Category: Comedy

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A Spirou and Fantasio Adventure volume 20: The Dark Side of the Z


By Fabien Vehlmann & Yoann, designed by Fred Blanchard, colored by Hubert & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-103-3 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Boyish hero Spirou (which translates as both “squirrel” and “mischievous” in the Walloon language) was created by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter AKA Rob-Vel. This was before the Second World War for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis in response to the phenomenal success of Hergé’s Tintin at rival outfit Casterman.

Soon-to-be legendary weekly comic Le Journal de Spirou launched on April 21st 1938 with a rival red-headed lad as lead feature in an anthology which bears his name to this day. The eponymous hero was a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed in the Moustique Hotel – a sly reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique. His improbable adventures with pet squirrel Spip gradually evolved into far-reaching, surreal comedy dramas.

Spirou and his chums have helmed the magazine for most of its life, with a cohort of truly impressive creators carrying on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939. She was assisted by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943, when Dupuis purchased all rights to the property, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (Jijé) took the helm. In 1946, his assistant André Franquin assumed the creative reins: gradually ditching the well-seasoned short gag vignettes format in favour of epic adventure serials. He also expanded the cast, introducing a broad band of engaging regulars and eventually creating phenomenally popular magic animal Marsupilami.

Franquin was followed by Jean-Claude Fournier who updated the feature over nine stirring adventures tapping into the rebellious, relevant zeitgeist of the times: offering tales of environmental concern, nuclear energy, drug cartels and repressive regimes.

By the 1980s, however, the series seemed outdated and lacking direction, so three separate creative teams alternated on it. Eventually overhauled and revitalised by Philippe Vandevelde (writing as Tome) and artist Jean-Richard Geurts – AKA Janry – adapting, referencing and in many ways returned to the beloved Franquin era, the strip found its second wind.

Their sterling efforts revived the floundering feature’s fortunes, generating 14 wonderful albums between 1984 and 1998. As the strip diversified into parallel strands (Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and Guest-Creator Specials A Spirou Story By…), the team on the core feature were succeeded by Jean-David Morvan & José-Luis Munuera. Then Yoann & Vehlmann took over the never-ending procession of amazing adventures…

Multi-award-winning French comics author Fabien Vehlman was born in 1972, began his comics career in 1996 and has been favourably likened to René Goscinny. He’s probably still best known for Green Manor (illustrated by Denis Bodart), Seven Psychopaths with Sean Phillips, Seuls (drawn by Bruno Gazzotti and available in English as Alone), Wondertown with Benoit Feroumont and Isle of 1000,000 Graves with Jason.

Yoann Chivard was born in October 1971 and was drawing non-stop by age five. With qualifications in Plastic Arts and a degree in Communication from the Academy of Fine Arts in Angers, he became a poster advertising artist whilst just dabbling in comics. His creations include Phil Kaos and Dark Boris for British Indie publications Deadline and Inkling, Toto l’Ornithorynque, Nini Rezergoude, La Voleuse de Pere-Fauteuil, Ether Glister and Bob Marone and he has contributed to Trondheim & Sfar’s Donjon.

In 2006, Yoann was the first artist to produce a Spirou et Fantasio one shot Special. It was scripted by Vehlmann…

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since 2009, alternating between the various superb reinterpretations of Franquin and earlier efforts from the great man himself.

When Jijé handed Franquin the strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriqué (LJdS #427, June 20th 1946), the new guy ran with it. Over two decades he enlarged the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters like loyal comrade and rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas de Champignac – The Count of Champignac…

Spirou and Fantasio became globe-trotting journalists, travelling to dangerously exotic places, uncovering crimes, exploring the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies such as Fantasio’s deranged and wicked cousin Zantafio and that maddest of scientists, Zorglub.

This old school chum and implacable rival of Champignac is an outrageous Bond-movie-tinged villain constantly targeting the Count. A brilliant engineer, his incredible machines are far less dangerous than his mind-controlling “Zorglwave” and his apparently unshakable hunger to conquer Earth and dominate the solar system from a base on the Moon…

This tale – originally in 2011 La face cachée du Z – opens with our happily argumentative chums repairing the collaterally damaged Champignac chateau yet again. Exhausted, they go to indoors to sleep… and wake up in a horrific and tawdry casino resort. Compounding the shocks are weird, painfully unpredictable tricks of gravity, as it’s apparently built only for the super-rich and on the moon!

Worst of all, explaining the transition is smugly sanctimonious old enemy Zorglub…

Still agonisingly hungry for his rival’s approval, the evil genius blathers on about his triumphs and his Great Masterwork since last seen (in volume 18’s Attack of the Zordolts): escaping from dirty, dying Earth to the stars with hot Swedish science students Astrid and Lena. Now they’ve gone off together, leaving the science troll to carve out his interplanetary empire alone.

At least, he would be, if certain funding shortfalls hadn’t forced him into bed with One-percenters who think his citadel could be the most exclusive resort off Earth…

Zorglub still needs to be the virtuous Architect of Humanity’s Future, but the people he has are nothing like the ones he wants: bold Fantasio, ingenious Spirou and brilliant ethically pristine Pacôme de Champignac…

That’s why – for the most logical and moral reasons – he drugged and abducted them…

Without question, the lunar outpost is a technological wonder, with advances and advantages even the kidnapped admire, but the beloved holy Science is being increasingly sidelined, for bigger and better gambling rooms, ski slopes, surfing beaches, sports complexes, nature sideshows and glitzy restaurants.

It does not go down well when Spirou points out that Zorglub could have cleaned up and saved Earth for less money and effort…

Further debate is forestalled when a solar flare is announced and Spirou refuses to join everyone else in radiation-shielded shelters until he recovers his wandering wild pal Spip. Locked out, our hero spectacularly finds a way to survive the cosmic storm, but it’s not for a while that we realise it’s come at a severe mutagenic cost…

The pauper lad’s suicide run across the resort’s attractions was televised and has made him a minor celebrity amongst the movie stars like Blythe Prejlowieky (who soon seduces the kid for her own shocking purposes!), overly-competitive sporting gods like Mike Adibox, faceless money-moguls and flagrantly ostentatious oligarchs such as Igor. Not so much impressed as cautious is the investors’ appointed fixer and ultimate mercenary Poppy Bronco. He’s recognized something in the survivor that bodes badly for all…

The sun starts setting on the project after Champignac chides Zorglub for the worthlessness of his achievements and surrendering of his principled dreams. It coincides with a series of potentially lethal sabotage attempts and – defined by true devotion to their precious skins – the one-percenters commandeer the transport back to Earth, with only few such as Blyth and Igor choosing to stay behind with the peons and paid staff…

Finally rid of his annoying paymasters, Zorglub then executes his long-term plans but is completely unprepared for what happens to Spirou when the lunar night begins. Bronco isn’t though and organises a monster-hunt through the abandoned resort and across the moon…

The outcome is tense, gripping unexpected and so very To Be Continued.

Rocket-paced, action-packed, compellingly convoluted and with just the right blend of perfectly blending helter-skelter excitement and sheer daftness, The Dark Side of the Z is a terrific witty romp to delight devotees of easy-going adventure, drawn with beguiling style and seductive energy. This is pure cartoon gold, truly deserving of reaching the widest audience possible.
Original edition © Dupuis, 2011 by Vehlmann & Yoann. All rights reserved. English translation 2023 © Cinebook Ltd.

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The Rugger Boys volumes 1 & 2: Why Are We Here Again? & A Spoonful of Style and a Tonne of Class


By Béka & Poupard: coloured by Sylvain Frecon, Murielle Rousseau & Magali Poli-Rivière & translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-33-5 (Album PB/Digital edition v1) 978-1-905460-44-1 (Album PB/Digital 2)

Time to cash in on a global sporting event again. We must do a cricket, ping pong or skateboarding feature one day…

Human beings and – according to the internet – a huge variety of our pets and animal housemates seem obsessed with and revel in chasing balls about. So much so that we/they even apply a range of complex rules to the sheer exhilaration of the process, just to make things more difficult and artificially extend proceedings.

