Category: Comedy

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Steve Ditko Archives volume 2: Unexplored Worlds


By Steve Ditko, Joe Gill & various, edited by Blake Bell (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-289-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Immaculate Yarn-Spinning… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. It also has Discriminatory Content included for comedic and satirical effect.

Once upon a time the anthological title of short stand-alone stories was the sole staple of the comicbook profession, where the plan was to deliver as much variety as possible to the reader. Sadly, that particular vehicle of expression seems all but lost to us today…

Despite his death Steve Ditko remains one of our industry’s greatest talents and one of America’s least lauded. His fervent desire to just get on with his job and to tell stories the best way he can – whilst the noblest of aspirations – had always been a minor consideration or even stumbling block for the commercial interests which for so long controlled all comics production and still exert an overwhelming influence upon the mainstream bulk of comic book output. Before his time at Marvel, young Ditko perfected his craft creating short sharp yarns for a variety of companies and it’s an undeniable joy today to be able to look at this work from such an innocent time when he was just breaking into the industry: tirelessly honing his craft with genre tales for whichever publisher would have him, utterly free from the interference of intrusive editors.

A superb full-colour series of hardback collections reprinted those early efforts (all of them here are from 1956-1957) with material produced after the draconian, self-inflicted Comics Code Authority sanitised the industry following Senate Hearings and a public witch-hunt.

Most are wonderfully baroque bizarre supernatural or science fantasy stories, but there are also examples of Westerns, Crime and Humour: cunningly presented in the order he completed and sold them rather than the more logical but far-less-revealing chronological release dates. Moreover, they’re all helpfully annotated with a purchase number to indicate approximately when they were actually drawn – even the brace of tales done for Stan Lee’s pre-Marvel Atlas company.

Sadly, there’s no indication of how many (if any) were actually written by the moody master…

This second sublime selection reprints more heaping helpings of his increasingly impressive works: most courtesy of the surprisingly liberal (at least in its trust of its employees’ creative instincts) sweat-shop publisher Charlton Comics.

And whilst we’re being technically accurate, it’s also important to reiterate that those cited publication dates have very little to do with when Ditko crafted them: as Charlton paid so little, the cheap, anthologically astute outfit had no problem in buying material it could leave on a shelf for months – occasionally years! – until the right moment arrived to print. The work is assembled and runs here in the order Ditko submitted it, rather than when it reached our grubby sweaty paws…

Following an historically informative Introduction and passionate advocacy by Blake Bell, concentrating on Ditko’s near-death experience in 1954 (when the artist contracted tuberculosis) and subsequent recovery, the evocatively eccentric excursions open with a monochrome meander into the realms of satire with the faux fable – now we’d call it a mockumentary – ‘Starlight Starbright’ as first seen in From Here to Insanity (volume 3 #1 April 1956) before “normal” service resumes with financial fable ‘They’ll Be Some Changes Made’ (scripted by Carl Wessler from Atlas’ Journey Into Mystery #33, April 1956).

Here a petty-minded pauper builds a time machine to steal the fortune his ancestors squandered, after which a crook seeking to exploit a mystic pool finds himself the victim of fate’s justice in ‘Those Who Vanish’ (Journey Into Mystery #38, September 1956) again scripted by Wessler.

Almost – if not all – the Charlton material was scripted by astoundingly prolific Joe Gill at this time, and records are spotty at best, so let’s assume his collaboration on all the material here begins with ‘The Man Who Could Never Be Killed’ (Strange Suspense Stories #31, published in February 1957). This yarn of a circus performer with an incredible ethereal secret segues into ‘Adrift in Space’ (Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #8 June 1958) as a veteran starship captain pushes his weary crew over the edge, whereas ‘The King of Planetoid X’ from the previous MoUW (February) details a crisis of conscience for a benevolent and ultimately wise potentate…

The cover of Strange Suspense Stories #31 (February 1957) leads into ‘The Gloomy One’ as a misery-loving alien intruder is destroyed by simple human joy, before the cover to Out of This World #5 (September 1957) heralds that issue’s ‘The Man Who Stepped Out of a Cloud’ and an alien whose abduction plans only seem sinister in intent. MoUW #5 (October 1957) tells the story of a young ‘Stowaway’ who finds fulfilment aboard a harshly-run space ship after which Out of This World #3’s cover (March 1957) ushers us to an apparent alien paradise for weary star-men in ‘What Happened?’

Next up is a tale from one of Charlton’s earliest star characters. The title came from a radio show that Charlton licensed the rights to, with the lead/host/narrator acting more as voyeur than active participant. The Mysterious Traveler spoke directly to camera, asking readers for opinion and judgement as he shared a selection of funny, sad, scary and miraculous human-interest yarns, all tinged with a hint of the weird or supernatural. Whenever rendered by Ditko, whose storytelling mastery, page design and full, lavish brushwork were just beginning to come into its mature full range, the contents of Tales of the Mysterious Traveler were always exotic and esoteric and utterly beguiling.

From issue #2 (February 1957), ‘What Wilbur Saw’ reveals the reward bestowed on a poverty-stricken country bumpkin who witnessed a modern-day miracle, after which Out of This World #3 covers a cautionary tale of atomic mutation in ‘The Supermen’ before the eerie cover to OoTW #4 (June 1957) signals a chilling encounter for two stranded sailors who briefly board the ‘Flying Dutchman’ whilst SSS #32’s cover (May 1957) dabbles in magic art when a collector is victimised by a thief who foolishly stumbles into ‘A World of His Own’.

From the same issue comes a salutary parable concerning a rich practical joker who goes too far before succumbing to ‘The Last Laugh’, after which ‘Mystery Planet’ (SSS #36, March 1958) offers a dash of interplanetary derring-do as valiant agent Bryan Bodine and comely associate Nedra confound intergalactic pirates piloting a planet-eating weapon against Earth!

A similarly bold defender liberates ‘The Conquered Earth’ from alien subjugation (OoTW #4, June 1957) whilst in ‘Assignment Treason’ (Outer Space #18. August 1958) the clean-cut hero goes undercover to save Earth from the predatory Master of Space as OoTW #8 (May 1958) and ‘The Secret of Capt. X’ reveals the inimical alien tyrant threatening humanity is not what he seems…

The cover to Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #3 (April 1957) makes way for three fantastic thrillers, beginning with ‘The Strange Guests of Tsaurus’ as an alien paradise proves to be anything but, then ‘A World Where I Was King’ sees a clumsy janitor catapulted into a wondrous realm to win a kingdom he doesn’t want. Diverting slightly, Fightin’ Army #20 (May 1957) provides a comedic interlude as a civil war soldier finds himself constantly indebted to ‘Gavin’s Stupid Mule’ before ‘A Forgotten World’ wraps up MoUW #3’s contributions with a scary tale of invasion from the Earth’s core. ‘The Cheapest Steak in Nome’ turns out to be defrosted from something that died millions of years ago in a light-hearted yarn from MoUW #7 (February 1958)…

The cover to MoUW #4 (July 1957) precedes more icy antediluvian preservations found in the ‘Valley in the Mist’ whilst the one for Strange Suspense Stories #33 (August 1957) leads into a bizarre corporate outreach project as the ‘Director of the Board’ attempts to go where no other exploitative capitalist has gone before. Next, it’s back to MoUW #3 for a brush with the mythological in ‘They Didn’t Believe Him’ after which ‘Forever and Ever’ (SSS #33) reveals an unforeseen downside to immortality and Out of This World #3 sees a stranger share ‘My Secret’ with ordinary folk despite – or because of – a scurrilous blackmailer…

‘A Dreamer’s World’ from Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #5 (October 1957) follows the chilling cover thereof as a test pilot hits his aerial limit and discovers a whole new existence, whilst Unusual Tales #7 (May 1957) traces the tragic path of ‘The Man Who Could See Tomorrow’ before the cover of Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #4 (August 1957) opens a mini-feast of voyeur’s voyages beginning with that issue’s ‘The Desert’: a saga of polar privation and survival.

