Mighty Samson Archives volume 2


By Otto Binder, Frank Thorne, Jack Sparling, Morris Gollub, George Wilson, Joe Certa, Mike Sekowsky, George Roussos & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-659-6 (HB)

These days all the attention in comics circles goes to big-hitters and headline-grabbing ground-breakers, but once upon a time, when funnybooks were cheap as well as plentiful, a kid (whatever their age) could afford to follow the pack and still find time and room to enjoy quirky outliers: B through Z listers, oddly off-kilter concepts and champions falling far short of the accepted parameters of standard super-types…

A classic example of that exuberant freedom of expression was the relatively angst-free dystopian tomorrow of Mighty Samson, who had a sporadic yet extended comics career of 32 issues spanning 1964 to 1982.

Although set in the aftermath of an atomic Armageddon, the story of the survivors was a blend of updated myth, pioneer adventure and superhero shtick, liberally leavened with variations of those incredible creatures and sci fi monsters the industry thrived on back then.

Comics colossus Dell/Gold Key/Whitman had one of the most complicated publishing set-ups in history, but that didn’t matter one iota to kids of all ages who consumed their vastly varied product. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, Whitman had been a crucial component of monolithic Western Publishing and Lithography Company since 1915: drawing upon huge commercial resources and industry connections that came with editorial offices on both coasts. They even boasted a subsidiary printing plant in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Another connection was with fellow Western subsidiary K.K. Publications (named for licensing legend Kay Kamen who facilitated extremely lucrative “license to print money” merchandising deals for Walt Disney Studios between 1933 and 1949). From 1938, the affiliated companies’ comic book output was released under a partnership deal with a “pulps” periodical publisher under the umbrella imprint Dell Comics – and again those creative staff and commercial contacts fed into the line-up of the Big Little, Little Golden and Golden Press books for younger children. This partnership ended in 1962 and Western had to swiftly reinvent its comics division as Gold Key.

Western had been a major player since comics’ earliest days, blending a vast tranche of licensed titles – including newspaper strips (like Nancy and Sluggo, Tarzan and The Lone Ranger), TV tie-in and Disney titles with in-house originations such as Turok, Son of Stone, Brain Boy and Kona: Monarch of Monster Isle.

Dell and Western split just as a comic book resurgence triggered a host of new titles and companies, and a superhero boom. Independent of Dell, new outfit Gold Key launched original adventure titles including Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom; Magnus – Robot Fighter; M.A.R.S. Patrol Total War; Space Family Robinson and many more.

As a publisher, Gold Key never really “got” the melodramatic, frequently mock-heroic Sturm und Drang of the Silver Age superhero boom – although for many of us, the understated functionality of classics like Magnus and Doctor Solar or crime-fighting iterations of classic movie monsters Dracula, Frankenstein and Werewolf were utterly irresistible. The sheer off-the-wall lunacy of features like Neutro or Dr. Spektor I will reserve for a future occasion…

This second splendid full-colour hardback compilation – printed on a reassuringly sturdy and comforting grainy old-school pulp stock rather than glossy paper – gathers Mighty Samson #7-14 spanning September 1966 to May 1968, and begins with a heady appreciation by Paul Tobin (Plants vs Zombies, The Witcher, Angry Birds, Spider-Man, Bandette) in his reminiscent Foreword…

The post-dystopian wonder warrior had been anonymously created by industry giants Otto Binder & Frank Thorne in 1964. Binder was the quintessential jobbing writer. He and his brother Earl were early fans of science fiction, making their first professional sale to Amazing Stories in 1930. As “Eando Binder” their pulp-fiction and novels output continued well into the 1970s, with Otto rightly famed for his creation of primal robotic hero Adam Link.

From 1939 onwards, Otto was also a prolific comic book scripter, most beloved and revered for the invention and perfection of a humorous blend of spectacular action, self-deprecating humour and gentle whimsy as characterised by the Fawcett Captain Marvel line of titles (and later in DC’s Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen). Binder was also constantly employed by many other publishers and amongst his most memorable inventions and innovations are Timely’s Young Allies, Mr. Mind, Brainiac, Krypto the Super Dog and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

In his later life, he moved into editing, producing factual science books and writing for NASA.

Frank Thorne (June 16th 1930 – March 7th 2021) was one of the most individualistic talents in American comics and the series co-creator’s last issue opens this volume. He began his comics career drawing romance stories for Standard Comics beside legendary draughtsman Alex Toth before graduating to better-paid newspaper strips like Perry Mason for King Features Syndicate. For Dell/Gold Key he drew Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim and The Green Hornet, as well as the first few years of this seminal sci-fi classic.

A DC he did compelling work on Tomahawk and Son of Tomahawk before being hired by Roy Thomas at Marvel to illustrate his belated breakthrough strip Red Sonja. Forever-after connected with feisty, earthy, highly sexualised women, in 1978 Thorne created outrageously bawdy (some say vulgar) swordswoman Ghita of Alizarr for Warren’s adult science fantasy anthology 1984/1994 as well as such adult satirical strips as Moonshine McJugs for Playboy and Danger Rangerette for National Lampoon.

Thorne won a National Cartoonists Award for comic books, an Inkpot Award and a Playboy Editorial Award, but was still a fairly by-the-book illustrator at the time of this collection’s content. In fact, it was on Mighty Samson that he opened up and found his own unique artistic vision: one which would carry him to the forefront of stylists with the satirical and erotic works of his later years.

That’s meat for other reviews, but here he and replacement artist Jack Sparling translate Binder’s imaginings into a beguiling otherworld of action, adventure and drama suitable for most kids of all ages and a milieu perfectly in tune with any Kids TV channel today…

Mighty Samson #1 (July 1964) introduced the bombed-out metropolis of N’Yark: a dismal dangerous region where human primitives clung to the ruins, scattered into rival tribes all striving daily against mutated plants and monsters as well as less easily identified blends somewhere in between…

One day when a toddler was grabbed by a predatory plant he casually tore the terror apart with his podgy little hands. Years passed and the child grew tall and clean-limbed, and it was clear that he too was a mutant: immensely strong, incredibly fast and improbably durable…

Impassioned by his mother’s dying words – “protect the weak from the powerful, the good from the evil” – Samson became the champion of his people; battling beasts and monsters imperilling the city. Sadly, those struggles were not without cost, and when he killed an immense Liobear, it cost the young hero his right eye…

The clash proved a turning point for Samson since his wounds were dressed by a stranger named Sharmaine. She and her father Mindor were voluntary outcasts in the city: shunning contact with superstitious tribes whilst gathering lost secrets of science…

They toiled constantly to bring humanity out of its second stone age and, fired with inspiration, Samson joined their self-appointed mission: defending them from all threats as they carry out their work.

Every issue was augmented by mesmerising painted covers by master illustrators Morris Gollub or George Wilson. These covers were initially reproduced text-free on the back of each issue and probably graced many a kid’s bedroom wall way back when. You get those too, but I’d suggest scanners rather than scissors this time around…

The comics were ad free and inner side of those covers generally held monochrome single-page features supplementing the story with historical context, and the factoids. Sadly many are uncredited but when I know who, so will you…

The Altered World odyssey resumes with #7, cover-dated September 1966. ‘World of Darkness’ saw Thorne off in fine style as shattered skyscrapers in N’Yark began sinking into the ground. Investigating the trackless regions under the city, Samson and his allies encounter many horrific beings before mistakenly accusing the subsurface Undermen of waging war on the light-loving Uppermen like themselves. Before long, however, ‘The Enemy Below’ (with artistic assistance from Mike Sekowsky & George Roussos) is identified as being a threat of a wholly bestial and relentless nature, forcing an alliance and only ended by Mindor’s knowledge of pre-disaster atomic weapons…

The inner covers detail ‘The Underground World’ of 1960s subways, escalators and tunnels and hidden service structures ‘Beneath the City’ before #8 signalled a change of vision.

Drawn by Joe Certa, factual-teaser ‘The Magnetic Pole’ led and fed into Binder’s ‘The Migration Mystery’ and concluding chapter ‘The Mental Battle’ as our heroes – and every other human in N’Yark – are seized by a telepathic force pulling them northwards. Aware but unable to resist, Samson and his friends spend months gravitating towards a mineral formation (a “mental North Pole”) in the arctic: helping many others of the thousands of humans caught in the grip, before at last devising a solution that will allow them all to return home.

This tale signalled the debut of another veteran illustrator who would make the title his own.

John Edmond “Jack” Sparling (June 21st 1916-February 15th 1997) was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba but migrated young to the USA. After studying in New Orleans and at the Corcoran School of Art, he left a cartooning gig at the New Orleans Item-Tribune to create the Hap Hopper, Washington Correspondent strip for United Features Syndicate (1940) superseded in 1943 by Claire Voyant.

That strip ended in 1948 and thereafter Sparling concentrated on comic books, becoming a wandering regular whose work appeared in Classics Illustrated, Dell/Gold Key, Marvel, DC, Charlton and others on strips like Robin Hood, Captain America, Tiger Girl, Space Man, Neuro, Secret Six, Eclipso, The Day after Doomsday, Challengers of The Unknown, Unknown Soldier and more.

Ideally suited for short story and humorous fare, he worked continuously for Gold Key’s horror anthologies and was a key player when DC revived its House of Secrets and House of Mystery titles (co-creating with Bob Haney undying horror-host Cain in HoM #175).

Sparling was particularly adept on licensed properties, illustrating Bomba, Family Affair, Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Welcome Back, Kotter, Adam-12, Microbots, The Outer Limits ad nauseum…

With monsters so popular, the company also debuted the Gold Key Club Comic Monster Art page: inviting readers to create their own creepy critters and send them in for publication. The first examples were dreamed up in-house but for later issues, the beasts and bogles came courtesy of the kids. A scattering of them add loony lustre to this book at intermittent moments…

Another new feature began in the following issue. Illustrated by Sparling, ‘Mighty Samson Mutant Monsters’ offered an ongoing bestiary of horrors as seen in Mindor’s notes, beginning with ‘Stone-Throwing Cactus’ and ‘Lightning Beast’

Bracketed by fact-features ‘Guide Tour of Washington D.C.’ and ‘Washington D.C.’, #9 (cover-dated March 1967) sees the valiant trio back home long enough to discover a fully automated, still-operational bullet train connected to the nation’s former Capital. Sadly, the astounding delights of pre-collapse culture and technology leads to war with ‘The Renegade Robot’, once they debark in DC…

That’s just in time for old enemy Queen Terra of Jerz to suborn an atom-powered Secret Service mechanical bodyguard…

Ordering ‘The Metal Hercules’ to crush and enslave Samson, Terra finds the robot too much for her but still not tough enough to stop the mutant: a dilemma that drives the automaton totally off the rails…

The issue ends with another Mighty Samson Mutant Monsters moment sharing the unnatural history profile of the ‘Net-Casting Spider’

Mighty Samson #10 opens with more of the same – the ‘Heavy-Matter Eagle’ – before a wave of desperate refugees disrupting N’Yark sends the scientific investigators off exploring formerly isolated Staten Island. The lost colony has become a bizarre dichotomy: with humans living in relative luxury in fully automated skyscrapers but unwilling to go below the first three storeys which has become a vast morass on interlinked monster-filled jungle. It was a paradise until Samson’s enemy Kull invaded, driving the soft tribes-folk away, but the ‘Terror in Tallplace Town’ ends as soon as Samson puts his foot down to oust the treacherous ‘King for a Day’

More readers’ creations segue into #11, where Mighty Samson Mutant Monster ‘Lightning-Bolt Eel’ leads into a tale of unchecked capitalism as new trader Hulko the Swapper begins price gouging both farmers in the hinterlands and N’Yark’s scavengers who until recently, bartered amicably and honestly their edible produce for the city’s salvaged raw materials like scrap iron and reclaimed tinned luxury goods. The process involved shipping goods through wild territory of the Bronx and Long Island: terra incognita festooned with terrifying carnivorous forests infested with ‘The Swamp Rats’ and even worse perils.

