Category: Dinosaurs!

Posted on

Showcase Presents Blue Beetle


By Len Wein, Joey Cavalieri, Paris Cullins, Gil Kane, Ross Andru, Don Heck & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5147-5 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The Blue Beetle premiered in Mystery Men Comics #1, released by Fox Comics and dated August 1939. The pulp-inspired hero was created by Charles Nicholas and possibly initially scripted by Will Eisner. “Charles Nicholas” was a shared pseudonym used by Chuck Cuidera (Blackhawk), Jack Kirby (everything) and Charles Wojtkowski (Blonde Phantom, Young Allies, Nyoka, Iron Corporal) with that last one generally attributed with inventing our remarkably resilient Azure Avenger.

The Cobalt Crimecrusher was inexplicably popular from the start: translating his comics venues into merchandise, a radio show and even a newspaper comic strip. Constantly traded and acquired by numerous publishers, BB survived the extinction of most of them: blithely undergoing many revisions to his origins and powers. By the mid-1950s he ended up at Charlton Comics, appearing sporadically in a few long-inventoried tales before seemingly fading away. However, that was only until the superhero resurgence of the early 1960s when Joe Gill, Bill Fraccio, Tony Tallarico and, latterly, neophyte scripter/devoted Golden Age acolyte Roy Thomas revised and revived the character. Technically, it resulted in a 10-issue run cover-dated June 1964 to 1966 (actually two separate 5-issue runs), but if you also check out our Action Heroes Archive review you’ll see that it wasn’t quite that simple…

Pulling together many disparate strands from previous incarnations, former cop and valiant troubleshooter Dan Garrett was reshaped into an archaeologist gifted with a mysterious and magical ancient Egyptian scarab recovered from lost tomb. This trinket would transform him into a lightning-throwing, flying superman whenever he touched the scarab and uttered the trigger phrase “Khaji Dha!”

After another brief sojourn in comic book limbo, Garret (note the different spelling, it varies from issue to issue, but we’ll stick to double “r”, double “t”, okay?) resurfaced as Steve Ditko took on the concept, tweaking it to construct a fresh new, retooled hero. This one started as a back-up feature in Captain Atom #83 (November 1966) before graduating to his own solo title. Ted Kord was a troubled scientist with mystery and undisclosed tragedy in his past, as well as an unspecified connection to Garrett. In fact, he was the police’s prime suspect in the academic’s disappearance and possible murder…

The Ditko version was sublime but short-lived: an early casualty when the Sixties Superhero boom reversed and horror again ruled the newsstands, Charlton’s “Action Hero” experiment was gone by the close of 1968, leading a long line of costumed champions into limbo and clearing the decks for a horror renaissance.

Time passed and reading tastes changed again. After the cosmos-consuming Crisis on Infinite Earths re-sculpted DC’s universes in 1986, a host of stars and even second stringers got floor-up rebuilds to fit them for a tougher, uncompromising, straight-shooting, no-nonsense New American readership of the Reagan era. In the intervening years, DC had pursued an old policy: acquiring characters and properties of defunct publishers. A handful of Charlton buy-outs had featured in Crisis and now Captain Atom, The Question and two Blue Beetles seamlessly slotted into the new DCU, ahead of the rest of the lost contingent…

Primarily scripted and steered by Len Wein (Swamp Thing, New X-Men, Batman, almost everything else), this massive monochrome compilation gathers the entire 24-issue run of Blue Beetle volume 6 (cover-dates June 1986 through May 1988) plus a superb crossover origin/restated backstory from Secret Origins (volume 2) #2, originally released as a vanguard to the series. Sans preamble, a steady diet of light-hearted swashbuckling begins with Len Wein, Paris Cullins & Bruce D, Patterson’s ‘Out from the Ashes!’ wherein a Chicago office building burns down. Suddenly, above the roaring flames a giant mechanical bug floats into view and from it plunges rookie hero Blue Beetle. He is desperate but determined to help the beleaguered firefighters… but not with the conflagration. His target is deranged super-arsonist Firefist, but the glorified acrobat’s tricky gadgets seem to be no match for the heavily armoured foe’s ferocious firepower. Barely escaping with his life, Beetle takes some comfort from the fact that even if he didn’t stop the bad guy or save the skyscraper, he has rescued an imperilled fireman…

In the aftermath, the masked man heads back to work: revealed to us as junior genius Ted Kord who has just (most reluctantly) assumed control of his tyrannical father’s technological innovations and manufacturing business. Ted doesn’t like business but loves inventing, which is why he spends as much time as possible with the company’s quirky thinktank geniuses Jeremiah Duncan, Melody Case and Murray Takamoto. Now he learns the company is sitting on a discovery of Earth-shattering importance. What Ted doesn’t know is that someone nefarious and extremely close wants it, or that far, far away someone has broken into the crypt on Pago Island where Ted’s mad scientist uncle Jarvis Kord killed Dan Garrett – the original Blue Beetle. An archaeological rival, Conrad Carapax is seeking the fabled something that cost his competitor his life…

Suddenly, Firefist attacks again and the neophyte hero rushes off to challenge him. The woefully one-sided battle gets serious in ‘This City’s Not for Burning!’ as the arsonist almost kills our hero again, forcing Ted to get smart and investigate where and why; not how. Despite catastrophic collateral their final clash leads to victory of sorts but leaves the hero open to betrayal from within his trust circle and targeted by a major supervillain seeking the modified wonder element Promethium undergoing modifications in Kord Inc’s labs…

Also adding to Ted’s woes and generally amping up tensions is slowly circling – and rapidly spiralling – cop Lt. Max Fisher who cannot shake the conviction that the glib scientist in his sights knows something about the Garret disappearance…

With Firefist apparently dead, two separate evil masterminds amp up their plans with the disguised janitor at affiliate/partner S.T.A.R. Labs convincing career criminal Farley Fleeter to revive his old gang The Madmen to attack Kord Inc. in BB #3’s ‘If This Be Madness…!’ As the melee is interrupted by the handily close-by Blue Beetle, corporate machinations and untrustworthy trusted friends all further their own treacherous schemes against Ted, allowing one of those villains in the shadows to make a move, revealing ‘The Answer is Alchemy!’ Here old Flash-foe Al Desmond/Mr. Element/Doctor Alchemy steals the hotly contested Promethium sample to reenergise his failing, matter-reshaping Philosopher’s Stone, but the battle to reclaim it is wild and violent, and against all odds the Beetle triumphs…

With a plethora of soap opera subplots in place, the tales assume a more action-driven shape and pace in the Azure Avenger’s first team up. ‘Ask the Right Question!’ introduces DC’s remodelled iteration of Ditko’s other, Other, OTHER immortal creation – albeit prior to his reinvention by Denny O’Neil & Denys Cowan. As up-&-coming masked mobster The Muse organises Chicago’s disparate gangs into an army a well-dressed but faceless vigilante in a powerplay to seize control from reigning Don Vincent Perignon. After the customary introductory confusion-clash Beetle and Question (AKA investigative journalist Vic Sage) set about dismantling the organisation and usurpation in ‘Face-Off!’ (BB #6) and blockbusting, Dell Barras-inked conclusion ‘Gang War!’

A delightful sentiment-soaked divertissement comes in BB #8 as ‘Henchman!’ sees Ted Kord reject job applicant and former criminal minion Ed Buckley, inadvertently driving him back to lawlessness and a position with evil genius The Calculator: a tragic mistake that the hero is happy to pay for when reformed-&-honest Ed subsequently saves the Beetle’s life…

The other lurking super-villain reveals himself at last in #9 & 10 as ‘Timepiece!’ (Cullins & Barras art) and sequel ‘Time on his Hands!’ (Chuck Patton & Barras) – both tie-ins to crossover event Legends. They see America’s superheroes outlawed by Presidential decree as part of New God Darkseid’s plan to destroy the very concept of heroism. As Ted’s conscience and desire to save innocents compete, another close friend falls foul of time bandit Chronos, and he suits up to settle the matter with the villain, law or no law. Meanwhile elsewhere, the Kord Promethium project has advanced to a point where it’s ready to be stolen by more lurking fiends, whilst on Pago Island, Carapax has uncovered a terrifying menace…

Guest-starring the New Teen Titans (Nightwing, Cyborg, Wonder Girl, Starfire, Jericho & Changeling/Beast Boy) ‘Havoc is… the Hybrid’ (#11, Cullins & Barras) sees deranged former Doom Patrol member Mento (Steve Dayton) unleash a personal pack of Promethium-mutated villains against the super-team with Blue Beetle caught as ‘Man in the Middle’ (co-scripted by Joey Cavalieri) before Wein, Cullins & Barras reveal the final fate of another unlucky unfaithful Kord collaborator in ‘Prometheus Unbound!’