TotMT #3 (May 1957) shows the appropriate cover and a ‘Secret Mission’ for a spy parachuted into Prague, whilst #4 offers ‘Escape’ for an unemployed pilot dragged into a gun-running scam in a south American lost world; ‘Test of a Man’ sees a cruel animal trainer receive his just deserts and ‘Operation Blacksnake’ grittily exposes American venality in the ever-expanding Arabian oil trade. Returning to Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #5, ‘The Mirage’ torments an escaped convict who thinks he’s escaped his fate, whilst Texas Rangers in Action #8 (July 1957) sees a ruthless rancher crushed by the weight of his own wicked actions as ‘The Only One’, after which stunning covers to Unusual Tales #6 and 7 (February and May 1957) lead into our final vignette – ‘The Man Who Painted on Air’: exposing and thwarting a unique talent to preserve humanity and make a few bucks on the side…

This sturdily capacious volume has episodes that terrify, amaze, amuse and enthral: utter delights of fantasy fiction with lean, plots and stripped-down dialogue that let the art set the tone, push the emotions and tell the tale, from times when a story could end sadly as well as happily and only wonderment was on the agenda, hidden or otherwise.

These stories display the sharp wit and contained comedic energy which made so many Spider-Man/J. Jonah Jameson confrontations an unforgettable treat half a decade later, and this is another cracking collection not only superb in its own right but as a telling tribute to the genius of one of the art-form’s greatest stylists. This is something every serious comics fan would happily kill or die or be lost in time for…
Unexplored Worlds: The Steve Ditko Archive Vol. 2. This edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books. Introduction © 2010 Blake Bell. All rights reserved.

Today in 1914, Jerry Siegel was born. Don’t make me have to finish this heads-up…

In 1937 Huey, Dewey & Louie Duck debuted. Ditto.

In 1959 The last issue of UK icon Comet was published and a decade later across the Pond Sidney Smith’s The Gumps ended. It had begun in 1917 as you’d know if read Sidney Smith’s The Gumps.

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Bunny vs Monkey Book 11: Intergalactic Monkey Business!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras, Paul Duffield & Armin Roshdi (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-327-1 (Digest HB) 978-1-78845-387-5 (Waterstones Exclusive Team Bunny Edition) 978-1-78845-388-2 (Waterstones Exclusive Team Monkey Edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Because… Just Because… 10/10

Bunny vs Monkey has been the inspirationally bonkers breakout star of The Phoenix since the first issue in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal archenemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia, masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully gusto – but increasingly with cerebral cosmic crescendo in mind – by cartoonist/comics artist/novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember, Find Chaffy), these trendsetting, mind-bending yarns have been wisely retooled as best-selling graphic albums available in remastered, double-length digest softcover and hardback editions such as this one. All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in after a disastrous British space shot. OR DID IT?

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

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

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

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

With propriety and good taste in full retreat, the sensorial assaults resume in ‘Guts n’ Butts!’ as Monkey and Skunky debate the appalling assets and proposed “improvements” to the weaponised flatulence engine dubbed Bungamungus with no consideration of those in its path prior to the simian unleashing his own worst nightmare. The giant ‘MonkeyBot 5000’ is supposed to make life hell for his fluffy white foe, but it appears Bunny can find plenty of uses for a mechanised personal organiser that can bench press trucks, topple buildings, file and colour co-ordinate…

Reality trembles all over again when Monkey’s ‘Mum and Dad’ pop by for a visit and nice bit of tea, but nature’s innocents Weenie and Pig Piggerton are too busy having adventures with ‘Frogs!’ and their mystical king to really notice, whereas ‘Lucky… The Unluckiest Red Panda in the World!!’ stumbles into unbridled chaos (as always) when Skunky & Monkey decide to go through the forgotten inventions bin…

Worried about declining productivity, the sinister science sinner uses his 3D printer to unleash a horde of ‘Fun-Size Skunkies’ who are anything but, before Bunny learns where all the wreckage, rubbish and remains go when the latest catastrophe has finished unfolding. Sadly, there are good reasons nobody wants to see ‘Binbag Sam’ carry out his nasty but necessary job…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pig’s penchant for peculiar pets sees the adoption of Blue-bummed Bimblebug ‘Parpy’  but the critter’s 24-hour lifespan brings near-instant woe, This leads to the advent of colossal hermit savant Capybara 5000 whose answers to all the ‘Big Questions’ are surprisingly violent. That search for truths culminates in sage advice ‘Run!’ before calm returns with Pig exploring wild water rafting and Le Fox confronting increasingly sinister Little Monkey in ‘The Happiness of the Kitsune’…

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

Marooned on a muddy morass world, Monkey establishes his dream of a dictatorship. Sadly, ‘Chutneyopia’ is right next to the equally barren planet Skunky crashed on and war is declared as the newcomer demands an apology that just won’t be forthcoming…

Moreover, when Skunky took off after Monkey, most of Crinkle Wood went with him and as Bunny ruminates on ‘The Intergalactic Adventures of Weenie and Cinnamon Bun Pig!’ plans are underway to terraform the barren planetoid into ‘A New Home’ unfortunately undertaken by ‘Even More Skunkies’…

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

What better time for a reconciliation with Skunky?

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

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

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

Today in 1926 Joe Sinnott was born. His inking made Fantastic Four impeccable and unmissable, but if you fancy seeing his pencilling mastery you should see Mighty Thor Omnibus volume 1.

Back in 1954 UK preschool comic milestone Playhour began its 1700+ issue run.

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Hellboy: Weird Tales


By Mike Mignola, Fabian Nicieza, John Cassaday, Eric Powell, Tom Sniegoski, Tommy Lee Edwards, Randy Stradley, Joe Casey, Sara Ryan, Ron Marz, J. H. Williams III, Jim Pascoe & Tom Fassbender, Will Pfeifer, John Arcudi, Matt Hollingsworth, Jill Thompson, Alex Maleev, Jason Pearson, Scott Morse, Akira Yoshida & Kia Asamiya, Doug Petrie, Bob Fingerman, Evan Dorkin, Andi Watson, Mark Ricketts, Kev Walker, Craig Thompson, Guy Davis, Stefano Raffaele, Ovi Nedelcu, Seung Kim, Steve Parkhouse, Steve Lieber, Jim Starlin, P. Craig Russell, Simeon Wilkins, Gene Colan, Roger Langridge, Eric Wright, Dave Stewart, Clem Robins & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-510-8 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-63008-121-8 (digital) 978-1506733845 (2022 Omnibus TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. It also has Discriminatory Content included for comedic and satirical effect.

After the establishment of the comic book direct market system, there was a huge outburst of independent publishers in America and, as with all booms, a lot of them went bust. Some few, however, were more than flash-in-the-pans and grew to become major players in the new world order.

Arguably, the most successful was Dark Horse Comics who fully embraced the shocking new concept of creator ownership (amongst other radical ideas). This concept – and professional outlook and attitude – drew many big-name creators to the new company and in 1994 Frank Miller & John Byrne formally instituted sub-imprint Legend for those projects major creators wanted to produce their own way and at their own pace. Over the next four years the brand counted Mike Mignola, Art Adams, Mike Allred, Paul Chadwick, Dave Gibbons and Geof Darrow amongst its ranks; generating superbly entertaining and groundbreaking series and concepts. Unquestionably the most impressive, popular and long-lived was Mignola’s supernatural thriller Hellboy.

The hulking monster-hunter debuted in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993) before formally launching in 4-issue miniseries Seed of Destruction (with Byrne scripting Mignola’s plot & art). Colourist Mark Chiarello added layers of mood with his understated hues. Once the fans saw what was on offer there was no going back…

What You Need to Know: on December 23rd 1944 American Patriotic Superhero Torch of Liberty and a squad of US Rangers intercepted and – almost – foiled a satanic ceremony predicted by Allied parapsychologist Professors Trevor Bruttenholm and Malcolm Frost. They were working in conjunction with influential medium Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones. Those stalwarts were waiting at a ruined church in East Bromwich, England when a demon baby with a huge stone right hand appeared in a fireball. The startled soldiers took the infernal yet seemingly innocent waif into custody.

