Category: Best of British

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Century 21 volume 1: Adventure in the 21st Century


By various (Reynolds and Hearn)
ISBN: 978-1-905287-93-2

After years of subtle manoeuvring and outright begging, some of the greatest strips in British comics history are finally available in glossy high-quality colour compilations selected by dedicated devotee Chris Bentley and with the blessing of Gerry Anderson (who provides a fascinating and informative introduction) himself.

TV Century 21 (the unwieldy “Century” was eventually dropped) was modeled after a newspaper – albeit from 100 years into the future – and this shared conceit carried the avid readers into a multimedia wonderland as television and reading matter fed off each other. The incredible comics adventures were supplemented with stills taken from the TV shows (and later, films) and photos also graced the text features and fillers which added to the unity of one of the industry’s first “Shared Universe” products,

Number #1 launched on January 23rd 1965, instantly capturing the hearts and minds of millions of children in the 1960s, and further proving to British comics editors the unfailingly profitable relationship between television shows and healthy sales.

Filled with high quality art and features, printed in gleaming photogravure, TV21 featured such strips as Fireball XL5, Supercar and Stingray. In a bizarre attempt to 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 the aliens, aquatic civilizations and common crooks and disasters that threatened the general well-being of the populace. Even the BBC’s TV “tomorrows” were represented by a full-colour strip starring The Daleks.

Although Thunderbirds did not premiere on TV until September (with Frank Bellamy’s incredible strip joining the line-up in January 1966) Lady Penelope and Parker had an earlier debut to set the scene, and eventually the aristocratic super-spy won her own top-class photogravure magazine in January 1996. And as Anderson’s newest creations launched into super-marionated life, their comics exploits filtered into TV21 and even their own titles.

A complete and chronological archive would be unfeasible so this book has gathered a variety of complete adventures from the various serials, beginning with the Fireball XL5 epic ‘The Astran Assassination’, by Alan Fennell, Mike Noble, Eric Eden and Ron Embleton which originally appeared in issues #15-26 (May-July 2065) wherein an alien envoy attempting to forestall an intergalactic border war was murdered on Earth and Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol, aided by Lady Penelope and Troy Tempest (ooh! Crossover!) must find the killer before Earth is sucked into disaster!

Next up is a classic Thundebirds romp from Scott Goodall and Frank Bellamy. ‘Chain’ Reaction’ ran in TV21 and TV Tornado #227-234, May -July 2069) wherein the Tracy boys had to stop an out of control 50,000 ton space freighter from impacting in the middle of San Francisco – and that’s just the start of an epic calamity that threatened to destroy the entire Pacific Rim!

Anderson’s stalwart submarine heroes from the Good Ship Stingray were pitted against a bizarre and malevolent spectre in the eerie mystery ‘The Haunting of Station 17’ by Fennell and Embleton (from issues #23-30, June-August 2065) whilst Captain Scarlet is represented here by the beautiful if unconventional ‘The Football King’ by Howard Elson and Mike Noble from TV21 and TV Tornado #194-195 (October 2068). This full colour cover story reverted to monochrome grey-tones for its interior pages, but the real oddity was the genre blending as the indestructible Spectrum agent had to protect a soccer-mad Bedouin potentate by joining his personal football team.

Lady Penelope foiled a Bereznik plot to destroy Unity City from a secret Australian base in ‘The Luveniam Affair’ (by Fennel and Frank Langford from issues #36-42 of her own magazine, September-November 1966) whilst her pals from International Rescue had to conquer ‘The Devil’s Crag’ to rescue a lost schoolboy (Fennell and Bellamy, TV21 #184-187, July-August 2068); a spectacular visual extravaganza that belies its deceptively simple plot.

Developed from the 1966 film Thunderbirds Are Go! the crew of Space Exploration vehicle Zero X had an auspicious and entertaining run of their own adventures in TV21, as this superb yarn by Angus P Allan and Mike Noble demonstrates. ‘Planet of Bones’ (TV21 and TV Tornado #218-224, March-May 2069) found the team in rip-roaring action on a world of deadly skeletal dinosaurs!

‘Superjunk’ from TV Century 21 #72-81(June-August 2066) pitted the Stingray team against futuristic Chinese pirates in a cracking tale by Dennis Hopper and Ron’s brother Gerry Embleton, whilst unsung genius Brian Lewis illustrated ‘Starburst’; a classy black and white thriller by Alan Fennell (from Thunderbirds Extra, March 1966) that found the heroes ranging from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to the icy depths of interplanetary space to save a pair of dying astronauts.