We call it sport and when it’s not hugely thrilling and deadly serious it can be hilariously funny…

Comics over many decades and throughout the world have often mined our obsession with assorted games for secondary entertainment value and these Cinebook tomes detail in dramatically humorous manner stunning strips starring a dedicated amateur team of French gladiators, all painfully enamoured of the manly (and womanly and British-originated, let’s not forget) oddball pastime dubbed Rugby.

Les Rugbymen was created in 2005 by writing partnership Bertrand Escaich & Caroline Roque under their collaborative nom de plume Béka (Studio Danse, Les Fonctionnaires) in conjunction with self-taught illustrator Alexandre Mermin, who generally labours under the pseudonym Poupard (Chez Gaspard, Les Brumes du Miroboland). The resulting flurry of short sharp gags and extra-time yarns have filled 20 albums thus far with another due any day now, and there’s even a junior league spin-off which began in 2010 entitled Les Petits Rugbymen…

On n’est pas venus pour être là! was the third Euro-volume but as Why Are We Here Again? was the first to be translated by Cinebook… probably because it features a brief sporting tour of England. Pithy, gritty and very funny, it perfectly encapsulates the passion, toil and sheer testosterone-fuelled idiocy which can warp normally rational folk.

Our stars are a few dedicated souls faithfully enjoying the trials and welcome tribulations of club rugby (and that’s Rugby Union, right?) as played by the stalwarts of fictional south-western French town side Paillar Athletic Club, affectionately known to their frankly obsessive fans as The PAC…

As seen on the introductory page, the usual suspects generally manifest as intellectually compromised “Hooker” Lightbulb, Herculean “Prop” Fatneck, 2nd Row star The Anaesthetist, dashing sex-crazed Back Romeo and Scrumhalf/Captain The Grumpster, all regularly adored and vilified by The Coach who never lets his speech defect get in the way of a good insult to the dozy slackerrrs…

All you need to know is that these guys are bold, sturdy and love food and drink as much as they do smashing each other into the mud…

Their exploits are generally delivered as single page sequences, lavishly, lovingly and outrageously illustrated and jam-packed with snippets of off-kilter slapstick to supplement the main gag and the dramatic material. Content is almost everything you’d expect from such a fixture: big beefy blokes in very small towels, lots of booze-fuelled gaffes, bizarre eating eccentricities, what we Brits refer to as “knob-jokes” and mutual sportsmanlike skulduggery of the sort that has permeated all games Real Men compete in…

However, also on display are a profusion of smartly-planned running gags and truly effective comedic gems such as the well-meaning meatheads’ ongoing efforts to help Lightbulb find “love”, Romeo’s constant comeuppances from husbands, boyfriends and employers unhappy with his off-pitch assignations and The Coach’s eternal battle to whip his doughty but dopey band of idiots into a team he can be proud of…

As previously mentioned, this collection also contains a wry, preconception/prejudice-confirming international excursion when The PAC accept an offer to play a friendly match against British college side Camford. As well as a chance to pummel the despised English, there’s the promise of seeing a Six Nations match to offset the unbearable pain of living on the foreigners’ appalling food and pathetic beer…

 

The Rugger Boys volume 2: A Spoonful of Style and a Tonne of Class

Continentally the fifth outing, On va gagner avec le lard et la manière was the second (and, thus far, last) translated Cinebook tome – once again probably because it features brief sporting excursions to lesser English (sort-of) speaking nations Scotland and New Zealand.

As such it perfectly recapitulates the passion, toil and sheer testosterone-fuelled idiocy which can warp normally rational folk.

The titular Union Rules stars Romeo and The Grumpster are joined by character-expanded players like precocious Centre Hugo – The Engineer – Cap, and 2nd Row veteran Freddy – The Anaesthetist – Bones whilst The Coach now has a name to be cursed by – Bernard Farmer. He still never lets his barrrrbarous accent get in the way of a good insult or pithy instruction to the dozy slackerrrs…

These guys are bolder, funnier and sturdier – because they still love to eat and drink as much as they do spending every weekend in sanctioned unarmed combat. This time however equality reigns and there’s a succinct glimpse of the Paillar Athletic Ladies Team too, and you can share the lads’ first turbulent TV appearance too…

Mostly, however, on display is a profusion of smartly-planned running gags and compact comedy gems like the well-meaning meatheads’ further efforts to help Lightbulb find love, more of Romeo’s confrontations with other people’s significant others, and employers unhappy with his off-pitch Tries, plus the woebegone touchline medic’s miserable life and Coach’s eternal battle to make sporting gold from part-time dross…

This time kick off leads to an extended origin story revealing how the playful imps they once were turned a boring school lesson into a life-changing indoor match: thereby forming sporting bonds that last a lifetime…

As promised, this fixture includes a brief tour of Scotland, offering a broad belt of new experiences from braw brews to fine-foods-&-bonnie lassies, to life-changing injuries, before concluding with a bombastic whistle-stop tour of the Antipodes when The Pac are generously invited to visit the mighty New Zealand All-Blacks at home, after the Rugby World Cup concludes…

Mostly though it’s always about mud, mauling, getting stuffed and getting smashed – in every sense of the term…

Fast, furiously funny and splendidly boisterous, these cartoon antics might even inspire dedicated couch-potatoes to get out of the house… unless they order books and dinner online…
© BAMBOO EDITION, 2006, 2007 by Béka & Poupard. All rights reserved. English translation © 2007 Cinebook Ltd.

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Bunny vs Monkey book 8: The Impossible Pig!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-300-4 (Digest HB)

Bunny vs Monkey has been the hairy backbone of The Phoenix since the very first issue back in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal arch-enemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands.

Concocted with gleefully gentle mania by cartoonist, comics artist and novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember), his trendsetting, mind-bending yarns have been wisely retooled as graphic albums available in remastered, double-length digest 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 the wake of a disastrous British space shot. Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite all efforts from reasonable, sensible, genteel, contemplative forest resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and good breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this day remains a rude, noise-loving, chaos-creating, troublemaking lout…

Problems are exacerbated by other unconventional Crinkle creatures, particularly the skunk called Skunky who has a mad scientist’s intellect and attitude to life plus a propensity for building extremely dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons…

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

Divided into seasonal outbursts, this magnificent hardback archive of insanity opens in the traditional manner: starting slowly with a sudden realisation. Probably by using his fingers, Monkey has worked out that Bunny’s side has more good guys (Ai, Pig Piggerton, Weenie, Metal E.V.E. and Le Fox) than his own bad ones! Wisely rejecting Skunky’s offer to make more evildoers, the sinisterly stupid simian seeks to steal some of Bunny’s buddies: making insidious individual approaches in ‘A Big Hole’.

