Category: Comedy

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The Golden Menhir – An Illustrated Asterix Album


By René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo, translated by Adriana Hunter (Sphere)
ISBN: 978-1-40873-494-0 (PB), ?978-1-40873-492-6 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for comedic effect.

The most upsetting thing about major comics creators and storytellers in general is that when they die the magic stops and there’s nothing new to enjoy. That’s why we all celebrate when something undiscovered or simply long-forgotten turns up…

Asterix the Gaul is probably France’s greatest literary export. The feisty, wily little warrior who fought the iniquities and viewed the myriad wonders of Julius Caesar’s Roman Empire with brains, bravery and (whenever necessary) a magic potion imbuing the imbiber with incredible strength, speed and vitality, is the go-to reference all we non-Gallic gallants resort to when we think of France.

The wily, wee, warrior wonder was created in 1959 by two of our artform’s greatest masters, with his first official appearance being on October 29th in Pilote #1. In actuality, he had already debuted in a pre-release teaser – or “pilot” – weeks earlier.

René Goscinny was arguably the most prolific – and remains one of the most read – writers of comic strips the world has ever known. Born in Paris in 1926, he grew up in Argentina where his father taught mathematics. From an early age René showed artistic promise. He studied fine arts and graduated in 1942. Three years later, while René worked as junior illustrator for an ad agency, his uncle invited him to stay in America, where the lad ultimately found gainful employment as a translator. After National Service in France, Goscinny returned to the US, settling in Brooklyn to pursue an artistic career. In 1948 he was an assistant in a small studio which included Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Jack Davis & John Severin, as well as visiting European giants-in-waiting Joseph Gillain (Jijé) and Maurice de Bévère (Morris) with whom Goscinny would produce 46 volumes of Lucky Luke between 1955-1977.

Goscinny also met Georges Troisfontaines, head of World Press Agency, the company providing comics for Le Journal de Spirou. After contributing scripts to Belles Histoires de l’Oncle Paul and Jerry Spring, Goscinny was promoted to head of World Press’ Paris office. Here he met his ultimate creative collaborator Albert Uderzo. In his spare time (!), René also created Sylvie and Alain et Christine with Martial Durand (“Martial”) and Fanfan et Polo, drawn by Dino Attanasio. Also in 1955, Goscinny, Uderzo, Charlier & Jean Hébrad formed independent syndicate Édifrance/Édipresse, to create magazines for business and general industry; such as Clairon for the factory union and Pistolin for a chocolate factory.

With Uderzo, René spawned Bill Blanchart, Pistolet and Benjamin et Benjamine, whilst illustrating his own scripts for Le Capitaine Bibobu. Under nom-de-plume Agostini, René wrote Le Petit Nicholas (drawn by Jean-Jacques Sempé), and in 1956 began a productive association with revolutionary periodical Le Journal de Tintin, writing for various artists including Attanasio (Signor Spagetti); Bob De Moor (Monsieur Tric); Maréchal (Prudence Petitpas); Berck (Strapontin); Globule le Martien and Alphonse with Tibet; as well as Modeste et Pompon for André Franquin. With Uderzo he crafted the fabulously funny adventures of inimitable Indian brave Oumpah-Pah. Goscinny also wrote for magazines Paris-Flirt and Vaillant.

In 1959, Édifrance/Édipresse launched Pilote and René went into overdrive. The first issue featured re-launched versions of Le Petit Nicolas, Jehan Pistolet/Jehan Soupolet, original serials Jacquot le Mousse and Tromblon et Bottaclou (drawn by Godard), plus a little something called Astérix le gaulois: incontrovertibly the greatest achievement of his epic partnership with Uderzo.

When Georges Dargaud bought Pilote in 1960, Goscinny became Editor-in-Chief, still making time to add new series Les Divagations de Monsieur Sait-Tout (with Martial); La Potachologie Illustré (Cabu); Les Dingodossiers (Gotlib) and La Forêt de Chênebeau (Mic Delinx). He also wrote frequently for television, but never stopped creating strips like Les Aventures du Calife Haroun el Poussah (for Record and illustrated by Swedish artist Jean Tabary). A minor success, it was re-tooled as Iznogoud when it transferred to Pilote. And he was writing Lucky Luke too remember, utterly owing comics from East to west…

Goscinny died far too young in November 1977.

Alberto Aleandro Uderzo was born on April 25th 1927, in Fismes on the Marne. A child of Italian immigrants, as a boy he showed artistic flair from an early age and devoured Mickey Mouse strips in Le Pétit Parisien. Alberto became a French citizen at age seven and dreamed of being an aircraft mechanic, but at 13 was apprenticed to the Paris Publishing Society, learning design, typography, calligraphy and photo retouching. When WWII came, he spent time with farming relatives in Brittany, and joined his father’s furniture-making business. Brittany beguiled Uderzo: when a location for Asterix’s idyllic village was being decided upon, the region was the only choice.

In France’s post-war rebuilding, Uderzo returned to Paris to become a successful illustrator in the country’s burgeoning comics industry. His first published work – a pastiche of Aesop’s Fables – appeared in Junior and, in 1945, he was introduced to industry giant Edmond- Françoise Calvo (The Beast is Dead). Uderzo’s subsequent efforts included indomitable eccentric Clopinard, Belloy, l’Invulnérable, Prince Rollin and Arys Buck. He illustrated novels; laboured in animation; as a journalist, an illustrator for France Dimanche and devised a vertical comic strip ‘Le Crime ne Paie pas’ for France-Soir. In 1950, he drew a few episodes of the franchised European version of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Jr. in Bravo!

Another inveterate transatlantic traveller, he met Goscinny in 1951. Soon fast friends, they decided to work together at the new Paris office of Belgian Publishing giant World Press. Their first collaboration was in November of that year; a feature piece on savoir vivre (how to live right or “gracious living”) for women’s weekly Bonnes Soirée, after which an avalanche of strips and serials poured forth.

Jehan Pistolet and Luc Junior were devised for La Libre Junior and they crafted a comedy Western about a very Red (but not so American) Indian who evolved into Oumpah-Pah. In 1955, with the birth of Édifrance/Édipresse, Uderzo drew Bill Blanchart for La Libre Junior, replacing Christian Godard on Benjamin et Benjamine before, in 1957 adding Charlier’s Clairette to his bulging portfolio. The following year, he made his Tintin debut, as Oumpah-Pah finally found a home and rapturous audience. Uderzo also drew Poussin et Poussif, La Famille Moutonet and La Famille Cokalane. When Pilote launched in October 1959, Uderzo was its major creative force, limning Charlier’s Tanguy et Laverdure and a comedy historical strip about Romans…

Although Asterix was a massive hit from the start, Uderzo continued with Charlier on Michel Tanguy, (subsequently Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure), but soon after the first Latin laugh-fest was collected in a single volume (as Astérix le gaulois in 1961) it was clear the hysterical histories would demand most of his time – especially as the incredible Goscinny seemed to require no rest or ever run out of ideas (after the writer’s death, the publication rate of Asterix tales dropped from two per year to one volume every 3-to-5). By 1967 – the origin date of today’s item of interest – Asterix occupied all Uderzo’s time and attention in both the serial stories and special premiums and bonus materials.

In 1974 the partners formed Idéfix Studios to fully exploit their inimitable creation, and when Goscinny passed away three years later, Uderzo had to be convinced to continue the series as writer and artist. Happily, he gave in and produced a further 10 tomes before retiring in 2009. He sold the rights to Hachette who continued the franchise with writer Jean-Yves Ferri & illustrator Didier Conrad. By October 2025, 41 official adventures were in print (most recently Asterix in Lusitania written by Fabcaro), making it the best-selling book series in Europe. Including assorted spin-off volumes sold worldwide, the series is the best selling comics franchise in Europe and the fourth best on Earth. Asterix made Goscinny & Uderzo France’s bestselling international authors. According to UNESCO’s Index Translationum, Uderzo is the 10th most-often translated French-language author in the world and 3rd most-translated French language comics author – right behind his old mate René and the grand master Hergé.

Astérix has been translated into 111 languages, with a host of animated and live-action movies, games and even his own theme park (Parc Astérix, near Paris). Uderzo died in 2020

So what’s it all about?