This first incredible volume concludes with ‘Leviathan’, a glorious Captain Scarlet saga by writers Allan and Goodall with black-and-white and colour art from Mike Noble, Don Harley and Frank Bellamy (from TV21 #185-189, August 2068) which sees Cloudbase crashing into the sea, Mysteron agent Captain Black captured and the World Navy’s greatest super-ship threatened by resurrected Nazi U-Boats!

Crisp, imaginative writing, great characters and some of the very best science-fiction art of all time make this a must-have book for just about anybody with a sense of adventure and love of comics. It doesn’t get better than this.

Artwork © A.P. Films (Merchandising) Ltd/Century 21 Publishing Ltd 1965-1969. Published under license from Anderson Entertainment Ltd 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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Fred Basset 2008


By Michael Martin with Arran Graham (Orion Books)
ISBN: 978-0-7528-9385-3

What’s your favourite biscuit? Do you only eat one sort or do you find that different occasions, different beverages or times of day dictate a little variety: some situation-appropriate flavours?

Graphic narrative is like that. The terrifying realties of We3 (ISBN: 1-84576-159-6), the social significance of Pride of Baghdad (ISBN: 1-84576-242-8) or Maus (978-0-14101-408-1), the flamboyant adventure of Bucky O’Hare (ASIN: B000E4SUCM), gently acerbic political radicalism of Donald Rooum’s Wildcat (ISBN: 0-900384-30-1) or pure fantasy of Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 (ISBN: 1-84576-660-1) all have their place but sometimes all you want or need is a quiet reassuring smile.

Fred Basset began in the Daily Mail on July 8th 1963, the brainchild of professional cartoonist Alexander S. Graham, and soon found a solid fan-base among the generally middle-class readership, many of whom must have identified with the minor daily tribulations of an unnamed young married couple and their avuncular if amusingly haughty pet dog, whose gallery-playing internal monologues – or chats with we observers behind the forth wall – amounted to a daily confirmation of what most pet-owners believed their hairy charges were capable of. Eventually the strip became a regular weekend delight too in the Mail on Sunday. How odd that such a quintessentially English Strip is based on the life-style of the Scottish middle class – or perhaps not…

Alex Graham was born in Scotland in 19 and educated at Dumfries Academy. His first professional sales occurred during World War II, and he thereafter created the strip Wee Hughie for the Dundee Weekly News in 1945, continuing it until 1970. In 1946 he also originated Our Bill and Briggs the Butler, before hitting the global big time with his four-footed raconteur, whom he based in large part upon his own faithful furry companion Frieda. Graham died in December 1991, having drawn over 9,000 strips, black and white and colour, and the strip was continued by his daughter Arran and cartoonist Michael Martin.

The strip has a huge worldwide following, especially in comics-friendly America, Australia and the Scandinavian countries. Known by such varied names as Wurzel in Germany, Lillo il Cane Saggio (Lillo the wise dog) in Italy, Lorang in Norway, Laban in Sweden in Sweden and bafflingly Retu, Pitko and Koiraskoira in Finland, the not-so humble hound even had his own animated TV show in 1976, produced by Bill Melendez Productions (famed for both the Peanuts/Charlie Brown and the Perishers cartoon shows) perfectly voiced by Lionel Jeffries.

Although Fred and his doggie comrades Jock, (a small black Scottish Terrier), Yorky (a Yorkshire Terrier) and, in latter years, Fifi (a saucy Poodle) are obviously immortal, the humans have gradually advanced into middle-ish age. By this year’s collection (the first Fred Basset Book was released in 1963, and ran to #45 in 1993 before becoming annuals such as the one nominally under discussion here, supplemented by a children’s book, a 25-year retrospective and a Bumper Book) they seem quite world-weary, but the situations remain comfortingly constant although a signature of Martin’s tenure is an increasing insertion of the annoyances of contemporary life such as sat navs, catch-phrases and celebrity culture.

So what’s the appeal?

The regular re-application of surreal whimsy to a stable environment has its own subtle satisfaction; and often the panel gags don’t even have a recognisable punch-line – what’s happening on a daily basis is often the cartoon equivalent of old cronies having a bit of a chinwag over the garden wall, a sharing of mutual experience with a dash of hyperbole and a smidgen of one-upmanship… You seldom burst out in a loud guffaw (although that’s not unknown) but you frequently think “Yes! Just like when…”

To those passionate intellectuals among us that might belittle the gag-features that run for decades delighting untold millions of readers I have one last suggestion. If this isn’t your cup of tea – don’t buy it.