Far, far further north, off the Scottish Coast on Tarmagant Island, a cabal of Nazi Sorcerers roundly berated ancient wizard Grigori Rasputin whose Project Ragna Rok ritual seemed to have failed. The Russian was unfazed. Events were unfolding as he wished…

Five decades later, the baby had grown into a mighty warrior engaging in a never-ending secret war: the world’s most successful paranormal investigator. Bruttenholm spent years lovingly raising the weird foundling whilst forming an organisation to destroy unnatural threats and supernatural monsters – The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. “Hellboy” quickly became its lead agent.

As the decades of his career unfolded, Hellboy gleaned tantalising snatches of his origins, hints that he was an infernal creature of dark portent: born a demonic messiah, somehow destined to destroy the world and bring back ancient powers of evil. It is a fate he despises and utterly rejects, even though the universe keeps inexorably and relentlessly moving him towards it.

Hellboy earned the status of ‘actual legend’ in the comics world, starting as the particular vision of a single creator and, by judicious selection of assistants and deputies, cementing a solid take on the character in the hearts of the public. That’s just how it worked for Superman, Batman and Spider-Man (except for the whole “owning the fruits of your own labours” thing) and a big part of the same phenomenon was the eagerness of fellow creators to play in the same universe. Just how that and this collection came about is detailed in Editor Scott Allie’s Introduction preceding a blazing welter of strange and bizarre entertainment…

Originally an 8-part comics series wherein a star-studded cast of creators tell their own stories in their own varied styles under the watchful supervision of the big cheese himself in his unique infernal playground, Hellboy’s Weird Tales was gathered into a 2-volume set in 2004. This luxurious hardback and digital reissue originated in 2014, supplementing the original miniseries with back-up stories from Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #2-4.

Dramas that add to the canon nestle alongside bizarre and humorous vignettes that simply live for the moment and begin with ‘How Koschei Became Deathless’ crafted by Mignola, Guy Davis, Dave Stewart & Clem Robins. The filler from Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #2 & 3 details the valiant trials of a noble warrior and the bad bargain he made, after which a crafty man turns the tables on the world’s wickedest witch in ‘Baba Yaga’s Feast’ (H:TWH #4).

The mother of monsters returns in Fabian Nicieza & Stefano Raffaele’s ‘The Children of the Black Mound’ wherein a future soviet dictator has his own youthful, life-altering encounter with the queen of magic.

John Cassaday spoofs classic newspaper strips with rollicking pulp science hero in ‘Lobster Johnson: Action Detective Adventure’ after which Nazi-bashing nonsense, Eric Powell explores Hellboy’s childhood and early monster-mashing in ‘Midnight Cowboy’ whilst Tom Sniegoski & Ovi Nedelcu raise our spirits with an older ghostbuster failing to tackle a playful posse of spooks in ‘Haunted’…

A classical doomed East/West war romance ghost tragedy is settled by Tommy Lee Edwards & Don Cameron in ‘A Love Story’, setting a scene for more Japanese myth busting in Randy Stradley & Seung Kim’s ‘Hot’ wherein the B.P.R.D. star clashes with an unhappy Tengu (water spirit) inhabiting a mountain hot spring…

Joe Casey & Steve Parkhouse celebrate the glory days of test pilots and the right stuff in ‘Flight Risk’ when Hellboy is involved in a competition to see who’s got the best jetpack, after which ‘Family Story’ (Sara Ryan & Steve Lieber) sees him acting as counsellor to the mum and dad of a rather diabolical kid, before we slip into all-out arcane action to retrieve a time bending artefact from a Guatemalan temple in ‘Shattered’ by Ron Marz & Jim Starlin.

A stakeout with an over-amorous fellow agent leads to unanticipated consequences in J. H. Williams III’s ‘Love is Scarier than Death’, whilst Will Pfeifer & P. Craig Russell’s dalliance with an undying theatre troupe traps our hellish hero in a ‘Command Performance’ and the entertainment motif continues in John Cassaday’s ‘Big-Top-Hell-Boy’ as the B.P.R.D. try to exorcise a mass-murderous circus in Germany before Hellboy and aquatic investigator Abe Sapien battle zombies in the ‘Theatre of the Dead’ courtesy of scripters Jim Pascoe & Tom Fassbender, as illustrated by Simeon Wilkins.

Thanks to John Arcudi & Roger Langridge, the undersea avenger sort of stars in comedic daydream ‘Abe Sapien: Star of the B.P.R.D.’, after which Jill Thompson takes ‘Fifteen Minutes’ to offer us the other side’s view of the eternal struggle, whilst Matt Hollingsworth & Alex Maleev show us the struggle against evil starts before we’re even legally alive in ‘Still Born’. Indomitable psychic Firestarter Liz Sherman acknowledges personal loss and the dreadful cost of the job in Jason Pearson’s ‘The Dread Within’ before Scott Morse conjures up a calmer moment for Hellboy in ‘Cool Your Head’ and Akira Yoshida & Kia Asamiya return us to ghost-riddled Japan for an unconventional duel with childish spirits in ‘Toy Soldier’…

Bob Fingerman’s ‘Downtime’ pits the cream of the B.P.R.D. against the vexatious thing inhabiting the office vending machine, after which Doug Petrie & Gene Colan follow Liz and Abe on a typical ‘Friday’, even as artificial hero Roger the Homunculus foolishly seeks ‘Professional Help’ during a devious demonic assault (as recorded by Evan Dorkin). Andi Watson tackles Hellboy’s infernal heritage and possible future during a social function where he is – as always – the ‘Party Pooper’, after which team leader/psychologist Kate Corrigan endures an acrimonious reunion with her dead-but-still-dreadful mother in ‘Curse of the Haunted Dolly’ (Mark Ricketts & Eric Wright), whilst Kev Walker pits bodiless spirit Johann Krauss against a thing from outer space in ‘Long Distance Caller’.

The narrative portion of this stellar fear & fun fest rightly focuses on Hellboy himself as Craig Thompson takes the weird warrior on an extended tour of the underworld in ‘My Vacation in Hell’ and there’s still a wealth of wonder to enjoy with Mike Mignola’s Hellboy Weird Tales Gallery offering a selection of potent images by Cameron Stewart, Maleev, Dave Stevens with Dave Stewart, Steve Purcell, William Stout, Leinil Francis Yu, Phil Noto, Gary Fields with Michelle Madsen, J. H. Williams III, Rick Cortes with Anjin, Galen Showman with Michelle Madsen, Ben Templesmith, Frank Cho with Dave Stewart, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Lee Bermejo with Dave Stewart and Scott Morse.

Baroque, grandiose, scary, hilarious and even deeply moving, these vignettes alternate suspenseful slow-boil tension with explosive catharsis, and trenchant absurdity, proving Hellboy to be a fully rounded character who can mix apocalyptic revelation with astounding adventure to enthral horror addicts and action junkies alike or enthral jaded fun-lovers in search of a momentary chuckle. This is a classic compendium of dark delights you simply must have.

™ & © 2003, 2009, 2014 Mike Mignola. Weird Tales is ® Weird Tales, Ltd.

Today in 1932 Francis Burr Opper’s landmark strip And Her Name Was Maud ended. If only someone would release a definitive archive I certainly review it!

Also today, the amazing and astounding Otto Binder died in 1974. He wrote everything from Superman to Captain Marvel to Mighty Samson so go seek him out too for a grand old time…

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Melusine volume 5: Tales of the Full Moon


By Clarke & Gilson, coloured by Cerise; translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)

ISBN: 978-1-84918-212-6 (album TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Historically, whenever we used to feel out of sorts we’d consult the wise women to pull our fat out of the fire. Thus as we’re still sick and I’m out of pre-completed reviews here’s a sample of that and me being too clever for my own good.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings…

Witches – especially cute, sassy and/or teenaged ones – have a surprisingly long pedigree in all branches of fiction, and one of the most seductively engaging first appeared in venerable Belgian comic Le Journal de Spirou way back in 1992.