When the profiteer pushes too hard, Samson takes action, reclaiming the concrete pathways of the ancients and providing a smooth “Broadway” for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Hulko and his shipping protectionists are understandably unhappy with the new arrangement, but their sabotage attempts to invoke ‘Terror on the Tradeway’ have no effect on giant hero’s policy of free enterprise…

Queen Terra returns in #12 operating a reclaimed, restored and fully-armed US Coast Guard cutter, leading ‘The River Raiders’ bombarding the shore-dwelling tribes of Manhattan island and demanding to be made their empress. Happily, Samson Sharmaine and Mindor are also au fait with naval salvage and ‘The Battle of N’Yark Bay’ swiftly sinks the queen’s schemes… despite the intervention of a few aroused sea beasts formerly asleep in the deep…

The quest for security is synonymous with the search for food and power sources. In #13 Mindor meets another historical detective skilled in the ways of pre-collapse technologists, but ‘The Prophet of Zomzu’ exploits his knowledge of electricity for another kind of power. Thanks to our brawny hero, cruel science despot Merlyn the Magic Maker is the loser in ‘The Wizard’s Showdown’: liberating a tribe of gullible pawns from a ruthless master…

This second sojourn in a broken tomorrow ends with Mighty Samson #14 (May 1968) as a Mighty Samson Mutant Monster briefing on ‘Rooted Sea Serpents’ segues into a chilling and contemporary fable as fisherfolk on the island of N’Yark are threatened by the ‘Menace from Nowhere’. This is a toxic gooey mass carried by the river, polluting their waters and killing the birds and fish they hunt, as well as infuriating all the monsters in the bay.

When Mindor determines the threat is millions of tons of crude oil being forced upriver, the trio voyage south to Florida and find an abandoned automated drilling rig has recently malfunctioned, constantly pouring black poison into the Gulf Stream.

The atomically-powered station is a danger to everything but when Samson shuts it down, he finds himself trapped ‘Between Beasts and Machines’ and joins post-apocalypse Tuaregs of the trackless Miami desert to destroy the unchecked depredations of automated city Technopolis: a robot metropolis of unimaginable treasures guarded by dinosaurs!

Closing with more Gold Key Club Readers Page monsters and full creator biographies, this mighty tome might be short on logic but absolutely revels in fabulous imagination and non-stop action. These sublime yarns typify a lost era’s devotion to fantastic fun: no-nonsense, brain-boggling yarns at once self-contained, episodic, exciting, enticing and deceptively witty.

Bizarre, brilliantly off-kilter and outrageously bombastic, Binder’s myth of a rationalist Hercules battling atom-spawned Titans and devils offers stunning spectacle and thrill-a-minute wonderment from start to finish. Captivatingly limned by Thorne and Sparling, these lost gems from an era when fun was paramount and entertainment a mandatory requirement are comics the way they were and perhaps might be again…
Mighty Samson ® Volume Two ™ & © 2010 Random House, Inc. Under license to Classic Media LCC. All rights reserved. All other material, unless otherwise specified, © 2010 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

Doctor Who Graphic Novels volume 13: The Crimson Hand


By Dan McDaid, Martin Geraghty, Jonathan Morris, Mike Collins, David A. Roach, Sean Longcroft, Rob Davis, Paul Grist, Ian Culbard, Roger Langridge & various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-451-5 (TPB)

Doctor Who launched on television with the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ on November 23rd 1963. Happy 60th, Time Lord!

Within a year, his decades-long run in TV Comic began with issue #674 and the premier instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’.

On 11th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says 17th) Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly, which became a monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) and has been with us under various names ever since.

All of which only goes to prove that the Time Lord is a comic hero with an impressive pedigree…

Marvel/Panini spent a lot of effort – and time! – collecting every strip from its archive in a uniform series of over-sized graphic albums, each concentrating on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer.

This one gathers stories from Doctor Who Magazine (AKA DWM) issues #394 & 400-420 plus The Doctor Who Storybook 2010 (originally published between 2008 and 2010): all featuring the escapades of the recently re-enlisted David Tennant incarnation of the Galloping Gallifreyan.

This is actually the third and final collection of strips featuring “the Tenth Doctor” and whether that statement made any sense to you largely depends on whether you are an old fan, a new convert or a complete beginner.

None of which is relevant if all you want is a darn good read. All the creators involved have managed the ultimate “Ask” of any strip creator – to produce engaging, thrilling, fun yarns that can be equally enjoyed by the merest beginner and the most slavishly addicted fan.

After an effusive introduction from Russell T. Davies, the full-colour graphic grandeur begins with a one-off romp from 2008 entitled ‘Hotel Historia’ by writer/artist Dan McDaid, wherein the Good Doctor fetches up in a spectacular resort for time-travellers.

Here he first encounters pushily obnoxious corporate raider Majenta Pryce and uses her shoddy and slipshod time-technology to counter a threat from the chronal brigands known as the Graxnix.

This is riotously followed by a delightful clash with ‘Space Vikings’ (by Jonathan Morris, Rob Davis & Ian Culbard, taken from the 2010 Christmas Doctor Who Storybook) wherein slave-taking star-rovers prove to be far less than they appear…

The main body of stories here formed something of an experiment as DWM #400-420 were designed as an extended story-arc leading up to the big change on television wherein Matt Smith would replace Tennant as “The Eleventh Doctor”.

Therefore McDaid was tasked with scripting the entire 21-issue run and began by reintroducing scurrilous money-mad chancer Majenta Pryce in ‘Thinktwice’ (#400-402, illustrated by Martin Geraghty & David A. Roach); an intergalactic penal institution with some decidedly off-kilter ideas on reforming prisoners.

Pryce is a prisoner but has amnesia. So does her cellmate Zed and – in fact – most of the convicts aboard. The supposedly cushy debtor’s prison is actually a horror-house of psychological abuse where suicide is endemic, cunningly maintained by creepy Warden Gripton who is messing with inmates’ memories to satisfy the hungers of something he calls “memeovax

Luckily, new prison doctor “John Smith” is a dab hand with a Sonic screwdriver…

With her memory far from restored, wickedly entrepreneurial Majenta becomes the unlikeliest of Companions, demanding that the “legally liable” Doctor makes restitution for all the trouble he’s caused by ferrying her to planet Panacea where she can be properly cured.

As we all know however, the Tardis goes where She wants and at Her own pace…

‘The Stockbridge Child’ (#403-405 and illustrated by Mike Collins & Roach) deposits the unhappy partners to that peaceful English village where three different incarnations of the Time Lord have encountered incredible alien incursions.

When the Doctor is reunited with outcast skywatcher Maxwell Edison they uncover at last the ancient horror beneath the hamlet which has made the place such a magnet for madness and monsters, before finally despatching the brooding anti-dimensional threat of the Lokhus

Meanwhile Majenta’s big secret hasn’t forgotten her, and is rapidly closing in…

DWM #406-407 featured ‘Mortal Beloved’ limned by Sean Longcroft – wherein the Doctor and “Madge” arrive at a decrepit asteroid mansion on the edge of the biggest storm in creation.

Amidst the flotsam and jetsam lurk poignant clues to Pryce’s past, as tantalisingly revealed by the robots and holograms left to run the place after a far younger Majenta jilted brilliant playboy industrialist Wesley Sparks. Of course, after such an immense length of time, even the most devoted of loves and programs can falter, doubt and even hate…

‘The Age of Ice’ (#408-411, by McDaid, Geraghty & Roach) brings the Last Time Lord and Lost Executive to Sydney Harbour for a fond reunion with Earth Defence Force UNIT, just as time-distortions begin dumping dinosaurs in the sunny streets, and crystalline knowledge stealers The Skith once more attempt to assimilate all the Doctor’s vast and varied experiences. Majenta too finds an old friend in the shape of her long-lost junior associate Fanson, who admits to wiping her memory. When he becomes part of the huge body-count before revealing why, Madge thinks she would lose what was left of her mind…

‘The Deep Hereafter’ (#412, by Rob Davis with above-and-beyond calligraphy from letterer Roger Langridge) is a scintillating space detective story, pastiching classic Will Eisner Spirit Sunday sections, but still succeeds in advancing the overarching plot as Madge and the Doctor complete the last case of piscine P.I. Johnny Seaview and chase down the threat of the reality warping World Bomb…

DWM #413 (Collins & Roach) exhibits ‘Onomatopoeia’ and pits the reluctant pair against space-rats and out-of-control pest prevention systems in a clever and heart-warming fable told almost exclusively without dialogue.

The superb ‘Ghosts of the Northern Line’ (#414-415) follows with Paul Grist working his compositional magic in a chilling yarn of murderous phantoms slaughtering tube passengers in present day London. Obviously they can’t be spirits, so what is the true cause of the apparitions?

This yarn leads directly into the big payoff as the assembled forces of galactic Law and Order suddenly show up to arrest Majenta, plunging the voyagers into a spectacular epic ending as the stroppy impresario at last regains her memory and acquires the power to reshape all of reality. It’s all the fault of the cosmic consortium known and feared as ‘The Crimson Hand’ (DWM #416-420, by McDaid, Geraghty & Roach)…

This blockbuster rollercoaster epic perfectly ends the saga of Majenta Pryce and signs off the Tenth Doctor in suitable style, but dedicated fans still have a wealth of added value bonuses in the posterior text section, which includes a commentary from editor Tom Spilsbury, the origins of the saga from McDaid, Doctor Who Story Notes, the Majenta Pryce “Pitch” and an annotated story background section: copiously illustrated with behind-the-scenes photos, sketches and production art.

We’ve all got our little joys and hidden passions. Sometimes they overlap and magic is made. This is a superb sequence of strips, starring an undeniable bulwark of British Fantasy. If you’re a fan of only one, this book might make you an addict to both. The Crimson Hand is a fabulous book for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for devotees of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics another go.

If only someone would get around to getting these tales digitised…
All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who logo © BBC 2009. Tardis image © BBC 1963. Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. © Marvel. Published 2012 by Panini Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flash Gordon Annual 1967


By anonymous staff of the Mick Anglo Studio, Dick Wood, Al Williamson, Don Heck & various (World Distributor’s [Manchester] Ltd.)
No ISBN – ASIN B000ZOP1GY

By most lights, Flash Gordon is the most influential comic strip in the world. When the hero debuted on Sunday January 7th 1934 (with the superb but rather dated Jungle Jim running as a supplementary “topper”) as response to revolutionary, inspirational, but clunky Buck Rogers (by Philip Nolan & Dick Calkins and which had also began on January 7th but in 1929), a new element was added to the realm of fantasy wonderment: Classical Lyricism.

Where Rogers had traditional adventures and high science concepts, this new feature reinterpreted Fairy Tales, Heroic Epics and Mythology. It did so by spectacularly draping them in the trappings of the contemporary future, with varying esoteric “Rays”, “Engine” and “Motors” substituting for trusty swords and lances – although there were also plenty of those – and exotic flying craft and contraptions standing in for Galleons, Chariots and Magic Carpets.

Most important of all, the sheer artistic talent of Raymond, his compositional skills, fine line-work, eye for concise, elegant detail and just plain genius for drawing beautiful people and things, swiftly made this the strip all young artists swiped from.

When all-original comic books began a few years later, literally dozens of talented kids used the clean lined Romanticism of Gordon as their model and ticket to future success in the field of adventure strips. Most of the others went with Milton Caniff’s expressionistic masterpiece Terry and the Pirates (which also began in 1934 – and he’ll get his go another day).

At the time of this annual a bunch of Gold Key and King Features Syndicate licenses were held by Mick Anglo, who provide strip and prose material for UK weekly TV Tornado. It combined British generated material with US comic book reprints in an era when the television influence of shows like Tarzan and Batman, and venerable features like Flash Gordon – who also had a small screen presence thanks to frequent re-runs of his cinema chapter plays. The project was extremely popular, even though not always of the highest quality…

In 1966, newspaper monolith King Features Syndicate briefly got into comic book publishing again: releasing a wave of titles based on their biggest stars. These were an ideal source of material for British publishers, whose regular audiences were profoundly addicted to TV and movie properties. Moreover, thematically they fitted with World Distributors’ other licensed properties, which repackaged Western’s comics material like Star Trek, Beverly Hillbillies or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with domestically generated material – usually crafted by Mick Anglo’s packaging company Gower Studios.