One immediate success goes unnoticed as those worthy stalwarts debate ways to get hapless Pig out of a giant pit before finding the ‘Tunnels’ the sweet simpleton used to get there in the first place…

First contact and a really strange day for all – including a wholly new kind of Crinkle critter – occurs in ‘Jerb-eing Unreasonable’, before Monkey commits carnage in a psychic bodysuit that can literally ‘Imagine That’: opening the doors to another Spring. At this time a certain white rabbit is pilfering carrots from an angry Hyooman, only to be saved by Monkey in the colossal exo-skeletal ‘Spade-O-Matic’, officially opening hostilities between bipeds and beasts…

Meanwhile and maybe later, Bunny experiences ‘Mossy Mayhem’ when Skunky’s latest experiment escapes, even as Metal E.V.E ponders astral reality and rashly asks her friend to explain ‘Pig Science’…

As monkey demands 25% more evil from his crew, he’s distracted by Metal Steve’s latest faux pas – a doomed relationship with ‘Wipey’ – and ‘Sun 2.0’ renders repercussions of Skunky upgrading the source of all light and warmth. Action Beaver is then subject to a ‘Body Swap’ after Monkey covets his apparent immunity to pain and harm. It doesn’t end well…

Once the Great Woodland Bake-off inevitably culminates in ‘Cakes and Bruises’ Monkey use a superstrength serum unwisely. As his bones mend he has a Damascus moment: deducing that being a ‘Good Monkey’ might be less harmful. He gives nobility a go… but it too doesn’t end well…

A fresh face materialises when Pig meets ‘The Visitor’ and inadvertently saves Lucky the Red Panda from atomic discorporation. Sadly, the effect is only temporary and when their memories merge, Lucky is stuck in residence in this dimension with our plucky porcine adrift in the molecular stream of the cosmos…

Trapped on Earth, the stranger tries desperately to convince all and sundry she is ‘Actually Pig’, often assisted by typical distractions like marauding sprout-farting monster ‘Gruntulak!’ and a no-holds-barred campaign to elect ‘President Monkey’.

Skunky starts disassembling woodland residents: harvesting DNA to make endless duplicates in ‘All A-Clone’ but even Skunky’s science can’t handle Lucky…

As Summer starts, mad science wins again. Skunky sets a trap to prove Lucky is ‘Not Pig’ and even finds what happened to the lost one, after which Monkey manages to murder cloud-gazing in ‘Weather or Not’ and Weenie gets a shocking letter in ‘Blackmail’…

With the truth about to out, ‘Pocket Pig’ sees the gentle woodland folk form a torch-waving mob to establish their real friend’s fate, only to find Skunky has already found a way to exploit the situation. However, when he constructs a device to reach the outer realms, Monkey makes a shambles of the ‘Portal Recall’…

When the awful anthropoid gets a mail-order giant robotic Chicken of Darkness, he never anticipated some assembly required and the woods are saved by ‘A Loose Nobble’, allowing good manners and better natures to resurface. Thus, the animals all contribute to ‘Lucky’s Home’: especially Monkey with his goop gun and crushing space-sphere of doom…

Elsewhere, as Metal Steve and Metal E.V.E hold a private contest to decide the best automaton in ‘Who Will Win the War of the Robots’, Skunky’s clumsiness triggers a crop of carnivorous blooms in ‘Chomp!’ Then, as Monkey’s alter ego “Captain Explosives” accidentally uncovers a crop of chronal crystals in ‘Time and Again’ Skunky makes his greatest breakthrough: a remote control for existence with a ‘Freeze Frame’ able to warp and rewind reality…

With everything on pause, ‘The Second Pigging’ heralds the return of a lost friend whose voyage to the cosmos has resulted in Complete Spiritual Enlightenment and manifestation as a Non-Corporeal Vision. Sadly, when nobody cheers, the ultimate Pig pops off in a dudgeon, leaving Lucky to save the day and restore time in ‘Hairy Nearly’: a major turning point that upsets many participants…

In what passes for a return to normality, Monkey is possessed by the ghost of a chicken and triggers an invasion of ‘Zombies!’ just as Autumn begins with Skunky and Monkey unleashing a giant robot that is ‘Turtle-y Ridiculous’…

Former good guy Fantastic Le Fox is also possessed and offers ‘A Warning’ of failure and worse that Monkey immediately reacts badly too, even as transcendent Pig returns to make contact with and elevate ‘Prophet Beaver’. Of course, nobody listens…

Meanwhile, Monkey has been messing with elemental forces and turned the woods into an ‘Expressionistic’ nightmare, before losing patience and challenging Bunny to a duel of ‘Brain Power’. After winning by cheating, the ape learns a painful lesson that is only the beginning of his woes as ‘Double Bunny’ sees a doppelganger emerge who will change the status quo in appalling ways…

Lost and distraught Bunny undertakes a mission for Skunky into the bowels of the earth in search of ‘Long-Lost Flopsy’. Guess how that ends…

The drama intensifies as ‘The Impossible Pig’ returns to reality only to discover that being ‘Disappointingly Mortal’ would be better than life as a power battery for Skunky, and that’s when ‘Lucky’s Fortune’ turns the tide…

Bunny has not been right since meeting the other rabbit and with Metal E.V.E.’s aid ‘The Search is On’ for a boon companion. Only briefly interrupted by realty running wild, the search resumes in ‘Better Luck Next Time!’ and Le Fox’s niece arrives for some rowdy ‘Fennec Fun!’ She’s on the run and another relation isn’t far behind her…

Solitude has bitten our hero hard and nothing Monkey can do will distract ‘A Lonely Bunny’ in his morose meanderings, so the little meany challenges Impossible Pig instead, and learns real suffering in ‘Butt Then…’

When Winter arrives, Lucky sees snow for the first time, enduring cheeky hostiles chucking chilly snowballs until the wonder-pig volunteers as ‘Protector’ and is soon tricked by Skunky who wants to depower the self-promoting saviour ‘At All Costs’…

Now resolved to return to the Molecular Stream, Impossible Pig takes advice from unknowable factor Le Fox, but stumbles into a wild Christmas Party on his way to the fabulous Lake of Eternity. He also meets Lucky who wants to leave this reality just as much, but as they argue over who should take the one-way ride a dear friend and desolate hero is already ‘Jumping the Queue’…

To Be Continued…

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

The zany zenith of absurdist adventure, Bunny vs Monkey is weird 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. This is the kind of comic book parents beg kids to read to them. Shouldn’t that be you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2023. All rights reserved.

Bunny vs Monkey book 8: The Impossible Pig! will be published on September 28th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

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Evil Emperor Penguin: The World Will Be Mine!


By Laura Ellen Anderson, with Kate Brown (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-299-1 (Digest PB)

A lifetime ago in 2012 Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched an “old school” weekly comics anthology aimed at girls and boys between 6 and 12. It revelled in reviving the grand old days of British picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in its style and content. This comprised comic strips, humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles, educational material and activity pages in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy.

In the years since, the periodical has gone from strength to strength, its pantheon of superbly engaging strips generating lines of superbly engaging graphic novel compilations, the latest of which is this riotous romp starring a gloriously malign and inept arch-wizard of scientific wickedness who delights readers with a profound sense of mischief and unbridled imagination…

Conceived and created by illustrator and author Laura Ellen Anderson (Kittens, Snow Babies, My Brother is a Superhero, Amelia Fang!, Rainbow Grey, I Don’t Want…), these are the revived, remastered and extended exploits of Evil Emperor Penguin!

The bad bird lives in a colossal fortress beneath the Antarctic, working ceaselessly towards total world domination, assisted by his stylish and erudite many-tentacled administrative lackey Number 8 and cutely fuzzy, passionately loyal Eugene. The latter is an endlessly inventive little abominable snowman clone. EEP had whipped up a batch of 250, but none of the others are quite like Eugene…

The penguin potentate appointed the hairy, bizarrely inspired tyke Top Minion, but somehow never managed to instil him with the requisite degree of evilness. Still, he is a dab-hand with spaghetti hoops, so it’s not a total loss.

Following an crucially informative  pin-up of ‘the Gang’ and some recurring rivals and foes with an info-packed double-page map of the Evil Underground Headquarters (disclosing all you’ll need to know) another assortment of vile vignettes begins with ‘Quantum EEP’ as a mishap with time travelling commodes send the penguin and his tentacular deputy back in time to meet their younger hippie selves – and make them evil if they want to get home and conquer the world. If only their earlier selves weren’t so seductively content…

Back in the present, Eugene and his substandard substitute assistant Neill are trying to fix the glitch but it’s tricky with chunks of reality fading away as you reach for them.