Originally seen in Pilote #1 (29th October 1959, with the first page appearing a week earlier in a promotional issue #0 distributed from June 1st 1959), the saga is set in the year 50 BC (never BCE!) on the outermost tip of Uderzo’s beloved Brittany coast. Here a small village of redoubtable warriors and their families frustrate every effort of the immense but not so irresistible Roman Empire to complete the conquest of Gaul. Unable to defeat these Horatian hold-outs, the Empire instead resorts to a policy of containment, leaving the little seaside hamlet hemmed in by heavily fortified permanent garrisons Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum & Compendium. The Gauls couldn’t care less: they daily defy the world’s greatest military machine by simply going about their everyday affairs, protected by a magic potion provided by the resident druid and the shrewd wits of a rather diminutive dynamo and his simplistic best friend…

Like all the best entertainments the premise works on two levels: as action-packed comedic romps of sneaky and bullying baddies coming a-cropper for younger readers and as pun-filled, sly and witty satire for older, wiser heads, transformed by the brilliantly light touch of master translators Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (who played no small part in making the indomitable little Gaul so very palatable to the English tongue) and here by their modern-day successor Adriana Hunter.

The books are all copiously covered elsewhere on this site, but today’s treat is something a bit different and requires a bit of context…

Back when Methuselah  a child, us kids all ran around uncontrolled and unsupervised like wild beasts. This meant we were in charge of our own entertainment. Television was non-recordable, radio was severely limited, books were made of paper and music came on various sizes of plastic disc that needed another entire machine – and a wall-socket – to work. We all sat around thinking up mischief to make so someone had the idea of putting audio recordings of films and TV favourites (like Thunderbirds, The Aristocats, The Sound of Music, Batman or Planet of the Apes) on vinyl in a package with a booklet of comics or even stills and text. Adults thought back then that listening to truncated dialogue or tinny soundtracks whilst reading was the next best thing to being there…

Oddly, in regard to comics related Book and Records Sets, they were not wrong…

In swinging, melody-mad 1967, Goscinny & Uderzo produced an all-new adventure of their galloping gallic superstars for this format: a short play for voices packed with tunes and musical puns and the mellow sounds of the village bard, accompanied and augmented by a brief booklet of prose directions and superb illustrated spreads (included at the back of this remastered redesigned edition as bonus feature Rediscovered Treasure) by Uderzo.

The story of Le Menhir d’Or is simple enough, beginning when village bard Cacophonix informs his far from appreciative home crowd that he will be competing in the Grand Gaulish Bard competition being held in the fabled and sacred Forest of the Carnutes. The prize is a small Golden Menhir… and the appreciation of all who hear the wonderful winning music.

Despite the customary barracking and utter lack of support, the minstrel cannot be dissuaded from attending and Chief Vitalstatistix grudgingly allows his top man Asterix to go with him.

Having heard what Cacophonix is capable of, our hero is not keen to go but fears that other bards might kill the arrogant songsmith once they hear him. Obelix decides to go too… because he hasn’t been in any fights recently…

The provisionally gentle giant gets his first treat almost immediately when the trio are attacked by bandits, but the journey is relatively peaceful and quiet – especially after Asterix convinces the singer to save his voice for the competition…

Meanwhile in Totorum, effete aesthete General Harumfus is bored. He especially craves music to soothe his jaded soul, and foolishly listens to Centurion Malapropus when the tangle-tongued oaf suggests that the nearby Gaul song contest might provide suitable melodic diversion. Enthralled, Harumfus despatches his full military forces to pick up the eventual winner for his personal edification…

Instead, through a concatenation of unlucky circumstances, and with Asterix & Obelix momentarily distracted keeping the crowds of spectators from showing Cacophonix their ardent appreciation, the centurion drags the bard back to Totorum. This in turns compels the Gaulish entourage to give chase and deliver a most emphatic impromptu encore of Asterix & Obelix’s greatest hits…

Never one to surrender or stint other peoples’ lives, General Harumfus refuses to back down… until he final hears the Bard perform and decides to seek his entertainment elsewhere. Anywhere elsewhere…

Although short and skewed towards dialogue and narration, The Golden Menhir is a sharp, good-natured, adventure packed with wry humour and expressive energy. It barrels along, delivering barrages of puns, verbal, visual and musical and vibrates with slapstick action, all marvellously rendered in Uderzo’s seductively stylish bigfoot art-style.

This tale is available right now digitally, but the physical paperback doesn’t go on sale until March 4th 2027, by which time there will probably be an audiobook version (no-brainer that one guys…)

This is possibly the last huzzah of the sublime, supremely enjoyable comics storytelling of Goscinny & Uderzo and you’d be as Crazy as the Romans not to join in one last rousing chorus…
© 1967 Goscinny/Uderzo. © 2020 LES ÉDITIONS ALBERT RENÉ. THE GOLDEN MENHIR © 2026 LES ÉDITIONS ALBERT RENÉ. For this edition and its translation into British English. All rights reserved.

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Lucky Luke volume 54: Rodeo and volume 55: Arizona


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

These book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Morris was a precocious, westerns-&-art-mad kid unhappily educated by Jesuits, but who escaped via pranks at school and who sought out “useless” work after leaving. His pre-comics cartooning led into film animation before he settled into his true vocation. Working at the CBA cartoon studio, Morris met future comics superstars Franquin & Peyo, and toiled for weekly magazine Le Moustique as a caricaturist. Morris became one of la Bande des quatre – The Gang of Four – comprising Jijé, Will and old comrade Franquin – all leading proponents of the loose-limbed, free-wheeling art style dubbed the “Marcinelle School” which soon dominated Le Journal de Spirou. This was in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style utilised by Hergé, EP Jacobs and other artists in Le Journal de Tintin.

In 1948 said Gang (all but Will) visited America, meeting US creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, meeting fellow traveller René Goscinny, scoring commissions from newly-formed EC sensation Mad and making copious notes and sketches of the swiftly vanishing Old West. That research would resonate on every page of his life’s work.

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

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

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

Lucky Luke volume 54: Rodeo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Death of Groo the Wanderer (Marvel Graphic Novel #32)


By Sergio Aragonés, Mark Evanier, Stan Sakai & Tom Luth (Epic/Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-87135-290-3 (1990 Album TPB)

Groo is a living paradox: a brilliant fighting man and unbeatable warrior sell-sword, and also – AT THE SAME TIME – far too stupid to be harmed and the dumbest loose assemblage of organic molecules on the planet. Always hungry, he wanders because most places where he pauses burn down, wash away or crash into rubble soon after he gets there. He loves to fight and the entire world trembles at the mention of his name. They do the same whenever they are downwind of him too…

Produced in unique fashion by Sergio Aragonés, wordsmith Mark Evanier, letterer Stan Sakai (creator of Usagi Yojimbo) and colourist Tom Luth, the idiot’s adventures form one of the longest running humour comic book series in America and there seems to be no chance of stopping the creators as long as we keep buying these incredible, hilarious sagas…

Both in comic narrative and the infinitely more strenuous idea-consuming field of gag-cartooning, Sergio Aragonés Domenech (born today in 1937 so Happy Birthday amigo!) has produced vast volumes of excellent stuff. His darkly skewed sensibilities and deathgrip on the cosmically absurd, wedded to a utterly unique, anarchically meticulous drawing style and frankly terrifying professional discipline, have made his (frequently) silent doodles a vibrant proof of the maxims that laughter is universal and a picture is worth a thousand words.

Also an actor of some merit and repute, the Spanish-born Mexican-American most famously worked for years at Mad Magazine and on DC’s horror anthology titles when he first moved to the USA. Here he mostly delivered pages of gags and occasional full comic scripts and strips. Then in 1981, with comics scripting, screenwriting associate Mark Evanier, Aragonés knocked out a madcap 4-page parody of the entire Sword-&-Sorcery genre as his contribution to the Creators Rights benefit comic book Destroyer Duck being published by Eclipse Comics.

Following a second outing in Mike Grell’s Starslayer (#5), Pacific Comics launched Groo the Wanderer in his own title. After 8 issues (December 1982-April 1984) that beleaguered, troubled company folded but the unsinkable yet unwashed barbarian (that’s a joke I’ll explain later) resurfaced in a Groo Special one-shot from Eclipse (October 1984), before finding a relatively stable home at Epic Comics, Archie Goodwin’s creator-owned corner of the Marvel Universe.