There’s plenty who will, including those members of your own family who wouldn’t be caught dead reading your suggestions (and think you’re a trifle odd, besides)…

So, Fred Basset: Comic Strip Positive Reinforcement refreshingly unchanging and amusing. Who’s for a Custard Cream?
© Associated Newspapers plc 2008.

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The Best of Roy of the Rovers: the 1980s


By Tom Tulley & David Sque (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84576948-2

There was a time when comics in Britain reflected the interests of a much larger proportion of the youthful population, and when adults kept their bizarre reading habits a closely guarded secret. Now that it’s practically cool to read graphic narrative, one of the nation’s greatest heroes – sporting, as well as comic related – has been revived in a series of collections from Titan Books.

Roy of the Rovers began on the front cover of Tiger, a new weekly anthology comic published by Amalgamated Press (later IPC and Fleetway Publications). Launched on September 11th 1954, “The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly” was a cannily crafted companion to Lion, Amalgamated’s successful response to Hulton Press’ mighty Eagle (home of Dan Dare).

From the first Tiger concentrated heavily on sports stars and themes, with issue #1 also featuring The Speedster from Bleakmoor, Mascot of Bad Luck and Tales of Whitestoke School amongst others. In later years racing driver Skid Solo and wrestler Johnny Cougar joined the more traditional, earthy strips such as Billy’s Boots, Nipper, Hotshot Hamish and Martin’s Marvellous Mini, but for most of its 1,555-issue run it was “the comic with Roy of the Rovers”.

Created by Frank S. Pepper, who used the pseudonym Stewart Colwyn, and drawn by Joe Colquhoun, Roy was written for much of his early career by the comic’s Editor Derek Birnage (although credited to “Bobby Charlton” for a couple of years). In 1975 Roy became player-manager and the following year got his own weekly comic, just in time for the 1976-77 season, premiering on September 25th and running for 855 issues (ending 20th March 1993).

Roy Race started as a humble apprentice at mighty Melchester Rovers, and after may years of winning all the glories the beautiful game could offer, settled down to live the dream: wife, kids, wealth, comfort and triumphant adventure every Saturday…

This glossy oversized paperback covers the period September 20th 1980 to 4th June 1982, when the comic was regularly selling a million copies a week. The stories were always much more than simply “He shoots! He’s scored!!!” formulaic episodes: they’re closer to the sports-based TV dramas of later decades like Dream Team (litigiously so, in some cases…).

This segment begins with Melchester Rovers’ worst season ever. The team are knocked out of the FA Cup and even relegated, only to fight their way back to the top flight despite such distractions as spoilt-brat players, a TV company making a serial about the club and even Roy’s wife leaving him…

Weekly comics have a tremendous advantage when it comes to staying topical. From draught script to issue-on-sale can be as little as six weeks. This meant that with a judicious eye to the upcoming events diary a strip can comfortably lock into big public occasions and even short lived crazes. Two solid examples here are Roy’s attendance of the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, and the dramatic sequence of events following the attempted murder of the indomitable player-manager.

The mystery of “Who Shot Roy Race” mirrored the “Who Shot JR?” furore generated by TV soap Dallas, although with a far more logical conclusion…

Old football comics are never going to be the toast of the medium’s Critical Glitterati, but these were astonishingly popular strips in their day, and produced for maximum entertainment value by highly skilled professionals. They still have the power to enthral and captivate far beyond the limits of nostalgia and fashion. If your footy-mad youngster isn’t reading enough, this might be the cunning tactic to catch him – or her – totally offside…

© 2008 Egmont UK Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Frank Bellamy’s Robin Hood: the Complete Adventures


By Clifford Makins & Frank Bellamy, edited by Steve Holland (Book Palace Books)
ISBN: 978-0-9551596-3-3

Retailer/art dealers turned Publisher The Book Palace (welcome to the jungle, chaps!) have done something all we powerless fans have always dreamed of: preserved a lost yet beloved portion of our comics heritage – because nobody else would.

Robin Hood hopefully needs no coverage here, but these strips of arguably Britain’s greatest hero were drawn by one of our nation’s greatest comics illustrators and have been long-neglected due, I suspect, solely to their point of origin.