Ultimately, the wrong real is put right and EEP resumes his plans, leading to exploiting a radical new power source in ‘Pomme de Terror’ – which then evolves into a marauding horror made even worse by arch World Domination rival Evil Cat popping in for a spot of smug mockery…

Eugene’s secret passion for footwear inspires the Bad Bird’s next plan for global enslavement in ‘Shoe-Gene’ and results in the good servant being captured by the moustachioed, top-hatted, perfidious puss whose ‘Big Fat Doom-Button’ seems certain to eradicate the top minion’s benevolent guardian jolly unicorn Keith and all his wondrous kin.

Even an unprecedented team-up of EEP and the horned horsey isn’t enough to quell the crisis and it needs the last-minute intervention of valiant narwhal Norman and his finny chums to end the cat’s plans, but at least the rescue has laid the groundwork for a future romance…

Fully restored and ready for more evil, ‘Marshminion Surprise’ sees EEP attempting to turn humanity into gooey taste treats, but instead transforming Eugene after Evil Cat interferes again. No sooner is abnormality restored than reality television inspires even greater horror when the penguin produces hyper-judgemental talent show ‘The Yay Factor’ before Eugene’s love of a Farmer’s Market leads to EEP’s invention of brain-shrinking fruit in ‘An Epple a Day’. Naturally, nothing goes right and Antarctica soon is imperilled by a giant hairy head…

‘A Penguin’s Christmas Carol’ sees the villain forced to examine his own past present and future in the traditional spoofish yet moving manner before a new year welcomes fresh terror as EEP unleashes carnivorous wheelie-bins in ‘Time to Take Out the Trash’, prior to the debut of the politest murderous minion ever as ‘Flegburt’ introduces himself and Evil Cat’s scheme to destroy the penguin’s beloved Invention Room of Evil. Of course, even good manners can’t compensate for Eugene’s unique charm…

A critical postal cock up triggers ‘The Great Chase’ across the icy continent – consequently disrupting Keith and Norman’s first date – before the status quo between potential world tyrants is restored and EEP attempts to subjugate elected world leaders with genetically modified ‘Flower Power’.

The threat level then drops as the penguin suffers a dearth of inspiration in ‘Evil Block’ and takes out his frustrations on everybody until he builds a relaxation machine and really goes off the deep end. Drenched in chaos and worse, EEP must join with Evil Cat and unknown rival Evil Rat enduing countless terrors and discovering the awful truth about pigeons…

With Flegburt having turned turncoat and now minioning for the Evil Penguin, ‘Plan Poover’ finds young unicorn Colin doing his work experience placement with Number 8, thanks to a recommendation from his uncle Keith. It soon looks like he’ll never get that precious Sparkle Scouts Career Badge after designing the Super Epic Human Rainbow Vacuum…

More upset occurs after the unwary penguin plugs in the ‘Evil Printer’ and reality starts rebelling, even as the discovery of ‘Flegburt’s True Calling’ triggers fashion, shopping and a major career change after which brainwash chemical ‘Shampoogene’ is unleashed. It’s meant to clean humanity’s heads… and brains!… but there’s a little unwelcome side effect…

Eugene’s love of blowing bubbles sparks ‘The Unpoppable Plan’ and almost ends everyone until Keith and Norman intercede, before – with “bubblegeddon” averted – master and servants settle back for ‘A Christmas to Remember’ when the bird decides to steal Santa’s job and position…

Rocket-paced, hilariously inventive, wickedly arch and utterly determined to be silly at all costs, this tome of terror also has educational merit as it offers lessons on ‘How to Draw EEP’.

Evil Emperor Penguin: The World Will Be Mine! is a captivating cascade of smart, witty funny adventure, which will delight readers of all ages.
Text and illustrations © Laura Ellen Anderson 2023. All rights reserved.

Evil Emperor Penguin The World Will Be Mine! will be released (but not for good behaviour) on September 7th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

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Face Ache volume 1: The First 100 Scrunges


By Ken Reid, with Ian Mennell & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-601-8 (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-78108-865-4 (TPB)

Time flies and it’s not long to Halloween now, so if you need a bit of practise making scary faces to extract sweets from suckers, here’s a classic “how-to” manual to get you back up to speed…

If you know British Comics, you’ll know Ken Reid. He was another of those youthful yet rebellious artistic prodigies who, largely unsung, went about transforming British Comics: entertaining millions and inspiring hundreds of those readers to become cartoonists too.

Reid was born in Manchester in 1919 and drew from the moment he could grasp an implement. Aged nine, he was confined to bed for six months with a tubercular hip, and occupied himself with constant scribbling and sketching. Ken left school before his 14th birthday, winning a scholarship to Salford Art School, but never graduated. He was, by all accounts, expelled for cutting classes and hanging about in cafes…

Undaunted he set up as a commercial artist, but floundered until his dad began acting as his agent.

The big break was a blagger’s triumph. He talked his way into an interview with the Art Editor of the Manchester Evening News and came away with a commission for a strip in its new Children’s Section. The Adventures of Fudge the Elf (Stop it! It’s not that sort of strip) launched in 1938 and ran until 1963, with only a single, albeit lengthy, hiatus from 1941 to 1946 when Reid served in the armed forces.

From the late 1940s onwards, Reid dallied with comics periodicals: his work (Super Sam, Billy Boffin, Foxy) were published in Comic Cuts and with submissions to The Eagle, before a fortuitous family connection (Reid’s brother-in-law was Dandy illustrator Bill Holroyd) brought DC Thomson managing editor R.D. Low to his door with a cast-iron offer of work.

On April 18th 1953 Roger the Dodger debuted in The Beano. Reid drew the feature until 1959 and created numerous others including the fabulously mordant doomed mariner Jonah, Ali Ha-Ha and the 40 Thieves, Grandpa and Jinx among many more.

In 1964, Reid and fellow underappreciated superstar Leo Baxendale jumped ship to work for DCT’s arch-rival Odhams Press. This gave Ken greater license to explore his ghoulish side: concentrating on comic horror yarns and grotesque situations in strips like Frankie Stein, and The Nervs in Wham! And Smash! as well as more visually wholesome – but still strikingly surreal – fare as Queen of the Seas and Dare-a-Day Davy.

In 1971, Reid devised Face Ache – arguably his career masterpiece – for debuting weekly Jet. The hilariously horrific strip was popular enough to survive the comic’s demise – after a paltry 22 weeks – and carried over in a merger with stalwart periodical Buster where it thrived until 1987. During that time, Reid continued innovating and creating in a horde of new strips like Creepy Creations, Harry Hammertoe the Soccer Spook, Wanted Posters, Martha’s Monster Makeup, Tom’s Horror World and a dozen others.

Reid died in 1987 from the complications of a stroke he’d suffered on February 2nd, whilst at his drawing board, putting the finishing touches to a Face Ache strip. On his passing the strip was taken over by Frank Diarmid who drew until its cancelation in October 1988.

The astoundingly absorbing comedy classic is a perfect example of resolutely British humorous sensibilities – absurdist, anarchic and gleefully grotesque – and revolves around a typically unruly and unlovely scrofulous schoolboy making great capital out of a unique gift, albeit often to his own detriment and great regret…

Ricky Rubberneck early discovered an appalling (un)natural ability of scrunching (or “scrungeing”) up his face into such ghastly contortions that he can revolt, disgust and terrify anyone who gazes upon him. Over weeks and years, the modern medusa works hard to polish his gifts until his foul fizzog may attain any formation. Eventually his entire body can be reshaped to mimic any creature or form, real or imagined. Naturally, he uses his powers to play pranks, take petty vengeances, turn a temporary profit, deal with bullies and impress his pals.