Aragonés had first doodled his witless warrior in the 1970s, but no publisher would take on the property unless he sold all rights – a nigh-universal situation in the industry until the advent of the Direct Sales market transferred power from companies and distributors to creators and consumers. Groo is arguably the most successful creator-owned property of the US comic book market, and this randomly selected volume of so very many pretty much epitomises what the meandering (but never a mendicant!) moron is all about. Since that Epic incarnation (an uproarious 120 issue run plus dozens of graphic novel compilations) the witless wall-eyed wanderer moved on to Image and Dark Horse Comics, but they haven’t completely gone belly-up yet. Moreover, he has teamed up with the best in the biz (like Tarzan and Conan) and continues to escape in new editions whenever you least expect it…

This all original volume from 1987 reintroduces readers to the ugliest, stupidest, stinky-est itinerant mercenary in the world. Luckily he’s also the best swordsman in creation and too thick to be harmed, because when he shuffles his unshod, dirty feet into the domain of King Krag he inadvertently encounters a thoroughly nasty man with a good many reasons to psychotically hate him…

At this time the kingdom is being ravaged by a colossal dragon, but as the only man on the planet crazy enough to fight it has a huge bounty on his head, how stupid would he have to be to come and attempt to kill it? If you’re having difficulty answering that, either you’ve not been paying attention or Groo has found a new apprentice…

Due to the kind of circumstance-concatenation that only happens in this series, everybody in the land of Groo-haters thinks the oaf is finally dead – even Groo – but with all the folk who have ever suffered at his hands gathered in one place, they all start to realise that a world without Groo just isn’t the same…

Fear not, however. Order, if not sense, is eventually restored… but only after a grand display of confusions, contusions, conflagrations, conflicts, pratfalls, pitfalls, punch-lines and punch-ups. There’s even a little room left over for a soupçon of romance (Mmmm, Soup! Mmmm, leftovers…)

Originally published in the extravagant, luxurious over-sized 285mm x 220mm European album format (other later versions are available!) allowing even more room for the artist’s tireless tornado of visual hits and narrative graffiti, this is a masterpiece of mirth and madness comedy addicts will adore and the great most telling strength of the series is that new readers can start practically anywhere – and still be none the wiser…

Marvellously cynical, wildly witty and stunningly silly, Groo remains the comic of first resort for people who hate comics: titanically tongue-in-cheek, sharply sarcastic and searingly self-deprecating. An irresistible humour tour-de-force astoundingly scribed and illustrated by jesters who don’t know when – or how – to stop.

The unstoppable brain-donor (Groo, not Aragonés) has since rambled on to other ventures but there’s still plenty of material for you to track down…

Oh yeah, that sinking thing: among his other lack of abilities Groo cannot travel by ship. He’s not seasick or anything, it’s just that his physical presence on nautical apparatus of any sort causes it to sink. This book has one of the very best riffs on that running (swimming? sinking?) gag I’ve ever seen… and while we’re sharing secrets, according to our admittedly so-very-wry and untrustworthy narrator/creators, a hallowed, unchanging creative process forms the basis of the prolific partnership.

Groo’s tales are initially plotted and pencilled by Aragonés before being handed off to Evanier (Scooby-Doo, Blackhawk, Crossfire, DNAgents, New Gods, Garfield) to dialogue in those bits least filled with pictorial idiocy and graphic contumely. After all that, Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo, The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy, 47 Ronin) letters the pages (in indelible ink!) before Sergio gets them back to embellish and change back to what he wanted in the first place. A colourist (usually Tom Luth) colours it all in for picky customers who want no truck with measly monochrome…

If you must read only one Groo book, any one will do. I like this one and so do all of these dissatisfied customers…

© 1987, 1990, 2026 Sergio Aragonés. All Rights Reserved.

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Aragones 3-D


By Sergio Aragones, with 3-D enhancement by Ray Zone (3-D Zone)
ISBN: 978-0-92530-000-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Whilst we’re celebrating a truly unique oeuvre, why not try to find this booklet of wordless humour in 3-D. It should include two pairs of 3-D glasses, but you know what resellers and second hand retailers are like…

I’m all about everything to do with comics and so to celebrate our Spanish/Mexican-American cartoonist, occasional actor and birthday boy I’ve dredged up this wonderful piece of eye-candy. It is both a splendid example of the periodic fascination our industry has with the somewhat hit-or-miss print process of Three-Dimensional reproduction, and also a superb short collection of sardonic pictorial lunacy by of one of the modern world’s greatest gag cartoonists. Notably, black-& white’s perfectly all right for gag-cartooning genius Aragonés and he’s not fussed by red & green either…

This little book features more than sixty of his best, many embracing the theme of 3-D itself, but all dipped in the grim wit of the cynical absurdist. Shove on your specs and see the gags just jump out at you.
© 1989 Sergio Aragones. All Rights Reserved.

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Neill Cameron’s Donut Squad: Destiny of the Donuts! (Book 3)


By Neill Cameron & various (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-390-5 (TPB Standard edition), 978-1-78845-436-0 (Waterstones edition)

Had enough to eat yet? Do You Like Donuts?

Only you can truly answer that question, but if you’re undecided, and dangerously unaware of the ramifications of indecision, then rowdy raconteur and inestimable art fiend Neill Cameron has another batch of artisanal, edibly-edifying arguments you might want to consider before deciding. They’re all jam-packed into a manic new compendium of strips, activities and artificially-sweetened exploits starring a bargain box of comics champions cherrypicked from modern British periodical treasure trove The Phoenix. Since debuting in 2012 and just like Beano, Dandy and other perennial childhood treasures, the wonderful weekly has masterfully mixed hilarious comedy with enthralling adventure serials… and frequently in the same scintillating strip.

Everybody braced in? Got your snacks? Napkins? Sick bags? Right then, let’s go…

Crafted by Cameron (Mega Robo Bros, Freddy, Tamsin of the Deep, How to Make Awesome Comics, Pirates of Pangea), a unique team of toothsome adventurers reconvene here in a world much improved by an absence of bagels. As enny fule kno, Bagels are the arch enemy of Donuts and probably all Life, but you won’t see many here as this time we’re threatened by our own suicidal tastes and unwise behaviour. No change there, then…

As always, we open with a temptingly gussied-up menu reintroducing family favourites like Dadnut & Li’l Timmy; DS commander-in-chief Sprinkles; impetuous Jammyboi; Chalky (ghost of a murdered Victorian Donut); nerve-wracked Anxiety Donut; violent vigilante Justice Donut and potty-mouthed piratical Caramel Jack! (he’s a little bit salty!). There are, of course, more and fresher delights to come…

Old treats like new Official Donut Squad merchandise, Great Moments in Donut History, Classics of World Donut Cinema, ‘Donutiquette (Tips for Polite Donut-Eating When Travelling)’, ‘Ask your Father’ abound, garnished by further examples of senseless violence with Justice Donut, cruel pranks by Jammyboi and whatever it is Spronky does. These are supplemented by developing character arcs like Anxiety Donut going on a life & attitude changing extended adventure, with shocking repercussions…

Other items on view include ‘Legends of the Origins of Chalky the Ghost Donut’, new arrivals like Daddy Donuts (the Donut who is Maybe TOO Rich), The Donut Mysteries and Extreme Donut Eating. These accompany a flurry of new (and even New World!) taste sensations – like the ‘Danger Nuts’ – Spikynut!, Explodonut! & Regular Donut (contains a higher level of saturated fats than is optimal for Heart Health!) – or international embassages Matcha Comin’ Atcha!, Takoyakinut!, Double Ultimate Chili Cheese Corndog and/or Medicinut.

As well as the launch of culinary pastime ‘Danger Donut Roulette’, other premiering attractions comprise New Season British Classic Flavours (Rhubarb Crumble!, Jam Roly-Poly! & Toad-in-the-Hole Donuts) and other themed delights; Legends of the Dark Donut; semi-regular outbursts of enigmatic tragicomedic experimental drama Waiting for Godonut and seldom seen sightings of Jean-Pierre and Albert: French-Canadian Vampire Donuts…

Underpinning regular and fresh features is an eponymous saga of vast cosmic import. Peppering the unfolding nonsense is a series of episodes in an overarching plotline inserting itself across sixteen fearful-future feuilletés designated ‘Destiny of the Donuts’. Here we will see how foolish, health-conscious humans will imbue smart gadgets like fit-bits and heart monitors with ruthless sentience and an programmed compulsion to eradicate unhealthy eating and the weaklings who do it or comprise it.

