super-Heroes, Tales of the Bizarro World) in 1966 and anthological comics horror-meister Jay Disbrow (Captain Electron, Valgar Gunnar of Gyro, Aroc of Zenith) in 2017.

Primal landmark Dutch newspaper strip Bulletje en Boonestaak debuted today in 1922.