This Anglo-American (tee-hee!) partnership filled our Christmas needs for a generation, producing a range of UK Annuals – and the occasional Special – mixing full-colour US reprints with prose stories, puzzles, games and fact-features on related themes.

Flash Gordon Annuals appeared sporadically over the next few decades beginning with this release from 1967 which leaned heavily on generic prose space opera adventure leavened with some truly stunning comics tales.

In opening yarn, ‘The Tanks of Triton’ Flash, Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov are recast as general space explorers and their voyage to unknown world Athene sees them saving an advanced and cultured pacifist species from barbaric underseas invaders, after which the explorers pop back to Mongo and visit the Unexplored Continent just in time to scotch the conquest plans on tyrants in waiting ‘The Doom Men’ .

Thus far the fictive text had been augmented by full-colour painted illustrations (and inset epigrammatic facts about Space) but the first full photo feature of rocket science takes centre stage in ‘Britain’s Contribution to Europe’s Satellite’ comes next, counterpointed by maze puzzle ‘Earth in Danger’ before vertical take-off jets are reviewed in ‘Look – No Runway!’

Natural history feature ‘It All Depends!’ discusses relative lifespans before prose yarn in two tone line art ‘Undersea Peril’ sees Flash, Dale and Zarkov discover yet another hidden aquatic kingdom and depose another crazed would-be world conqueror before we enjoy board game ‘Space Flight to Mongo’ and themed crossword ‘Space Fill-In’.

Full-colour comics wonderment begins with the eponymous lead strip from King Comics’ Flash Gordon #1, cover-dated September 1966. Possibly scripted by Archie Goodwin (or Larry Ivie?) ‘Flash Gordon’ was latterly credited to majestic illustrator Al Williamson. While we’re being detailed, the last page is supposedly inked by Gray Morrow…

The strip sees our terrific trio returned to Mongo, in search of desperately needed Radium to stave off a crisis on Earth. Packed with all the vast cast of the series it depicts how the visitors arrive just in time to thwart a coup d’état in frozen kingdom Frigia…

Williamson was one of the greatest draughtsmen to ever grace the pages of comic books and newspaper strip sections. He was born in 1931 in New York City, after which his family relocated to Columbia just as the Golden Age of syndicated adventure strips began.

The lad’s passion for “the Comics” – especially Raymond’s Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim – broadened as he devoured imported and translated US material and the best that Europe and Latin America could provide in anthology magazines as Paquin and Pif Paf. When he was twelve the Williamsons returned to America where, after finishing school, the prodigy found work in the industry that had always obsessed him.

In the early 1950s he became a star of E.C. Comics’ science fiction titles beside kindred spirits Joe Orlando, Wally Wood, Roy G. Krenkel, Frank Frazetta & Angelo Torres. He drew Westerns Kid Colt and Ringo Kid for Atlas/Marvel and during the industry’s darkest days found new fame and fans in newspaper strips, firstly by assisting John Prentice on Rip Kirby – another Raymond masterpiece – and, from 1967, on Secret Agent Corrigan.

Williamson drew Flash Gordon for King Comics and worked on mystery tales and westerns for DC whilst drawing Corrigan; eventually becoming go-to guy for blockbuster sci-fi film adaptations with his stunning interpretations of Blade Runner and Star Wars.

His poetic realism, sophisticated compositions, classicist design and fantastic naturalism graced many varied tales, but in later years he was almost exclusively an inker over pencillers as varied as John Romita Jr., Larry Stroman, Rick Leonardi, Mark Bright, José Delbo and a host of others on everything from Transformers to Spider-Man 2099, Daredevil to Spider-Girl. His magical brushes and pens also embellished many of Marvel’s Graphic Novel productions – such as The Inhumans and Cloak and Dagger: Predator and Prey.

Williamson died in June 2010.

In this Annual, it’s back to prose & painted illos for ‘The Green Horde’ as our heroes discover a new planet just in time to foil a secret invasion of Earth, after which ‘The Black Beasts of Prey’ takes the wanderers to planet Zeus in time to save a dying race of humanoids from fluing dinosaurs and set evolution back on its destined track…

US comic book Flash Gordon #1 also had a back-up starring fellow legendary stalwart Mandrake the Magician and it appears here: crafted by Dave Wood, Don Heck & Andre LeBlanc. ‘Midnight with Mandrake’ sees a gang of thieves unleash sleeping gas on a city crowd, only to have Mandrake change it from soporific to an hallucinogen that sends everyone on the trip of their lives…

It’s back to 2-tone and peerless prose as our heroes find ‘Ming the Merciless’ loose on Earth and stealing weapons tech to reconquer Mongo, after which gag page ‘Laughs in Space’ segues into a text told war of liberation for marsh dwelling primitives in ‘The Last of the Claymen’ and a ‘True or False ’ brain teaser page before we spectacularly end with the last strip from Flash Gordon #1, as the Terran Trio test Zarkov’s new mole machine and discover a lost civilisation deep under the crust of Mongo. Sadly, the locale of Krenkellium might be fresh and new but power, politics and peril seem to play out in a universal manner in ‘Flash Gordon and the Mole Machine’ (by Archie Goodwin & Williamson).

This kind of uncomplicated done-in-one media-tasty package was the basic unit of Christmas entertainment for millions of British kids at one time and still holds plenty of rewarding fun for those looking for a simple and straightforward nostalgic escape.
© MCMLXVI, MCMLXVII by King Features Syndicate, Inc. The Amalgamated Press.

A Spirou & Fantasio Adventure: Volume 19 – The Visitor from the Mesozoic


By André Franquin with Greg & Jidéhem, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-066-1 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Marvellous Monster Madness… 9/10

Spirou (whose name translates as “squirrel”, “mischievous” and “lively kid” in the language of Walloons) was created by French cartoonist François Robert Velter – AKA Rob-Vel – for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis. He was a measured response to the success of Hergé’s Tintin at rival outfit Casterman. At first, Spirou (with his pet squirrel Spip) was a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (an in-joke reference to Dupuis’ premier periodical Le Moustique) whose improbable adventures gradually evolved into astounding and often surreal comedy dramas.

The other red-headed lad debuted on April 21st 1938 in an 8-page, French-language tabloid magazine that bears his name to this day. Fronting a roster of new and licensed foreign strips – Fernand Dineur’s Les Aventures de Tif (latterly Tif et Tondu) and US newspaper imports Red Ryder, Brick Bradford and SupermanLe Journal de Spirou grew exponentially: adding Flemish edition Robbedoes on October 27th 1938, bumping up the page count and adding compelling action, fantasy and comedy features until it was an unassailable, unmissable necessity for Continental kids.

Spirou and chums spearheaded the magazine for most of its life, with many impressive creators building on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin, who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939. She was aided by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943, when Dupuis purchased the feature, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (“Jijé”) took over.

In 1946, Jijé’s assistant André Franquin inherited the strip. Gradually, he retired traditional short gag-like vignettes in favour of longer adventure serials; introducing a wide and engaging cast of regulars. He ultimately devised a phenomenally popular nigh-magical animal dubbed Marsupilami, who debuted in 1952’s Spirou et les héritiers.

Jean-Claude Fournier succeeded Franquin in 1969 and working for a decade: beginning a succession of reinventions by creator teams that included Raoul Cauvin & Nic Broca; Yves Chaland; and Philippe Vandevelde – writing as Tome” & artist Jean-Richard Geurts – AKA Janry.

These last reverently referenced the beloved, revered Franquin era: reviving the feature’s fortunes in 14 albums between 1984-1998. After their departure the strip diversified into parallel strands: Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and guest-creator specials A Spirou Story By… before Lewis Trondheim and the teams of Jean-Davide Morvan/Jose-Luis Munuera and Fabien Vehlmann/Yoann stepped up.

By my count – which includes specials, spin-offs series and one-shots – they cumulatively bring the album count to upwards of 90, but for many of us the Franquin sagas are the epitome and acme of the Spirou experience…

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since October 2009, initially concentrating on translating Tome & Janry’s superb pastiche/homages of Franquin, but for this manic marvel (available in paperback and digitally) they reached back all the way to 1960 for some true Franquin-formulated furore.

Belgian superstar André Franquin was born in Etterbeek on January 3rd 1924. Drawing from an early age, he began formal art training at École Saint-Luc in 1943 but when the war forced the school’s closure a year later, Franquin found animation work at Compagnie Belge d’Animation in Brussels. Here he met Maurice de Bevere (Lucky Luke-creator “Morris”), Pierre Culliford (AKA The Smurfs creator Peyo), and Eddy Paape (Valhardi, Luc Orient).

In 1945 all but Culliford signed on with Dupuis, and Franquin began his career as a jobbing cartoonist/illustrator, crafting covers for Le Moustique and scouting magazine Plein Jeu. Throughout those days, Franquin and Morris were being trained by Jijé – at that time main illustrator at Le Journal de Spirou. He turned the youngsters and fellow neophyte Willy Maltaite – AKA Will (Tif et Tondu, Isabelle, Le jardin des désirs) – into a perfect creative bullpen known as the La bande des quatre or “Gang of Four”. They would revolutionise Belgian comics with their prolific and engaging “Marcinelle school” style of graphic storytelling.

Jijé handed Franquin all responsibilities for the flagship strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriquée, (LJdS #427, June 20th 1946. He ran with it for two decades, enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters like comrade/rival Fantasio and crackpot inventor the Count of Champignac. Along the way Spirou & Fantasio became globe-trotting journalists, endlessly expanding their weekly exploits in unbroken four-colour glory.

The heroes travelled to exotic places, uncovering crimes, finding the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies like Zorglub and Zantafio, as well as one of the first strong female characters in European comics, rival journalist Seccotine (renamed Cellophine in the current English translation).

In a splendid example of good practise, Franquin mentored his own band of apprentice cartoonists during the 1950s. These included Jean Roba (La Ribambelle, Boule et Bill), Jidéhem (Sophie, Ginger, Starter, Uhu-Man, Gaston Lagaffe) and Greg author of Luc Orient, Bruno Brazil, Bernard Prince, Achille Talon, and Zig et Puce who all worked with him on Spirou et Fantasio.

In 1955, a contractual spat with Dupuis saw Franquin sign with rivals Casterman on Le Journal de Tintin, collaborating with René Goscinny and Peyo whilst creating the raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon. Within weeks Franquin patched things up with Dupuis and returned to Spirou, subsequently co-creating Gaston Lagaffe (known in Britain as Gomer Goof), but was obliged to carry on his Casterman commitments too…

From 1959, writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem assisted Franquin, but by 1969 the artist had reached his Spirou limit. He quit, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him…

His later creations include fantasy series Isabelle, illustration sequence Monsters and bleak adult conceptual series Idées Noires, but his greatest creation – and one he retained all rights to on his departure – is Marsupilami, which, in addition to comics tales, has become a star of screen, plush toy store, console and albums.

Plagued in later life by bouts of depression, Franquin passed away on January 5th 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics.