This will lead/has led to a war of extinction across the ages, with mean, nasty robots stopping the consumption of tasty snacks until human civilisation collapsed. Now with the last humans living in the ruins of what they wrought, the final dregs of indulgent humankind strikes back down the timelines, steered by our sugar sweet stalwarts and ferocious saturated fatties in rather random temporal assaults on the already triumphant terror mechs…

The galvanising sweet survivor who has lived through it all and intends to go back and fix all that horrible healthy history is a grizzled veteran warrior who used to be called Anxiety… and he’s brought the chewed up and spat out leftovers of his old squad who will make themselves known in good time…

Whether this is your first bite or a just another heaping helping, please be warned that although the main enemy of Donut Squad are bready brutes the Bagels, the timey-wimey shenanigans of these tick-tock fit-bit terrors are hard to suppress and – even after the regular activity features – the peril has not parked nor gone into reverse. Thus, Cameron’s ‘Phoenix Comic Club’ art classes on How to Draw Donuts are insidiously infiltrated by the old foe and manifest here as ‘How to Draw Bagels’ (including ‘How to Draw Platoon Commander Poppyseed’; ‘…A Sesame Seed Bagel’; ‘…A Plain Bagel’ and ‘…A Slightly Smaller Bagel’ before an anachronistic Bonus Comics section unleashes manic wildcard mild card Spronky to bizarrely interact with Time, bun/bakery mechanics and the page-count of reality one last bunch of times…

Smart, witty, laugh out loud weird and totally bonkers, the seemingly piecemeal treats contained herein define what kids love without knowing why. They also completely bewilder us oldsters and keep us in our place. Devious, eccentric and captivating, sugar rush all round is guaranteed and if you get toothache it’s from laughing not chronal confabulations…

Moreover, just like cucumber, DONUT SQUAD WILL RETURN…
Text and illustrations © Neill Cameron 2026. All rights reserved.

Neill Cameron’s Donut Squad: Destiny of the Donuts! is scheduled for UK release on 10th September 2026 and is available for pre-order now; or wait until next year and get it yesterday while walking off all those donuts and bagels…

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Glorious Summers volume 5: The Warrior’s Haven (1980)


By Zidrou & Jordi Lafebre, with additional colour by Mado Peña, translated by Lara Vergnaud (Europe Comics)
No ISBN: Digital edition only

I’ve had this ready for weeks but couldn’t face running it as so many locations mentioned are smoking ruins at the moment. However, as has been pointed out to me, this is a beautiful, sublimely respectful evocation of places and people and so, in anticipation of regrowth and better times that must surely come, here it is. Just squint your eyes a bit, engage your imaginations and please have hope…

Until comparatively recently, comics in the English-speaking world mostly countenanced comedic or numerous adventure sub-genres (crime, superhero, horror, sci fi), with only a small but vital niche of “mundane world” ventures, usually depicted via graphic biographies and autobiographies like They Called Us Enemy, Love on the Isle of Dogs, Wage Slaves or Sour Pickles offering a different feel and flavour. Even historical sagas were treated as extraordinary moments with larger-than-life characters whenever possible.

What we have never had – and still largely don’t -is a comics equivalent to general fiction, drama and melodrama. That’s not so in Japan, South Korea or Europe, where a literal “anything goes” attitude has always accommodated and nurtured human-scaled slice-of-life tales depicting ordinary people in as many quiet as extraordinary moments. Surely it can’t be that hard to tell engaging stories in pedestrian, recognisably ordinary settings? Medical traumas, love stories, school tales and family tragedies about common folk seem to play well on various-sized screens around the world, so why not in English language comics? The closest we seem to get are comedies like John Allison’s superb Giant Days (which I really must review soon) which all operate on the immortal closing line of every pub drawn out conversation or failed dinner party anecdote “well, maybe you had to be there…”

People being people is more than enough for Europeans. There apparently is an insatiable appetite for everyday events aimed at properly “mature readers”, joyfully sans vampires, aliens or men in tights. These even have sub-genres of their own. For example, there’s the wealth of superb comics just about going on holiday. So, since our own Government-in-Absurdia have ensured that it’s now all-but-impossible for any UK-based citizens to pop across and have une petite vacances in Europe, let’s stare & glare covetously at them having a good time. After all, over there holidays are an inalienable right, and they have some simply fabulous tales about a simple break. This one is probably amongst the best you’ll ever see…

An absolute exemplar of fantasy vacations made real, Glorious Summers: Southbound! (1973) was a nostalgia-drenched confection by Zidrou and regular collaborator Jordi Lafebre: a sublime example of idyllic group memory made into graphic sorcery in an everyday account utterly unafraid to temper humorous sweetness and light with real-world tragedy and suspense.

Perhaps some context is in order. Summer holidays – “Midi” – are a big deal in France and Belgium. The French divide into two tribes over the annual rest & recuperation period, which generally lasts an entire month. Juilletistes only vacation in July, wielding dogmatic facts like rapiers to prove why it’s the only way to take a break. They are eternally opposed, heart, soul, and suntan lotion, by majority faction the Aoûtiens, who recharge their batteries in August whilst fully reciprocating the suspicion, disdain and baffled scorn of the early-leavers. Many European sociologists claim the greatest social division today is not race, religion, gender, political affiliation or whether to open boiled eggs from the top or the bottom, but when summer holidays begin and end.

Les Beaux Étés 1: Cap au Sud! was the first in a string of family visits that began in 2015 courtesy of scripter Benoît “Zidrou” Drousie and Spanish illustrator Jordi Lafebre. Drousie is Belgian, Brussels-born in 1962 and was a school teacher prior to quitting marking books in 1990 to instead make them. His main successes include school dunce series L’Elève Ducobu, Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, the revival of Ric Hochet, African Trilogy, Léonardo, Shi and many more. His most celebrated and beloved stories are this memorable sequence and 2010’s Lydie, both illustrated by Lafebre.

That gifted, empathically sensitive illustrator and art teacher was born in Barcelona in 1979 and has created comics professionally since 2001, first for magazines like Mister K, where he limned Toni Font’s El Mundo de Judy. He found regular work at Le Journal de Spirou, creating the romance Always Never and collaborated with Zidrou on La vieille dame qui n’avait jamais joué au tennis et autres nouvelles qui font du bien, Lydie, and La Mondaine.

A combination of feel-good fable and powerful comedy drama, Glorious Summers depicts cherished memories of an aging couple recalling their grandest family moments, beginning with a momentous vacation in 1973 where their four kids nearly lost their parents….

Here, however, final Anglicized volume (so far) The Warrior’s Haven – continentally Les Beaux Étés tome 4: Le Repos du Guerrier – focuses on the close of July 1980, as – just for once – infinitely patient Maddie Faldérault is not waiting for her comic illustrator hubby to finish a late assignment before the brood can head off on holiday! Pierre even has time to complete a little side project and give some life/career advice to studio junior Benoit who has come to the house to pick up the completed pages of latest hit-in-waiting G.I. Girl! (finished almost nine hours ahead of schedule!) and not at all to see oldest daughter Jolie-Julie…

This time the necessary angst and drama are all the preserve of rebellious. acting-out, chain-smoking seventeen year old Nicole who has convinced her folks to bring along her nervous, wealthy, spoiled boyfriend Jean-Emmanuel. All too soon though the parents stop reacting to the horny brats snogging at every opportunity. Now the annual escape from gloomy Brussels for a month in sun-drenched France can start. Even sixteen year old sole Faldérault son Louis is packed and prepared with his books, art supplies and music, and still-precocious nine-year-old wild child Paulette (AKA Peaches) can finally embrace the adventure to come…

And this year offers the beginning of a whole new era and way of life for family Faldérault, as Pierre and his brother Xavier are now proud co-owners of a brand-new, purpose built timeshare house. A fully fitted “turnkey vacation home” is waiting for them in the south of France: clean, fresh, stocked with everything needed and ready for occupation and memory making. No more roughing it in tents and hostels or hotels stuffed with strangers. Now it’s indoor plumbing, a personalised kitchen, a barbeque pit, comfortable sofas and proper beds… a place where they can relax and be themselves. They know exactly what it will be like because Maman picked it all out and designed it from the catalogue and sales brochures. Proud Pierre has already packed the handcrafted shingle for his “Warrior’s Haven”…