Simultaneously, Carapax finally recovers and is subsumed by the maverick tech he accidentally unleashed. In BB #14 to Ted makes a momentous decision. Set on finally confronting Max Fisher about the death of Garrett, Ted is unaware that the cop is already facing ‘The Phantom of Pago Island!’ after travelling to the atoll and meeting a monster which promptly slaughters his entire party. Resolved to deal with Fisher, Blue Beetle arrives in time to join him ‘In Combat with… Carapax!’ (pencilled by Ross Andru) with both escaping believing the killer robot gone for good. As they form a tenuous new relationship with Fisher increasingly exploiting the fact that he knows Kord is a superhero, another manic supervillain (Catalyst) and megalomaniacal business competitor (Klaus Cornelius) lurk in the wings, kidnapping Jeremiah Duncan for info on Kord’s business secrets…

In ‘Anywhere I Hang my Head is Home!’ – art by Andru & Danny Bulanadi – cop and vigilante unite to catch a ruthless “Skid Row Slasher”, before Fisher oversteps by picking targets for the Beetle, even as the gallant hero is battling new masked menace Overthrow in #17’s ‘The Way the Brawl Bounces!’ (Cullins & Bulanadi) before and inevitably the original Blue Beetle returns to reclaim his mantle in ‘…And Death Shall Have No Dominion’ (all Cullins art): a grim and brutal clash with a shocking sting in the tale.

Exposing criminality and deceptions at S.T.A.R. Labs, Ted hunts a potential heir of Dan Garrett and clashes with a bizarre mechanoid organism in #19’s ‘A Matter of Animus!’ (as Andru & Bulanadi begin a sustained run), prompting a trip to Kord’s middle east facility as ‘Iran Scam!’ (another company crossover event component – this time for Millennium) reveals how a close enemy is actually an agent for ancient alien cabal the Manhunters, in a sly cover for a worthy pop at how women are oppressed under the Ayatollahs. It’s counterbalanced and leavened by purer superheroics in follow-up Millennium chapter ‘If This Works, It’ll Be a Miracle!’ (BB #21) wherein Ted and Justice League International take on a nest of Manhunters.

Crisis successfully averted, Ted is blindsided by vengeful Chronos who traps the Blue Beetle millions of years in the past before Kord turns the tables on him in #22’s ‘A Question of Time!’ (Andru, Gil Kane & Bulanadi art) before returning to now and a second episode with the Madmen in ‘Don’t Get Mad, Get Even!’ (Don Heck & Bulanadi). Now the series abruptly terminates on a cliffhanger as – in the midst of battling Carapax again – Ted’s dad Thomas Kord reclaims “his” company from the son and heir who’s ruining it in ‘If At first, You Don’t Succeed…!’

With the solo series ended, Ted made a welcome home as a beloved but underestimated comedy foil in various Justice League iterations, whilst this book closes on that promised origin yarn ,as seen in Secret Origins #2. Crafted by Wein & Kane, ‘Echoes of Future Past!’ spectacularly traces valiant Dan Garrett’s life, career and ultimate sacrifice in a bravura masterclass on superheroism as a humble college professor becomes a divinely chosen wonder man saving Earth from undead giant mummies, corrupt governments, scientific madmen, supervillains and worse before paying the final price and inspiring a lineage of heroes…

With covers by Cullins Patterson, Barras, Terry Austin, Patton, Andru, Bulanadi, Steve Bové, Dick Giordano, Mike Mignola, Chris Wozniak, Keith S. Wilson, Garry Leach, Gil Kane & Ricardo Villagran this bold bonanza of Fights ‘n’ Tights delights is a book no superhero lover should miss – unless DC finally get around to giving one of comics’ grandest brands the archive treatment he/they deserve…
© DC 1986, 1987, 1988, 2015, DC Comics All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Mac Raboy’s Flash Gordon volume 4


By Mac Raboy & Don Moore, Dan Barry & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-156971-979-9 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

By almost every metric, Flash Gordon is the most influential comic strip in the world. When the hero debuted on Sunday January 7th 1934 (Happy Birthday Flash!) with equally superb Jungle Jim running as a supplementary “topper” strip, it was a slick, sophisticated answer to Philip Nolan & Dick Calkins’ revolutionary, ideas-packed, inspirational, but quirkily clunky Buck Rogers (which also launched on January 7th – albeit in 1929) with two fresh elements added to the wonderment: Classical Lyricism and Poetic Dynamism. The newcomer became a weekly invitation to stunningly exotic glamour and astonishing beauty.

Where Buck merged traditional adventure with groundbreaking science concepts, Flash reinterpreted fairy tales, hero epics and mythology, draping them in the spectacular trappings of contemporary futurism, with the varying “rays”, “engines” and “motors” of modern pulp sci fi substituting for trusty swords and lances. There were also plenty of those too – and exotic craft and contraptions stood in for galleons, chariots and magic carpets. Look closely, though, and you’ll see cowboys, gangsters and of course, contemporary flying saucer fetishes adding flourish to the fanciful fables. The narrative trick made the far-fetched satisfactorily familiar – and was continued with contemporary trends and innovations by Austin Briggs and Don Moore before Mac Raboy (with Moore and Robert Rogers) took over the Sunday strips for a groundbreakingly modern yet comfortably familiar tenure lasting from 1948 to 1967.

The sheer artistic talent of Raymond, his compositional skills, fine linework, eye for clean, concise detail and just plain genius for drawing beautiful people and things, swiftly made this the strip that all young artists swiped from literally all over the world. When original material comic books began a few years later, many talented kids used Gordon as their model and ticket to future success in the field of adventure strips. Almost all the others went with Raymond’s stylistic polar opposite: emulating Milton Caniff’s expressionist masterwork Terry and the Pirates (and to see one of his better disciples check out Beyond Mars, limned by the wonderful Lee Elias).

Flash Gordon began on present-day Earth (which was 1934, remember?) with a wandering world about to smash into our planet. As global panic ensued, polo player Flash and fellow passenger Dale Arden narrowly escaped disaster when a meteor fragment downed their airliner. They landed on the estate of tormented genius Dr. Hans Zarkov, who imprisoned them in the rocket-ship he had built. His plan? To fly the ship directly at the astral invader and deflect it from Earth by crashing into it! Thus began a decade of sheer escapist magic in a Ruritanian Neverland: a blend of Camelot, Oz, John Carter of Mars and a hundred other fantasy realms promising paradise yet concealing vipers, ogres and demons, all cloaked in a glimmering sheen of sleek scientific speculation. Worthy adversaries such as utterly evil yet magnetic Ming, emperor of the fantastic wandering planet; myriad exotic races and shattering conflicts offered a fantastic alternative to drab and dangerous reality for millions of avid readers around the world.

With Moore handling the bulk of scripts, Alex Raymond’s ‘On the Planet Mongo’ ran every Sunday until 1944, when the artist joined the Marines. On his return, he forsook wild imaginings for sober reality by introducing gentleman gumshoe Rip Kirby. The public’s unmissable weekly appointment with wonderment perforce continued under the artistic auspices of Austin Briggs – who had drawn the monochrome daily instalments since 1940.