Mélusine is actually a sprightly (119 years old) neophyte sorceress diligently studying to perfect her craft at Witches’ School. To make ends meet she spends her off-duty moments working as au pair/general dogsbody to a shockingly disreputable family of haunts & horrors inhabiting and/or infesting a vast, monster-packed, ghost-afflicted chateau during some chronologically adrift, anachronistically awry time in the Middle-ish Ages…

Episodes of the much-loved feature are presented in every format from one-page gag strips to full-length comedy tales; each and all riffing wickedly on supernatural themes and detailing Melusine’s rather fraught existence. Our magical maid’s life is filled with daily indignities: skivvying, studying, catering to the appalling and outrageous domestic demands of the master and mistress of the castle and – far too occasionally – schmoozing with a large and ever-increasing circle of exceedingly peculiar family and friends.

The strip was devised by writer Françoise Gilson (Rebecca, Cactus Club, Garage Isidore) and cartoon humourist Frédéric Seron – AKA Clarke – whose numerous features for all-ages LJdS and acerbic adult humour Fluide Glacial include Rebecca, Les Cambrioleurs, Durant les Travaux, l’Exposition Continué… and Le Miracle de la Vie. Under the pseudonym Valda, Seron also created Les Babysitters and as “Bluttwurst” Les Enqu?tes de l’Inspecteur Archibaldo Massicotti, Mister President and P.38 et Bas Nylo.

A former fashion illustrator and nephew of comics veteran Pierre Seron, Clarke is one of those insufferable guys who just draws non-stop and is unremittingly funny. He also doubles up as a creator of historical & genre pieces like Cosa Nostra, Les Histoires de France, Luna Almaden and Nocturnes. He was obviously cursed by some sorceress and can no longer enjoy the surcease of sleep…

Collected Mélusine editions began appearing annually or better from 1995 onwards, with the 27th published in 2019. Thus far thanks to Cinebook, five of those have shape-shifted into English translations, but there have been ads for a sixth…

Continentally released in October 2002, Contes de la pleine lune was the 10th groovy grimoire of mystic mirth and is again most welcoming: primarily comprised of single or 2-page gags starring the enticing enchantress and delightfully eschewing continuity for the sake of new readers’ instant approbation. When brittle, moody, over-stressed Melusine isn’t being bullied for her inept cleaning skills by the matriarchal ghost-duchess who runs the castle; ducking cat-eating monster Winston; dodging frisky vampire The Count or avoiding unwelcome and often hostile attentions of horny peasants and over-zealous witch-hunting priests, the wily witchlette can usually be found practising spells or consoling/coaching inept, un-improvable and lethally unskilled classmate Cancrelune.

Unlike Mel, this sorry sorceress-in-training is a real basket case: her transformation spells go appallingly awry; she can’t remember incantations and her broomstick-riding makes her a menace to herself, any unfortunate observers… and even the terrain and buildings around her.

As the translated title suggests, Tales of the Full Moon dwells on demolishing fairy fables and bedevilling bedtime stories but also gives proper introduction to Mel’s best friend Krapella: a rowdy, roistering, mischievous and disruptive classmate who is the very image of what boys want in a “bad” witch…

This tantalising tome is filled with narrative nostrums featuring the traditional melange of slick sight gags and pun-ishing pranks highlighting how our legerdemainic lass finds a little heart’s ease by picturing how one day she’ll have her very own Prince Charming. Sadly, every dream ends – usually because there’s something sticky that needs cleaning up – but Melusine absolutely draws the line when Cancrelune (and even her own sweetness-&-light Fairy cousin Melisande!) start hijacking her daydreams…

This fusillade of fanciful forays concludes with eponymously titled, extended episode Tales of the Full Moon wherein Melusine is ordered to read a bedtime story to the Count’s cousin’s son: obnoxiously rambunctious junior vampire Globule, who insists on twisting her lovely lines about princesses and princes into something warped and Gothic… and even that’s before Cancrelune starts chipping in with her own weird, wild suggestions and interjections…

Wacky, wry, sly, infinitely inventive and uproariously funny, this arty arcana of arcane antics is a terrific taste of Continental comics wonderment: a beguiling delight for all lovers of the cartoonist’s art. Read well before bedtime – or you’ll be up laughing all night…
Original edition © Dupuis, 2002 by Clarke & Gilson. All rights reserved. English translation 2014 © Cinebook Ltd.

Speaking of Dark Nights, today in 1915 Bob Kane was born. Whatever happened to him?
Today in 1906 Golden Age comics scripter Joe Samachson was born. He’s all over this blog so just initiate a little search dialogue action to know more.

And in 1938 the inimitable E.C. “Elzie” Segar died. We last worshipped at his salty feet with Popeye: The E.C. Segar Popeye Sundays volume 4: Swea’Pea and Eugene the Jeep (February 1936 – October 1938); so should you as soon as possible.

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The Complete Peanuts volume 1: 1950-1952


By Charles Schulz (Canongate Books/Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-589-2 (Fantagraphics HB) 978-1-60699-763-5 (Fantagraphics TPB) 978-1-84767-031-1 (Canongate)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: All that’s great about cartoon strips… 10/10

Peanuts is unequivocally the most important comics strip in the history of graphic narrative. It is also the most deeply personal. Today in 1950 it all began, and cartoonist Charles M Schulz went on crafting his moodily hilarious, hysterically introspective, shockingly surreal philosophical epic for half a century: 17,897 strips spanning October 2nd 1950 to February 13th 2000.

He died from complications of cancer the day before his last strip was printed.

At its height, Peanuts ran in 2,600 newspapers, in 21 languages and in 75 countries. Many of those venues still run it as perpetual reprints, and have ever since his death. During Schulz’s lifetime, book collections, a merchandising mountain and television spin-offs had made the publicity-shy doodler an actual billionaire at a time when that really meant something…

None of that matters. Peanuts – a title Schulz loathed, but one the syndicate forced upon him – changed the way comics strips were received and perceived: proving cartoon comedy could have edges and nuance and meaning as well as soon-forgotten pratfalls and punchlines.

Following a typically garrulous, charming and informative Introduction from fellow Minnesotan Garrison Keillor, this mammoth (218 x 33x 172 mm) landscape compendium offers the first two and a bit years. Here a prototypical, rather outgoing and jolly Charlie Brown and high-maintenance mutt Snoopy joined with bombastic Shermy and mercurial Patty in hanging out doing kid things.

These include playing, playing pranks, playing sports such as tennis, golf and baseball, playing musical instruments, teasing each other, making baffled observations and occasionally acting a bit too much like grown-ups. Fans of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes will feel eerie familiarity with much of the hijinks and larks of these episodes.

As new characters Violet, infant prodigy Schroeder, and Lucy and her strange baby brother Linus were added to the mix, the boisterous rush of the series began to imperceptibly settle into a more contemplative pace. Charlie Brown began to adopt and embrace his eternal loser, singled-out-by-fate persona and the sheer diabolical wilfulness of Lucy began to sharpen itself on everyone around her…

The first Sunday page debuted on January 6th 1952; a standard half-page slot offering more measured fare than the daily. Both thwarted ambition and explosive frustration became part of the strip’s signature denouements…

By the end of 1952, all those the rapid-fire gags had evolved from raucous slapstick to surreal, edgy, psychologically barbed introspection, garnished by crushing judgements and deep rumination in a world where kids – and certain animals – were the only actors. The relationships, however, were increasingly deep, complex and absorbing even though “Sparky” Schulz never deviated from his core message: entertain…

David Michaelis then celebrates and deconstructs ‘The Life and Times of Charles M. Schulz’ after which Gary Groth & Rick Marschall conduct ‘An Interview with Charles M. Schulz’, rounding out our glimpse of the dolorous graphic genius with intimate revelations and reminiscences whilst a copious ‘Index’ offers instant access to favourite scenes you’d like to see again.

Readily available in hardcover, paperback and digital editions, this initial volume offers a rare example of a masterpiece in motion: comedy gold and social glue gradually metamorphosing in an epic of spellbinding graphic mastery which became part of the fabric of billions of lives, and which continues to do so long after its maker’s passing.