Originally entitled Le voyageur du Mésozoïque and brought to you here as The Visitor from the Mesozoic this album combines a long tail (sorry couldn’t resist!) plus another, shorter adventure by the master crafted in collaboration with co-writer Greg (alias Michel Régnier) and artist Jidéhem – AKA Jean De Mesmaeker. The lead romp comes from 1957 having originated as a serial in Le Journal de Spirou #992-1018 and clearly and cleverly channelling that time’s penchant for rampaging, city-stomping giant monsters…

It begins in the Antarctic as the mushroom-mad Count de Champignac is rescued – much against his will – from his own experiments and frozen doom and brought back to France. He has with him a dinosaur egg that has been frozen for millions of years…

Getting the fragile, precious miracle back to his lab in bucolic Champignac-on-the-Sticks takes all the ingenuity and determination his pals Spirou and Fantasio can muster, but after much fuss and fluster the primordial ovum is stashed in the genius’ workshop and slowly thawing under the gimlet eyes of a handpicked team of fellow mad scientists including Doctors Nero, Schwartz, atomic pariah Sprtschk and Alexandre Specimen – “the Biologist”…

Their bumbling patience is tested to its limits when the mischievous Marsupilami becomes obsessed with the new ball toy and perhaps it’s his terrifying antics that finally force it to hatch…

Everyone is delighted when the mega-million-year-old herbivore pops out, but science is never patient and the bonkers boffins imprudently goose along its development with a little growth formula and aging extracts. Sadly, so does the Marsupilami and when everybody wakes up in the morning they’re greeted by a genial skyscraper saurian with a huge empty belly and a very bad cold…

Soon the big daft brute is shambling through the hamlet looking for browse and causing quite a commotion. The villagers might be used to weird happenings but the government respond with predictable hostility: sending in a tank column and a flight of warplanes…

They prove inefficient and quite ineffective, but the story also generates a wave of controversy. Stridently vocal, violently different pressure groups form: some wanting to save the poor endangered creature and others seeking to preserve the precious landmarks and monuments the beast is trampling. There’s even one guy who wants to make the dinosaur the latest taste sensation in his canned meat factory…

With chaos rampant Spirou looks for a solution to help the creature and finds one, but it depends on manoeuvring the monster to a certain isolated promontory. Thankfully, the Marsupilami has lost patience with his old toy and is ready to step in and step up…

Manic and wildly slapstick in tone and delivery, the story of the big beast is both charming and wickedly satirical and offers a happy ending films like Godzilla, Konga and Gorgo could never have imagined…

The rampaging silliness is counterbalanced by an equally funny but far more sinister pastiche also set in the wild world of the Merlin of Mushrooms. Back-up yarn ‘Fear on the Line’ stems from 1959, serialised as ‘La Peur au bout du fil’ in LJS #1086-1092. Notable for the first crossover appearance of comedy sluggard Gaston Lagaffe, the story details how Champignac distils the chemical essence of evil and accidentally drinks it instead of his coffee. Warned too late, Spirou and Fantasio must chase the now wicked prankster as he wreaks havoc in the village and plants bombs filled with his chemical concoctions. Happily, The Biologist is on hand to offer advice as the clock counts down to doom and our heroes give chase, but in the end it’s the Marsupilami who solves the crisis in his own bombastic manner…

The Visitor from the Mesozoic is the kind of lightly-barbed comedy-thriller that delights readers fed up with a marketplace far too full of adults-only carnage, testosterone-fuelled breast-beating, teen-romance monsters or sickly-sweet fantasy.

Easily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the beguiling style and seductive yet wholesome élan which makes Asterix, Lucky Luke, and Iznogoud so compelling, this is a truly enduring landmark tale from a long line of superb exploits, and deserves to be a household name as much as those series – and even that other kid with the white dog…
Original edition © Dupuis, 1960 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation © 2022 Cinebook Ltd.

Spirou & Fantasio volume 18: Attack of the Zordolts


By Yoann & Vehlmann, designed by Fred Blanchard, colored by Hubert & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-022-7 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Manic Mirth and Mad Melodrama… 9/10

Spirou (which translates as both “squirrel” and “mischievous” in the Walloon language) was created by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter AKA Rob-Vel 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 spearheaded the magazine for most of its life, with a phalanx 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 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 the series seemed outdated and lacked direction. Three different creative teams alternated on the feature, until it was overhauled and revitalised by Philippe Vandevelde (writing as Tome) and artist Jean-Richard Geurts AKA Janry. They adapted, referenced and in many ways returned to the beloved Franquin era.

Their sterling efforts revived the floundering feature’s fortunes, generating 14 wonderful albums between 1984 and1998. 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 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.

He assumed the writing reins on Spirou and Fantasio in collaboration with Yoann. beginning with the book on review here – 2010’s Spirou et Fantasio – Alerte aux Zorkons.

Yoann Chivard was born in October 1971 and was drawing non-stop by the age of five. With qualifications in Plastic Arts and a degree in Communication from the Academy of Fine Arts in Angers, he became a poster and advertising artist whilst 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 all responsibilities for the strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriqué (LJdS #427, June 20th 1946), the new guy ran with it for two decades; enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters such as staunch comrade and rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas de ChampignacThe 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-flavoured villain who constantly targets the Count. A brilliant engineer, his incredible machines are far less dangerous than his mesmerising mind-controlling “Zorglwave” and an apparently unshakable desire to conquer Earth and dominate the solar system from a base on the Moon…

This tale opens with the seemingly reformed plotter stealing some of Champignac’s most incredible mushroom-based miracles and triggering a massive mutational event in and around the bucolic generally placid hamlet of Champignac-in-the-Sticks.

The first Spirou and Fantasio hear of it is a desperate cell phone call from Pacôme, who has just reappeared after weeks amnesiac and missing. Driving back from a promotional tour, our heroes race across country only to find the placid region is now an armed camp, with soldiers in biohazard gear brutally decontaminating villagers.

The little valley has become a monstrous alien jungle dominated and transformed by weird and incredible plant/animal/fungus creatures, but neither they nor the military – who are keen on immediately nuking the geographical atrocity – can stop our dedicated reporters sneaking in to find their friends.

On locating the Count and his two new chums – hot Swedish science students Astrid and Lena – the lads learn that the brave new world is an accident and hideous side effect of Zorglub’s latest scheme, and that he’s sorrier than anyone at the state of the local environment.

He’s certainly keen enough on fixing the problem…

Other than the fact that everything wants to eat everything else, and that many of the human locals seem comfortable and accustomed to the changes, the main problem seems to be a rapidly proliferating and aggressive form of beast man. The jungle is now a superfast evolutionary Petri dish with everything in it part of an arms race to out-compete all rivals. These brutish bipeds have for some reason evolved immunity to Zorglub’s Zorglwave by having oodles of aggression and not enough intellect. They are ravening, unstoppable Zordolts…

Not sure what’s happening, but resolved to stop the Army bombing the village before foiling Zorglub, everybody works frantically together and succeeds in part one of the plan, but when the jests are repelled and the Zordolts stopped by Champignac’s newly-liberated dinosaur they find the villain vanished.

By the time Champignac has worked his mushroom magic in reverse and restored most of the status quo, the Master of the Z ray is long gone. If our heroes could look up high enough, they might see him well on his way to the moon with Astrid in Lena in tow and about to set his Great Masterwork in motion…

To be Continued…

Rocket-paced, action-packed, compellingly convoluted and with just the right blend of perfectly blending helter-skelter excitement and sheer daftness, Attack of the Zordolts is a terrific romp to delight devotees of easy-going adventure.

Stuffed with an astounding array of astonishing hi-tech spoofery, riotous chases and gazillions of sight gags and verbal ripostes, this exultant escapade is a fabulous fiesta of angst-free action and thrills. Readily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with beguiling style and seductive energy and wit, this is pure cartoon gold, truly deserving of reaching the widest audience possible.

Buy it for you, get another for the kids and give copies to all your friends…
Original edition © Dupuis, 2010 by Vehlmann, Yoann, Blanchard & Hubert. All rights reserved. English translation 2021 © Cinebook Ltd.

The Creature Commandos


By J.M. DeMatteis, Robert Kanigher, Mike W. Barr, Fred Carrillo, Pat Broderick, John Celardo, Bob Hall, Jerry Ordway, Dan Spiegle, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4382-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

American comic books just idled along rather meekly until the 1938 invention of Superman provided a flamboyant new genre for heroes: subsequently and bombastically unleashing a torrent of creative imitation for a suddenly thriving and voracious new entertainment model that would enthral future generations.

Implacably vested in World War II, gaudily-garbed mystery men swept all before them until the troops came home, but as the decade closed traditional themes and heroes resurfaced to gradually supplant the Fights ‘n’ Tights crowd.

Even as a new crop of kids began buying and collecting, many of the first fans who had retained a four-colour habit sought more mature themes in their pictorial reading matter. Recent conflict and post-war paranoia irrevocably altered the psychological landscape of the readership as a more world-weary, cynical public slowly realised that all the fighting and dying hadn’t changed anything. The period’s established forms of entertainment – film, radio, theatre and prose, as well as comics – increasingly reflected this.

To balance the return of Western, War, Crime and imminent Atomic Armageddon-fuelled Science Fiction, comics created fresh fields. Celebrity tie-ins, escapist teen-oriented comedy and anthropomorphic animal features thrived, and gradually another of the cyclical revivals of spiritualism and increased public fascination with the arcane led to a wave of impressive, evocative and shockingly addictive horror comics.

DC Comics bowed to the inevitable by launching a comparatively straight-laced anthology which nevertheless became one of their longest-running and most influential titles with December 1951/January 1952 cover-dated The House of Mystery.

After the hysterical censorship debate which led to witch-hunting Senate hearings in the early 1950s was curtailed by the industry adopting a castrating straitjacket of self-regulation, titles produced under the aegis of the Comics Code Authority were sanitised, anodyne affairs in terms of Shock and Gore, but the audience’s appetite for suspense was still high and in 1956 National introduced sister titles Tales of the Unexpected and House of Secrets.

Stories were dialled back from uncanny yarns to (always) marvellously rendered, rationalistic fantasy-adventures and, ultimately, straight monster-busting Sci Fi tales which dominated the market into the 1960s. That’s when superheroes – enjoying their own visionary revival after Julius Schwartz reintroduced The Flash in Showcase #4 – finally overtook them.

Such was never the case with war comics. Tales of ordinary guys in combat began with the industry itself and although mostly sidelined during the capes-&-cowls war years, quickly began to assert themselves again once the actual fighting stopped.

National/DC were one of the last to get in on the combat trend: converting superhero/fantasy adventure anthology Star Spangled Comics into Star Spangled War Stories the same month Our Army at War launched (both cover-dated August 1952). Also repurposed, All-American Comics became All-American Men of War a month later as the “police action” in Korea escalated.

National grew the division slowly but steadily, adding Our Fighting Forces #1 (November 1954) – just as EC’s groundbreaking combat comics were vanishing – and in 1957 added GI Combat to their portfolio when Quality Comics got out of the funnybook business.

As the decade closed, the anthologies all began incorporating recurring characters to the mix. Gunner and Sarge – and latterly Pooch – launched in Our Fighting Forces #45 (May 1959). They were followed a month later by Sgt Rock in Our Army at War #83 and – addressing mystery as well as mayhem – The War that Time Forgot debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #99 (May 1960) and The Haunted Tank took off in G.I. Combat #87 (April/May 1961). Soon every DC war book had a lead star or feature to hold the fickle readers’ attention.

The drive to produce superior material never wavered, however, hugely aided by the diligent and meticulous ministrations of writer/editor Robert Kanigher. As the Vietnam War escalated, 1960s America increasingly endured a Home Front death-struggle pitting deeply-ingrained Establishment attitudes against a young generation with a radical new social sensibility. In response, military-themed comic books from National Periodical Publishing became even more boldly innovative…

However, another sudden superheroes dieback led to serious rethinking and although war titles maintained and even increased sales, the editors beefed up both supernatural and anthological elements. Thus in 1971 (cover-dated October), a title merging horror scenarios with battle yarns seemed a forgone conclusion: a sure thing for both publishers and readers alike. The notion proved correct and Weird War Tales ran for 124 issues: a DC mainstay for 12 years and experimental forge for many young creators to learn the craft and business.

Eventually, history again repeated itself and character vehicles began to replace stand-alone stories: primarily revivals of earlier features such as The War That Time Forgot and G.I. Robot, but also the uncanny undercover unit that is the star of this turbulent tome.

Compiling stories and even some comedy sidebars first seen in Weird War Tales #93, 97, 100, 102, 105, 108-112, 114-119, 121 and 124 (spanning cover-dates November 1980 to June 1983), this vintage tome offers a broad blend of genre mash-ups for armchair combat fans with a taste for the dark and uncanny to relish.