Just as naturally, those efforts frequently result in the standard late 20th century punishments being dealt out by his dad, teachers and sundry other outraged adults…

Now available in paperback, hardback and digitally this initial celebration is part of Rebellion’s ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics: collecting all 22 Jet episodes (from May 1st to September 29th 1971, plus the remaining 78 weeks’ worth from Buster & Jet, beginning with October 2nd and concluding with March 24th 1973.

The potent package is garnished with an appreciative Introduction by Alan Moore – ‘The Unacceptable Face of British Comics’ – a fondly intimate reminiscence in Antony J. Reid’s ‘My Father Ken Reid’ and a full biography of the great man…

What follows is an outrageous outpouring of raw cartoon creativity as Reid, writing and drawing with inspired effulgence, spins a seemingly infinite skein of comedy gold on his timeless theme of a little boy who makes faces at the world.

Weekly deadlines are a ferocious foe however, and a couple of strips reprinted were written by unsung pro Ian Mennell, whilst – between January & September 1972 – an uncredited fill-in artist (possibly Robert Nixon?) illustrated 16 episodes, presumably as Reid’s other commitments such as Jasper the Grasper, The Nervs or his numerous funny football features in Scorcher & Score mounted.

In these pages though, the accent is on madcap tomfoolery as our plastic-pussed poltroon undergoes a succession of fantastic facial reconfigurations: terrifying teachers, petrifying posh and pushy landowners, mimicking monstrous beasts, outraging officious officialdom and entertaining an army of schoolboy chums and chumps.

Orchards are raided, competitions are entered, plays and school trips are upstaged and aborted and even actual spooks and horrors are afforded the shocks of their unlives as Face Ache gurns his way through an endless parade of hilarious hijinks.

These cartoon capers are amongst the most memorable and re-readable exploits in all of British comics history: smart, eternally funny and beautifully rendered. This a treasure-trove of laughs that spans generations and deserves to be in every family bookcase.
© 1971, 1972, 1973 & 2017 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. Introduction © Alan Moore. Face Ache ™ & © Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Ducoboo volume 3: Your answers or your life!


By Godi & Zidrou, coloured by Véronique Grobet & translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-28-1 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Back to school countdown begins now!

School stories and strips of every tone about juvenile fools, devils and rebels are a lynchpin of modern western entertainment and an even larger staple of Japanese comics – where the scenario has spawned its own wild and vibrant subgenres. However, would Dennis the Menace (ours and theirs), Komi Can’t Communicate, Winker Watson, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Power Pack, Cédric or any of the rest be improved or just different if they were created by former teachers rather than ex-kids or current parents?

It’s no surprise the form is evergreen: schooling (and tragically, sometimes, a lack of it) takes up a huge amount of children’s attention no matter how impoverished or privileged they are, and their fictions will naturally address their issues and interests. It’s fascinating to see just how much school stories revolve around humour, but always with huge helpings of drama, terror, romance and an occasional dash of action…

One of the most popular European strips employing those eternal but basic themes and methodology began in the last fraction of the 20th century, courtesy of scripter Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) and illustrator Godi. Drousie is Belgian, born in 1962 and for six years a school teacher prior to changing careers in 1990 to write comics like those he probably used to confiscate in class.

Other mainstream successes in a range of genres include Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, African Trilogy, Shi, Léonardo, a superb revival of Ric Hochet and many more. However, his most celebrated and beloved stories are the Les Beaux Étés sequence (digitally available in English as Glorious Summers) and 2010’s sublime Lydie, both illustrated by Spanish artist Jordi Lafebre. Zidrou began his comics career with what he knew best: stories about and for kids, including Crannibales, Tamara, Margot et Oscar Pluche and, most significantly, a feature about a (and please forgive the charged term) school dunce: L’Elève Ducobu…

Godi is a Belgian National Treasure, born Bernard Godisiabois in Etterbeek in December 1951. After studying Plastic Arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels he became an assistant to comics legend Eddy Paape in 1970, working on the strip Tommy Banco for Le Journal de Tintin whilst freelancing as an illustrator for numerous comics and magazines. He became a Tintin regular three years later, primarily limning C. Blareau’s Comte Lombardi, but also working on gag strip Red Rétro by Vicq, with whom he also produced Cap’tain Anblus McManus and Le Triangle des Bermudes for Le Journal de Spirou in the early 1980s. He also soloed on Diogène Terrier (1981-1983) for Casterman.

Godi moved into advertising cartoons and television, cocreating with Nic Broca the animated TV series Ovide. He only returned to comics in 1991, collaborating with newcomer Zidrou on L’Elève Ducobu for Tremplin magazine. The strip launched in September 1992 before transferring to Le Journal de Mickey, and collected albums began in 1997 – 25 so far in French, Dutch, Turkish and for Indonesian readers.

When not immortalising modern school days for future generations, Godi diversified, co-creating (1995 with Zidrou) comedy feature Suivez le Guide and game page Démon du Jeu with scripter Janssens. The series spawned a live action movie franchise and a dozen pocket books plus all the usual attendant merchandise paraphernalia. English-speakers’ introduction to the series (5 volumes only thus far) came courtesy of Cinebook with 2006’s initial release King of the Dunces – in actuality the 5th European collection L’élève Ducobu – Le roi des cancres.

The unbeatable format comprises short – most often single page – gag strips like you’d see in The Beano, involving a revolving cast -well established albeit also fairly one-dimensional and easy to get a handle on.

Our star is a well-meaning, good natured but terminally lazy young oaf who doesn’t get on with school. He’s sharp, inventive, imaginative, inquisitive, personable and not academical at all. We might today put him on a spectrum or diagnose a disorder like ADHD, but at heart he’s just not interested and can always find better – or at least more interesting – things to do…

Dad is a civil servant and Mum left home when Ducoboo was an infant, but then there’s a lot of that about. Leonie Gratin – the girly brainbox from whom he constantly copies answers to interminable written tests – only has a mum.

Ducoboo and his class colleagues attend Saint Potache School and are mostly taught and tested by ferocious, impatient, mushroom-mad Mr Latouche. He’s something of humourless martinet, and thanks to him, Ducoboo has spent so much time in the corner with a dunce cap on his head that he’s struck up a friendship with the biology skeleton. He (She? They!) answer to Skelly – always ready with a theory or suggestion for fun and frolics…

Released in 1999, Les Réponse ou la vie? was the third collected album: a compendium of classic clowning about that begins with another new term and Ducoboo doing his utmost to not be there.

Tracing a year in the life of all concerned, the skiver’s early antics to get illicit answers include feigning blindness, sleight of hand, outright rebellion, time-bending and stealing the keys to the small safe Leonie keeps her completed exam papers in. The champion cheat even hires private detectives and surveillance teams and tries playing poker with a fixed deck but again underestimates his swotty nemesis…

The brief blessed interlude of Christmas offers little respite before a new term brings an extended crisis. When the classroom is scheduled to get a new sink, the prime position can only be the corner almost permanently occupied by the dunce and Skelly. Appalled to be losing his second home, the boy begins a campaign of resistance. The plumber doesn’t mind: as he keeps reminding everyone, he’s paid by the hour…

With Leonie gleefully reporting ‘News from the Frontline’ the war grinds on for weeks with neither side gaining ground until a diplomatic breakthrough allows the sink to be installed. However, the plumber is still paid by the hour and has inspired Ducoboo with his proficient mien, lack of urgency and dearth of credentials. The boy now has a new dream for his future…

With labours glacially proceeding all term long, some measure of abnormality eventually returns to class, but the workman’s appeal has spread to the normal kids by the time the job is finally done. Moreover, by the time the exorbitant bill arrives, Ducoboo has engineered one last extravagant flourish…

As he and Leonie resume their eternal dance of deception, the regular, always relevant riffs episodically return: museum visits, failed bluffs (focussed on geography lessons), and other imaginative distractions allowing Ducoboo to copy answers, but they are mere preamble to the dawn of a new era as the kids discover simultaneously, the wonders and infinite temptations and potential of laptop computers…

The escalation proves so ferocious and terrible that Leonie even attempts the unthinkable: teaching Ducoboo herself…

Somehow, everyone lives to the end of another year and vacation time beckons, but even here poor Latouche cannot escape the effects of his most difficult pupil…

Wry, witty and whimsical whilst deftly recycling constant and adored childhood themes, Ducuboo is an up-tempo, upbeat addition to the genre every parent or pupil can appreciate and enjoy. If your kids aren’t back from school quite yet, why not anticipate keeping them occupied when that happens with Your answers or your life! and consider that there are kids far more demanding than even yours…
© Les Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard) 1999 by Godi & Zidrou. English translation © 2008 Cinebook Ltd.