Happy ever afters, kids.
The Complete Peanuts: 1950-1952 (volume 1) © 2004 Peanuts Worldwide, LLC. Introduction © 2004 Garrison Keillor. “The Life and Times of Charles M. Schulz” © 2000 David Michaelis. “Interview with Charles M. Schulz” © 2004 Gary Groth and Richard Marschall. All other material copyright its respective owners. All rights reserved.

Today in 1909 Alex Raymond was born. You’ll know him best for stuff like Flash Gordon on the Planet Mongo volume 1: Sundays 1934-1937 (The Complete Flash Gordon Library. In 1916 Bob Powell, was born. He went on to do things like Bob Powell’s Complete Jet Powers.

Ramona Fradon was born in 1926, and Spirou stalwart Janry arrived in Belgium in 1957, whilst Maltese docu-comics journalist Joe Sacco was born in 1960. You can find dozens of books by the first two just by using a search box here, and I’ve almost summoned enough nerve to review Sacco’s Palestine despite – or because of – these febrile times…

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My Dad Fights Demons


By Bobby Joseph & Abbigayle Bircham (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-34-8 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic and comedic effect.

Here’s a short, sweet and sarcastically sharp poke at modern culture’s transient nature, mayfly attention-spans and perennially parlous state, delivered in a delicious ribald and deceptively irreverent tone and stylee (not a typo). The deed is done by street-wizened South Londoner and incumbent Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph (Dazed and Confused, Vice, The Guardian, Skank Magazine, Scotland Yardie) and rising star Abbigayle Bircham (Soaring Penguin Press, The Rat Pack Collective).

Anarchic, subversive and definitely NOT for little kids – unless they live inside the heads of adult-seeming types – here is a potent close-up peep at little Londoner Rye who is navigating the already-too-much-to-bear life of a kid trying to find themselves in a world of constant confliction and change-made-for-profit. The often overwhelmed and undervalued young ’un is just about coping with being vegan, addicted to sprout flavoured vapes, embarrassed by mum and her man, unappreciated by peers and schoolmates and generally not digging life when another body blow lands…

Mum and her manly beau – overly eager for a little intimate alone time – suddenly spring the news that Rye’s biological dad is in town and will be exercising visitation rights for the weekend. That’s when Rye first learns that Mr. Mantriks is not actually deceased (as was previously believed) but is in fact a wizard – “greatest sorcerer in the world” – who has been defending reality from inside a hell dimension for most of Rye’s short life.
Such reunions are always a bit uncomfortable, but this one is more fraught than most as daddy (and his appalling goblin familiar “Gobby”) are criminally unaware of how life has moved on, and are fact only really here to retrieve a lost spell of catastrophically evil potential.

However, like all such odd couple yarns, there’s the promise of reconciliation and a happy ending in store, but only if the long-parted in loco parentis pair – and Rye! – can mend long-ignored fences, avoid waves of disembodied body-parts, the allure of parallel universes (and fried chicken shops), totally solve the mystery of the lost cantrip and foil the cunning convoluted schemes of demonic social influencers who shouldn’t be here and SHOULD know better…

Manic-paced and wildly imaginative, this yarn might be impenetrable to certain ossified sections of the readership were it not for the absolutely indispensable aide memoire ‘Gobby’s Guide to UK Slang!’ Moreover, once an ending is reached, you can learn a little of the how and why thanks to ‘Sketches and development work’ provided by the creators…
Text and images © 2025 Bobby Joseph and Abbigayle Bircham. All rights reserved.

Today in 1911, artist Charles Paris was born. Although he probably inked every great pre-Silver Superman & Batman story you’ve ever read, I’d recommend checking out DC Finest: Metamorpho – The Element Man for a wilder ride.

In 1922, unsung comics icon & secret weapon Roz Kirby entered the world, whilst six years later comic strip pioneer Richard Outcault left it. I’m sure you already know all about him, but just in case why not look at Buster Brown: Early Strips in Full Color?

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The Legend of Lord Snooty and His Pals – 60 Years of Classic Cartoon Art


By Dudley D. Watkins, with Albert Holroyd, Roy Nixon, Ken Harrison & various (DC Thomson & Co)
ISBN: 978-0-85116-691-9 (tabloid HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

To commemorate Dudley D. Watkins death on August 20th 1969, I ordered some physical books rather than the digital editions I favour. In an ironic tribute to the great man and Grand British comedic traditions, said items failed to arrive on time for the scheduled tribute on that anniversary. So, here’s one of them that finally turned up and can now consequently be shared with you all. That’s egalitarianism, that is…

As an odd adjunct of being a nation perpetually embroiled in class struggle, Britain has found countless ways to apologize and humanise its blue-blooded oppressors. Here’s one of the most successful: a masterpiece of charming fraternity that undermines any anti-privilege message even as it delights and subverts. But which side is our star on, and does it even matter in the end?

Designed and mostly written by Watkins (1907-1969), and debuting in the very first issue of The Beano on 30th July 1938, the only decent posh boy this country ever produced is Marmaduke, Earl of Bunkerton: a bred-in-the-bone blue-blooded subversive and instinctive rebel anarchist… who could never decide which side of the class war and divide he and his ever-evolving pals were actually on.

Clad in Eton school uniform complete with top hat and umbrella, the little lord loathed the pointless tedium of his grand estate and constant pressure of his impending position and status. Thus, at every opportunity he bunked off, dodging pitiless and so-proper Aunt Matilda (who gradually mellowed into genteelly eccentric “Aunt Mat”) and the haughty, stiff-necked and smugly snobbish Bunkerton Castle staff to cavort and revel with the poor waifs from Ash Can Council School – thus dubbed “The Ash Can Alley kids”. Marmaduke even disguised himself as one of them to indulge in his wayward capers, and fully embraced and leaned into their barbed nickname for him – “Lord Snooty”.

Oh, what Larks!! It was like an Edwardian novel of swopped lives or The Prince and the Pauper played for laughs, with this lovable, amiable toff strongly on the side of the savvy proletariat. However, although he just wanted to have fun, there were always dangerous and unwelcome poor kids to fight in the insalubrious form of the bullies of the Gasworks Gang…

The early days saw the kids mostly dodging onerous duties, tutorial tribulations and posh expectations – although everybody from every societal stratum seemed to have problems with the police force, which was depicted as officious, interfering, venal and spiteful – and usually cast as true villains…

‘The Legend of Lord Snooty and His Pals…’ opens our itinerary introducing the players and offering early exploits.

In those heady days before September 1939 (plentifully sampled here, albeit in lightly edited visual terms to cater for modern sensibilities) beginning with the very first episode, Snooty’s chums consisted of Rosie, Skinny Lizzie, Hairpin Huggins, Happy Hutton, Scrapper Smith, and Gertie the Goat, latterly joined by eternal devil-toddlers in romper suits Snitch & Snatch who arrived in Beano #18. Their amalgamated exploits included: dodging school; pinching grub; taunting the police; rushing about in goat-karts (not a misspelling!); playing cricket and football; circuses & wild animals; foiling burglars & bandits; huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’; ruining banquets and wearing the wrong clothes and enjoying/surviving the inventions of castle inventor Professor Screwtop (introduced in Beano #40, April 29th 1939). However, just as everywhere else, once World War II began, Snooty & Co were drafted…

Followed by selection of strips crafted prior to the declaration of hostilities, ‘The War Years’ delivers a potent and wildly weird sampling of how kids adapted to the crisis – albeit filtered through their adult creators’ sensibilities. After war broke out, the call for morale boosting triggered a wave of delirious and passionate fantasy yarns. As well as cops & robbers, featuring an ever-more officious police force, the anarchistic kids had countless pompous asses and ninnies of the officer classes plus Home Guards & Air Raid Wardens trying to push them around. These were almost more trouble than the nigh-infinite cadre of spies and saboteurs and the entire Nazi Wehrmacht who episodically get what they deserved in an escalating war of nerves and nonsense with the kids. As the conflict proceeded, Snooty and his pint-sized allies even made it to Hitler & Goering’s personal hit list: frequently embarrassing when not actually slapping around the Nasty Nazi nincompoops with no appreciable repercussions. This was wish-fulfilment kid power at its most delightful…

A big bunch of these strips make up a majority of this book and show Watkins at his most imaginative. A tireless and prolific illustrator equally adept at comedy, adventure, educational and drama storytelling, his style more than any other’s shaped the postwar look and form of Scottish publishing giant DC Thompson’s comics output.