In 1948, eight years after beginning his career drawing for the Harry A. Chesler production “shop”, comic book artist Emmanuel “Mac” Raboy took over illustrating the Sunday page. Moore remained as scripter and began co-writing with the new artist. Raboy’s sleek, fine-line brush style – heavily influenced by his idol Raymond – had made his work on Captain Marvel Jr., Kid Eternity and especially Green Lama a pinnacle of artistic quality in the early days of the proliferating superhero genre. His seemingly inevitable assumption of Flash Gordon’s extraordinary exploits led to a renaissance of the strip and in a rapidly evolving post-war world, it became once more a benchmark of timeless, hyper-realistic quality escapism which only Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant could match.

This fourth and final 276-page paperback volume – printed in stark monochrome, landscape format and still criminally out-of-print/long overdue for a fresh edition – spans December 16th 1962 through December 31st 1967 – by which time successor Dan Barry was already adding his artistic contributions to the final chapter (from December 24th). After one last informative appraisal of Raboy in Bruce Jones’ Introduction ‘Walking with Giants’ it’s time for one last blast-off as the adventure resumes with already-in-progress thriller ‘Sons of Saturn’… Sequence SO91 had begun on October 21st 1962 and cliffhangerly closed the previous volume barely weeks in. It resumes here with the episode for December 16th and carries on until January 20th 1963 revealing how the hitherto unsuspected super-civilisation thriving in the clouds of the Sixth Planet is revealed when an Earth probe provokes its current overlord to determine human nature and resource by sending super-criminal outcast Baldr to plague, punish and test them. That results in the indestructible giant breaking into Flash’s ship and going on a rampage, but ultimately alien force proves no match for human – i.e. Flash Gordon’s – ingenuity and the embattled visitors accidentally initiate a sudden and very permanent regime change…

Running from January 27th to April 14th pure cold war paranoia shapes sequence S092. ‘The Force Dome’ sees well-meaning Professor Howe build a perfectly impenetrable protective energy barrier and convince the authorities to let him run a live test by shielding all of Metropole City. When Howe dies suddenly the experiment goes awry and the generators can’t be switched off. Thankfully, Flash and Zarkov are on site and able to avert the crisis before all the air under the city-sized bubble is used up…

It’s back to the beyond next as (S093: 21/4/63 – 14/7/63) finds our hero further testing the bounds of Earth’s recently-developed Faster-Than-Light technologies, with Flash despatched to a far star system to discover what happened to an off-line ‘Star Beacon’ that has stopped providing subspace navigation data. That all sounds quite technical, but it’s just a plot device to enable Flash & Co to wryly clash with cunning alien primitives after which it’s back to Earth and the Himalayas to rescue explorer Bill Penrose from fabled monsters (S094: 21/7/63-17/11/63). However, as Flash digs deeper, he learns these ‘Yeti’ are actually robots employed by extraterrestrial resource bandits to steal uranium, resulting in an epic battle beneath the Earth, before returning to space and a new station orbiting Jupiter. Set on Earth’s newly-constructed interstellar transit station, sequence S095 (24/11/63 to 15/3/1964) sees Dale and Flash accidentally in loco parentis to Miki – an extremely impulsive ‘Boy From Another World’ …and his disruptively radioactive pet Zhlubb…

The furore builds as the star waifs suddenly go missing just as interplanetary bandit trio the Breen Brothers invade the station whilst Flash is testing Zarkov’s latest super-ship, triggering a monumental and manic battle beyond the stars. When the shooting stops and with Miki restored to his parents, Flash finally boosts off in the new FTL vessel, destined for a colony world that has called for help by sending back all its women and children. In truth, the castaways’ return is a bid by aliens on a dying world who seek to inveigle tribute and rations for their starving civilisation by holding the male human colonists hostage.

Backed up by colonist Kitty Corum and rash, overconfident Star Patrol Special Service recruit Dino, Flash’s test ride becomes a rescue/diplomatic mission to the ‘Dark Sun of Dragor’ (S096: 22/3/ to 7/19/64): a most unconventional confrontation that culminates in the death of a star system, followed by a brief diversion. Spanning 26th July to November 8th, sequence S097 sees a family of giant, shapeshifting aliens crash on Earth and their colossal child faces typical panic and bigotry until Dale steps in to salve tensions and save ‘The Chameleon’, prior to sheer arrogance almost destroying the world’s hopes of halting chaotic storms caused by solar flares and securing reliable ‘Man-Made Weather’ (S098: 15/11/64 – 2/14/February 65). The problem is a clash of wills between abrasive Dr Franz Graf and Zarkov, but eventually the meteorological fireworks spark a world-saving inspiration…

Another mountaintop yarn finds Flash and junior shuttle pilot Wally Green captive of the ‘Lost Tribe of the Andes’ (S099: February 21st to 13th June), facing the bellicose descendants of Spanish conquistadors shielded from progress for hundreds of years and ultimately duelling dastardly power-hungry despot-in-waiting El Mono, before a return to modern civilisation brings the first Moon’s Fair and a transport nightmare when the best pilot in space gets involved in transporting Michelangelo’s David to the exhibition site. It all results in ‘The Greatest Art Theft’ (SI00: June 20th – October 10th) as petty tyrant/organised crime overlord Baron Borgaz purloins the masterpiece for his private orbital fiefdom and is vain enough to allow Flash entrance to search his sinister, thug-&-monster-stuffed citadel…

Next comes a yarn older British fans might recognise as part of the 1967 digest series World Adventure Library: a line that also included Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Batman. Here Flash plays space cop in pursuit of devious disguise artist/thief Merlyn, who swindles his way across the solar system and even escapes Gordon’s justice… but not his fate or just deserts in year spanning comedic change-of-pace ‘Con Man in Space’ (SI01: 17/10/1965 to 30/01/1966). It’s followed by ‘A Visit From Mercury’ (February 6th to June 5th ’66 and another tale reprinted in the UK) as a trip to erupting volcano Vesuvius allows “impervium”-clad Flash, Dale & Zarkov to enter a undiscovered base deep in the magma, where visitors fleeing the first rock from the sun are hiding. Sheltered from geological upheaval and basking in Earth’s warmth, they’re ultimately restored to their point of origin with Earth’s aid, but only after Gordon deals with flaming recidivist usurper Janj…

Old-style mystery and monster hunting shapes survival saga ‘Death World’ (SI03: 12/06 – 23/10/66) as Flash and a Space Agency Survival Corps squad led by Sikh commander Singh are despatched to learn what caused the disappearance of an entire human colony and rise of a swathe of killer beasts. What they discover changes lives and the annals of bio-science, before Flash tangles with another low-orbit lowlife when ‘The Duke of Naples’ (SI04: 30th October 1966 – April 2nd 1967) reinstitutes privateering, slave-taking and gladiatorial combat on his private space station in his passionately plutocratic desire to return humanity to feudalism, after which big science engineering finds Flash and Zarkov mediating war between grudge-bearing Madame Mimi Duclos and martinet Godfrey Ledge as each attempts to seize control and complete construction of ‘The Moon Launcher’ (April 9th to July 16th). The ion launch platform is an obvious and permanent boon to human space expansion, but the project takes on desperate urgency after explorers on Pluto encounter trouble and the acceleration launcher offers the only possibility of getting a rescue ship to them in time.

The bitter war between the project chiefs sparks industrial strife, worker mutiny and even criminal changes against Flash’s new best pal Pancho, but sooner rather than later the job is done and Gordon (plus fugitive stowaway Pancho) are rocketing into infernal darkness and Raboy’s last adventure.  Sequence SI06 spans 23/7/1967 to 7/1/1968 (with Dan Barry taking over on December 24th) as the voyagers find the lost explorers but are ‘Captured on Pluto’ by super-advanced aliens playing mindgames and conjuring fantastic worlds and beings in a cosmic scaled romp deeply redolent of 1964 Star Trek pilot episode The Cage…

To Be Continued… by other hands

Each week as he toiled on the strip, Raboy produced ever-more expansive artwork filled with distressed damsels, deadly monsters, incredible civilisations, increasingly authentic space hardware and locales, and all sorts of outrageous adventure that continued until the illustrator’s untimely death in 1967. Perhaps it was a kindness. He was the last great Golden Age romanticist illustrator and his lushly lavish, freely-flowing adoration of perfected human form was beginning to stale in popular taste. The Daily feature had already switched to the solid, chunky, He-Manly burly realism of Dan Barry and Frank Frazetta, but here at least the last outpost of ethereally beautiful heroism and pretty perils still prevailed: a dream realm you can visit as easily and often as Flash, Dale & Zarkov popped between planets, just by tracking down this book and the one which preceded it…
© 2003 King Features Syndicate Inc. ™ & © Hearst Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

The Mighty Thor Omnibus volume 2


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Vince Colletta, Bill Everett, Frank Giacoia,  & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6813-3 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Epic Jewel of Historic Import… 10/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Even more than Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor was the arena in which Jack Kirby’s restless fascination with all things Cosmic was honed and refined through dazzling graphics and captivating concepts. The King’s string of power-packed signature pantheons began in a modest little fantasy/monster title called Journey into Mystery where – in the summer of 1962 – a tried-and-tested comic book concept (feeble mortal transformed into god-like hero) was revived by the fledgling Marvel Comics to add a Superman analogue to their growing roster of costumed adventurers.