It begins without flourish in WWT #93 as J.M. DeMatteis, Pat Broderick & John Celardo introduce The Creature Commandos!’ Spring 1942 and America’s Project M (for Monster) and US Army Intelligence officer Matthew Shrieve want to create a specialist team for rapid strike missions using mankind’s primordial terrors as a psychological weapon.

Their prime candidates are three originally ordinary soldiers altered by science into analogues of Hollywood horrors. After stepping on a landmine and surviving experimental surgery Marine private Elliot “Lucky” Taylor is now a mute Frankensteinian colossus, whilst cashiered sergeant Vincent Velcro chose a course of bat blood serum treatments over 30 years in the brig: and is now a shapeshifting bloodsucking vampire. Unable to enlist because he suffered from “blood disorder” lycanthropy, Warren Griffiths was “treated” until he became an impermanently manifested werewolf. The proposed team would be completed by Shrieve himself: a human problem solver (for which read “callous psychopath”) in command of a relentless ruthless squad designed to strike fear into the hearts of the foe…

Allied Command are disgusted and never want to see the squad again, but as it’s wartime, that translates as dumping them in occupied France with orders to do as much damage as possible…

The first mission drops them on Castle Conquest, where Nazi robotic experiments prove no match for their savagery, but success is somewhat spoiled after Shrieve is shown to consider them utterly expendable freaks…

Fred Carrillo limns DeMatteis’ sequel in #97 (March 1981) as The Creature Commandos vs. the Faceless Enemy!’  sees the monster squad enduring bitter winter weather and Nazi attacks whilst rescuing sexy scientist Dr. Frederique who turns out to be not what she seems, after which anniversary issue #100 (June 1981) highlights Mike W. Barr, Bob Hall & Jerry Ordway’s mighty team-up ‘Dinosaur Convoy!’

Here the eerie expendables are in the South Pacific to verify repeated reports of dinosaurs, only to clash with a Japanese task force on a similar mission. As Shrieve grows evermore bestial and brutal, his subordinates increasingly embrace their lost humanity even while slaughtering the foe and in the end “convince” their commander to keep the saurian secret and out of the war effort…

By now the terror team was assured of continued service and returned in #102 (August) as DeMatteis & Carrillo detailed ‘The Children’s Crusade!’ Here Adolf Hitler personally indoctrinates little German orphans to form a cadre of perfect, chemically-enhanced killers. To stop them, who better than Liberty’s own monsters, but in the end can even these dread agents do their duty?

A mirth break comes in a single-page gag by Dave Manak (WWT #104), as the squad star in patriotic movie ‘The Monster Marines’ before DeMatteis & Carrillo use #105 (November) to explore ‘The War at Home!’ Ordered back to upstate New York, the unit invades and eradicates the town of Freedom: routing out a nest of Nazi sympathisers where once again Shrieve proves just how much he belongs on a team of monsters…

Manak cartoonishly strikes again in #107 with an encore performance of ‘The Monster Marines’, after which DeMatteis, Hall & Celardo dump the squad ‘In the Kingdom of the Damned’ (#108 February 1982). It begins with Lucky attempting to end his abominable existence and triggers a flashback to the Creature Commandos’ last mission. Whilst destroying a Nazi death camp the team were captured and tortured, but the true horror for the patchwork man was making – and losing – a friend who truly understood him…

Weird war maestro Robert Kanigher signed up as writer with #109 and – with brilliant but underappreciated artist Dan Spiegle – contrived a continued tale that concluded in the next issue.

Velcro had been increasingly plagued by his uncontrollable blood thirst for months and ‘Roses are Red – But Blood is Redder, part 1: The Beast Within Us!’ saw him reject the bottled sustenance for fresher sources. Stopped by the recovered Lucky, the vampire swore off French maids (for now) even as the squad deployed to a fogged-in tank battlefield to halt a German counterattack by blowing up a dam.

The job was disaster-prone but still successful. ‘Roses are Red – But Blood is Redder, part 2: A Mirror for Monsters!’ found the almost drowned quartet stranded. Shrieve – whose bullying of “his freaks” had become incessant and obsessive was seriously injured and the monsters had to decide whether it was worth saving him. Valorous as ever, they carried him across enemy lines and a mountain of enemy bodies to a medical base where army plastic surgeon Myrna Rhodes saved the sadistic psycho. Tragically, their emotional overreaction cause a chemical accident bathing Rhodes in unknown chemicals and mutating her into a doppelganger of the mythical Medusa – albeit without the petrifying gaze…

With no other place to go, the medic becomes the latest addition to the Creature Commandos…

Cover-dated May, WWT #111 crossed over with comic book stablemate G.I. Robot as J.A.K.E. (Jungle Automatic Killer Experimental) #1 loses his human handler Sgt. Coker and goes AW/OL just as Shrieve’s team are returned to the Pacific Theatre to solve a mystery.

Allied shipping is being sunk and cannot relieve marines stranded on Tattu Island so the exotic expendables are dropped in by parachute only to encounter more dinosaurs.

Happily J.A.K.E. is on hand to save them from big hungry lizards, ancient “Atlantides” and ‘The Doomsday Robots!’

Spiegle’s singular run ends with #112 as the unit is seconded to North Africa and Dr. Rhodes discovers an ancient analogue of her condition in an unearthed pyramid. With her comrades shockingly transformed by ‘The Medusa Sting!’, she is forced to carry them over the burning desert sands and foil Rommel’s advance until the spell wears off.

Carrillo joined Kanigher in #114 (August), remaining for the rest of the run. His first job was illustrating the monster squad’s infiltration of Berlin as a ‘Circus of Madness’ and raid on a concentration camp to rescue a nuclear scientist, before meeting J.A.K.E. II as he recuperates from injuries (damage?). As the mechanoid discovers love with blind blonde British princess Dana (just don’t, okay! It’s comics!) the weird heroes learn that ‘You Can’t Pin a Medal on a Robot’

By this stage the writing was on the wall for genre comics, and internal logic and consistency was under mounting pressure. Weird War Tales #116 opened a ‘Doorway to Hell’ as ancient and heartless volcano goddess Inferna awakes just in time to interfere in the Commandos’ invasion of Sicily and abduct Shrieve to be her toyboy. Despite themselves, the terrors rescue their tormentor and head to Paris for R&R. After suitably upsetting the locals the horrors are recalled for another mission, but with Shrieve declared unfit for duty cannot find a commander to lead them. Bored, desperate and ever more unpopular, the team even take a pilgrimage to Holy Shrine of Lourdes before making ‘A Miracle for Monsters!’ to get back into the war.

Cover-dated December 1982, another team-up with the G.I. Robot in #118 proves ‘Heroes Come in Small Sizes’ as escaping German POWs take French children hostage to facilitate their escape but underestimate the ingenuity and determination of the beast warriors, before the scene shifts to London in #119 where unthinking prejudice drives the horror heroes back to the Front. Entering Italy, they battle Nazi execution squads covering atrocities and shut down rocket factories, but always meet rejection from those they aid…

When a sympathetic scientist offers to send them to a kinder future era, the monsters jump at the chance, but soon find that tomorrow’s ‘World Under Glass’ is even worse…

Returning to the devils they know, the squad resurfaces in #121 (March 1983) where ‘Death Smiles Thrice!’ and Hitler’s top brass unleash a psychological onslaught to destroy them. Of course, the unit have faced robot doubles before and know exactly how to respond.

The era of unbridled imagination unceremoniously ended with a single page sign-off in Weird War Tales #124 (June 1983) as Shrieve commits the Creature Commandos to one final mission… ‘Destination Unknown!’

With covers by Joe Kubert, Ross Andru, Romeo Tanghal, Rich Buckler, Dick Giordano, Frank Giacoia, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo, Joe Staton & Bruce Patterson, Gil Kane & Trevor von Eeden, this manic menagerie of military monster madness celebrates a long-gone and much missed time of variety where “what if” was king and logic played second fiddle to moments of wide-eyed wonder.

By turns chilling, thrilling, daft, emotionally intense, and utterly outrageous – but always superbly illustrated, insanely addictive and Just Plain Fun – this is a deliciously guilty pleasure to astound and delight any lover of fantasy fiction and comics that work on plot invention rather than character compulsion. The Creature Commandos is a tome for all lovers of dark delight and one no arcane aficionada can afford to be without.
© 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Kill All Monsters!™ Omnibus


By Michael May & Jason Copland & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-827-7 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-613008-400-4

Somebody once said “In comics, Less Is More”.*

Sometimes all we want is a primal experience with intrigue and character pared down to basics. Maybe a little mystery and treachery but fundamentally heroes, villains and an overwhelming menace to rail valiantly against.

There’s all that and so much more in Kill All Monsters!: a vibrant and vivid monochrome monster-fest which started life as an online tribute to Japan’s greatest cultural export – spectacular Kaiju versus Mecha mega-duels.

Crafted by writer Michael May (Hunt the Winterlands) and illustrator Jason Copland (The Perhapsnauts: Molly’s Story; Murder Book; Poutine) – with early idea contributions by Alex Ness – the 2013 webcomic was picked up by Dark Horse two years later, reprinting the epic and delivering a sequel…

The hugely hulking omnibus edition arrived in 2017, gathering Kill All Monsters! volume 1: Ruins of Paris and Kill All Monsters!: The Ministry of Robots which ran in Dark Horse Presents (volume 3) #12-24. It includes another 100 pages of story, notionally concluding the tale in a welter of edgy grey-toned “Amerimanga” action and suspense. Critical tech support throughout is provided by letterers Ed Brisson, Ryan Ferrier & Micah Myers.

Shell-pocked, gritty and executed at breakneck pace, with captivating atmosphere and a do-or-die sense of duty, it opens in ‘The Ruins of Paris’ as a squad of human warriors explore the devasted city in their singular giant robot war-suits.

Like everywhere else in the world, the City of Lights was razed to rubble by waves of monster attacks which began in Japan in 1954 and which have steadily pushed humanity to the edge of extinction.

Dressen, Spencer Djamel and Akemi are part of the African Defense Force conceived and commanded by visionary General Abbud Rashad as a last-ditch deterrent to colossal horrors that started harassing humanity in the wake of the atomic bomb’s first detonations. The Mecha-riders are champions of human technology and ingenuity, forever shaking the earth in constant clashes with relentless, merciless killer kaiju.

Here and now, the pilots barely survive an assault by an octet of titanic terrors and are stuck nervously awaiting repair services, when they discover barbarous Parisians who have taken a different path in adapting to the monster depredations…

Second chapter ‘Attack of the Killer Robot’ takes us to Kenya, where latest recruit Archer despatches a brutal bug beast menacing a village. He is the General’s latest innovation and last hope…

In Paris, the stranded pilots seek shelter until Archer can rescue them, encountering a pack of feral, human-sized beasts. They survive, but doubt their impending recovery will be in time. Moreover, they are far from happy that the General is putting so much faith in a Mecha that is fully artificial. Nobody human trusts AIs like Archer…

‘Pigs in the Sky’ reveals the machine saviour is equally uncertain of his role and capabilities, although base technician, repairman and passenger-to-Paris Angus assures him he’s being foolish. In the meantime, the subjects of their rescue mission have linked up with the locals after being ambushed by rampaging warthog horrors. Relocating to the catacombs beneath the city after the first attack in 1959, the French tribe have become true savages ‘Down in the Underground’: scavenging at the borders of daily horror. However, the better educated pilots quickly realise that the subterranean sanctuary they occupy is a technological treasure trove…

The primitives have been skulking amidst resources that could have turned the tables on their tormentors, and Spencer finds mystery to compound the irony. The modern machinery in the tunnels had to have been installed long after the city fell – possibly less than a decade ago – but how, why and by whom?