He started life in Manchester and Nottingham as an artistic prodigy prior to entering Glasgow College of Art in 1924. Before long he was advised to get a job at expanding, Dundee-based DCT, where his 6-month trial illustrating prose boys’ paper stories led to comic strip specials and some original cartoon creations. Percy Vere and His Trying Tricks and Wandering Willie, The Wily Explorer made him the only contender for both lead strips in a bold new project conceived by Robert Duncan Low (1895-1980). Managing Editor of Children’s Publication and between 1921 and 1933, Low launched the company’s “Big Five” story papers for boys: Adventure, The Rover, The Wizard, The Skipper and The Hotspur. In 1936, he created the “Fun Section”: a landmark 8-page comic strip supplement for national newspaper The Sunday Post. This illustrated accessory – prototype and blueprint for every comic the company subsequently released – was launched on 8th March. From the outset The Broons and Oor Wullie were the uncontested headliners… and were both illustrated by Watkins. The other features included Chic Gordon’s Auchentogle, Allan Morley’s Nero and Zero, Nosey Parker and others. These pioneering comics laid the groundwork for the company’s next great leap. In December, 1937 Low launched DC Thomson’s first weekly all-picture strip comic, The Dandy; with The Beano Comic arriving in 1938…

Low’s irresistible secret weapon in all of these ventures was Watkins. The indefatigable cartoon stalwart drew the Fun Section signature strips The Broons and Oor Wullie from the outset and, without missing a beat, added Desperate Dan in The Dandy to his weekly workload. Seven months later, placidly outrageous social satire Lord Snooty became a big draw for freshly launched companion paper The Beano.

These war stories are interspersed with selections of colour “pic & text” stories taken from postwar annuals (‘1960s Beano Book Picture Book strip’ and ‘Beano Book 1956 Picture Book strip modified version’) somewhat chronologically undercutting the impact of Snooty’s next big adjustment. After the war, the feature was paused and retooled. Lord Snooty was dropped with #367 (30th October, 1948) and only returned in December 1950. However, #440 introduced a new supporting cast, partially comprised of past Beano stars in need of a fresh gig. This crowd included hulking Joe (initially star of Big Fat Joe who was cancelled in #35), Liz (ex-Swanky, Lanky Liz who ran from #336-368), Thomas (Doubting Thomas #90-174), Polly and her dog (originally Polly Wolly Doodle and Her Great Big Poodle, in #286-306) and Mary (Contrary Mary who graced Beano #1-97, and even had a side gig as Neddy the Cuddy in The People’s Journal), who all joined Marmaduke and inexplicably popular gremlins Snitch & Snatch. The scattering of strips from 1946 to the pause & revamp garnish informative feature ‘Out With the Old…’ which reviews strips of absorbed and failed solo stars Big Fat Joe, Doubting Thomas and Swanky Lanky Liz in their primes, and celebrates the debuts of later Snooty fill-in and replacement artists Albert Holroyd, Roy Nixon and Ken Harrison on the aristocratic anarchist trail. Then a section of ‘Fifties strips’ observe modernity and loss of empire in smart, witty strips about Christmas, prefab houses, public transport, April Fool’s stunts, homelessness, penury and death duties, rationing, recycling and animals, lots & lots of animals. Finally, ‘Sixties strips’ sees Watkins and his aides investigate increased prosperity, theft, fraud & mis-selling, shopping, the weather, Screwtop’s inventions, entertainment, proper food, etiquette and social mobility and the proper use of cannon fire…

This titanic tome terminates in a wash of colour as Watkins highlights the twins in a strip from an unspecified annual before modern juvenile paragon of protest and advocate of anarchy Dennis the Menace gets in on the act, with strip ‘Me Too, Lord Dennis’ as the ferocious little lout tries out the old ermines and privileged attitude…

This stunning and luxurious hardback commemorative celebration is exuberantly joyous in tracing one of comics most bizarre and seditious stars and is a strong – almost overwhelming – argument for a bigger and more comprehensive curated collection. Conversely it’s also a huge cartoon chronicle stuffed with strips that will make you collapse in mirth. Probably both. At least you don’t have to pick a side but just buy a book…
© D.C. Thomson & Co Ltd 1998.

On this day in 1960, Daredevil: Born Again illustrator David Mazzucchelli was born.

15 years after that Blankets author Craig Thompson also entered the world.

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Butterscotch (The Flavour of the Invisible)


By Milo Manara, translated by Tom Leighton (Eurotica/NBM) or (Catalan Communications)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-109-4 (HB NBM) or 978-0-87416-047-5 (TPB Catalan)

These books include Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

If the cover images haven’t already clued you in, for some the graphic novels under review here will be unacceptable.

If that’s you, please stop right now and come back tomorrow when there will be something you’ll approve of but which will surely offend somebody else.

Today in 1945 Maurilio Manara – you can call him “Milo”- was born, and since I’m feeling all grown up and continental today, here’s a long overdue review of some milder masterpieces by one of the world’s greatest graphic eroticists.

Originally translated into English by Catalan in 1987, Butterscotch was re-released in 2002 under NBM’s Eurotica imprint, but has since languished in that great big limbo-land of the inexplicably Out-of-Print.

Manara has always been a puckish intellectual and whimsical craftsman with a dazzling array of artistic skills ranging from architecture, product design, filmmaking & animation, painting and of course an elegant, refined, clear-clean line style with pen and ink. He is best known for his wry and always controversial sexually explicit material – although that’s more an indicator of our comics market than any artistic obsession. He’s even drawn the X-Men – but mostly the women…

After studying painting and architecture he became a comics artist in 1969, beginning with the Fumetti Neri series Genius, and thereafter working on the magazine Terror. His life’s goal came in 1971 as he began his “adult” career (see what I did there?) illustrating Francisco Rubino’s Jolanda de Almaviva which led, four years later, to his first major work and success. Originally released as Lo Scimmiotto, The Ape was a bold and bawdy reworking of the Chinese tales of the Monkey King.

By the end of the seventies he was working for Franco-Belgian markets where he is still regarded as an A-list creator. It was while working for Charlie Mensuel, Pilote and L’Écho des savanes that he created signature series HP and Giuseppe Bergman for A Suivre. In 1986 he wrote and drew, in his inimitable blend of social satire, classicist bawdy burlesque and saucy slapstick, the incredible tale of the ultimate voyeur’s dream in Il profumo dell’invisibile, translated here as Butterscotch…

Our star is a rather brilliant, incredibly naive nerd-physicist who has invented a lotion that bends light rays around anything smeared with it. He also has an unnervingly innocent and utterly sexless fascination with prima ballerina Beatrice D’Altavilla… which is a pity as she is a heartless, sadistic power-mad monster… and the biggest slut in creation.

Honey is Beatrice’s extremely liberated, licentious and hot-blooded associate (The Beatrice don’t do “friends”) and when she discovers a naked, semi-invisible man in the dancer’s bedroom, she feels it her duty to show the innocuous stalker what his dream girl is really like. Sadly, there are none so blind as those who will not see, especially if we can’t see them either, and her many and various attempts to open his invisible eyes lead to violence and a bizarre sexual co-dependence; what with divine Beatrice being far too virginal and perfect for that nasty, dirty stuff…

As Honey perpetually and ever-more frantically attempts to prove the existence of her invisible man – whose cloaking lotion smells powerfully of butterscotch sweets – her already low position in the ballerina’s entourage plummets and the abuses intensify. Finally, however, as Honey grows increasingly closer to the omnipresent, unseen (but so regularly felt) voyeur, she finally succeeds in exposing Beatrice’s true nature, leading to a tempestuous climax nobody expected and some might not survive…

Couched in Manara’s beautifully rendered, lavish line-work, this witty, highly explicit, sexually charged tale casts fascinating light on what people can’t and won’t see around them. Absolutely for adults only, Butterscotch is a captivating exploration of love, obsession and misperception.