This monumental tome re-presents pioneering Asgardian exploits from JiM #121-125 and The Mighty Thor #126- 152, plus The Mighty Thor Annual #2, and a clod-ly godly gift parcel from Not Brand Echh #3, altogether spanning cover-dates November 1965 to May 1968 in a blazing blur of innovation and seat-of-the-pants myth-revising and universe-building. It is lettered throughout by unsung superstars Art Simek and Sam Rosen, and an unjustly anonymous band of colourists. As well as a monolithic assortment of nostalgic treats at the back, this mammoth tome is dotted throughout with recycled Introductions – ‘So Utterly Godlike’ & ‘The Spectacle and Excitement’ by Stan Lee, and Mark Evanier’s ‘The Best at Their Best’ – taken from earlier Marvel Masterworks editions, and also includes editorial announcements and ‘The Hammer Strikes!’ newsletter pages for each original issue to enhance overall historical experience…

Once upon a time, lonely, lamed American doctor Donald Blake took a vacation in Norway and encountered the vanguard of an alien invasion. Trapped in a cave, Blake found a gnarled old walking stick, which when struck against the ground, turned him into the Norse God of Thunder! Within moments he was defending the weak and smiting the wicked. As months swiftly passed, rapacious extraterrestrials, Commie tyrants, costumed crazies and cheap thugs gradually gave way to a vast panoply of fantastic worlds and incredible, mythic menaces.

From JiM #110, the magnificent warrior’s ever-expanding world of Asgard was a regular feature and mesmerising milieu for the hero’s earlier adventures, heralding a fresh era of cosmic fantasy to run beside the company’s signature superhero sagas.

Every issue also carried a spectacular back-up series that grew to be a solid fan-favourite. Tales of Asgard – Home of the Mighty Norse Gods gave Kirby space to indulge his fascination with legends and allowed both complete vignettes and longer epics – in every sense of the word. Initially adapted myths, these little yarns grew into sagas unique to the Marvel universe where Kirby built his own cosmos and mythology, underpinning the company’s entire continuity.

Here we resume mid-melee as Thor, having defeated The Destroyer and Loki, returns to America only to clash once more with the awesome Absorbing Man. The Thunderer’s attack intensifies in ‘The Power! The Passion! The Pride!’ but soon seemingly sees the end of Thor: a cliffhanger somewhat assuaged by ‘Maelstrom!’ wherein Asgardian Argonauts epically encounter an uncanny storm. This Tales of Asgard serial formed part of “the Quest” which further unfolds as a band of hand-picked warriors on Thor’s flying longship endure further hardship in their bold bid to forestall Ragnarok…

In JiM #122’s ‘Where Mortals Fear to Tread!’ triumphant Crusher Creel is abducted by Loki to attack Asgard and Odin himself: an astounding clash capped by cataclysmic conclusion ‘While a Universe Trembles!’ Meanwhile, ‘The Grim Specter of Mutiny!’ invoked by seditious young Loki is quashed in time for valiant Balder to save the Argonauts from ‘The Jaws of the Dragon!’ in the ever-escalating Ragnarok Quest.

With the contemporary threat to Asgard ended and Creel banished, Thor returns to Earth to defeat the Demon, a “witchdoctor” empowered by a magical Norn Stone left behind after the Thunder God’s Vietnamese venture. Whilst the Storm Lord is away Hercules is dispatched to Earth on a reconnaissance mission for Zeus. ‘The Grandeur and the Glory!’ opens another extended story-arc and action extravaganza, bouncing the Thunderer from bruising battle to brutal defeat to ascendant triumph…

Previously, in Journey into Mystery Annual #1, in undisclosed ages past the God of Thunder fell into the realm of the Greek Gods for landmark heroic hullabaloo ‘When Titans Clash! Thor vs. Hercules!’ and now with the Greek godling clearly popular with readers, he properly enters the growing Mavel Universe.

Issue #125 – ‘When Meet the Immortals!’ – was the last Journey into Mystery: with next month’s ‘Whom the Gods Would Destroy!’ the comic was re-titled The Mighty Thor and the drama amped up, culminating with ‘The Hammer and the Holocaust!’ In short order Thor crushes the Demon, seemingly loses beloved Jane to Hercules, is deprived of his powers and is subsequently thrashed by the Prince of Power, yet still manages to save Asgard from unscrupulous traitor Seidring the Merciless who had usurped Odin’s mystic might…

Meanwhile Tales of Asgard instalments see the Questers home in on the cause of all their woes. ‘Closer Comes the Swarm’ pits them against the flying trolls of Thryheim, whilst ‘The Queen Commands’ sees Loki captured until Thor answers ‘The Summons!’, promptly returning the Argonauts to Asgard to be shown ‘The Meaning of Ragnarok!’ In truth, these mini-eddas were, although still magnificent in visual excitement, becoming rather rambling in plot, so the narrative reset was neither unexpected nor unwelcome…

Instead of ending, the grandiose saga grew in scope with Thor #128 as ‘The Power of Pluto!’ introduced another major foe. The Greek god of the Underworld tricks Hercules into replacing him as ruler of his dread, dead domain, just as the recuperated Thunder God is looking for a rematch, whilst in Tales of Asgard Kirby pulls out all the creative stops to depict the ‘Aftermath!’ of Ragnarok – for many fans the first indication of what was to come in the King’s landmark Fourth World tales half a decade later…

‘The Verdict of Zeus!’ condemns Hercules to the Underworld unless he can find a proxy to fight for him, even as at the back of the comic, assembled Asgardians face ‘The Hordes of Harokin’ as another multi-chapter classic begins. However, for once the cosmic scope of the lead feature eclipses the serialised odysseys.  ‘Thunder in the Netherworld!’ depicts Thor and Hercules carving a swathe of destruction through an unbelievably alien landscape; the beginning of a gradual sidelining of Earthly matters and mere crime-fighting in this series. Thor and Kirby were increasingly expending their efforts in greater realms than ours…

‘The Fateful Change!’ then reveals how a younger Thunder God trades places with Genghis Khan-like Harokin – leaving the drama on a tense cliff hanger mimicked in this epic omnibus by Lee’s recycled essay ‘The Spectacle and Excitement’.

Cosmic calamity recommences with the Thunderer and his Olympian rival returning triumphant from Hades. Thor even secures a pledge from his terrifyingly inconsistent father Odin that he may wed mortal love Jane Foster, but, hurtling back to Earth finds her long gone and erstwhile roommate Tana Nile exposed as a superpowered Rigellian Colonizer who has just taken possession of Earth. ‘They Strike from Space!’ was mere prologue for a fantastic voyage to the depths of space and a unique universal threat…

In Tales of Asgard the assembled Asgardians face different dramas as young Thor impersonates dynamic reiver Harokin until exposed, even as colossal companion Volstagg steals the enemy’s apocalyptic wizard-weapon ‘The Warlock’s Eye!’ before the next instalment sees ‘The Dark Horse of Death!’ arrive, looking for its next doomed rider…

Thor #132 also reveals the Thunderer explosively laying down the law on ‘Rigel: Where Gods May Fear to Tread!’ and single-handedly liberating Earth. The following issue is a certified Kirby Classic, as ‘Behold… the Living Planet!’ introduces malevolent Ego: a sentient world ruling a living Bio-verse and a stunning visual tour de force that piled one High Concept after another upon Thor, his new artificial ally The Recorder and the reeling readership, whilst Harokin’s tale terminated in one last ride to ‘Valhalla!’