When Eagle revolutionised the British marketplace in 1950 other companies soon followed suit. Keen to keep their newly won pre-eminent position, and never ceasing the march of expansion, Hulton Press’s Managing Editor Marcus Morris, steeped in religious tactics, designed ancillary titles to shepherd different segments of the child-consumers towards his confirmed goal – their hearts, minds and pocket money.

Eagle was a magazine with superlative production values aimed at boys. Morris followed this in 1951 with a distaff counterpart, Girl, before returning to his feathered theme with Robin in 1953 (intended for parents and toddlers) and Swift, (1954) which targeted 5-7 year olds of both sexes. The Hulton child would join for and with Robin, be trained and enlightened by Swift (which had many TV related and classical story features) before being confirmed as either an Eagle boy or a Girl… girl (the urge to type “chick” there was almost irresistible and I’m sure we’re all glad I didn’t).

All joking aside, Swift was an ideal example of the kind of publication we just don’t do anymore. Clear simple storytelling, fantastic art, games, puzzles and factual features tailored to a specific age-range and acuity, this sort of “younger-juveniles” publication elucidated, entertained, and best of all drew children into the habit of reading – both comics and books.

At the time Frank Bellamy was just starting his impressive career, but his raw ability is still astonishing to see. His facility with scenery and locations, historical research, staging, angles and especially expressions can all be seen in the two extended adventures reproduced here, although the “pic and block” format (each panel sat above a few lines of prose, with speech balloons included as necessary) mandated by the editors meant that the artist’s legendary layout and page design are not demonstrated.

After a fascinating background feature from editor Holland the first strip ‘Robin Hood and his Merry Men’ relates the tale of the Saxon Robin, Earl of Huntingdon, whose father was murdered and his lands confiscated by the Norman Robber-Baron Robert Braisse-Neuve – called “The Wolf”. Full of stirring fights and chases, this is very much a traditional Emerald Archer, even though the source material is apparently the 1940 novel Robin of Sherwood, written by Major Charles Gilson, rather than the traditionally “consulted” Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle (ISBN13: 978-0451522849).

That first tale ran 42 two-page episodes and came to a perfect storybook conclusion, but was clearly popular enough for a sequel. ‘Robin Hood and Maid Marian’ at 25 instalments sent the newly restored Earl back to Sherwood Forest when his benefactor Richard the Lion Heart was killed in France and the feckless, vengeful Prince John assumed the throne.

Joined in the greenwood by Maid Marian and her trusty companion Gwen, the heroic band fought injustice and foiled the plots of John, The Sheriff of Nottingham and the Saxon turncoat Guy of Gisborne with dazzling skill and doughty hearts – and that’s where scripter Clifford Makins (Bellamy’s writer of choice for many years) wisely left them, carrying on into the eternal forever…

Written for a youthful general audience these good-old-fashioned tales of adventure are more accessible and welcome than ever and this beautiful black and white book is a pearl beyond price that every kid should be given as present – and you might as well have one yourself….

© 2008 The Book Palace. Introduction and all artwork © Look and Learn. Used with permission. All Rights Reserved.

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Doctor Who: vol.11 Cold Day in Hell


By various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-410-2

The British love comic strips and they love celebrity and they love “Characters.”

The history of our graphic narrative has a peculiarly disproportionate amount of radio comedians, Variety stars and film and television actors such as Charlie Chaplin, Flanagan & Allen, Shirley Eaton (“The Modern Miss”), Arthur Askey, Winifred Atwell, Max Bygraves, Jimmy Edwards, Charlie Drake and their ilk as well as actual shows and properties such as Whacko!, ITMA, Our Gang, (there was a British version of the Hal Roach film sensation by Dudley Watkins in Dandy as well as the American comicbook series by Walt Kelly), Old Mother Riley, Supercar, Pinky and Perky and literally hundreds more.

Anthology comics such as Radio Fun, Film Fun, TV Fun, Look-In, TV Tornado, TV Comic and Countdown among others all translated our viewing and listening favourites into pictorial joy every week, and it was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley their day job into a licensed comic property.

Doctor Who launched on television with the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ on November 23rd 1963, and in 1964 his decades-long association with TV Comic began in #674 with the premier instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’. On 11th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says17th ) Marvel’s UK subsidiary  launched Doctor Who Weekly, which became a monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) and has been with us under various names ever since. All of which only goes to prove that the Time Lord is a comic hero with an impressive pedigree.