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Tiny Titans volume 1: Welcome to the Clubhouse


By Art Baltazar & Franco (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2207-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

The links between animated features and comic books are long established and, for young consumers, indistinguishable. After all, it’s just entertainment in the end…

For quite some time at the beginning of this century, DC’s Cartoon Network imprint was arguably the last bastion of children’s comics in America and worked to consolidate that link between TV and 2D fun and thrills with stunning interpretations of such television landmarks as Ben 10, Scooby Doo, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and so many other screen gems.

The kids’ comics line also produced some truly exceptional material based on TV iterations of the publisher’s proprietary characters such as Legion of Super Heroes, Batman: Brave and the Bold and Krypto the Super Dog as well as material like Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! which was merely similar in tone and content. Perhaps the line’s finest release was a series ostensibly aimed at early-readers but which quickly became a firm favourite of older fans and a multi-award winner too.

Superbly mirroring the magical wonderland inside a child’s head where everything is happily all smooshed up together, Tiny Titans became a sublime antidote to continuity cops and slavish fan-boy quibbling (all together now: “… erm, uh… I think you’ll find that in…”) by reducing the vast cast of the Teen Titans Go! animated series, the far greater boutique of the mainstream comics – and eventually the entire DC Universe continuity – to little kids and their parents/guardians in a wholesome kindergarten environment.

It’s a scenario spring-loaded with multi-layered in-jokes, sight-gags and the beloved yet gently mocked trappings and paraphernalia generations of strip readers and screen-watchers can never forget…

Collecting issues #1-6 (cover-dated April to September 2008) of a magically madcap, infinitely addictive all-ages mini-masterpiece, this debut volume begins after an as-standard identifying roll-call page at ‘Sidekick City Elementary’ where new Principal Mr. Slade is revealed to be not only Deathstroke the Terminator but also poor little Rose’s dad! How embarrassing…

Art Baltazar and co-creator Franco (Aureliani) pioneered and mastered a witty, bemusingly gentle manner of storytelling that just happily rolls along, with the assorted characters getting by, trying to make sense of the great big world while having “Adventures in Awesomeness”. A primal example is Beast Boy getting a new pet and becoming ‘Man’s Dog’s Best Friend’…

The method generally involves stringing together smaller incidents and moments into an overarching themed portmanteau tale… and it works astoundingly well.

Back in class Robin and Kid Flash tease a fellow student in ‘Speedy Quiz’ whilst ‘Meanwhile in Titans Tower’ (the treehouse of the title) finds Wonder Girl, Bumblebee, Raven and Starfire discussing whether to let Batgirl Barbara Gordon join their circle…

Later everyone meets up and helps scary blob Plasmus cope with an ice cream crisis but shocks still abound at school. Raven’s dad is an antlered crimson devil from another universe, but his most upsetting aspect is as the new substitute teacher!

Happily, however, at the treehouse the kids can forget their worries, as Wonder Girl Cassie’s new casual look – after initial resistance – wins many admirers among the boys…

The original comics were filled with activity pages, puzzles and pin-ups, so ‘Help Best Boy Find his Puppy Friend!’ and awesome group-shot ‘Awwwww Yeah Titans!!!’ offers an arty interlude before shenanigans resume with ‘Ow’ as new girl Terra persists in throwing rocks at the boys yet knows just how to make friends with the girls…

Not so much for the little lads though: they’ve got into another confrontation with mean kids Fearsome Five. Apparently the only way to determine who wins is to keep ‘Just a-Swingin’ – and ignore those bullies…

After teeny-weeny Little Teen Titan Kid Devil finds a delicious new way to use his heat power, Beast Boy becomes besotted by Terra in ‘Shadows of Love’, even though his obvious affection makes him act like an animal. While ‘Easy Bake Cyborg’ saves the day at snack time, the lovesick green kid follows some foolish advice and transforms into a ‘Beast Boy of Steel’…

At least Kid Devil is making friends, providing ‘Charbroiled Goodness’ for a local food vendor, just as the Fearsome Five show up again…

Following a pin-up of the bad kids and a brainteaser to ‘Match the Tiny Titans to their Action Accessories!’, a new school day finds science teacher Doctor Light losing control in ‘Zoology 101’ thanks to Beast Boy’s quick changes, after which ‘Sidekick’s Superheroes’ debate status and origins whilst Rose’s ‘Li’l Bro Jericho’ causes chaos and closes the school for the day.

When Robin brings some pals home, Alfred the Butler is reluctant to let them check out the ‘Batcave Action Playset’. He should have listened to his misgivings: that way there wouldn’t be so much mess or so many penguins…

After Aqualad’s suggestion ‘Let’s Play: Find Fluffy!’ the Boy Wonder has the strangest day, starting with ‘Robin and the Robins’ and culminating in a new costume. Before that though, you can see ‘Beast Boy at the Dentist’, Wonder Girl enduring a ‘Babysittin’ Baby Makeover’, meet ‘Beast Boy’s Prize’ and experience hair gone wild in ‘Do the “Do”’. Eventually, however, ‘It’s a Nightwing Thing’: revisiting the exotic yesteryears of disco mania as new outfits debut to mixed reviews and reactions…

Once done testing your skill with the ‘Tiny Titans Match Game!’ and admiring a ‘Little Tiny Titans Bonus Pin-up’ there are big thrills in store when ‘Playground Invaders’ introduces annoying Titans from the East side of the communal games…

Sadly, Fearsome Five are still around to tease the former Robin in ‘Nightwing on Rye’ even whilst ongoing epic ‘Enigma and Speedy’ sees the Boy Bowman trapped in a very one-sided battle of wits with the Riddler’s daughter…

Robin’s costume crises continue to confuse in ‘May We Take a Bat-Message?’, resulting in a kid capitulation and ‘Back to Basics’ approach to the old look, after which ‘Tiny Titans Joke Time!’ and a ‘Tiny Titans East Bonus Pin-up’ segues neatly into ‘Meet Ya, Greet Ya’ with newcomers Supergirl and Blue Beetle turning up just ahead of a host of wannabee Titans (Power Boy, Zatara, Vulcan Jr., Hawk & Dove, Li’l Barda and Lagoon Boy)…

With the riotous regulars away camping, Raven opens her eyes to a potential daybreak disaster as ‘Home with the Trigons’ finds her dressed by her dad for a change. Meanwhile, ‘Let’s Do Lunch’ finds Blue Beetle losing a very public argument with his backpack, and after the kids bring their super-animal pals in, everything goes horribly wrong. At least they decide that the “First Rule of Pet Club is: We Don’t Talk About Pet Club”…

This insanely addictive initial collection wraps up with visual and word puzzles ‘How Many Beast Boy Alpacas Can You Count?’ and ‘Blue Beetle Backpack Language Translation!’, a huge and inclusive Pin-up of ‘The Tiny Titans of Sidekick City Elementary’ and a hilarious ‘Tiny Titans “Growth Chart” …

Despite ostensibly being aimed at super-juniors and TV kids, these wonderful, wacky yarns – which marvellously marry the heart and spirit of such classic strips as The Perishers or Peanuts with something uniquely mired and marinated in pure American comic-bookery – are outrageously unforgettable yarns and gags no self-respecting fun-fan should miss: accessible, entertaining, and wickedly intoxicating.
© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Billy & Buddy volume 1: Remember This, Buddy?