Seeking answers, the uneasy allies return to the stalled Mecha to access the hard drive they have recovered, but are ambushed by another mega-monster. That’s when Archer explosively arrives to save them all, even as Akemi and Parisian ally Cosa decipher the data and discover a human conspiracy – ‘Pax Monstrorum’ – is behind the monsters…

With an enemy to hunt comes knowledge of an imminent endgame. The villains have scheduled an ultimate monster to eradicate what remains of humankind, and the allies ready themselves for the final battle…

Heading ‘Into the Trees’ to a hidden base in the Black Forest of what used to be Germany, their assault on ‘The Castle of Doom’ forestalls humanity’s end – for a little while – but comes at a huge cost, and exposing a traitor in the squad working for the Pax in ‘Akemi’s Secret’

There’s a tragic and cruel backstory beneath all the brutal Brobdingnagian battles, but revelation takes a big step to the side as ‘Time Bomb’ sees the ascendant Pax Monstrorum trying to clean house but foiled and punished by the last ADF warriors in ‘Death in the Deep’ before ultimately triumphing over the worst beasts of all in ‘Revenge of the Robots’ and ‘The Serpent Strikes’

Under Dark Horse’s aegis the war of survival resumed with ‘The Ministry of Robots’, beginning with a review of how humanity fell and the course of global military resistance to the massive marauders. A glimpse of the early days of Rashad’s Mecha project sees embittered Captain Vivian Matthews ordered to assess his radical project to fight monsters with giant robots. Her evaluation will determine if Canada joins the scheme, but almost founders at the start…

When her plane is brought down by a big beast, she is saved by Colonel Spencer Djamel and his prototype Lion-bot. She then sees the work first hand when invited to pilot the incredible war-suit . Of course, her dry run becomes serious wetwork when she is ambushed by a giant bug and becomes the first human in history to kill rather than repulse a monster…

She is blithely unaware that her closest aide belongs to a secret society promoting the rise of the horrors…

This classy combat compendium closes with all-new, past-set tale ‘Island of Giants’ with focus shifting to the start of  the fightback – and home of the genre – in the last days of lost Tokyo. When experimental Mecha warriors Shogun and Bushi-1 are directed to reconnoitre a solitary isle that surveillance has determined is the origin point of the killer colossi shattering Japan, they discover not only the infinitely variable creature legions’ home, but also that these ravagers are being carefully farmed…

And that is when the real trouble starts…

This manic, mostly monochrome tome is the acme of artistic thrills and chills, perfectly capturing the addictive wonderment of all Heroes vs. Monster yarns. As such, it also supplies a stunning Pin-up Gallery by guest aficionados Brian Level, Frankie B. Washington, Jeff McComsey, Johnnie Christmas and Otis Frampton.

This starkly compelling collection delivers dark chills, compulsive mystery, cunning conspiracy, deeply flawed human heroes and villains, but above all constant cathartic combat carnage in intoxicating amounts… and it all starts, unfolds and ends right here. No muss, no fuss, no busload of tie-ins.

Less is More. Ride the rocket robot. Save the world.
© 2013, 2015, 2017 Michael May & Jason Copland All rights reserved.

* It was me, yesterday! Less Is still More, but Bigger is Better. Get this Book too.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur volume one: BFF


By Brandon Montclare, Amy Reeder, Natacha Bustos, Tamra Bonvillain & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0005-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

The Marvel Universe is absolutely stuffed with astounding young geniuses but Lunella Lafayette is probably the most memorable you’ll ever meet. Very young, very gifted and proudly black, she lives with her parents on Manhattan’s Lower East Side when not attending Public School 20 Anna Silver on Essex Street.

Thanks to her obsessive interest in astronomy and alien races the other kids mockingly call her “Moon Girl” whilst the brilliant, bored 4th grader’s teachers universally despair because she already knows so much more than they do…

It’s a hassle, but Lunella actually has bigger problems. Time is running out and her numerous applications to specialist schools such as the Fantastic Four’s Future Foundation have all gone unanswered. The situation needs resolving as it’s pretty important and urgent. Lunella has – correctly – deduced that she carries dormant Inhuman genes, and the constantly moving mutagenic Terrigen Cloud recently released into Earth’s atmosphere (see both the Infinity and Inhumanity events) could transform her into a monster at any windswept moment…

Thanks to her investigations, she’s an expert in advanced and extraterrestrial technology, and her quest for a cure or Terrigen-deterrence procedure sees her perpetually sneaking out past bedtime in search of gadgets and detritus left behind after frequent superhero clashes around town…

That impetus reaches its hope-filled climax when her handmade detectors locate a discarded Kree Omni-Wave Projector in opening chapter ‘Repeat After Me’…

At some unspecified time in Earth’s distant prehistory, various emergent species of hominids eked out a perilous existence beside the last of the great lizards and other primordial giants. At one particular key moment, a wide-eyed innocent of the timid yet clever Small Folk saved a baby tyrannosaur from ruthless pre-human hunters the Killer Folk.

They had already slaughtered its mother and siblings with cunning snares and were merrily torturing the little lizard with blazing firebrands – which turned its scorched hide a livid, blazing red – before Moon Boy intervened…

Under the roaring light of a blazing volcano, boy and beast bonded, becoming inseparable companions. It was soon apparent the scarlet saurian was no ordinary reptile: blessed with uncanny intelligence and unmatchable ferocity, Devil became an equal partner in a relationship never before seen in the world. It did not, however, prevent the duo becoming targets for ruthless Killer Folk leader Thorn-Teeth who now slaughters and sacrifices beasts and Small Folk to a mystic “Nightstone”. A more advanced observer might remark on how much it resembles a Kree Omni-Wave Projector…

When Moon-Boy steals the dread talisman, he is savagely beaten near to death even as – in a gym class on Essex Street – Coach Hrbek confiscates and accidentally activates a fancy doodad Lunella’s been playing with instead of paying attention to getting fit.

Lights flash, time shreds and universes collide. A hole opens in space and a pack of bizarre monkey men shamble into modern New York. Arriving too late in the antediluvian valley, Devil Dinosaur thunders straight through the portal, intent on avenging his dying comrade…

Arriving in an impossibly confusing new world, Devil understandably panics. After causing much chaos and carnage, the bombastic beast sniffs little Lunella and snatches her up…

A mad chase ensues in ‘Old Dogs and New Tricks’ as deeply confused Devil marauds through Manhattan with outraged Lunella unable to escape or control the ferocious thunder lizard.

Meanwhile, the Killer Folk rapidly adapt to the new environment. Hiding out and observing everything occurring in the Yancy Street Subway Station, they soon prove the old adage about primitive not meaning stupid. Within days they have grasped the fundamentals of English and new concepts like money and clothes, as well as the  trickier notions of “gangs” and “protection rackets”…

Most importantly, Thorn-Teeth remembers that when they arrived, one of the hairless Small Folk was holding his Nightstone…

In ‘Out of the Frying Pan’, Moon Girl is having little luck ditching the overly-attentive, attention-attracting Torrid T-Rex. Tragically, when she finally does, the Killer Folk grab her and the Omni-Wave…

Their triumph is short-lived, since the lizard’s superior sense of smell summons Devil to the rescue, although, in the resulting melee, the precious device is lost. Growing grudgingly fond of the colossal critter, Lunella stashes Devil in her super-secret lab underneath PS 20, but when a spot of student arson sets the school ablaze, her hideaway is exposed and Devil bursts up through the ground to rescue kids trapped on an upper floor…

The fracas also unfortunately attracts the kind of superhero response Lunella has been dreading. ‘Hulk + Devil Dinosaur – ‘Nuff Said’ sees smug, teenaged Gamma-powered Avenger Amadeus Cho butt in with his bulging muscles and inability to listen to reason…

Poor Devil is no match for the Totally Awesome Hulk, forcing Moon Girl to intervene with some her own inventions. Across town, the Killer Folk – proudly carrying the Nightstone – deal with the last obstacle to their supremacy in the Yancy Street criminal underworld…

The Battle of PS 20 reaches its inevitable conclusion and Cho confiscates Devil Dinosaur, leaving Lunella thoroughly grounded and (apparently) behaving like a normal little girl in ‘Know How’.

Of course, it’s all a trick and as soon as everybody is lulled into complacency Moon Girl kits herself out with more devious gadgetry and busts Devil out of the Top Secret Wing of the Natural History Museum. She’s on a tight deadline now: her weather-monitoring gear confirms the Terrigen Cloud is rolling back towards Manhattan…

The spectacular jailbreak results in a ‘Eureka!’ moment coinciding with the Killer Folk consolidating their grip on the streets and using the Omni-Wave to capture Moon Girl. It also results in Lunella’s mother discovering who broke a dinosaur out of jail, and she furiously heads to the school for a reckoning with her wayward child…

The final conflict sees our little warrior at last victorious over the Killer Folk, albeit too late. As Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur roar in triumph on the rooftops, Lunella realises she is trapped outside with the Terrigen cloud descending. Her time and opportunity to create a cure has come and gone…

To Be Continued…

Collecting Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1-6 from January to June 2016, this compelling, immensely entertaining romp is crafted by writers Brandon Montclare & Amy Reeder, with art from Natacha Bustos, colours by Tamra Bonvillain and letters from Travis Lanham. With a cover and variants gallery from Trevor Von Eeden, Pascal Campton, Paul Pope, Jeffrey Veregge & Pia Guerra, this addictively engaging yarn affords non-stop fun: a wonderful all-ages Marvel saga that is as fresh, thrilling, moving and hilariously funny now as it ever was.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: BFF is the kind of tale to lure youngsters into the comics habit and a perfect tool to seduce jaded older fans back into the fold…
© 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Suicide Squad: The Silver Age


By Robert Kanigher, Howard Liss, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Gene Colan, Joe Kubert & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6343-0 (HB) 978-1 4012 7516 7 (TPB)

The War that Time Forgot was a strange series which saw paratroopers and tanks of the “Question Mark Patrol” dropped on Mystery Island from whence no American soldiers ever returned. Assorted crack GIs discovered why when the operation was suddenly overrun by pterosaurs, tyrannosaurs and worse…

However, the combat-&-carnosaur creation was actually a spin-off of an earlier concept which hadn’t quite caught on with the comics-buying public. That wasn’t a problem for Writer/Editor Kanigher: a man well-versed in judicious recycling and reinvention…

Back in 1955 he had devised and written anthology adventure comic The Brave and the Bold which featured short complete tales starring a variety of period heroes: a format mirroring that era’s filmic fascination with historical dramas.

Issue #1 led with Roman swords-&-sandals epic Golden Gladiator, medieval mystery-man The Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’ Viking Prince. Soon the Gladiator was side-lined by the company’s iteration of Robin Hood, but the high adventure theme carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning superhero revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle in the manner of the astounding successful Showcase. Used to launch enterprising concepts and characters such as Cave Carson, Strange Sports Stories, Hawkman and the epochal Justice League of America, the title began test runs s with #25 (August/September 1959) with the fate-tempting Suicide Squad – code-named Task Force X by the US government to investigate uncanny mysteries and tackle unnatural threats.

The scary tales were all illustrated by Kanigher’s go-to team for fantastic fantasy (Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) and they clearly revelled at the chance to cut loose and show what they could do outside the staid whimsy of Wonder Woman or gritty realism of the war titles they usually handled…

The Brave and the Bold #25 introduced a quartet of merely human specialists – air ace war hero Colonel Rick Flag, combat medic Karin Grace and big-brained boffins Hugh Evans and Jess Price – all officially convened into a unit whose purpose was to tackle threats beyond conventional comprehension such as the interstellar phenomenon dubbed ‘The Three Waves of Doom!’