Marvel/Panini is in the ongoing process of collecting every strip from its archive in a uniform series of over-sized graphic albums, each concentrating on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer. This particular one gathers stories from issues #130-150, (originally published in the early 1990s) a time when regular artist John Ridgway gave way to a succession of rotating creators as part of the company’s urgent drive to cut costs – although there’s no appreciable drop in quality that I can see. These yarns all feature the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy – my second favourite after Patrick Troughton – but I’m sure I’ll be advised why that’s so very wrong by somebody in due course…)

This all black and white collection kicks off with the eponymous ‘Cold Day in Hell!’ by writer Simon Furman, Ridgway and inker Tim Perkins, a four part thriller featuring an attack by Martian Ice Warriors on a tropical resort planet, which leads directly into the moody, single story ‘Redemption!’ by Furman, Kev Hopgood and Perkins.

At that time and in this book Marvel sanctioned some controversial crossovers with other Marvel UK characters. The first of these was Death’s Head, a robotic bounty hunter from the Transformers comic in Furman and Geoff Senior’s ‘The Crossroads of Time’ (Doctor Who Monthly #135), but it was back to sounder stuff with the freak-filled three-part Victorian Great Exhibition epic ‘Claws of the Klath!’ by Mike Collins, Hopgood and David Hine.

Fresh-faced young scribe Grant Morrison wrote the charmingly different ‘Culture Shock!’ for equally neophytic (no, it means new or fresh) ascending star Bryan Hitch to draw, before John Higgins illustrated Furman’s ‘Keepsake’, a classy space opera about an indigent salvage man. John Freeman and Lee Sullivan started their long association with the magazine in the two-part ‘Planet of the Dead’ (DWM #141-142), which featured an ambitious, spooky team-up of all seven regenerations of the Time Lord on a world filled with the Companions who had died in their service…

‘Echoes of the Mogor!’ (DWM #143-144) by Dan Abnett and Ridgway was an eerie chiller set on a mining planet where Earth workers are mysteriously dying, whilst ‘Time and Tide’ by Richard Alan and John Carnell, illustrated by Dougie Braithewaite & Dave Elliott (DWM #143-144), marooned the Doctor on a drowning world amidst aliens who don’t seem to care if they live or die…

Carnell wrote the other crossover I mentioned earlier, a far less well-regarded romp with the imbecilic detectives the Sleeze Brothers. ‘Follow that Tardis!‘ was illustrated by Andy Lanning, Higgins, Braithwaite and Elliot, and the volume’s strip content concludes with Alan grant’s three-part ‘Invaders from Gantac!’, wherein a colony of alien torturers invade 1992 London by mistake in a tale as much comedy as thriller, drawn by Martin Griffiths and Cam Smith.

Supplemented with lots of text features, pin-ups, creator-biographies and commentaries, this is a great book for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for dedicated fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics one more go…

All Doctor Who material © BBCtv.  Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trade marks of the British broadcasting corporation and are used under licence. Death’s Head and The Sleeze Brothers © Marvel. Published 2009. All rights reserved.

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume I


By Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-858-7

The Victorian era saw the birth of both popular and populist publishing, especially in the sub-genres of fantasy and adventure fiction. Writers of varying skill but with unbounded imaginations explored the concepts of honour and heroism, wedded unflinchingly to the underlying belief of English Supremacy in matters of culture and technology. In all worlds and even beyond them the British gentleman took on all comers for Right and Decency, viewing danger as a game and showing “Johnny Foreigner” just how that game was played.

For all the faults our modern sensibilities can detect in those stirring sagas, many of them remain unshakable classics of adventure and the roadmap of all modern fictional heroes. Open as they are to charges of Racism, Sexism (even misogyny), Class Bias and Cultural Imperialism, the best of them remain the greatest of all yarns.

As heroic prototypes a gaggle of these Imperialist icons were deputized by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill for a six-issue miniseries in 1999 that managed to say as much about our world as that far ago one, and incidentally tell a captivating tale as compelling as any of its antecedents.

Wilhemina Murray survived a clash with a supernatural monster but was forever altered. Recruited by the British Secret Service chief Campion Bond, she was charged with organising a team of superior operatives to defeat an insidious foreign menace growing within the very heart of the British Empire. To this end she travelled the globe and convinced the greatest hero and most iniquitous outlaws of the time to band together.