Raunchy, funny and extremely hard to find, this is a book desperately worthy of a new edition.
© 1987 Milo Manara. English Language edition © 1987 Catalan Communications. © 2002 NBM. All rights reserved.

Indian Summer


By Milo Manara & Hugo Pratt, translated by Jeff Lisle (/NBM/Catalan Communications)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-107-0 (NBM TPB) 0-87416-030-2-8 (Catalan TPB)

Hugo Eugenio Pratt (June 15th 1927 – August 20th 1995) was one of the world’s paramount comics creators, and his enthralling graphic narratives inventions since Ace of Spades (whilst still a student at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts) in 1945 were both many and varied. His signature character – based in large part on his own exotic early life – is mercurial soldier of fortune Corto Maltese. You can learn more about him via our coverage of his UK war comics such as War Picture Library – The Crimson Sea please link to 30th July 2025.

However, a storyteller of Pratt’s vast creative capabilities was ever-restless, and as well as writing and illustrating his own tales, he scripted for other giants of the industry. In 1983 he crafted a steamy tale of sexual tension and social prejudice set in the New England colonies in the days before the Salem Witch Trials. This tale is timeless, potent and – naturally – out of print in English. In a world of digital publishing I find that utterly incomprehensible…

Tutto ricominciò con un’estate indiana (which was published as Indian Summer – although a more appropriate and illustrative translation would be “All things begin again with an Indian Summer”) was brought to stunning pictorial life by fellow graphic raconteur Milo Manara.

Remember his breakout series HP and Giuseppe Bergman for A Suivre? The “HP” of the title is his pal Hugo Pratt…

New England in the 17th century: The Puritan village of New Canaan slowly grows in placid, if uneasy, co-existence with the natives who have fished and hunted these coastal regions for centuries. When young Shevah Black is raped by two young Indians, outcast Abner Lewis kills them both. Taking the “ruined” girl back to his mother’s cottage in the woods, he introduces her to the entire family: mother Abigail and siblings Jeremiah, Elijah and Phyllis. They are a whole brood of damned sinners banished by Shevah’s uncle, the so-pious Reverend Pilgrim Black…

The mother was once a servant in the Black household, but has lived in the woods for 20 years, ever since Pilgrim Black’s father raped her. When Abigail fell pregnant, she was cast out for her sin and her face still bears a sinner’s brand. Aided by Indians, the reluctant mother built a cabin, and over the years had three further children. Her progeny are all wild creatures of nature; healthy, vital and with many close ties both to the natives (from personal preference and choice) as well as the truly decadent Black family (by sordid, unwelcome history and association)…

Now blood has spilled and passions are roused: none of those ties can prevent a bloodbath, and as the day progresses, many dark secrets come to light as the intolerance, hypocrisy and raw, thwarted lust of the upstanding Christians leads to an inexorable clash with the “savages and heathens” who are by far the most sensible and decent individuals in the place, with the pitifully isolated, ostracized and alienated Lewis clan stuck in the middle and betrayed by all sides…

Beautiful, disturbing and utterly compelling, this thoroughly adult examination of sexual tension, religious hypocrisy, attitudinal eugenics and destructive, tragic love is played out against the sweltering seductive heat and primitive glories of a natural, plentiful paradise which only needs its residents to act more like beasts and less like humans to achieve a perfect tranquillity.

Sadly, every Eden has serpents and here there are three: religion, custom and pride…

Pratt’s passion for historical research is displayed by the graphic afterword in which he not only cites his extensive sources – including a link to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter – but adds some fascinating insights and speculations on the fates of the survivors of the New Canaan massacre.

Although there is a 1994 NBM edition, I’m reviewing my 1986 Catalan copy principally because I own that one, but also because the Catalan copy has a magnificent four-page foldout watercolour cover (which I couldn’t fit onto my scanner no matter how I tried) and some pretty amazing sketches and watercolour studies gracing Javier Coma’s insightful introduction.

This is a classic tale of humanity frailty, haunting, dark and startlingly lovely. Whatever version you find, you must read this superb story; and if any print or digital publisher is reading this, you know what you should do…

© 1986, 1994 Milo Manara & Hugo Pratt. English language edition © 1986 Catalan Communications. All rights reserved.

Today marks the birth in 1897 of Walter B. Gibson, the magician turned author who wrote The Shadow.

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Lucky Luke volume 9: The Wagon Train


By Morris& Goscinny translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-90546-040-3 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One could quite convincingly argue that the USA’s greatest cultural export has been the Western. Everybody everywhere thinks they know what Cowboys and Indians are and do, but the genre has long migrated and informed every aspect or art and literature all over the planet. Comics particularly have benefited from the form, with Europe continuing to produce magnificent works even in these latter years when sagebrush sagas are barely visible in American entertainment and instead play out on the streets and in the courts…

This side of the pond, cowboys were a key component in all nooks & crannies of popular fiction from the earliest days. Newspapers were packed with astoundingly high-quality strips ranging from straight dramas such as Gun Law and Matt Marriott to uniquely British takes like Bud Neill’s outrageous spoof Lobey Dosser, whilst weekly kids comics anthologically abounded with episodic exploits of Texas Jack, Desperate Dan, Colorado Kid, Davy Crockett, Kid Dynamite, Buffalo Jack and more.

As previously mentioned, Europe especially embraced the medium and expanded the boundaries of the genre. In Italy Tex (Willer) remains as vital as ever, far outdistancing later revered and much-exported series such as Captain Miki, Il Grande Blek, Zagor, Larry Yuma, Ken Parker, Magico Vento and Djustine. The Franco-Belgian wing also has a long tradition of variety with true immortals amongst its ponderosa Pantheon: from all ages-comedic treats such as Yakari, OumPah-Pah, Chick Bill or The Bluecoats to monolithic and monumental mature-reader sagas like Jerry Spring, Comanche, Sergeant Kirk, La Grande Saga Indienne, Buddy Longway or the legendary Blueberry…

Topping them all in terms of sales and fame, however, is a certain laconic lone rider…

A precocious, westerns-addicted, art-mad kid, well off and educated by Jesuits, Maurice de Bevere was born on December 1st 1923 in Kortrijk, Belgium. A far from illustrious or noteworthy scholar – except in all the ways teachers despise – Maurice later sought artistic expression in his early working life via forays into film animation before settling into his true vocation. While working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d’Actualitiés) animation studio, “Morris” met future comics superstars Franquin & Peyo, and worked for weekly magazine Le Moustique as a caricaturist. Morris quickly became one of la Bande des quatre – The Gang of Four – comprising Jijé, Will and old comrade Franquin: leading proponents of a loose, free-wheeling artistic style known as the “Marcinelle School” which dominated Le journal de Spirou in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style favoured by Hergé, EP Jacobs and other artists in Le Journal de Tintin.

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

Working solo, albeit with occasional script assistance from his brother Louis De Bevere until 1955, Morris produced nine albums of affectionate sagebrush parody and comedic cinematic homage before formally uniting with Goscinny, who became the regular wordsmith as Luke attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with Des rails sur la Prairie which began in weekly LJd S from August 25th 1955. The collected album was first released for Christmas in 1957, the ninth in the series, and was followed by Morris’ final solo tale Alerte aux Pieds Bleus/The Bluefeet are Coming! in 1958.

Doughty, rangy, and dashingly dependable Lucky Luke is the likable, imperturbable, implacably even-tempered cowboy do-gooder who can “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around a mythic, cinematically informed Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant, stingingly sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. Over nearly nine decades, his exploits in LJdS (and from 1967, in rival periodical Pilote) made the sharp shooter a legend of stories across all media and monument of merchandising.

His exploits have made him one of the bestselling comic characters in Europe (83 collected albums plus around a dozen spin-offs and specials – totalling over 300 million books in at least 33 languages), with all the spin-off toys, computer games, puzzles, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies that come with that kind of popularity.