By Jean Roba, translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-91-5 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Known as Boule et Bill on the Continent (in the French speaking bits – Dutch and Flemish folk call them Bollie en Billie), this evergreen, immensely popular cartoon story of a boy and his dog debuted in the Christmas 1959 edition of multinational anthology Le Journal de Spirou.

It came from Belgian writer-artist Jean Roba (Spirou et Fantasio, La Ribambelle, Gomer Goof) putting his head together with the magazine’s Artistic Director/Ideas Man Maurice Rosy – who had also ghosted art and/or scripts on Jerry Spring, Tif et Tondu, Bobo and Attila during a decades-long, astoundingly productive career with the legendary periodical.

Intended as a European answer to Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, Boule et Bill would quickly go its own way and carve out a unique personality all its own, becoming Rosa’s main occupation for the next 45 years.

He tirelessly crafted more than a thousand gag-strip pages of a beguiling idealised domestic comedy about a little lad and his rather clever Cocker Spaniel before – in 2003 – handing art-chores over to his long-term assistant Laurent Verron. The substitute subsequently took over writing too after Roba died in 2006.

Born in Schaerbeek, Belgium on July 28th 1930 Jean Roba grew up reading mostly US reprint strips. He was particularly partial to Rudolph Dirks and Harold H. Knerr’s Katzenjammer Kids. After the War, he began as a jobbing illustrator before adopting a loose, free-wheeling cartooning style known as the “Marcinelle School” and joining the Spirou crew.

He followed Uderzo on Sa majesté mon mari and perfected his comics craft under Franquin on Spirou et Fantasio before launching Boule et Bill in a mini-récit (32-page, half-sized freebie insert) in the December 24th 1959 LJdS. Like our own Dennis the Menace in The Beano, the strip was incredibly popular from the off and for 25 years held the coveted and prestigious back-cover spot. Older British fanboys might recognise the art as early episodes – retitled It’s a Dog’s Life – ran in Fleetway’s Valiant between 1961- 1965.

A cornerstone of European life, the strip has sparked a live-action movie, animated TV series, computer games, permanent art gallery exhibitions, sculptures and even postage stamps. Like some select immortal Belgian comics stars, Bollie en Billie have a commemorative plaque and a street named after them in Brussels…

Large format album editions began immediately, totalling 21 volumes throughout the 1960s and 1970s. These were completely redesigned and re-released in the 1980s, supplemented by a range of early reader books for the very young. Comics collections have been translated into fourteen languages and sold in excess of 25 million copies of the 32 albums to date.

Renamed Billy and Buddy, the strip debuted en Angleterre in Cinebook compilations from 2009 on: introducing a standard sitcom nuclear family consisting of one bemused and long-suffering father, a warm, compassionate but painfully ditzy mother, a smart son and his genius dog which has a penchant for finding bones, puddles and trouble…

The majority of this book – Tu te rappelles, Bill? – was the sixth original collection before being cut down and reissued as volume 17 in Europe, but here acts as an ideal vehicle to set up the characters and settings for our delight and delectation. Inside you’ll see a non-stop parade of quick-fire quips and jests as 7-year-old Billy enjoys carefree romps with 4-footed friend Buddy: digging up treasure on the beach, chasing cats, learning tricks to be useful around the house and generally baffling and annoying grown-ups.

Buddy is the perfect pet for an imaginative boy, although he’s overly fond of bones and rather protective of them. He also does not understand why everyone is so keen to constantly plunge him into foul-tasting soapy water, but it’s just a sacrifice he’s prepared to make to be with Billy.

Gently-paced and packed with wry wit and potent sentiment, these captivating vignettes range from heart-warming to hilarious: a delightful tribute to and argument for a child for every pet and vice versa. This is a solid, family-oriented collection of comics no one trying to introduce youngsters to the medium should be without.
Original edition © Studio Boule & Bill 2008 by Roba. English translation © 2009 Cinebook Ltd.

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The Perishers Omnibus volume 1


By Maurice Dodd & Dennis Collins (Daily Mirror Books)
ISBN: 0-85939-031-4 (PB)

I plug these little chaps – and the wonderful feature they crafted – every few years because the work is wonderful and quintessentially British. I so wish they were still around to take aim at today’s governments, autocrats, too-common people and general discommodiousness as well as helping us accommodate the impending end of the world with a smile…

Although written almost entirely by Maurice Dodd throughout its 48-year history, the forgotten National Treasure that is The Perishers was actually created in 1957 by artist Dennis Collins, writer Bill Witham (who went on to huge success with uniquely innocent everyman Useless Eustace) and cartoon editor Bill Herbert.

The daily tribulations, ruminations, exploits and misadventures of a bunch of typical kids (for the latter half of the 20th century at least) was first published in the Manchester edition of The Daily Mirror in February 1958. After only a couple of frankly mediocre months the wacky adventures of Maisie & Marlon were withdrawn and retooled.

Jack-of-all-trades, budding artist and advertising whiz-kid Dodd was then approached by ex-paratroop service comrade and drinking buddy Herbert. The freelance designer jumped at the chance to reinvent the characters in what was a meandering but beautifully illustrated, all-ages feature simply stuffed with untapped potential.

Drawing on his own life (he would describe it as “shamelessly pilfering”), Dodd created a plethora of new characters, animal and human – although with this strip distinctions are loose and hard to defend – and rescued an early 1958 casualty in the unkempt and ill-maintained person of laconic orphan and philosophical dilettante Wellington.

This bewildered and ever-anxious symbol of the post-war era was a street urchin living on his wits but still attending school and enduring all the daily trials and indignities of British youth.

Relaunched in October 1959 in London and national editions, the revamped Perishers strip quickly caught on to become a morning mainstay for generations of Brits, blending slapstick and surreal comedy with naive charm, miniaturised modern romantic melodramas (Maisie loves Marlon, Marlon loves fashion and “inventing”, and Wellington loves sausages), liberally laced with sardonic cultural commentary. Particularly rewarding was a continuing and wonderfully twisted faux misperception of contemporary politics and the burgeoning influence of advertising and commercial media.

Even in its earliest days the strip was superbly illustrated, conjuring up in a few judicious lines and cannily applied grey tones a communal urban wonderland we all knew as kids: the familiar post-war melange of shops and streets, building sites and overpasses, alleys and parks and fields where we could get on with our adventures and no adults could interfere or spoil the fun. The unsavoury old git in me still hungers in absentia on behalf of the youth of today who will never experience such freedom without being labelled “neglected”, “at risk” or possibly just “feral”…

Here the primary protagonists are Wellington and Boot, his old English Sheepdog (sort of: the wily, hairy chancer and raconteur considers himself a Manorial Milord “sufferin’ under the curse of a Gypsy Wench”). They are ably unsupported by the formidable Maisie, a thoroughly modern miss torn between self-delusion that the boy of her dreams feels likewise; sweets, an unsurpassed capacity for greed and unrelenting violence, and a tremendous unslaked passion for the aforementioned Marlon, who she thinks is what she wants. And sweets.