The aged Great White Hunter Allan Quatermain is unlikely company for the Invisible Man Hawley Griffin, Captain Nemo and Mister Hyde, although the diffident and cultured Dr. Henry Jekyll could be considered a suitable companion for a widow under almost any circumstance…

Together they foil a most dastardly plot only to discover that all is not as it seems…

This collected book probably best illustrates my discomfort with big budget movie adaptations, over and above the institutionalized and explicit slight that always comes with the blurb “now a major motion picture!”

The story grew beyond the authors’ avowed expectations of “a kind of Victorian Justice League” to become a steampunk classic, with fin de siècle technology, trappings, expectations and attitudes, becoming a powerful allegory for our own millennial events, and the act of its creation becoming a game for creator and reader alike as every character in the tale was culled from existing works of literature and the audience all-but challenged to identify them!

The wit, artifice and whimsy of the compelling mystery – for that, gentle reader is what it is – as well as the vast, complex array of sub-texts and themed extras such as faux advertising broadsheets woven into the text, must perforce be lost when building an entertainment for the widest possible audience: especially one that must conclude in under 120 minutes. The film might reach more sets of eyes but unless they then read the book have they actually been reached at all?

I admit I intensely disliked the film: The plot changes seem arbitrary, I could see no reason other than crass commerciality to include an American in the roster, completely counter to the covert nature of the mission – after all the USA was a rival foreign power. And if one why not all? Let’s see Davy Crockett, Huck Finn, Paul Bunyan, Ambrose Bierce and Lizzie Borden take on the Yellow Peril. Moreover I couldn’t stop laughing after the giant submarine with a draught of a couple of hundred feet surfaced from the canals of Venice – average depth 5 metres (on a good day).

I don’t hate films – I’d love them to make one from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; they just haven’t done it yet.

This book is an incredible work of scholarship and artistry recast into a fabulous pastiche of an entire literary movement. It’s also a brilliant piece of comics wizardry of the sort that no other art form can touch.

If you haven’t seen the film – and even more so if you have – I urge you to read this book. And then you can start in on Dickens, Rider Haggard, Stevenson, Wells, Verne, Conan Doyle, Stoker, Rohmer and all the glorious rest…

© 1999, 2000 Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill.  All Rights Reserved.

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Tank Girl Two (Remastered)


By Hewlett & Martin (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-759-4

Hard on the funky-booted heels of the first volume, the second in the series of remastered, chronologically complete compilations featuring the wildly absurdist ever-so-cool independent girl who took the early 1990s by storm includes work from Deadline March 1990 to April 1993, plus relevant excerpts from The Tank Girl Postermag, the Comic Relief Benefit Comic and a Christmas prezzie from the December 1990 Speakeasy.

Never too wedded to the concept of internal logic or narrative consistency (or spelling – so if you’re pedantic be warned!), the next couple of years saw the creative team’s energies dissipated by other gigs, with a consequent irregularity of stories about the big-eared social iconoclast. But the level of in-yer-face absurdity, British Cultural Sampling and addictive sex’n’violence remained high in such smuttily psycho-active tales as ‘I’ve Got Friends at Bell’s End’ and ‘Force Ten to Ringarooma Bay’ whilst the introduction of vibrant colour for the 5 part ‘Summer Love Sensation’ (a nominal return to the old homestead for the slap-happy slapper and her mates) plus the visually stunning ‘Sunflower’ from The Tank Girl Postermag did much to cement her position as the style touchstone for the crucially hip of the commercial acid-house generation beyond the world of comics.

In Deadline the work became more radical, experimental and often impenetrable (perhaps rushed would be kinder or fairer). Three-part Seventies crime-spoof ‘Askey & Hunch’ was self-indulgent and far too long whilst the Jack Kerouac homage/pastiche ‘Blue Helmet’ was often clever, sharp, funny and facile at the same time. The art however, was always astounding – radical, fresh and with an underlying patina of unique Englishness made up of equal parts Steve Parkhouse, Brendan McCarthy and sheer original enthusiasm.

Always self-referential, the strip hit new highs with ‘The Fall and Rise and Fall of the Ship in the Bottle’ and ‘Guide to Joy’ (Hewlett & Martin’s observations on swearing, sex, the mind, drugs, comics and fans). The book closes with a selection of strip oddities comprising ‘Booga’s Christmas Carol’ (from Speakeasy), ‘Jet Gurl in Hairy Pussy’ (Deadline December 1992) and the two pages by Hewlett and Martin from the Comic Relief Comic jam featuring a stupendous battle between Dawn “I’m Sorry Jennifer Woman” French and Ben “Student Fridge Sausage Man” Elton. The heady brew is all topped off with a selection of covers from Deadline USA and the Tank Girl II Dark Horse Comics US reprint comics.