The quartet were built on a very shaky premise. All three men loved Karin. She only loved Rick (who wouldn’t?), but agreed to conceal her inclinations and sublimate her passions so Hugh and Jess would stay on the team of scientific death-cheaters…

In their first published exploit, a cloud from outer space impacted Earth and created a super-heated tsunami which threated to broil America. With dashing derring-do, the troubleshooters quenched the ambulatory heat wave only to have it spawn a colossal alien dragon emanating super-cold rays that might trigger a new ice age…

The only solution was to banish the beast back into space on a handy rocket headed for the sun, but tragically, the ship had to be piloted…

Having heroically ended the invader, the team were back two months later as B&B #26 opened with an immediate continuation. ‘The Sun Curse’ saw our stranded astronauts struggling – in scenes eerily prescient and reminiscent of the Apollo 13 crisis a decade later – to return their ship to Earth. Uncannily, the trip bathes them in radiation which causes them to shrink to insect size…

Back on terra firma but now imperilled by everything around them, the team nonetheless manages to scuttle a proposed attack by a hostile totalitarian nation before regaining their regular stature…

A second, shorter tale finds the quartet enjoying some downtime in Paris before the Metro is wrecked by an awakened dinosaur. Of course, our tough tourists are ready and able to stop the ‘Serpent in the Subway!’

In an entertainment era dominated by monsters and aliens, with superheroes still only tentatively resurfacing, Task Force X were at the forefront of beastie-battles. Their third and final try-out issue found them facing evolutionary nightmare as a scientist vanished and the region around his lab was suddenly besieged by gigantic insects and a colossal reptilian humanoid the team dubbed ‘The Creature of Ghost Lake!’ (December 1959/January 1960). They readily destroyed the monster but never found the professor…

A rare failure for those excitingly experimental days, the Suicide Squad vanished after that triple try-out run, only to resurface months later for a second bite of the cherry. The Brave and the Bold #37 (August/September 1961) opened with Karin displaying heretofore unsuspected psychic gifts and predicting an alien ‘Raid of the Dinosaurs!’ which pitted the group against hyper-intelligent saurians whilst ‘Threat of the Giant Eye!’ focussed on the retrieval of a downed military plane and lost super-weapon. That mission brought the Squad to an island of mythological mien where a living monocular monolith hunted people…

In #38 (October/November 1961) the team tackled the ‘Master of the Dinosaurs’ – an alien using Pteranodons to hunt like an Earthling employs falcons – after which the fabulous four fell afoul of extra-dimensional would-be conquerors but still had enough presence of mind and determination to defeat the ‘Menace of the Mirage People!’

B&B #39 (December 1961/January 1962) called “time!” on Task Force X after ‘Prisoners of the Dinosaur Zoo!’ saw the team uncover an ancient extraterrestrial ark caching antediluvian flora and fauna, and a ‘Rain of Fire!’ found them crushing a macabre criminal entombing crime-busters in liquid metal. That was it for the Squad until 1986 when a new iteration of the concept was launched in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Or was it? Superhero fans are notoriously clannish and insular so they might not have noticed how one creative powerhouse refused to take “no thanks” for an answer…

Robert Kanigher (1915-2002) was one of the most distinctive authorial voices in American comics, blending rugged realism with fantastic fantasy in his signature war comics, westerns, horror stories, superhero titles such as Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Teen Titans, Hawkman, Metal Men, Batman and other genres too numerous to cover here. He also scripted ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt’ – the very first story of the Silver Age. This introduced Barry Allen AKA the Flash to hero-hungry kids in 1956.

Kanigher sold his first stories and poetry in 1932 and wrote for the theatre, film and radio before joining the Fox Features shop where he created The Bouncer, Steel Sterling and The Web whilst also providing scripts for Blue Beetle and the original Captain Marvel.

In 1945, he settled at All-American Comics as both writer and editor, staying on when the company amalgamated with National Comics to become the forerunner of today’s DC. He wrote the original Flash and Hawkman, created Black Canary and Lady Cop, plus many memorable villainous femme fatales like Harlequin and Rose and Thorn. This last he reconstructed during the relevancy era of the early 1970s into a schizophrenic crime-busting female superhero.

When mystery-men faded out at the end of the 1940s, Kanigher easily switched to espionage, adventure, westerns and war stories, becoming in 1952 writer/editor of the company’s combat titles: All-American War Stories, Star Spangled War Stories and Our Amy at War.

He created Our Fighting Forces in 1954 and added G.I. Combat to his burgeoning portfolio when Quality Comics sold their line of titles to DC in 1956, all the while helming Wonder Woman, Johnny Thunder, Rex the Wonder Dog, Silent Knight, Sea Devils, The Viking Prince and a host of others.

Among his numerous game-changing war series were Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, the Haunted Tank and The Losers as well as the visually addictive, irresistibly astonishing “Dogfaces and Dinosaurs” dramas sampled and filling out the back of this stunning collection…

Kanigher was a restlessly creative writer and even used the uncanny but formulaic adventure arena of The War that Time Forgot as a personal laboratory for his series concepts. The Flying Boots, G.I. Robot and many other teams and characters first appeared in the manic Pacific hellhole with wall-to-wall danger. Indisputably the big beasts were the stars, but occasionally (extra)ordinary G.I .Joes made enough of an impression to secure return engagements, too…

The War that Time Forgot debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #90 (April-May 1960), running until #137 (May 1968). It skipped only three issues: #91, 93 and #126 (the last of which starred the United States Marine Corps simian Sergeant Gorilla – look it up: I’m neither kidding nor being metaphorical…).

Simply too good a concept to ignore, this seamless, shameless blend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Caprona stories – known alternatively as the Caspak Trilogy or The Land That Time Forgot – provided everything baby-boomer boys could dream of: giant lizards, humongous insects, fantastic adventures and two-fisted heroes with lots of guns. The only thing mostly missing was cave-girls in fur bikinis…

In the summer of 1963, a fresh Suicide Squad debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #110 to investigate a ‘Tunnel of Terror’ into the lost land of giant monsters: this time though, a giant albino gorilla decided that us mammals should stick together…

The huge hairy beast was also the star of ‘Return of the Dinosaur Killer!’ in #111 as the unnamed Squad leader and a wily boffin (visually based on Kanigher’s office associate Julie Schwartz) struggled to survive on a reptile-ridden tropical atoll…

SSWS #116 (August/September 1964) depicted a duo of dedicated soldiers facing ice-bound beasts in ‘The Suicide Squad!’ – the big difference being that Morgan and Mace were more determined to kill each other than accomplish their mission…

‘Medal for a Dinosaur!’ in #117 bowed to the inevitable: introducing a (relatively) friendly and extremely cute baby pterodactyl to balance out Mace & Morgan’s barely suppressed animosity, after which ‘The Plane-Eater!’ in #118 saw the army odd couple adrift in the Pacific and in deep danger until the leather-winged little guy turned up once more…

The Suicide Squad were getting equal billing by the time of #119’s ‘Gun Duel on Dinosaur Hill!’ (February/March 1965), as yet another band of men-without-hope battled saurian horrors – and each other – to the death, after which seemingly unkillable Morgan & Mace returned with Dino, the flying ptero-tot, who found a new companion in handy hominid Caveboy before the whole unlikely ensemble struggled to survive against increasingly outlandish creatures in ‘The Tank Eater!’…

Issue #121 presented a diving drama when a UDT (Underwater Demolitions Team) frogman won his Suicide Squad rep as a formidable fighter and ‘The Killer of Dinosaur Alley!’ Increasingly now, G.I. hardware and ordnance trumped bulk, fang and claw…

Undisputed master of gritty fantasy art Joe Kubert added his pencil-and-brush magic to a tense, manic thriller featuring the return of the G.I. Robot in stunning battle bonanza ‘Titbit for a Tyrannosaurus!’ in #125 (February/March 1965), after which Andru & Esposito covered another Suicide Squad sea-saga in #127: ‘The Monster Who Sank a Navy!’

This eclectic collection tumultuously terminates in scripter Howard Liss and visual veteran Gene Colan’s masterfully crafted, moving human drama from #128 which was astoundingly improved by the inclusion of ravening reptiles in ‘The Million Dollar Medal!’

Throughout this calamitous compilation of dark dilemmas, light-hearted romps and battle blockbusters, the emphasis is always on foibles and fallibility; with human heroes unable to put aside grudges, swallow pride or forgive trespasses even amidst the strangest and most terrifying moments of their lives. This edgy humanity informs and elevates even the daftest of these wonderfully imaginative adventure yarns.

Classy, intense, insanely addictive and Just Plain Fun, the original Suicide Squad offers a kind of easy, no-commitment entertainment seldom seen these days and is a deliciously guilty pleasure for one and all. Surely, this is a movie we would all watch…
© 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Wonder Woman in the Fifties


By Robert Kanigher, John Broome, Harry G. Peter, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Arthur Peddy & Bernard Sachs & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-779507-624-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

In the early years of this century, DC launched a series of graphic archives intended to define DC’s top heroes through the decades: delivering magnificent past comic book magic from the Forties to the Seventies via a tantalisingly nostalgic taste of other – arguably better, but certainly different – times. The collections carried the cream of the creative crop, divided into subsections, partitioned by cover galleries, and supplemented by short commentaries; a thoroughly enjoyable introductory reading experience. I prayed for more but was frustrated… until now…

Part of a trade paperback trilogy – the others being Superman and Batman (thus far, but hopefully Aquaman, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter are in contention too, as they have become such big shot screen stars these days) – the experiment was recently re-run, with even more inviting samples from the company’s vintage, family-friendly canon.

Gathered here is a menu of deliciously dated delights starring Earth’s most recognisable Female Heroic Ideal, heralded by a time-&-tone-setting Introduction from historian, author and columnist Andy Mangels augmenting each context-stuffed chapter text piece.

With Robert Kanigher as primary writer of record throughout the book, the contents here originated in Sensation Comics #97, 100; Wonder Woman #45, 50, 60, 66, 72, 76, 80, 90, 94-95, 98-105, 107, 108, 750; and All-Star Comics #56, 57 spanning the entire decade whilst attempting to reconcile an indomitable symbol of female emancipation and independence with a post-war world determined to turn them back into docile brood mares and passive uber-consumers…

Wonder Woman was created by polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston – apparently at the behest of his remarkable wife Elizabeth and their life partner Olive Byrne. The vast majority of the outlandish early adventures were limned by illustrator Harry G. Peter.

The Astounding Amazon debuted in All Star Comics #8 (cover-dated December 1941, and top-selling home of the Justice Society of America) just before launching in her own solo series and cover-spot of new anthology Sensation Comics the following month. She was an instant hit, and gained her own eponymous title in late Spring of that year (Summer 1942).

Using the nom de plume Charles Moulton, Marston & Co scripted all her many and fabulous exploits until his death in 1947, whereupon Kanigher officially took over the writer and editor’s role. The venerable Peter continued until his own death in 1958. Wonder Woman #97 – in April of that year – was his last hurrah and the end of an era.

Supported by a factual briefing, the comics classics commence with The (Many) Origins of Wonder Woman, and the first adjustments to the classic origin tale…

For purposes of comparison, the 1940s saga stated that on a hidden island of immortal super-women, American aviator Steve Trevor of US Army Intelligence crashed to Earth. Near death, he was nursed back to health by young, impressionable Princess Diana.

Fearing her growing obsession with the creature from a long-forgotten, madly violent world, her mother Queen Hippolyte shared the hidden history of the Amazons: how they were seduced and betrayed by men, but rescued by goddess Aphrodite on condition they isolated themselves from the world, devoting their eternal lives to becoming ideal, perfect creatures.

However, when Athena and Aphrodite subsequently instructed Hippolyte to despatch an Amazon with the American to fight for global freedom and liberty and against oppression and barbarism, Diana overcame all other candidates in a brutal open competition to became their emissary – Wonder Woman.

On arriving in America, she purchased the identity and credentials of lovelorn Army nurse Diana Prince, elegantly allowing the Amazon to be close to Steve and the heartsick medic to wed her own fiancé in South America. Diana also joined Army Intelligence as secretary to General Darnell, ensuring she would always be able to watch over her beloved. She little suspected that, although painfully shallow Steve only had eyes for the dazzling Amazon superwoman, the General had fallen for mousy yet superbly competent Lieutenant Prince…

As the decade turned it was deemed time for a refurbished origin and – illustrated by Harry G. Peter – WW #45 (cover-dated January/February 1951) delivered ‘The Wonder Woman Story!’