Cool, suave and debonair are just three of the many, many words Marlon doesn’t know the meaning of, but lots of girls at school fancy him anyway. If he grows up, he wants to be a brain surgeon or a bloke wot goes down sewers in great big gumboots…

Being on his own and fiercely independent, Wellington takes every opportunity to support himself with sordid scavenging and shoddy schemes – usually involving selling poorly constructed carts and buggies to Marlon who has far more money than sense. To be honest, Marlon has more noses than sense…

Maisie is a shy beautiful maiden waiting for her true beloved to sweep her off her feet – and if he doesn’t, she gives him a thorough bashing up and nicks his sweets…

Other unreasonable regulars introduced here include Baby Grumplin’ – Maisie’s toddler brother and a diabolical force of nature; Plain Jane – a girl who asks too many questions, and the dapper Fiscal Yere: smugly complacent go-getting son of a millionaire and another occasional sucker for Wellington’s automotive inexpertise. Kids like him are what made today’s world what it is…

On the anthropomorphic animal front, extremely erudite Boot regularly encounters stroppy ducks, militant squirrels, socialist revolutionaries Fred the Beetle and his long-suffering wife Ethel, South Asian bloodhound/journalist B.H. Calcutta (Failed) and, latterly, a nicotine-addicted caterpillar who stunted his growth and became Fred’s inseparable comrade in the struggle against canine oppression. The little Trot is also an implacable rival for any food or dog-ends the Bolshevistic bug might find…

Notable moments in this madcap melange include: Wellington gentrifying out of the large concrete pipe he used to live in and taking up residence in an old railway station abandoned after the Beeching Cuts decimated the train infrastructure, and the first couple of kids-only, unaccompanied fortnightly camping holidays to the seaside (oh, such innocent times!).

Here, they encounter sun, surf and the rock-pool crabs who worship the uncannily canine “Eyeballs in the Sky” which annually manifest in their isolated “Pooliverse”…

Utterly English, fabulously fantastical and resoundingly working-class, the strip generated 30 collections between 1963-1990, 4 Big Little Books, 5 novels and 2 annuals as well as an audio record and in 1979 an immensely successful animated TV series.

The tome under review here was released in 1974; the first of a series of extra-sized recapitulations, containing most of the contents of the first four Perishers books (spanning 1959-1965). It superbly sets the scene for newcomers with a glorious extravaganza of enchanting fun and frolics, liberally annotated by Dodd himself. Dennis Collins magnificently and hilariously illustrated the strip until his retirement in 1983, after which Dodd himself took up the pens and brushes. Eventually artist Bill Melvin took over the art chores whilst Dodd scripted until his death in 2006. Once the backlog of material was exhausted The Perishers finished on June 10th of that year.

Soon after, The Mirror began reprinting classic sequences to the general approval of everyone, so perhaps it’s not too much to hope that eventually – or even SOON – all those classic collections will be available…

Quite frankly, it’s what we need and what I deserve…
© 1974 IPC Newspapers Limited.

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Cedric volume 3: What Got Into Him?


By Laudec & Cauvin with colours by Leonardo & translated by Erica Jeffrey (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-081-8 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Raoul Cauvin (26 September 1938-19 August 2021) was one of Europe’s most successful comics scripters. Born in Antoing, Belgium in 1938, by 1960 he was working in the animation department of publishing giant Dupuis after studying Lithography. Happily, he quickly discovered his true calling was writing funny stories and began a glittering, prolific career at Le Journal de Spirou.

With Salverius, he conceived the astounding successful Bluecoats, and dozens more award-winning series like Sammy, Cupidon, Les Femmes en Blanc, Pauvre, Lampil Boulouloum et Guiliguili, and Agent 212: cumulatively comprising well over 240 separate albums.

His collaborator on superbly witty kid-friendly family strip Cédric was Italian-born, Belgium-raised Tony de Luca, who studied electro-mechanics and toiled as an industrial draughtsman before making his own break into bandes dessinée.

Following fanzine efforts in the late 1970s as “Laudec”, he landed soap-style strip Les Contes de Cure-la-Flute at Le Journal de Spirou in 1979. He traded that for a brace of war-time serials (L’an 40 in 1983 and March Noir et Bottes à Clous in 1985) whilst working his way around the comic’s other strips. In 1987, he joined Cauvin on the first Cédric shorts. From then on it was child’s play…

We have Dennis the Menace (the Americans have their own too, but he’s not the same) whilst the French-speaking world has Cédric: an adorable, lovesick rapscallion with a heart of gold and an irresistible penchant for mischief. He’s also afflicted with raging amour…

Collected albums – 34 thus far – of variable-length strips (ranging from a ½ page to half a dozen) began appearing in 1989, and the lad remains amongst the most popular and best-selling in Europe, as is the animated TV show spun off from the strip.

… A little Word to the Wise: this is not a strip afraid to suspend silly yoks in deference to a little suspense or even near-heartbreak. The bonny boy is crushingly smitten with Chen: a Chinese girl newly arrived in class and so very far out of his league, leading to frequent and painful confrontations and miscommunications.

Harking back to 2011 and first continentally released in 1992 as Cédric 5: Quelle mouche le pique? – this third Cinebook translation opens with ‘A Pebble in the Shoe’: a moving and uplifting generational collaboration as Grandpa tells his daughter’s son stories of a dearly-departed wife that has the eavesdropping household (and you, too, if you have any shred of heart or soul) in emotional tatters…

We return to big laughs as a dose of unwelcome homework results in ‘A Big Fat Zero’ whilst ‘A Lousy Story’ details the pros and cons of a school nit epidemic before pester power is deployed to secure an addition to the household in ‘Man’s Best Friend’.

The crusty elder statesman of the family learns a painful lesson as ‘Grandpa Takes a Turn’ sees the creaky reactionary suckered into chaperoning a school dance, after which little Cedric has a beguiling and potentially life-altering experience when his adored Chen marches through town in the uniform of ‘The Majorettes’…

Grandpa and Cedric unite to shame Dad into purchasing ‘The Board that Skates’ but it’s every man for himself when the kid comes cadging cash in ‘You Wouldn’t Have a 20?’, whilst ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’ playfully shows that although the boy’s love for Chen is all-abiding and true, it isn’t necessarily reciprocated…

When Chen’s mother accidentally prangs Dad’s car, Cedric goes violently berserk until the families have demonstrably agreed détente and rapprochement is reached via ‘An Amicable Arrangement’  before the pesky pup accidentally boosts his hard-pressed papa’s earning potential through inadvertent confidence trickery in ‘Business is Business’.

‘Jealousy’ rears its ugly head when Chen begins ballet classes and literally jumps into the arms of Cedric’s bitterly despised romantic rival The Right Honourable Alphonse Andre Jones-Tarrington-Dupree – with catastrophic repercussions for all concerned – whilst ‘Short of Breath’ sees the whole family play a mean but hilarious trick involving Dad’s birthday cake…

‘Solemn Communion’ wastes a much-needed opportunity to salve Cedric’s already-tarnished soul when the boy’s first Catholic sacrament ceremony devolves into a drunken debacle for the attending adults, after which we come full circle as amorous memories are tickled and ‘The Quarrel’ resumes after Cedric inquires how Mum and Dad got together. Happily, everything returns to bittersweet tears when the old man is asked for more reminiscences of Grandma Germaine in moving finale ‘Remember, Gramps…’

Rapid-paced, warmly witty, and not afraid to explore sentiment or loss, the exploits of this painfully keen, bemusingly besotted rascal are a charming example of how all little boys are just the same and infinitely unique. Cedric is a superb family strip perfect for youngsters and old folk alike…
© Dupuis 1992 by Cauvin & Laudec. All rights reserved. English translation © 2011 Cinebook Ltd.