As the apparently-expanding family discuss the prospect over one last meal before setting off, the inevitable hammer falls. Pierre’s publisher thinks G.I. Girl! will be a monster hit and has tripled the print run in advance of release! Of course, that will mean the brilliant DILIGENT artist simply must add a giant poster for the promised TV ads, but it shouldn’t take more than a few days if he works flat-out…

The result is Papa stays and faithful transport Mam’zelle Estérel (translated here as Little Miss Esterel) is jam-packed with everybody else for the southbound trek to the sun. Even with Julie now designated driver, the raucous clan rituals (stupid jokes, constant awful singing and barbed off-colour remarks) are in full flow. Not even Nicole and “Jean-Manu”’s constant revolting actions in the backseat – which Louis dubs “vacuum-cleaning faces” – can stop them…

Still in Belgium, having accepted a now staggered vacation start, Pierre sets to and ponders joining them later before suddenly being struck by inspiration. Instead of imparting fatherly advice to impromptu assistant/courier/would-be son-in-law Benoit, he offers ingratiating responsibility to the gifted lad. He can get his big break by finishing the poster for father Faldérault! Crucial decision made, Pierre is soon hurtling south by train…

Near the scenic village of Monpazier, road trek and rail journey fortuitously converge, allowing them all to be reunited on their own doorstep – or at least it would have if they hadn’t been the latest victims of a huge property scam. Sitting under a tree in the vacant lot that should be their second home, the family reel in shock. Gradually, they meet other hopefuls of the utterly fictitious Oasis Turnkey Villas Holiday Complex.

They all bought a dream sight unseen, and soon the sadder, wiser vacationers have banded together. As steps begin to track down the fraudsters and the entrepreneur idiot-brother Xavier recommended, the old warrior spirits return. As they all make the best of it, united with their new notionally-homeless neighbours in not letting bad people take their holiday as well as their money more memories are made…

Of course the youngsters are initially crushed, embarrassed, petulant and indignant, but rich-boy Jean-Manu – who has stayed in penthouses all over the world but never, ever been camping – unexpectedly proffers some wisdom, solace and a little enhanced perspective. Moreover, although the cops might be less than helpful, the local villagers are all sympathetic and kind. With immense grace and no pretensions, they quietly chip in to make the victimised visitors feel welcome and less stupid. When fresh suckers turn up they too are comforted by all, and embraced as another community family forms. Days go by, unforgettable moments are enjoyed and life goes on…

Even return to the real world is graced by warmth, friendships and beloved customs and rituals that serve to reinforce the past and welcome what the future offers. What follows is timeless weeks of wonder and unforgettable explorations on endlessly sunny days, with local villagers and distressed wanderers forgetting woes and overcoming the worst the world can offer: a welcoming lesson in humanity at its best…

This tale is another beautifully rendered, enticingly realised album of happy days stitched seamlessly together. It’s funny, sweet and charming whilst delivering painful blows you never see coming. There aren’t any spectacular events and shocking crises and that’s the whole point…

If you’re British – and old enough – this series (six translated albums thus far, plus a French omnibus edition) will echo revered family sitcoms like Bless This House or Butterflies and generational ads starring the “Oxo Family”. (If that description doesn’t fit you, I pity your browsing history if you look up any of that). The rest of you in need of an opening (but unfair) comparator could break out the Calvin and Hobbes collections and re-examine the bits with his embattled parents when the kid’s out of the picture…

Lyrical, laconic, engagingly demure, and debilitatingly nostalgic, this holiday romance (blessed at the end with Jordi Lafebre’s glorious gallery of pencil sketches) is sheer visual perfection wrapped in sharp dialogue and a superbly anarchic sense of mischief. Vacations and downtimes are built of moments and might-have-beens, such as packaged here in compelling clips to make the mundane marvellous.
© 2019 – DARGAUD BENELUX (Dargaud-Lombard s.a.) – ZIDROU & LEFEBRE, LLC. All rights reserved.

Today in 1932, French artist Jean-Jacques Sempé (Le petit Nicholas, The New Yorker) was born, sharing a birthday with pioneering cartoonist, scholar, feminist and comics historian Trina Robbins (It Ain’t Me, Babe, The Silver Metal Lover, Wimmin’s Commix, Wonder Woman, Friends of Lulu, Dope, Women and the Comics) in 1938; writer Rachel Pollack (Doom Patrol, New Gods, Unquenchable Fire), in1945; artist Alex Saviuk (The Flash, Green Lantern, The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives OGN,  numerous Spider-Man series) in 1952; comic book royalty John Romita Jr. (Superman, Daredevil, Spider-Man, The Eternals, Iron Man, Kick-Ass, Uncanny X-Men, Incredible Hulk) in 1956 and writer/editor Andy Helfer (Justice League of America, The Shadow, Judge Dredd, Justice Inc.) in 1958.

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Star Comics All-Star Collection volume 1


By Lennie Herman, Sid Jacobson, Stan Kay, Bob Bolling, Warren Kremer, Howard Post, Vince Colletta, Jon D’Agostino, Jacqueline Roettcher & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4291-1 (TPB), 978-1-3025-0691-9 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content and especially outdated gender roles produced in less enlightened times.

Once upon a time the US comic book industry aimed at younger readers was utterly dominated by Dell/Gold Key with their TV & Disney licenses, and Harvey Comics who had largely switched from a variety of genres to a wholesome, kid-friendly pantheon by the end of the 1950s. Despite valiant and consistent efforts from DC, Charlton and Marvel to compete, this Big Two owned the pre-school sector until declining morals, television cartoon saturation and rising print costs finally forced them to bow out.

The Wester Publishing companies suffered a slow erosion, gradually losing valuable prime properties like Popeye, Star Trek, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Warner Brothers cartoon stars, plus sundry other treasures until the parent company called it a day in 1984. Harvey had already shut up shop in 1982 when company founder Alfred Harvey retired.

The latter’s vast archived artwork store was sold off and, with properties and rights up for grabs, Marvel Comics (who had already secured those lost Star Trek and Hanna-Barbera titles) was frontrunner for licensing the family firm’s iconic characters. These included Richie Rich, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Sad Sack, Hot Stuff – the Little Devil, Wendy the Good Little Witch and so many others. That bid ultimately foundered, but business savvy Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, recognised a huge gap in the market, and subsequently launched a cloned imprint of the Harvey stable which would also encompass new TV/toy properties like Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies & Fraggle Rock; Alf; Madballs; Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears; Thundercats; Ewoks and every Saturday Morning TV sensation still to come. He resolved to devise and deliver the next generation of worthily wholesome, entry-level comics for entertainment-hungry young minds and their concerned parents…

Marvel’s Star Comics line launched in 1985, edited by ex-Harvey head-honcho Sid Jacobson, with familiar-looking titles sporting an incontestably similar look and feel, which was achieved primarily by hiring former Harvey stalwarts like Jacobson, Lennie Herman, Warren Kremer, Howard Post, Ernie Colon and others.

Millionaire prince and all-around good kid Royal Roy especially invoked the ire of the Harvey heirs who sued for copyright infringement of their astonishingly prolific Richie Rich: a glittering prize who had shone in over 55 separate titles between his debut in 1953 and the bust of 1982. Roy was cancelled after 6 issues – as were many Star series – in a brutal “Survival of the Funnest” policy – and the suit was quietly dropped. None of which affects the fact that those Eighties child stars were, in their own right, superb examples of all-ages fun, excitement and adventure joyously revisited in this collection first released in from 2009: gathering that first wave of titles and latterly expanded on in a coordinated curated kids comics book sequence (remember now: “gotta get ‘em all!”).

Re-presenting Planet Terry #1-2, Top Dog #1-3, Royal Roy #1-2 & Wally the Wizard #1-2 in a veritable nova of bubbly contagious thrills and frolics, the eccentric escapades open with a star who was just a little lost boy in space…

Planet Terry was created by Lennie Herman (who died just before the big Star Comics launch) and the merely magnificent Warren Kremer, whose animation-based art style became the defining look of Harvey Comics during its happy heyday, and starred a young lad searching the universe for the parents he had never known. Introduced in ‘The Search’ (Herman, Kremer & Vince Colletta), little Terry was something of a nuisance, periodically landing on alien worlds, pestering the inhabitants and asking “Has anyone seen my mother and father?”