Even if you’ve never seen the anarchic, surreal, ultra-violent (in a funny way) and neo-pop-culturally drenched peculiarity that was Tank Girl, or if the gag might be wearing a little thin in places, this is still a culturally viable, generally readable and wonderfully pretty package of Rude Britannia, and a part of our history well worth the occasional visit.

TM & © 2009 Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. All rights reserved.

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British Cartoonists Album


By various (Panther Books)
No ISBN:

On the 1st April 1960 a bunch of jaded hacks and whackos who made their dubious living from drawing humorous skits and silly pictures of tough men and largely unclad women met in a pub called The Feathers in Tudor Street, London. From that inaugural drunken binge the British Cartoonists Club was formed. (Today they’re known as the Cartoonists Club of Great Britain).

In 1962 this loose agglomeration of the greatest gagsters, pen-men and brush-smiths in the Kingdom produced a wonderful over-sized book in conjunction with Anthony Gibbs & Phillips (subsequently released as a paperback in 1964) that highlighted the talents and achievements of the membership and consequently became one of my favourite books of cartooning ever.

Still available if you trawl that there interweb thing, The British Cartoonists Album is stuffed with examples of brilliant work, both dramatic and comedic from the last days of mass-market cartooning, when our profession was still big enough to differentiate between topical, editorial, sporting, caricature, juvenile (which means for young people, not what you’re thinking), illustrative, technical, sophisticated , saucy and probably a dozen other categories I’m not old enough to remember. The book also and acted not just as a proud example of Cartoon work but also as a professional portfolio for the club which always sought (and still does) ways to further and promote members careers.

With examples from 169 different creators including Bill Tidy, Scarfe, Low, Thelwell, David Langdon, Smythe, Ferrier, Dickens, Giles, Osbert Lancaster, Les Lilley, Roy Nixon, Gammidge, Maddocks, Trog, Sax, Steadman and a host of others, and including a mouth-watering selection of contemporary newspaper strips such Garth, The Perishers, Jane – Daughter of Jane, Romeo Brown, Andy Capp, Buck Ryan, The Flutters, The Larks, Barley Bottom, Colonel Pewter, Useless Eustace, Lindy, Flook, Paul Temple, Matt Marriott, Twick and For Better or Worse this is a lost treasure in desperate need of up-dating and re-release.

Perhaps it’s a little cruel to highlight such a wonderful book that many of you won’t ever see, but the material here and lost in the mouldering pages of thousands of papers and magazines is a vital part of our culture and heritage and their eventual loss is something we’ll all regret in the end, so I’m going to bang on about until someone – be it commercial publisher or heritage wallah does something about it.

Hell, get me an Arts Council grant and I’ll do it myself…
© 1962 Anthony Gibbs & Phillips. All rights reserved. The proprietary rights of all individual trademark and copyright holders is acknowledged throughout.

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Tank Girl One (Remastered)


By Hewlett & Martin (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-757-0

It’s hard to believe that our recent past is so far away. Back in the wild and wacky 1980s when I was tea-boy on Warrior magazine (still one of the most influential independent comics ever produced) there was a frantic buzz of feverish creativity in the British comics scene wherein any young upstart could hit the big time.

Possibly the most upstarty of all were the art-students Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin (and tangentially, Phillip Bond) who prowled the local convention circuit impressing the hell out of everybody with their photocopied fanzine Atomtan. At the back of issue #1 was a pin-up/ad for a dubious looking young lady with a big, BIG gun and her own armoured transport. And now it’s suddenly twenty-one years later…

Commissioned by Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon for their new venture Deadline; a pop-culture magazine with loads of cool comics strips, the absurdist tales of a feisty, well-armed chick roaming the wilds of a futuristic Australia with her Kangaroo boy-friend Booga caught the imagination of a large portion of the public. There was even a movie…

Titan Books, self-appointed guardian of The Best of British strip art, has remastered those old adventures and spin-offs for a six-volume chronological and complete compilation and this initial edition collects the first fifteen instalments (October 1988-February 1990) featuring such landmarks as the President’s colostomy bags, ‘Big Mouth Strikes Again’, ‘The Australian Job’, ‘The Preposterous Bollox of the Situation’ and loads of other bizarre thrills plus the now legendary ‘How to Draw Tank Girl the Jamie Way’ and even pin-ups and a cover gallery.