This found childhood rivals vying for the journalistic kudos of publishing the Amazon’s backstory. However, after a hard-won trip to Paradise Island led to Mary Ellen learning the details of it all – Hercules’s ancient ‘Act of Treachery!’ and how the Princess defied authority for love – all manner of trouble emerged…

Cunning competitor John Lane had bugged Mary’s jewellery and craftily followed her to the Amazon homeland, causing a major upset…

Back then Wonder Woman’s artists were astonishingly faithful and true, staying with her for pretty long hauls. Peter and his uncredited team of female assistants served nearly 20 years before he was let go mere weeks before dying. His replacements Ross Andru & Mike Esposito drew her adventures from 1958 to the middle of 1967 (#98 – 171), and limned this breakthrough tale from WW #105 (April 1959)

The issue debuted Wonder Girl in the ‘‘The Secret Origin of Wonder Woman’, revealing how centuries ago Olympian divinities bestowed unique powers on the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and how – as a mere teenager – the indomitable Diana brought the Amazons to Paradise Island. Continuity – let alone consistency or rationality – were never as important to Kanigher as strong story or breathtaking visuals, and this eclectic odyssey is a great yarn that simply annoyed the heck out of a lot of fans – but not as much as the junior Amazon would in years to come after these teen tales spawned an actual junior Amazon as sidekick to Diana…

That ball started rolling in #107 (July 1959) and proved that the high fantasy exploits of the minor had clearly caught somebody’s editorial fancy. Follow-ups came thick and fast after ‘Wonder Woman Amazon Teen-Ager!’ saw the youngster ensnare an unwanted romantic interest in merboy Ronno, whilst dutifully undergoing a quest to win herself a superhero costume…

Fronted by an article on her legendary kit and illustrated throughout by H.G. Peter, Fashion as Armor: The Equipment List shares some of Kanigher’s frequent and often contradictory exposés on the source and powers of Wonder Woman’s combat gear. It begins with ‘The Secret Story of Wonder Woman’s Lasso!’ (WW #50, November/December 1951), depicting how the princess undertakes three divine tasks to ensure the rope gains magical traits of unbreakability, infinite elasticity and truthful compulsion. Along the way she uses it against crooks, spies, other Amazons, submarines, dinosaurs and a Roc…

That mythological bird, another dinosaur and aliens play a major role in ‘The Talking Tiara!’ (#66, May 1954) as Steve learns how Diana belatedly won possession of her headpiece, a “Linguagraph Tiara” capable of translating any language past present or future, whilst ‘The Secret of Wonder Woman’s Sandals’ (#72, February 1955) reveals some odd characteristics of the footwear as she performs incredible feats (sorry!) to confirm her worthiness…

Cover-dated February 1956 ‘The Origin of the Amazon Plane!’ featured in Wonder Woman #80, recalling a trio of tasks undertaken to collect separated sections of her faithful, invisible robot conveyance before #95 (January 1958) offered ‘The Secret of Wonder Woman’s Tiara!’: this time in the form of a tale told to toddlers, revealing how the hat was a gift from aliens given in thanks for saving them from marauding Phenegs…

Moving on to highlight the Amazon’s noteworthy collaborations, One of the Team offers a trio of tales. The section is a somewhat “Marmite” moment that fans will either love or hate…

The majority of the chapter is devoted to a brace of tales starring the Justice Society of America and, whilst I’m never going to complain about seeing such classics where new readers can discover them, it’s a lot of pages to hand over to a group who had Wonder Woman serving coffee and taking notes as “Club Secretary” for years. At least here, in the last of the original run, she’s graduated to being an leading participant in their adventures…

After the actual invention of the superhero via the 1938 Action Comics debut of Superman, the most significant event in our industry’s history was the combination of individual stars into a like-minded group. Thus, what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: consumers can’t get enough of garishly-hued mystery men, and combining a multitude of characters inevitably increases readership. Plus, of course, a mob of superheroes is just so much cooler than one…or one-and-a-half if there’s a sidekick involved…

The creation of the Justice Society of America in 1941 utterly changed the shape of the budding industry. Following the runaway success of Superman and Batman, both National Comics and its separate-but-equal publishing partner All-American Comics went looking for the next big thing whilst frantically concentrating on getting anthology packages into the hands of a hungry readership. Thus All Star Comics: conceived as a joint venture affording characters already in their respective stables an extra push towards winning elusive but lucrative solo titles.

Technically, All Star Comics #3 (cover-dated Winter 1940-1941 and released in December 1940) was the kick-off, but the mystery men merely had dinner and recounted recent cases and didn’t actually go on a mission together until #4, which had an April 1941 cover-date.

The merits of the marketing project would never be proved: rather than a runaway favourite graduating to their own starring vehicle as a result of the poll, something radically different evolved. For the third issue, prolific scribe Gardner Fox apparently had the bright idea of linking all the solo stories through a framing sequence with the heroes gathering to chat about their latest exploits. With that simple notion that mighty mystery men hung out together, history was made and it wasn’t long before they started working together…

However, after WWII ended, superheroes gradually declined, and most companies had shelved them by 1950. Their plummet in popularity led to a revival in genre-themed titles and characters, and it was a stripped-down team (Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, Black Canary, Dr. Mid-Nite and Wonder Woman) in contemporarily tailored crime and science fiction sagas before the title abruptly changed into All Star Western with #58.

Both JSA stories were written by John Broome and illustrated via alternating chapters by Frank Giacoia and Arthur Peddy & Bernard Sachs. Leading off is All-Star Comics #56 (December 1950/January 1951) and ‘The Day the World Ended!’ wherein a future scientist goes to extraordinary lengths to recruit the 20th century stalwarts to save Tomorrow’s World from shapeshifting invaders. Issue #57 was the JSA’s last hurrah with ‘The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives!’ pitting them against criminal mastermind The Key after he abducts Earth’s greatest criminologists in advance of a spectacular robbery spree. Both are great yarns that deserve their own archival volume, but the Amazon’s contributions are barely visible in both…

Of more interest is the Kanigher & Peter tale from Wonder Woman #72 (November 1957). ‘The Channel of Time’ begins as an unashamed plug for The Adventures of Superman TV show, with the Amazon eagerly enjoying the latest episode when interference turns the screen into an SOS through time, displaying old ally Robin Hood in existential peril…

An initial iteration of the legendary archer had debuted in New Adventure Comics #23 (January 1938), and National/DC also acquired Quality Comics’ Robin Hood Tales title. That version had begun in February 1956, with DC continuing the run from #7 (cover-dated February 1957) as well as featuring the hero in Kanigher’s The Brave and the Bold from #5 (May 1956). That was (coincidentally?) the same month The Amazing Amazon first met the Sentinel of Sherwood Forest, who here requires assistance against a dragon, wicked foemen and a shark-infested moat safeguarding evil Prince John…

Seeing Double then highlights the hero’s tendency to encounter copies of herself – everything from evil doppelgangers from parallel universes to weirdly exact robot facsimiles…

When Showcase #4 rekindled the readership’s imagination and zest for masked mystery-men with a second, brand-new iteration of The Flash in 1956, the fanciful floodgates opened wide once more. As well as re-inventing Golden Age stars like Green Lantern and Hawkman, the company consequently updated many hoary survivors like Green Arrow and Aquaman. Also included in the revitalising agenda were the High Trinity: Man of Steel, Caped Crusader and the ever-resilient Princess of Power…

Andru & Esposito had debuted as cover artists 3 issues earlier, but with Wonder Woman #98 they took over the entire comic book as Kanigher reinvented much of the old mythology and tinkered with her origins in The Million Dollar Penny!’ After Athena visits an island of super-scientific immortal women, informing Queen Hippolyta that she must send an emissary and champion of justice to crime-ridden “Man’s World”, the sovereign declares an open competition for the job.

She isn’t surprised when her daughter wins and is given the task of turning a penny into a million dollars in one day – all profits going to children’s charities, of course…

Just as the new Wonder Woman begins her coin chore, American airman Steve Trevor bails out of his malfunctioning jet high above the magically hidden isle, unaware that should any male set foot on Amazon soil the immortals would lose all their powers. Promptly thwarting impending disaster, Diana and Steve then team up to accomplish her task, encountering along the way The Undersea Menace’ before building The Impossible Bridge!’

Following that epic comes the lead from landmark issue #100 (August 1958): a spectacular battle saga commencing with The Challenge of Dimension X!’ as an alternate Earth Wonder Woman competes with the Amazing Amazon for sole rights to the title: all culminating with a deciding bout in The Forest of Giants!’

No celebration of the fifties could be complete without an exploration of the outdated concept of gainful female employment. With art by Peter, Working 9 to 5: The Careers of Wonder Woman offers a quick peek of typical opportunities beginning with Sensation Comics #97 (May 1950). ‘Wonder Woman, Romance Editor’ sees the Amazon agree to a task no male journalist can handle, solving the woes of lovelorn women seeking husbands, whilst her own duties prevent her giving in to Steve’s increasingly urgent demands to settle down… Cover-dated November 1950, Sensation Comics #100 showcases ‘Wonder Woman, Hollywood Star!’ as the Amazon and Steve endure peerless perils making a movie one crazed glamour queen is determined only she should star in, after which two millionaires make a bet that propels the Amazon into a string of crazy roles culminating in her shepherding an infant T-Rex as ‘Wonder Woman, Amazon Baby Sitter!’ (WW #90, May 1957)…

As you’ve probably ascertained, much of Kanigher’s oeuvre depended on the Princess of Paradise undergoing tasks and tests for a variety of reasons and this voyage of rediscovery concludes with some of the most noteworthy, gathered as The Trials of Wonder Woman

Leading off is Peter-rendered classic ‘The Secret Olympics!’ (WW #60, July 1953) as Diana justifies her legendary brief as “beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, swifter than Mercury (sic) and stronger than Hercules”…

 Issue #76 (August 1955) introduces ‘The Bird Who Revealed Wonder Woman’s Identity!’ before Diana devises a way to undermine a gabby Mynah’s proclamations before Andru & Esposito assume the art duties for the remainder of the book, beginning with Top Secret!’ from Wonder Woman #99 (July 1958).

Introducing the Hellenic Hero’s new covert identity as Air Force Intelligence officer Lt. Diana Prince the tale opens a decade of tales with Steve perpetually attempting to uncover her identity and make the most powerful woman on Earth his blushing bride, whilst his bespectacled, glorified secretary stands unnoticed, exasperated and ignored right beside – or slightly behind – him…

Here that means attempting to trick her into marriage with a rigged bet – a tactic the creep tried a lot back then – after which ‘Wonder Woman’s 100th Anniversary!’ (WW #100 again) deals with the impossibility of capturing the far-too-fast and furious Amazon’s exploits on film for Paradise Island’s archives…

In #101 (October 1958), ‘Undersea Trap!’ sees Steve tricking his “Angel” into agreeing to marry him if she has to rescue him three times in 24 hours (just chalk it up to simpler times, or you’ll pop a blood vessel, OK?) after which January 1959 and WW #103 spotlight ‘The Wonder Woman Album!’ returning to the previously explored “impossible-to-photograph” theme, before we close on Wanted… Wonder Woman’ (#108, August 1959), as Flying Saucer aliens frame her for heinous crimes as a precursor to a planetary invasion but are not smart enough to realise when they are being played…

Also including a selection of breathtaking covers by Irwin Hasen & Sachs, Irv Novick, Peddy and Andru & Esposito plus a Bonus Cover Gallery by the latter pair, this is a fascinating but potentially charged tome. By modern standards these exuberant, effulgent fantasies are all-out crazy, but as examples of the days when less attention was paid to continuity and concepts of shared universes and adventure in the moment were paramount, these outrageous romps simply sparkle with fun, thrills and sheer spectacle -a s long as you keep in mind the outrageous undercurrent of blatant sexism underpinning it all. This was a period when – officially – only men could tell the tales of the Amazing Amazon…

Wonder Woman is rightly revered as a focal point of female strength, independence and empowerment, but the welcoming nostalgia and easy familiarity of these costumed fairy tales remain a delight for all open-minded readers with the true value of these exploits being the incredible quality of entertainment they provide.
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