Found wandering in a life-pod which raised and educated him, the only clues PT had to his past are a name bracelet and an empty picture frame. However, this time when he returns to the obnoxious planet Bznko, Terry accidentally drives off a menace which bores folks to death with bad jokes, so the inhabitants give him a junked lady robot as a reward. This proves to be a blessing in disguise as Robota inadvertently leads the lonely lad to ‘A Clue’ when they later crashland on a mining asteroid and meet aged Enoch Diggs who recognises the lifepod the infant Terry was originally found in…

‘Some Answers’ are forthcoming as the dithery prospector reveals he once worked on Confederation Cosmos Cruiser Space Warp, where the captain’s wife was going to have a baby. Needing a sterile environment for the newborn infant, the crew placed him in the emergency lifeboat, but his jubilant father accidentally triggered it whilst celebrating his son’s birth and the infant was rocketed into deep space. Although they searched everywhere, the heartbroken spacemen never located the pod and assumed baby Terry was lost forever…

Although Enoch can’t remember the names of Terry’s parents, he suggests another old shipmate might, and the re-energised searchers rush to another asteroid to find him. Sadly, they instead encounter ‘The Malt Shop Menace’, before recruiting another voyager when Robota saves a brutish monster…

Omnus gratefully joins their decidedly odd and growing family. Little do they know that a sinister conspiracy is at work to keep the whereabouts and secret of the Space Warp lost forever…

In #2 (by Herman, Kremer & Jon D’Agostino) the quest continues as the outcasts encounter sabotage and opposition before landing their freshly repaired ship on the lost world of the Gorkels where the trio clumsily fulfil an ancient prophecy in ‘The Saga of Princess Ugly’. In return for repairing Terry’s downed vessel, he, Robota and Omnus must rescue an abducted Princess by battling hostile jungles, shapeshifting beasts, killer vines, a whirlpool and a volcano all controlled by archvillain Vermin the Vile in ‘Too Close (enough) for Comfort’ before saving the girl from ‘The Doom of the Domed City’ and uncovering the final resting place of the elusive Space Warp…

Also by Herman, Kremer & D’Agostino, Royal Roy debuted on his birthday in ‘The Mystery of the Missing Crown’, wherein the Prince of wealthy Ruritanian Cashalot discovers that the traditional, venerable Royal Highness Crown has gone missing on the very day of his investiture. Whilst King Regal and Queen Regalia understandably panic, super suave, ultra cool bodyguard Ascot diligently investigates as assorted resplendent relatives dither and interfere, so Roy and his pet crocodile Gummy keep their heads and maintain their poise by ‘Picking up the Scent’. They soon expose a supernatural agency at work after ‘A Midnight Visit’ by ghostly ancestor William the Warhorse…

Topping off that opening issue was a snappy, snazzy short fun yarn starring reptilian Gummy in ‘Crocadog’ prior to #2 hosting ‘The Grand Ball’. Scripted by Stan Kay, it occupied most of Roy’s attention as the underage but still eligible Prince took a fancy to simple commoner Crystal Clear whilst ambitious – and mean – social climber Lorna Loot spent all her time – and considerable cash – unsuccessfully attempting to beguile the boy by turning herself into a contemporary Cinderella in ‘A Strange Stranger’…

‘Maneuvers!’ then sees Roy fulfil his hereditary duties by joining Cashalot’s army on dawn exercises. As ruler-in-waiting of a rich but peaceful nation, the plucky lad isn’t too surprised to find that the entire armed forces consists of one reluctant prince and a keen but aging general…

Top Dog featured a far more modern and mundane situation, depicting the lives of average American boy Joey Jordan and a mutt he brought home one day. Herman, Kremer & Jacqueline Roettcher’s ‘The Dog-Gone Beginning’ revealed how, whilst looking for his lost baseball, the kid had accidentally spotted a dog reading the newspaper and talking to himself. Exposed, the canny canine begged the boy to keep his secret else all the four-footed wonder could expect was a short and painful life being poked, prodded and probed by scientists…

Once the lad swore to keep his secret, Top Dog agreed to come live with Joey in ‘House About a Dog, Mom?’ Whilst the boy tries to teach the pooch to bark – one of the few languages he can’t speak! – Joey’s accommodating family gradually get used to the seemingly normal dog and his boy.

However, when Mervin Megabucks (the richest, meanest kid in town) overhears them playing and chatting, the spoiled brat refuses to believe Joey is a ventriloquist and when the junior Jordan refuses to sell, Mervin steals Top Dog as the perfect addition to his palatial high-tech house. However, even torture won’t make the purloined pooch speak again, and when Joey stages ‘The Big Breakout’, Mervin’s mega-robots prove no match for dogged determination leaving the peewee plutocrat brat baffled, bamboozled and dog-less…

Top Dog #2 exposes ‘Spies!’ after the restless dog of a thousand talents seems to harbour a dark side. Going out on nightly jaunts, the marvellous mutt apparently leads a double life as a security guard at a Defence Plant, triple-crossing everybody by photographing military secrets for a foreign power. It’s actually a diminutive enemy agent in a dog costume but Vladimir’s handlers hadn’t reckoned on a real dog looking (and speaking) just like their hairy infiltrator. Thus they accidentally give the purloined plans to the chatty all-American canine.

After spectacularly trapping the sinister spies without revealing his own astounding intellect, Top Dog is framed in #3 by Joey’s best friend Larry who’s been feeling neglected and rejected since the brilliant bow-wow moved in. With a feral hound dubbed ‘The Mad Biter’ on the prowl and attacking people, it’s simple to send our perspicacious pup to the Pound, where he encounters lots of bad dogs who probably deserve to be ‘Caged’.

Faithful Joey never gives up and after bailing his canine comrade out, they convince the guilt-ridden perjurer to see the light by via an impromptu midnight ‘Ghost Story’. Even with Larry recanting his lies, neighbourhood families don’t trust Top Dog, but that all changes once the maligned mutt tracks down the real Biter and engages him in ‘A Fight to the Finish’…

The final initial entry was written and illustrated by Archie Comics veteran Bob Bolling who concocted a fabulous medieval wonderland for Wally the Wizard to play in. In #1’s ‘A Plague of Locusts’, mystical Merlin’s older, smarter brother Marlin is having trouble with a stubbornly inquisitive apprentice. Wally wants to know everything NOW, has no discipline and is full of foolish ideas and misconceptions. As a serious scientist, Marlin has no time for silly superstitions, so after the lad accidentally releases a time-travelling demon from an age-old prison, the mage refuses to believe him.

Gorg however swears faithfully to repay the favour before disappearing…

Despatched to deliver a potion to King Kodger, Wally also helps a dragon save his hatchling from a deep well, only just reaches the sovereign in time and has a feed on the Royal Barge where he once again fails to impress beauteous Princess Penelope…

Meanwhile in Bloodmire Castle, wicked plotters Vastar the Vile, his sister Sybilious the Bilious and wicked warlock Erasmo conspire to conquer the kingdom by unleashing a huge metal locust to consume all in its path. Noble knights led by invincible Sir Flauntaroy are helpless before the brazen beast and Wally realises only Marlin can save them. Sadly, the boy gets lost on route to fetch him, but happily for everybody, the dragon and demon the rationalist sorcerer refuses to believe in are ready to pay their debts to the apprentice…

Sid Jacobson, Howard Post & D’Agostino handled the second issue wherein Wally enters the annual apprentice’s games, with Marlin now suddenly transformed into a traditional magic-making mage. In fact, Marlin, as a three-time champion of ‘The Magic-a-Thon!’ is secretly regretful that Wally is too inexperienced to compete… a fact his disciple discerns and tries to fix. Desperately cramming for a week and eventually (with the coaching of his proud master) Wally sets off to compete but a lovelorn barbarian accidentally cleaves the kid’s crib notes in twain, leaving him able to create only half-spells and conjure up mere semi-monsters…

Undaunted, Wally continues and perseveres, even after a huge storm deprives him of the demi-directions and his back-up pouch of herbs and potions. He is determined to win using nothing but his wits, guts and unflagging optimism…

This clutch of classic children’s tales also includes the enchanting covers and the original house-ads which introduced the characters to the Kids in America and four decades later is still a fabulous blast of intoxicating wonder and entertainment readers of all ages cannot fail to love. With children’s comics back in force again after too long a fallow period, it’s apt, sensible and fun to acknowledge the timeless classics we used to draw upon and which drew kids in. Historical compilations like this one belong on the shelves of every funnybook-loving parent and even those lonely couples with only a vague twinkle in their eyes…
© 1985 and 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1928 Lyman Young’s strip epic Tim Tyler’s Luck launched, followed by Al Capp’s Li’l Abner in 1934.