The invasion threat ended, Thor returns to Earth in search of Jane, and after diligent efforts finds her with ‘The People Breeders!’ – a hidden Balkan enclave wherein pioneering geneticist The High Evolutionary is instantly evolving animals into men. His latest experiment creates a lupine future-nightmare – ‘The Maddening Menace of the Super-Beast!’ so it’s just as well the Thunder God was on hand.

Back in Asgard and an undefinable time agone, ‘When Speaks the Dragon!’ and ‘The Fiery Breath of Fafnir!’ pit Thor and his Warriors Three comrades Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg against a staggering reptilian monstrosity: a threat finally quashed in #136’s ‘There Shall Come a Miracle!’

The lead story in that issue is a turning point in the history of the Storm Lord. ‘To Become an Immortal!’ has Odin transform Jane into an Asgardian goddess and relocate her to Asgard, but her frail human mind cannot cope with the Realm Eternal’s wonders and perils and she is mindwiped(!), mercifully restored to mortality and all but written out of the series.

Luckily for the despondent Thunder God beauteous warrior-maiden Sif is on hand to lend an understanding ear and shoulder to cry on…

With this story, Thor’s closest link to Earth was neatly severed: from now on adventures on Midgard are as a tourist or beneficent guest, not a resident. Asgard and infinity were now his true home, a situation quickly proved by the bombastic clash ‘If Asgard Falls…’ Set in the Gleaming City during the annual Tourney of Heroes (and originally published in The Mighty Thor Annual #2, 1966) this a martial spectacular of outlandish armours and exotic weaponry that turns decidedly serious when the deadly Destroyer is unleashed amidst wildly warring warriors in full competition mode…

Although Thor had lost his human paramour, he rediscovered a childhood sweetheart, now all grown up and a fierce warrior maid to boot. A good thing too, as ‘The Thunder God and the Troll!’ (#137) debuts bestial menace super-troll Ulik and depicts open warfare between the Asgardians and their implacable, monstrous foes. During the spectacular carnage and combat Sif is captured and Thor rushes to Earth to rescue her, whilst legions of deadly subterranean troglodytes attack the very heart of the eternal kingdom…

Tales of Asgard feature was gradually wrapping up, but still offered Kirby somewhere to stretch his creative muscles. ‘The Tragedy of Hogun!’ shares gripping revelations of the dour warrior in an Arabian Nights pastiche also introducing sinister sorcerer Mogul of the Mystic Mountain. In ‘The Flames of Battle!’ Thor reunites with Sif but is deprived of magical mallet Mjolnir courtesy of exotic technology the trolls have mysteriously developed. Do the malign invaders have a potent new ally or a terrifyingly powerful slave? Trapped on Earth, the hammerless hero has no means of returning to the realm beyond the Rainbow Bridge whilst in Asgard, the war goes badly and the gods are close to final defeat…

In Tales of Asgard, ‘The Quest for the Mystic Mountain!’ finds Hogun and his comrades edging closer to victory and vengeance, culminating in a truly stunning Kirby spectacle in #139 as the wandering warriors discover ‘The Secret of the Mystic Mountain!’ In the lead story of that issue, ‘To Die Like a God!’ wraps up the Troll War in eye-popping style as Thor and Sif invade the bowels of the Earth to save humanity and Asgardians alike…

With Mighty Thor #140, extended epics give way to a short run of compete, single episode tales heavy on action, starting with ‘The Growing Man!’ as Thor heads to Earth and discovers New York under attack by a synthetic warrior who grows larger and stronger with every blow struck against him. Time-travelling tyrant Kang the Conqueror is behind the Brobdingnagian brute, whilst in back-up ‘The Battle Begins!’, Hogun & Co are menaced by a terrifying genie.

Mark Evanier’s ‘The Best at Their Best’ precedes Thor #141, where the Storm Lord faces ‘The Wrath of Replicus’ – a bombastic, bludgeoning epic involving gangsters, aliens and super-robots, counter-pointed by stunning fantasy as the wandering Asgardians meet ‘Alibar and the Forty Demons!’ ‘The Scourge of the Super Skrull!’ then pits Thunderer against an alien with all the powers of the Fantastic Four, even as, in Asgard, a new menace is investigated by Sif and indomitable Balder the Brave. The back-up tale sees Kirby’s seamless melange of myth and legend leap into overdrive as ‘We, Who are About to Die…!’ depicts young Thor and the Warriors Three confounding all the mystic menaces of Mogul. Thor #143 returns to extended epics with ‘…And, Soon Shall Come: the Enchanters!’ (inked by magnificent Bill Everett) as Sif and Balder encounter a trio of wizards plotting to overthrow All-Father Odin, only to fall prey to their power. Escaping to Earth they link up with Thor, but they have been followed…

Everett also inked Tales of Asgard instalment ‘To the Death!’ as comic relief colossus Volstagg takes centre-stage to seduce Mogul’s sinister sister…

Colletta returns for ‘This Battleground Earth!’, as two Enchanters attack the warriors on Midgard whilst the third duels directly with Odin in the home of the gods. At the back, Mogul declares ‘The Beginning of the End!’ At the height of the battle in the previous issue Odin had withdrawn all the powers of his Asgardian followers, leaving Sif, Balder and Thor ‘Abandoned on Earth!’ Now victorious, the All-Father wants his subjects home, but again his wayward son opts to stay with mortals, driving Odin into a fury. Stripped of magical abilities, alone, hungry and in need of a job, the former god becomes embroiled with the Circus of Crime and is hypnotised into committing an audacious theft…

Tales of Asgard wrapped up in spectacular fashion with ‘The End!’, to be replaced in the next issue with The Inhumans – but as that’s a subject of a separate volume, the remainder of this chronicle is all-Aesir action, beginning in #146’s ‘…If the Thunder Be Gone!’ Deprived of all power except his natural super-strength, Thor is helpless against the mesmerism of the nefarious Ringmaster, and steals a life-sized, solid gold bull at the villain’s command. When the police interrupt the raid, our hero awakens to find himself an outlaw and a moving target. Things get worse when he is arrested in ‘The Wrath of Odin!’: left a sitting duck for the vengeance of malign brother Loki. However, the god of Evil’s scheme is thwarted when Sif and Balder rush to Thor’s rescue, provoking Odin to de-power and banish them all in ‘Let There be… Chaos!’

As all this high-powered frenzy occurs, a brutal burglar is terrorising Manhattan. When Public Enemy #1 The Wrecker breaks into the house where Loki is hiding, the cheap thug achieves his greatest score – intercepting a magic spell from the formidable Norn Queen intended to restore the mischief maker’s evil energies. Now charged with Asgardian forces, the Wrecker goes on a rampage with only the weakened Thor to challenge him…

Thor #149 enters new territory ‘When Falls a Hero!’ as – after a catastrophic clash – the Wrecker kills the Thunderer. ‘Even in Death…’ has the departed deity facing Hela, Goddess of Death, as Balder and Sif hunt the Norn Queen and Loki. Hoping to save her beloved, Sif enters into a devil’s bargain, surrendering her soul to animate unstoppable war-machine the Destroyer, unaware her lover has already convinced Death to release him. In ‘…To Rise Again!’ the Destroyer, fresh from crushing the Wrecker, turns on a resurrected Thor as Sif is unable to communicate with or overrule the death-machine’s pre-programmed hunger to kill. The situation is further muddled when Odin arbitrarily restores Thor’s godly might, leading the Destroyer to go into lethal overdrive…

Meanwhile in the wilds of Asgard, Ulik the Troll attacks Karnilla, Queen of the Norns and Balder offers to be her champion if Sif is freed from the Destroyer. An astounding turning point comes in ‘The Dilemma of Dr. Blake!’ as Thor joins his lost companions against Ulik, only to lose his newly re-energised hammer to Loki, who flees to Earth with it…

To Be Continued…

However there’s one last reading treat in store as Marvel’s superhero spoof title Not Brand Echh #3 provides a barbed and pitiless pastiche of “Jazzgardian” life in ‘The Origin of Sore, Son of Shmodin!’ by Lee, Kirby & Giacoia. It’s followed by artistic and historical treasure including original and unused cover art and pencil pages, editorial Marvel Bullpen Bulletins and Thor Kirby covers from reprint titles Special Marvel Edition (#3 & 4) and Marvel Spectacular #1-19, plus Maximum Security: Thor vs Ego (2000).