If you’ve never seen the anarchic, surreal, ultra-violent (in a funny way) and hip-culturally drenched peculiarity that was Tank Girl, bastard love child of 2000AD and Love and Rockets, you’ve missed a truly unique experience – and remember, she doesn’t care if you like her, just so long as you notice her.

TM & © 2009 Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. All rights reserved.

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Batman Chronicles Volume 6


By Bob Kane & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-963-5

This sixth volume of Batman, re-presented as per the original release schedule, encompasses Batman #10-11, Detective Comics #62-65 and World’s Finest Comics #5 and #6. America had entered World War II by this period and the stories – especially the patriotic covers – went all-out to capture the imagination, comfort the down-hearted and bolster the nation’s morale. One of the very best (and don’t just take my word for it – type “World’s Finest covers” into your search engine and see for yourselves – go on, I’ll wait) designed and executed by the astounding Jerry Robinson leads off this Bat-box of delights.

‘Crime takes a Holiday‘, (World’s Finest Comics #5, Spring, 1942) by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, is a canny mystery yarn as the criminal element of Gotham “down tools”. Naturally it’s all part of a devious master-plan and just as naturally our heroes soon get to the bottom of it. The same creative team also produced ‘Laugh, Town Laugh!’ (from Detective Comics #62 April 1942) wherein the diabolical Joker goes on a murder-spree to prove to the nation’s comedians and entertainers who actually is the “King of Jesters”.

Batman #10 (April-May 1942) follows with another four classics. ‘The Isle that Time Forgot’ written by Joseph Greene, finds the Dynamic Duo trapped in a land of dinosaurs and cavemen, whilst ‘Report Card Blues’ also with Greene scripting, has the heroes inspire a wayward kid to return to his studies by crushing the mobsters he’s ditched school for. Robinson soloed and Jack Schiff typed the words for the classy jewel caper (oh, for those heady days when Bats wasn’t too grim and important to stop the odd robbery or two!) ‘The Princess of Plunder’ starring everyone’s favourite Feline Femme Fatale Catwoman, and the boys headed way out West to meet ‘The Sheriff of Ghost Town!’

This highly impressive slice of contemporary Americana came courtesy of Finger, Kane and Robinson, who also produced ‘A Gentleman in Gotham‘ for Detective Comics #63, as the Caped Crusader had to confront tuxedoed International Man of Mystery Mr Baffle, and the Crime Clown again in ‘The Joker Walks the Last Mile’ (Detective Comics #64 June 1942).

Obviously he didn’t as he was cover-featured and lead story in Batman #11 (June-July 1942). Bill Finger is credited as writer for ‘The Joker’s Advertising Campaign’ as well as the other three stories. ‘Payment in Full’ is a touching melodrama about the District Attorney and the vicious criminal to whom he owes his life, ‘Bandits in Toyland’ explains why a gang of thugs is stealing dolls and train-sets and ‘Four Birds of a Feather!’ finds Batman in Miami to scotch the Penguin’s dreams of a crooked gambling empire.

There’s another cracking War cover and brilliant Bat-yarn from World’s Finest Comics #6 (Summer 1942) in ‘The Secret of Bruce Wayne!’ as Greene and Robinson provide a secret identity exposé tale that would become a standard plot of later years, and the volume ends as it began with a superb patriotic cover (this one by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for Detective Comics #65) and a classic tale as Jack Burnley and George Roussos illustrate Greene’s poignant and powerful North Woods thriller ‘The Cop who Hated Batman!’

This tremendously inviting series of Golden Age greats is one of my absolute favourite collected formats: paper that feels comfortingly like old newsprint, vivid colours applied with a gracious acknowledgement of the power and limitations of the original four-colour printing process and the riotous exploratory exuberance of an industry in the first flush of hyper-creativity.

If only other companies such as Marvel, Archie and the rest had as much confidence in their back-catalogue as to follow suit. Who could resist economical, chronologically true collected editions of Bill Everett’s Sub-Mariner, Airboy, Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein; even Bark’s Duck stories, EC editions or CC Beck’s original Captain Marvel?

Certainly not me, and probably not you neither…

© 1941-1942, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.