The rapid pace and seeming simplicity of these spoof tales means older stories can generally sit quite comfortably alongside newer material crafted for a more modern readership.

In 1962 Morris & Goscinny’s 15th collaboration was serialised in LJdS #1281 – 1302 before arriving as 24th European album collection Lucky Luke et La Caravane; The Wagon Train to us…

It’s one of their most traditional tales; playing joyously with tropes and memes of the genre and clearly having as much fun as future readers were going to, and begins in dusty Nothing Gulch as a bedraggled procession of “Prairie Schooners” limp into town. Expedition head Andrew Boston is arguing with unscrupulous guide Frank Malone who’s demanding even more money before completing his commission to bring the hopeful settlers to California. When heated words are replaced with gunplay, a dusty observer ends the fracas before blood is shed…

Boston has heard a lot about Lucky Luke and promptly starts a multi-pronged charm offensive to have the Sagebrush Stalwart take over guiding the party to the fabled Golden State. Our hero is flattered but not interested… until Boston wheels out his big guns and has the kids ask in their own unique ways. Despite being prepared to use children to emotionally twist the cowboy’s arm, the twenty or so wagon-loads of pioneers are an affable if odd bunch from all over the world, and soon Luke is leading them across prairies and through deserts and mountains.

However, as days pass an extraordinarily large number of accidents and mishaps occur, and before long it cannot be denied that somebody is clearly attempting to sabotage the expedition…

With close calls and near-death escapes mounting, Lucky splits his attention between blazing a trail and playing detective but the suspect pool is just too large. Anybody from the undertaker in his hearse to the inventor in his constantly evolving horseless converter-car (there’s more than a passing similarity to TV’s Whacky Races here!); the suspiciously French Barber/Surgeon, creatively foul-mouthed mule driver or even the no-nonsense School Marm could be the culprit. But then again, there are so many others who act out of the ordinary…

Nevertheless, the voyage proceeds and as the would-be homesteaders survive the temptations of bad towns and other dens of vice and iniquity, bad food, and inclement weather a sense of community builds. Sadly, that’s soon tested to the limit when word comes that Sioux Chief Rabid Dog is on the warpath…

Despite all these traditional trials and tribulations Luke persists, and before long the Promised Land is reached and a vile villain finally exposed.

Cleverly barbed, wickedly ironic and joyously packed with classic cowboy set-pieces, this splendidly slapstick spoof of a crucial strand of the genre is another grand old hoot superbly executed by master storytellers for any kids who might have missed the romantic allure of an all-pervasive Wild West that never was…

And in case you’re worried, even though the interior art still has our hero chawin’ on that ol’ nicotine stick, trust me, there’s very little chance of anyone craving a quick snout, but quite a strong probability that they’ll be addicted to Lucky Luke Albums…
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Goscinny & Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2007 Cinebook.

Today in 1930: French comics pioneer Jean-Claude Forest – creator of Barbarella – was born.

Today in 1954 the premier issue of Tiger went on sale. After 1555 issues and seven decades, its top star remains Roy of the Rovers (see The Bumper Book of Roy of the Rovers ).

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Blondie: The Bumstead Family History/Blondie: The Complete Bumstead Family History


By Dean Young, and Melina Ryzik (Thomas Nelson/Rutledge Hill Press, U.S.)
ISBN: 978-1-4016-0322-9 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Normally I leave newspaper strip reviews for a weekend, but this is one birthday we just can’t miss. Please remember, just because you don’t read something don’t mean it ain’t popular…

Like Dagwood’s legendary sarnies, Bumstead family functions go on forever. Yesterday we learned how Chic Young’s strip Blondie began on September 8th 1930 and just kept going. The feature was inherited and carried on in 1973 by his family, chiefly son Dean with a select group of collaborators. Dean considers himself the guardian of a legacy as much as continuer of a phenomenon. In 2007, after the 75th anniversary, commemorative curated celebration Blondie: the Bumstead Family History was released to mark the occasion, and with the feature still going strong this remastered (even enjoying fancy-schmancy External hyperlinks, no less!) “Complete” edition invites a look at what he’s done to keep things fresh as much as safeguard generations of readers’ fond memories.

Combining short lavishly illustrated articles with a wealth of published strips – each attached to general topics – the raucous revery begins with ‘Chapter One: The Bumstead Family Album’, incorporating historical overviews and the traced evolutions of ‘Blondie’ and eternal, often inanimate inamorata ‘Dagwood’; firstborn son/current teen icon ‘Alexander’ (who first appeared on April 15th 1934) and his sister ‘Cookie’ who Dagwood feels is far too popular with boys). Faithful, longsuffering house mutt ‘Daisy’ gets her own section, as does abusive Boss/archnemesis ‘Mr. Dithers’, next-door-neighbours ‘The Woodleys’ (AKA Herb & Tootsie), long-suffering mailman ‘Mr. Beasley’ and cheeky, always underfoot kid/voice of a fresh generation ‘Elmo Tuttle’…

The early days of the unshakable relationship are scrutinised in ‘Chapter Two: Getting Married’, tracing love’s rocky road through turbulent fast-changing times and a hugely successful publicity gimmick of young Dagwood going on extended hunger strike to force his adamant parents to allow him to wed! A massive publicity coup, the convoluted month-long storyline led to rowdy nuptials in February 1933 and is swiftly and sensibly followed by chapters on ‘Family Life’, as the couple become a nuclear unit, demographic and breadwinning paean to domesticity as ‘Dagwood at Work’ reveals what a decent man endures to bring home the bacon – and pickles and bratwurst and olives and pastrami and turkey and chicken, and salmon and lettuce and pumpernickel and lox and…

Courting middle American controversy, not to say media attention and a little homemaker wrath, ‘Blondie Goes to Work’ saw the tireless and capable stay-at-home mom and neighbour Tootsie ultimately turn those life skills into joyously fulfilling independence by starting their own catering business. This was only in 1991 and this pic-packed chapter also deals with the ridiculous amounts of outrage the world-shaking leap into the 20th century seemed to trigger in the heartland. Naturally, Dagwood was completely supportive: who else could test the new dishes and delights the girls kept inventing…

‘Chapter Six: Favourite Strips’ reviews some of the countless gags to have riffed on the series’ core themes – eating, sleeping, making and living and eating – whilst focussing on Dean Young’s constant efforts to keep the strips relevant and contemporary whilst the major industry event that evolved out of ‘The 75th Anniversary’ is described in detail. To celebrate the milestone in 2005, Dean and King Features organised a massive crossover that included VIPs like President Bush and other real-world notables as well as most of the nation’s major strips and creators wishing the happy couple all the best.

If you read Beetle Baily, Hagar the Horrible, Garfield, Rose is Rose, Wizard of Id, Dick Tracy, B.C., Mother Goose & Grimm, Family Circus, Shoe, Hi & Lois, Gasoline Alley, Sally Forth, Snuffy Smith, Buckles, Baby Blues, Zits, Mutts, Curtis, Marvin, For Better or Worse, Born Loser, Dennis the Menace (theirs not ours), Cathy, Thick Thin or Bizarro you were invited and there on the day. Disney alumni and single panel editorial cartoonists got in on it and for one moment all of America enjoyed a taste of Dagwood. Most of those strips are here as well as plenty from the months-long build up and aftermath in the actual Blondie feature.

This super memoriam concludes with a look beyond the panels as ‘Forever Young’ explores the life and achievements of Murat Bernard Young, his wife and model/inspiration Athel Lindorff née Young, Dean and sister Jeanne and the many notables who pitched in and/or assisted on Blondie’s production: Alex and Jim Raymond, Stan Drake, Mike Gersher, Ray McGill, Denis LeBrun, and John Marhall & Frank Cummings

Also included in this inescapably family function are original art and sketches, dozens of candid family portraits and photos, commentary and so, so many cartoons to wallow in. If you want a simple satisfying Good Read, this is for you your kids and your grannie, but don’t forget to bring the sandwiches… and not small ones neither…
© King Features Syndicate, Inc. 2007.

Today in 1958, Jack Kirby’s Sky Masters of the Space Force newspaper strip launched.