These Thor tales show the development not only of one of Marvel’s fundamental continuity concepts but more importantly the creative evolution of the greatest imagination in comics. Set your common sense on pause and simply wallow in the glorious imagery and power of these classic adventures for the true secret of what makes graphic narrative a unique experience.
© 2022 MARVEL.

Posted on

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: The Jesse Marsh Years Omnibus volume two


By Gaylord DuBois & Jesse Marsh (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-294-9 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Dynamic Days-Gone-By Derring Do … 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

I don’t know an awful lot about Jesse Marsh, other than that he was born on 27th July 1907 and died far too young: on April 28th 1966 from diabetic complications at the height of a TV Tarzan revival he was in large part responsible for. What I do know, however, is that to my unformed, pre-fanboy, kid’s mentality, his drawings were somehow better than most of the other artists and that every other kid who read comics in my school disagreed with me.

There’s a phrase we used to use at 2000 AD that summed it up: “Artist’s artist”, which usually meant someone whose fan-mail divided equally into fanatical raves and bile-filled hate-mail. It seems there are some makers of comic strips that many readers simply don’t get.

It isn’t about the basic principles or artistic quality or even anything tangible – although you’ll hear some cracking justifications: “I don’t like his feet” (presumably the way he draws them) and “it just creeps me out” being my two favourites. Never forget in the 1980s DC were told by the Comics Code Authority that Kevin O’Neill’s entire style and manner of Drawing was unacceptable to American readers!

I got Jesse Marsh.

Like many Western Publishing stalwarts Jesse Mace Marsh originally worked for Disney Studios (1939-1948) as an animator on projects including Pinocchio and Fantasia. His first comics work appeared in 1945, and he continued as a staff artist until his death in 1966. In addition to his Tarzan contributions, he illustrated Gene Autry, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and more, as well as John Carter of Mars: three 4-Color series issues. In this second compilation, hyper-prolific Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois (August 24th 1899 – October 20th 1993) is scripter as – nourished by a burgeoning movie franchise, radio, newspaper and new novels – the comic book Ape-Man phenomenon grew and steadied for the long haul. The editor/scripter (for ALL the Tarzan titles and spin-offs, Lone Ranger, Lost in Space, Turok, Son of Stone, Brothers of the Spear, Lassie, Andy Panda, Red Ryder, Tom and Jerry, Bonanza and so many more) would be Marsh’s creative collaborator for the next 19 years.

Situated on the West Coast, Western’s Dell/Gold Key imprints rivalled DC and Marvel at the height of their powers, and the licensee famously never capitulated to the wave of anti-comics hysteria that resulted in the crippling self-censorship of the 1950s. No Dell Comics ever displayed a Comics Code Authority symbol on the cover – they never needed to…

Marsh jobbed around adapted movie properties – mostly westerns – until 1948 when Dell introduced the first all-new Tarzan comic book. The newspaper strip had been running since January 1929 and all previous collections and funnybook releases had featured expurgated and modified reprints of those exploits. Everything changed with Dell Four Color Comic #134 (February 1947) which offered a lengthy, captivating tale of the Ape-Man, scripted by Robert P. Thompson. He had also written both the Tarzan radio show and the aforementioned syndicated strip. link to Tarzan and the Adventurers please.

‘Tarzan and the Devil Ogre’ was very much in the Burroughs tradition: John Clayton, Lord Greystoke and his friend Paul D’Arnot aid a young woman in rescuing her lost father from a hidden tribe ruled over by a monster. The engrossing yarn was made magical by the simple, underplayed magic of a heavy brush line and absolutely unmatched design sense. Marsh was unique in the way he positioned characters in space, employing primitivist forms and hidden shapes to augment his backgrounds. He was a fanatical researcher: his trees, rocks, and constructions were 100% accurate. His animals and natives, especially children and women, were all distinct and recognisable; not the badly-shaded stock figures in grass skirts that even the greatest artists so often resorted to.

Marsh also knew when to draw big and draw small: the internal dynamism of his work is spellbinding. His Africa became mine, and as the try-out comic book was an instant hit he stuck around for decades. Dell never messed with something that was already working. Marsh and Thompson’s Tarzan returned with two tales in Dell Four Color Comic #161, cover-dated August 1947. That was remarkable: Four Colour was a catch-all title showcasing literally hundreds of different licensed properties in rotation, often as many as ten separate and stunningly diverse issues per month. So rapid a return engagement meant pretty solid sales figures…

Following a gracious and wondering Foreword by Gilbert Hernandez discussing the sheer ubiquity of Tarzan comics in households – particularly Latino ones – we return to distant days of rampaging fantasy, garnished by yet another warning from me. In past reviews I’ve described how this character comes with lots of inbuilt colonial baggage and an unhealthy side-order of appalling white supremacy for those readers pre-sensitised pro or con. What I haven’t addressed is the sheerly shocking death toll of animals, killed for food, for sport or because someone needs an action scene proving how cruel villains are or how mighty the hero is. This is not a book for vegans or animal activists, okay?

Volume Two gathers the pertinent material from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan #5-10, spanning September/October 1948 through July/August 1949) and includes (line art) covers and back covers by eventual painter/illustrator Morris Gollub. Most issues also include two colour frontispieces and endpieces offering lessons in ‘Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary’, prompting millions of kids everywhere to shout “Kreegah! Bundolo!” and “Tantor, ho!” in the playground and look like complete loons trying to talk to baboons and monkeys every time we visited a zoo…

The dramas resume with Tarzan #5 (September/October 1948) with harsh morality play ‘Tarzan and the Men of Greed’. Here, wife Jane and son Boy (latterly “Korak”) are kidnapped by American gangsters and a bandit sheikh as a means of forcing Tarzan to bring them and their army of African bandits to the lost treasure vaults of Opar. After an arduous trek, and terrifying ascent of an ancient escarpment, the thieves learn to their eternal cost why it’s not healthy to antagonise the legendary Ape-Man…

As well as the epic 33 page saga and the opportunity to practise primate patois “Mangani to Paco” there’s a stunning back cover pinup of the forest family before – cover dated November/December 1948 – we dig deep into the novels’ mythology for #6 as ‘Tarzan and the Outlaws of Pal-ul-don’ sees Jane abducted (again!). This time it’s raiders from a primordial enclave first introduced in eighth novel Tarzan the Terrible (1921), necessitating man and boy chasing the perfidious primitives all the way back to their lost realm. This is a huge oasis of jungles, mountains, dinosaurs and evolutionary dead-ends at the centre of a vast desert and results in reunion with old Waz-don ally Om-At and war with bandit nation Ho-Don, using Triceratops as tanks…

Following another pin-up, Tarzan #7 (January/February 1949) finds the family back home, and bored Tarzan making a hot air balloon. His efforts lead to more trouble when Boy and his Waziri friend Dombie are accidentally caught when it breaks loose and transported to a land of terrors. ‘Tarzan and the Valley of the Monsters’ sees the Jungle Lord and his ally Muviro (Dombie’s dad) give chase in a plane until brought down by Pterodactyls. From there it’s all fight and flight from giant lizard and volcanoes until the humans are reunited and heading home again.