This day in 1919 prolific illustrator and inker Jim Mooney (Tommy Tomorrow, Supergirl, Omega the Unknown, Robin, Batman, Pussycat, Man-Thing, Spider-Man, Thundercats, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark) was born, as were artist/inker Gene Day (Star*Reach, Star Wars, Master of Kung Fu) in 1951; all-rounder Donna Barr (Desert Peach, Stinz) in1952; UK artist Rob Davis (Judge Dredd, Doctor Who, Nelson) in 1954; artist Bret Blevins (New Mutants, Sleepwalker, Bozz Chronicles) in 1960; both Billy Tucci (Shi, Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion) and cartoonist Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man, Postage Stamp Funnies) in 1966 and Malaysian artist Billy Tan Mung Khoy AKA Billy Tan (Uncanny X-Men, Green Lantern, Tomb Raider) in 1970.

Passing on this day were Jack Cole (Plastic Man, Betsy and Me) in 1958; British editor creator John Geering (Sparky, The Topper, Cracker, Plug, Nutty, The Beano, The Dandy on Puss ‘n’ Boots, Smudge, Bananaman, DangerMouse, Count Duckula) in 1999 and Tintin colour artist Josette Baujot in 2009.

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Lucky Luke volume 29: The Bounty Hunter


By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Erica Jeffrey (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-083-2 (Album PB) 978-1-84918-819-7 (Digital edition)

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

Time for another Anniversary announcement, non?

Created by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist “Morris” (AKA Maurice de Bévère), Lucky Luke debuted in the summer of 1946, initially riding out in Le Journal de Spirou in mid-summer sans title or banner, and only in the French-language edition of the multinational comic. The Lone Rider’s official launch came in (Christmas Annual) L’Almanach Spirou 1947, before beginning his first official serial – ‘Arizona 1880’ – in 1946’s all-regional, multilingual weekly edition for December 7th.

Doughty, dashing, dependable cowboy “good guy” Lucky is a rangy, implacably placid do-gooder able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around the mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant and rather sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. For 80 years his exploits have made Lucky a top-ranking global comic icon, packing more than 90 individual albums and spin-off series like Kid Lucky & Ran-Tan-Plan, with sales well north of 300 million copies in 30 languages. That renown translates into a merch mountain of toys, games, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies and even commemorative exhibitions. No theme park yet, but you never know…

After a relatively slow start for such a fast gun, Lucky’s global dominance came via a decades-long collaboration with superstar scripter René Goscinny. The official partnership spanned Des rails sur la Prairie/Rails on the Prairie (starting August 25th 1955) to La Ballade des Dalton et autres histoires/The Ballad Of The Daltons And Other Stories in 1986, during which time the sixgun straight-shooter switched teams, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with La Diligenc/The Stagecoach in 1967. Goscinny crafed 45 albums with Morris before his death, after which the artist continued both singly and with other literary pardners, before recruiting a posse of legacy creators including Lo Hartog van Banda, Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Xavier Fauche, Benacquista & Pennac, Jean Léturgie, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shots at the venerable vigilante. Morris continued until his own death in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar and spin-off sagebrush sagas.

His grande idée draws on western history less than movie mythology, but – as here(ish) – our hero regularly met historical figures as well as fictional folk in tales drawn from key themes of classic cowboy lore, lensed through uniquely European notions and interpretations – as also seen here. Our sixgun star is not averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire, as well as spoofing his own antecedents whilst wallowing in movie schtick to trigger delicious drives down memory lane in the eternal game of cowboys and imbeciles…

In the ‘50’s Goscinny began scripting Lucky uncredited. Morris had spent almost a decade filling nine albums with affectionate sagebrush parody, action and Lucky Laughs, but when Goscinny was fully deputised as lead wordsmith, Luke popped up more often and rapidly attained dizzying heights of super swift superstardom. Moreover, the hits just kept coming. The 40th European album Le Grand Duc was first seen serially in weekly Pilote from January 25th to May 24th 1973 (issues #690 to 707). In 2011, as The Grand Duke, it became Cinebook’s 29th English-language tome of scathing sagebrush satire and horsefeather hijinks.

Morris drew from a deep shared well of visual and cinematic motifs, gilded with historical veracity as Goscinny’s rip-roaring yarn borrowed heavily from an actual Diplomatic “Jolly” enjoyed between 1871 – 1872 by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, the son of Russian Emperor Alexander II. As the new ambassador to the United States, and alongside living legend Buffalo Bill Cody, Alexei felt it vital that he visit the fabled plains and unfolding frontier, sneering at natives and peasants whilst slaughtering any beast crossing his gunsights…

Here, however, it begins with Lucky once more summoned to Washington DC – this time by the Secretary of State, a big man in need of a little favour. Visiting Russian dignitary Grand Duke Leonid is an enthusiastic fan of James Fenimore Cooper and other modern American authors, and wishes to experience all the grandeur and wildness (such as bandits, cattle-towns, owlhoots, prairies, stage robbers, gold rushes, gunslingers, bar room brawls, ghost towns, varmints, prospectors, Indian attacks and all the rest) of the west, as described in his hobby reads. Despite his often fanciful studies he is not particularly eloquent and most of his communication comes via interpreter/attaché/aide-de-camp His Excellency Colonel Fedor Mikhailovich Boulenkov of His Majety the Czar’s Guard. What they really need is an experienced guide who can inconspicuously double as bodyguard and babysitter. A vital trade treaty depends on our hero keeping the visiting VIP safe and sweet, and of course they will all be utterly incognito…

Impatient Leonid demands an immediate start, so they are all aboard a train heading to desperado-plagued cow-town Abilene within the hour, which is bad news for the Russian anarchist/bomber dogging their heels and blowing up all the wrong coaches and vehicles they should have been in…

The tourists have a rather uneventful journey west, but only because they don’t notice Lucky quietly dealing with train robbers, the bomber and even cardsharps set to fleece the coffers of a foreign government. Instead, the Duke in mufti teaches them a game of chance from his homeland… Russian Roulette…

By the time they get to Kansas – on horseback! Not comfortable rail carriage – the voyagers are ready to sample all the hedonistic delights of the bustling flesh exchange (animal and otherwise). Having Americanised his name to “Bob” and still guided by his reading, Grand Duke Leonid is open to all the town offers and heads for the saloon where lovely – albeit rather hardboiled – chanteuse Laura Legs beguiles and breaks hearts. The aristocrat is unaware that Lucky has already vigorously discouraged all the cowboy patrons from taking advantage or making fun of the foreign tenderfoot about to arrive through those swing doors…

Sadly, Laura’s boss, saloon owner Jackson, reads Eastern newspapers and recognises The Duke. He thinks he’s going to be very rich very soon but hasn’t accounted for his target’s low boredom threshold. Finding this Abilene too sedate, Bob insists on a stagecoach ride further into the west, hoping that it might be held up by desperate gunmen. The ever-close anarchist also lays plans and more bombs, but again Luke is anticipating problems and finding solutions. Before anything can happen, the travellers ditch the coach and alter destination, heading off again on horseback and missing anything even remotely resembling action, adventure or attempted assassination…

Cunningly steering his charges to sedate enclave Bellow Springs, Lucky hopes for peace, quiet and a nice bath but is frustrated when Bob finds a newspaper trumpeting a manhunt for deadly desperado Texas Ripper and wants to join the posse combing nearby Sioux Hills. With no way out, Luke leads the trio into the brush where they soon meet the monster… with astonishing results….