Morris Gollub takes over covers and pin-up duties with #8 (March/April 1949) as the lost quartet continue the trek home. Traversing mountains and deserts, they almost fail until meeting a strange albino tribe in ‘Tarzan and the White Pygmies’, and in return for aid when they need it most teach their benefactors modern warfare by introducing them to archery, and saving them from predation by legions of giant vultures…

Cover-dated May/June 1949, issue #9 returns to Pal-ul-don as ‘Tarzan and the Men of A-lur’ sees King Ja-Don usurped by surly vassal Dak-Lot, propelling Tarzan, Boy and even Jane into a full-scale civil war (with lots of comparatively shocking violence for a Golden Age comic book!) as humans, pre-men, cave bears, dinosaurs and modern elephants clash to decide the fate of the kingdom time forgot…

This second time-wracked voyage to the past pauses with Tarzan #10 (July/August 1949) as the epic page counts drop to allow side stories and a greater range of fun. Main event ‘Tarzan and the Treasure of the Bolgani’ is a pure sci fi romp as the Ape-man and his Waziri subjects are captured by intelligent gorillas who shrink them to half size so that they can mine gems for them. When the process goes awry, Tarzan becomes a hyper-dense (Must you? Really?) tiny titan who leads a revolt and ends a threat to all of Africa, after which DuBois and Marsh begin years of light-hearted backup tales as Boy tries to avoid his chores and learns to regret running off to become ‘The Baboons’ King’…

Although these are tales from a far-off, simpler time they have lost none of their passion, inclusivity and charm, whilst the artistic virtuosity of Marsh looks better than ever. Perhaps this time a few more people will “get” him, especially if the rest of this series finally makes the jump to digital editions as Volume One has…
Edgar Rice Burroughs® Tarzan®: The Jesse Marsh Years Omnibus Volume Two © 1948, 1949, 2009, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. Tarzan ® Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Marvel Firsts: The 1960s


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Larry Lieber, Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Arnold Drake, Steve Parkhouse, Don Heck, Bill Everett, Dick Ayers, Gene Colan, John Buscema, George Tuska & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5864-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Marvel’s Most Magical… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

For most fans, the Marvel Age of Comics began with Fantastic Four #1 at the tail end of 1961, but the company itself cites Marvel Comics #1 from 1939, when the outfit was called Timely, as the big natal event. That means this year is their 85th anniversary. So with the year rapidly closing it’s time to celebrate some big-ticket compilations.

This hefty tome from 2011 isn’t one of them, but is a superb compilation of the decade which made the House of Ideas a global force and household name. It gathers the first story of each character’s own series (not necessarily the same as a debut appearance) highlighting key moments via material taken from Rawhide Kid #17, Amazing Adventures #1, Fantastic Four #1, Tales to Astonish #27, 51 & 70, Incredible Hulk #1, Amazing Fantasy #15, Journey into Mystery #83, Strange Tales #101, 110 & 135, Two-Gun Kid #60, Tales of Suspense #39, 49 & 59, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes #1, The Avengers #1, X-Men #1, Daredevil #1, Ghost Rider #1, Marvel Super-Heroes #12, 19 and 20, Captain Savage #1 and Silver Surfer #1, collectively covering August 1960 to May 1969 and incorporating a vast gallery of covers from other titles that came and went with such breathtaking rapidity in those days.

As stated, the company-that-became-Marvel was still going – albeit in dire straits – when Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and a select few others started their comics revolution, and these tales offer unmatched insights into how that all happened by re-presenting official first appearances. Opening in January 1960 with a selection of 16 genre covers ranging from Battle #70 to Love Romances #87 to Patsy Walker #89, the first inklings of what’s to come are seen in Rawhide Kid #17, by Lee, Kirby and inker Dick Ayers.

The Kid was one of Atlas’ older icons, having starred in his own title since 1955. A stock buckskin-clad sagebrush centurion, he was one of the first casualties when Atlas’ distribution crisis forced the company to cut back to 16 titles in the autumn of 1957. However, with westerns huge on TV and youthful rebellion a hot topic in 1960, Lee & Kirby conceived a brand-new six-gun stalwart – a teenager in fact – and launched him in the summer of the year, tidily retaining the numbering of his cancelled predecessor. It’s important to remember that these yarns aren’t trying to be gritty or authentic: they’re accessing a vast miasmic morass of wholesome, homogenised Hollywood mythmaking that generations of consumers preferred to learning the grim everyday toil, travail and terror of the real Old West, so sit back, reset your moral compass to “fair enough” and revel in simplistic Black Hats versus White Hats, with all the dynamic bombast and bravura Kirby & inker Dick Ayers could muster…

It all begins with adopted teen Johnny Bart teaching all and sundry in a cow-town named Rawhide to ‘Beware! The Rawhide Kid’ after his retired Texas Ranger Uncle Ben is gunned down by fame-hungry cheat Hawk Brown. After very publicly exercising his right to vengeance, the naive kid flees Rawhide before he can explain, resigned to living as an outlaw forevermore…

His reputation is further enhanced when he routs a masked gang robbing the ‘Stagecoach to Shotgun Gap!’ after which Don Heck delivers one of his sleekly authentic western tales when a veteran gunslinger devises a way to end his own fearsome career ‘With Gun in Hand!’ The issue closes with by Lee, Kirby & Ayers revealing how another tragic misunderstanding confirms Johnny Bart’s destiny ‘When the Rawhide Kid Turned… Outlaw!’

Following a trio of romantic comedy covers – My Girl Pearl #7, Teen-Age Romance #77 and Life with Millie #8 – we turn to the company’s splendidly addictive men-vs-monsters anthology titles wherein Amazing Adventures #1 (cover-dated June 1961) begins a cautious experiment by launching a low-key – un-costumed – paranormal mystically empowered investigator for a short run of pre-superhero escapades. ‘I Am the Fantastic Dr. Droom!’ (Lee & Kirby with Ditko inking) finds a seemingly sedate American drawn to Tibet to learn ancient mysteries before returning home as an occult consultant after which, the cover for Linda Carter, Student Nurse #1 takes us to the big moment when everything changed…

Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961) introduces a brave new world in eponymous landmark ‘The Fantastic Four’ as maverick scientist Reed Richards summons fiancée Sue Storm, their pilot pal Ben Grimm and Sue’s kid brother Johnny before heading off on their first mission. In a flashback we discover that they are driven survivors of a private space-shot that went horribly wrong when Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding. On crashing back to Earth, they found they’d all been hideously mutated into outlandish freaks.

Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible, Johnny Storm could turn into living flame and tragic Ben turned into a shambling, rocky freak. Shaken but unbowed they vow to dedicate their new abilities to benefiting mankind. Crafted by Lee & Kirby with inks by George Klein & Christopher Rule, the drama intensified with ‘The Fantastic Four meet the Mole Man’, foiling a plan by another outcast who controls monsters and slave humanoids from far beneath the Earth. This summation of the admittedly mediocre plot cannot do justice to the engrossing wonder of that breakthrough issue – we really have no grasp today of just how different in tone, how shocking it all was.

Next comes Ditko’s cover to Amazing Adult Fantasy #7, preceding a throwaway vignette from another of the company’s anthological monster mags. Taken from Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962) a 7-page short introduces Dr Henry Pym, a maverick scientist who discovers a shrinking potion and discovers peril, wonder and a kind of companionship amongst the lowliest creatures on Earth and under it. This engaging piece of fluff – which owed more than a little to the movie The Incredible Shrinking Man – was plotted by Lee, scripted by his brother Larry Lieber and stunningly illustrated by Kirby & Ayers.