Then, after subverting the press in Grassy Junction, Luke believes a faux newspaper will lead Bob to a dull, dead ghost town. Ironically, even fake news spreads fast and soon Nugget Town is born again in the heat of another rumour-fuelled gold rush. Sadly the bored Duke has already moved on. Bob is ready to call it a day and heads back to dreary Bellow Springs… where the anarchist is waiting. It’s again in vain as the Duke changes his mind and demands to experience an Indian war before finally retreating east. Sadly, with no natives – outraged or otherwise – to hand, Lucky must requisition the local US cavalry contingent to play the furious feathered aggressors… and as usual nothing goes as it should…

It would have been so much easier if someone had ridden to the next fort and spread the word of the imaginary “uprising” but as always, when the unnecessary reinforcements arrive Lucky thinks as fast as he draws and saves the day, the jaunt and that treaty…

A cunning conception and sly amalgam of deception and surreal slapstick, The Grand Duke is a rowdy romp and raucous antidote to dark realpolitik dramas and mirthless mood-driven melodramas of the mesas. This engaging comedy thriller is ideal for kids tall-to-small with a smidgen of historical perspective and social understanding The action and set pieces – even the Russian Roulette running gag – are no more contentious than any Laurel and Hardy film (understandable as Morris was a huge fan of the duo) and genuinely hilarious. Such foolish forays are a grand old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides Again or Cat Ballou, superbly executed by master storytellers and a perfect introduction to a unique genre for anyone who might well have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was.
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1973 by Goscinny and Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2011 Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1911 writer/artist Kin Platt (Doc Strange, Happy, The Mask, Captain Future, Mr. & Mrs.) was born, sharing birthdays with British artist Staz Johnson (Catwoman, Rogue Trooper, Robin, Action Force) in 1965; writer Gregg Hurwitz (Foolkiller) in 1973; writer Al Ewing (Judge Dredd, Loki: Agent of Asgard, Ultimates, The Immortal Hulk) in 1977 and editor Alanna Smith in 1990.

Today in 1996 we lost writer/editor Mark Gruenwald (the Omniverse, Captain America, Hawkeye, Squadron Supreme) with Mike Wieringo (Amazing Spider-Man, Impulse, Flash, Tellos, Fantastic Four) passing in 2007 and the irreplaceable Joe Kubert (Sgt Rock, Enemy Ace, Hawkman, Flash, Tarzan, Fax from Sarajevo) in 2012.

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The Count Binface Comic Book


By Nick Abadzis, Krent Able, Steven Appleby, Andrew Attwell, Rachael Ball, Becky Barnicoat, Henny Beaumont, Hannah Berry, Abbigayle Bircham & Bobby Joseph, Paul Ashley Brown, Grazia Caleo & Louis Netter, Darryl Cunningham & Jonathan Edwards, Dix, Kate Evans, Babak Ganjei, Fraser Geesin, ILYA, JAKe Detonator, Rich Johnston, Rebecca K. Jones, Jonesy, Dave McKean, Peter Morey, Rob Murray, Woodrow Phoenix, Anna Readman, Scarlett & Sophie Rickard, Martin Rowson, Mark Stafford, Bryan Talbot, Edward Taylor, Myfanwy Tristram & various (SelfMadeHero)

ISBN: 978-1-914224-58-4 (TPB)

Hey ordinary upstanding voters! Oi, honourable members and professional politicians! Cartoonists are laughing at you, How do you like it?

With entire galaxies to dominate, unruly constellations to effectively administer and all that accumulated rubbish to face, it seems gracious in the extreme for an extraterrestrial overlord to consider the welfare of backward minor satrapies like Clack-Ton and the heilarious (MJ – not a typo) maze-running of human political relations. A benevolent “Greater Galactic” no less puissant than Tharg the Mighty, Count Binface is Britain’s most beloved Recyclon, a staunch defender of common sense and tireless champion of the Lovejoy box set (an entertainment item not an unspecified, unelected elite group).

He is always ready to play a straight game and reap the non-existent rewards of bossing earthlings about and will attempt to cater to their inexpressible usually contradictory whims. Thus, unafraid of hard questions and daft policies and utterly unaware of what five million quid even looks like, he competes in every UK by-election. However, none could stop a bunch of scribblers who think they’re so-ooo funny from compiling this no-holds-barred cartoon expose/briefing dossier, which digs behind the bin – as much as possible – and shows us what there is to know of the only ma humanoid prepared to tell it like it should be.

For expediency’s sake our irrepressible leader in waiting who – as mild-mannered comedian Jon Harvey – was rocketed to Earth from Sigma IX to show us a better way to live – pledges to keep it simple with manifesto promises including “a 99 pence cap on all 99 Flake ice creams (just common sense); to abolish auto-renew on Subscriptions (pure evil and a tax on forgetfulness!) and to build at least one affordable home (just to prove we can!).” If the impact studies are favourable, he would also “nationalise the singer Adele”…

Because pictures am clear & simple to understand, The Count Binface Comic Book is already seditiously at large in some comic shops, even though not officially published until Polling Day/August 13th 2026 (and how come no big shot foreign director has used that title for a summer blockbuster of negligible sense and questionable messaging?). Also, 10% of every sale is donated to British housing charity Shelter via Work for Good. Moreover, each copy reaching human hands will burn like fire as it explodes the pomposity and miscreancy of those weaselly incumbents who think humans will believe any old-beer/milk shake-sodden tosh, just as long as it makes strangers and foreigners look like monsters, flouts maritime law and ignores basic arithmetic…

A cross between good-natured political statement and another display of the British inability to take important stuff seriously, this hot-off-the-presses strip collection rides a local (one bit of one count in one country on one planet!) zeitgeist with a wealth of our best and brightest cartoonists and satirists deconstructing the myth whilst providing The Sun and Daily Telegraph with potential scoops and banner headlines for months to come as it shares (possibly inaccurate) accounts of what else Count Binface does when no one is looking…

Encompassing everything from fashion to prognostication, prophecy and revelation to cosmic combat and the fate of universes – and even a history of activism and election “joke candidates” – this timely tome is a thematic sequel to SelfMadeHero’s 2017 grand political experiment The Corbyn Comic Book and was rush-released out: compacting into 72 pages a barking mad bombardment of cogent crazy cartoon commentary by and from some of Earth’s most exciting comics creators.

These include Nick Abadzis, Krent Able, Steven Appleby, Andrew Attwell, Rachael Ball, Becky Barnicoat, Henny Beaumont, Hannah Berry, Abbigayle Bircham & Bobby Joseph, Paul Ashley Brown, Grazia Caleo & Louis Netter, Darryl Cunningham & Jonathan Edwards, JAKe Detonator, Dix, Kate Evans, Babak Ganjei, Fraser Geesin, ILYA, Rich Johnston, Rebecca K. Jones, Jonesy, Dave McKean, Peter Morey, Rob Murray, Woodrow Phoenix, Anna Readman, Scarlett & Sophie Rickard, Martin Rowson, Mark Stafford, Bryan Talbot, Edward Taylor, Myfanwy Tristram and others.

You can stand up and be counted just by sitting down and scoping out the wonders contained herein, and every sale will remind those who matter that it’s not aliens we worry about, but homegrown spivs, exploitative rabblerousers, greedy rich bastards and unthinking bigots…

WARNING! UNOFFICIAL, UNAUTHORIZED SATIRICAL ANTHOLOGY

This publication has not been prepared, approved, authorized, or licensed by Count Binface or any related entity. The Count Binface Comic Book is available at GOSH (London) from 6th August & on sale at other good bookshops and online in the week leading up to the August 13th by-election.

Today in 1902 saw the arrival of illustrator, cartoonist and comic book pioneer Jack Binder (Daredevil, If…?, The Destroyer, Bulletman, Mary Marvel, Fighting Yank, Ibis the Invincible, Mister Scarlet and Pinky, Captain Battle, Black Owl, Doc Savage, The Shadow), joined by It Never Fails and Mickey Finn artist Morris Weiss in 1915; cartoonist Dik Browne (The Tracy Twins, Hi and Lois, Hägar the Horrible) in 1917 and Swedish creator Rune Andréasson (Bamse, Teddy, Habibu, Brum, Pellefant) in1925. In 1948 horrorist T. Casey Brennan (Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella) was born, sharing the day with Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets, Batman, Loveless, Hellblazer) in 1962; Jim Lee (X-Men, WildC.A.T.s. DC New 52) and letterer Pat Brosseau in in 1964; artist/ghost inker Ryan Winn (Hiding in Time) in 1976 and illustrator Joseph A. Quiñones Jr. (Firefly, Wonder Woman, Teen Titans Go!, Superman/Batman, Thunderbolts) in 1982.

This day in 1959 saw the passing of breakthrough African American artist Matt Baker (Phantom Lady, It Rhymes with Lust, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Canteen Kate, Sky Girl, Charlton and Atlas mystery/horror, westerns and romance anthologies).