The Incredible Hulk smashed right into his own bi-monthly comic and, after some classic romps by Young Marvel’s finest creators, crashed right out again. After 6 issues, the series was cancelled and Lee retrenched, making the Gruff Green Giant a perennial guest-star in other titles until such time as they could restart the drama in their new “Split-Book” format in Tales to Astonish where Ant/Giant-Man was rapidly proving to be a character who had outlived his time. Cover-dated May 1962, that first issue observes puny atomic boffin Bruce Banner, sequestered on a secret military base in the American desert and perpetually bullied by bombastic commander General “Thunderbolt” Ross as the clock counts down to the world’s first Gamma Bomb test. Besotted by Ross’s daughter Betty, Banner endures the General’s constant jibes as the timer ticks on and tension increases. At the final moment Banner sees a teenager lollygagging at Ground Zero and frantically rushes to the site to drag the boy away. Unknown to everyone, the assistant he’s entrusted to delay the countdown has an agenda of his own…

Rick Jones is a wayward but good-hearted kid. After initial resistance he lets himself be pushed into a safety trench, but just as Banner prepares to join him The Bomb detonates…

Somehow surviving the blast, Banner and the boy are secured by soldiers, but that evening as the sun sets the scientist undergoes a monstrous transformation. He grows larger; his skin turns a stony grey. In 6 simple pages that’s how it all starts, and no matter what any number of TV or movie reworkings or comicbook retcons and psycho-babble re-evaluations would have you believe that’s still the best and most primal take on the origin. A good man, an unobtainable girl, a foolish kid, an unknown enemy and the horrible power of destructive science unchecked. Written by Lee, drawn by Kirby with inking by Paul Reinman, ‘The Coming of the Hulk’ barrels along as the man-monster and Jones are then kidnapped by Banner’s Soviet counterpart the Gargoyle for a rousing round of espionage and Commie-busting…

Crafting extremely well-received monster and mystery tales for and with Stan Lee, Ditko had been rewarded with his own title. Amazing Adventures/Amazing Adult Fantasy featured a subtler brand of yarn than Rampaging Aliens and Furry Underpants Monsters and their ilk which, though individually entertaining, had been slowly losing traction in the world of comics ever since National/DC had successfully reintroduced costumed heroes. Lee & Kirby had responded with Fantastic Four and the ahead-of-his-time Incredible Hulk, but there was no indication of the renaissance to come when the cover of officially just-cancelled Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962) highlighted a brand new and rather eerie adventure character.

The wonderment came and went in 11 captivating pages: ‘Spider-Man!’ telling the parable of Peter Parker, a smart but alienated kid bitten by a radioactive spider on a high school science trip. Discovering he has developed arachnid abilities – which he augments with his own natural engineering genius – Parker does what any lonely, geeky nerd would do when given such a gift… he tries to cash in for girls, fame and money. Creating a costume to hide his identity in case he makes a fool of himself, he becomes a minor celebrity – and a vain, self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief flees past, he doesn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returns home that his Uncle Ben has been murdered.

Crazy for vengeance, Parker stalks the assailant who made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, to find that it is the felon he couldn’t be bothered with. Since his irresponsibility led to the death of the man who raised him, the boy swears to always use his powers to help others…

It wasn’t a new story, but the setting was one familiar to every kid reading it and the artwork was downright spooky. This wasn’t the gleaming high-tech world of moon-rockets, giant aliens and flying cars – this stuff could happen to anybody…

The tragic last-ditch tale struck a chord with the reading public and by Christmas a new comic book superstar was ready to launch in his own title, with Ditko eager to show what he could do with his first returning character since the demise of Charlton action hero Captain Atom…

The Mighty Thor was the comic series in which Jack Kirby’s restless fascination with all things Cosmic was honed and refined through his dazzling graphics and captivating concepts. The King’s examination of space-age mythology began in modest fantasy title Journey into Mystery where – in the summer of 1962 – a tried-and-true comicbook concept (feeble mortal transformed into god-like hero) was revived by fledgling Marvel to add a Superman analogue to their growing roster of costumed adventurers. JiM #83 (August 1962) saw a bold costumed warrior jostling aside the regular fare of monsters, robots and sinister scientists in a brash, vivid explosion of verve and vigour.

The initial exploit follows crippled American physician Donald Blake who takes a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing, he is trapped in a cave where he finds an old, gnarled walking stick. When in his frustration he smashes the stick into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his puny frame is transformed into the Norse God of Thunder Mighty Thor! Plotted by Lee, scripted by Lieber and illustrated by Kirby & inker Joe Sinnott (at this juncture a full illustrator, Sinnott would become Kirby’s primary inker for most of his Marvel career), ‘The Stone Men of Saturn’ is pure dawn Marvel: bombastic, fast-paced, gloriously illogical and captivatingly action-packed. The hugely under-appreciated Art Simek was the letterer and logo designer. It was clear that they were making it up as they went along – not in itself a bad thing – and all that infectious enthusiasm shows…

Amazing Fantasy #15 came out the same month as Journey into Mystery #83 and a month later Tales to Astonish #35 – first to feature Henry Pym’s Astonishing Ant-Man costumed capers – appeared. Here you’ll find the cover to TtA #35 to mark that occasion. Hot on the heels of the runaway success of Fantastic Four, Stan & Jack spun the most colourful and youngest member of the team into his own series, hoping to recapture the glory of the 1940s when the original Human Torch was one of the company’s “Big Three” superstars. Within a year, the magic-&-monsters anthology title Strange Tales became home to the hot-headed hero: in #101, Johnny Storm started his ancillary solo career in eponymous exploit ‘The Human Torch’.

Scripted by Lieber (over a plot by brother Stan) and sublimely illustrated by Kirby & Ayers, the plucky lad investigates sabotage at a new seaside amusement park and promptly discovers Commie-conniving thanks to Red spy the Destroyer. Kirby would pencil the first few yarns before moving on, after which Ayers assumed control for most of its run, although The King generated some of the best covers of his Marvel career throughout the Torch’s tenure.

An odd inconsistency – or more likely tension- and drama-inducing gimmick – did crop up here. Although public figures in the FF, Johnny and sister Sue live part-time in Long Island hamlet Glenville where, despite the townsfolk being fully aware of her as the glamorous and heroic Invisible Girl, they seem oblivious to the fact that her baby brother is the equally famous Torch. Many daft-but-ingenious pages of Johnny protecting his secret identity would ensue before the situation was brilliantly resolved…

Despite the runway success of its new superheroes, Marvel was still offering a range of genres such as westerns. August 1962 saw the retooling of another Atlas property as Two-Gun Kid #60 (cover-dated November) introduced Eastern lawyer Matt Hawk who moved to barbarous and unruly Tombstone, Texas in ‘The Beginning of the Two-Gun Kid’ (Lee, Kirby & Ayers). After merciless and relentless bullying, the tenderfoot is mentored by aged gunslinger Ben Dancer and transforms into a powerful, ultrafast deadly accurate shootist. When Ben is driven out of town by a pack of thugs working for land baron Clem Carter, Hawk adopts a masked identity to see justice done. Don Heck limned stand-alone tale ‘The Outcast’, revealing the naked ambition of a Navajo warrior before Hawk returns to complete his origin story in ‘I Hate the Two-Gun Kid!’ as romantic interest Nancy Carter falls foul of a scheme by her stepbrother to defraud her and frame the new hero in town…

More striking covers – Modelling with Millie #21 and Amazing Spider-Man #1 – precede the debut of the next Marvel milestone in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963 and on the newsstands for Christmas 1962). Created in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis and at a time when “Red-baiting” and “Commie-bashing” were national obsessions in the U.S., the emergence of a brilliant new Thomas Edison employing Yankee ingenuity and invention to safeguard the World was an inevitable proposition. Combining the cherished belief that (US) technology could solve every problem with universal imagery of noble knights battling evil and the proposition became certainty. Of course, kids thought it great fun and very, very cool.

Scripted by Lieber (over Lee’s plot) and illustrated by criminally unappreciated Don Heck, ‘Iron Man is Born’ see electronics wizard Tony Stark field testing his latest invention in Viet Nam when he is wounded by a landmine. Captured by Viet Cong commander Wong-Chu, he is given a grim ultimatum. Create weapons for the Reds and a doctor will remove from his chest the shrapnel that will kill him within seven days. If not…

Knowing Commies can’t be trusted, Stark and aged Professor Yinsen – another captive scientist – build a mobile iron lung (remember this was years before heart transplants and pace-makers) to keep his heart beating, equipping it with all the weapons their ingenuity and resources can secretly build. Naturally they succeed, defeating Wong-Chu, but not without tragic sacrifice…

Next was a new genre title, once again given a fresh treatment by Lee, Kirby & Ayers. Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (May 1963) was an improbable, over-the-top WWII combat comic series similar in tone to later ensemble action movies such as The Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch and The Dirty Dozen. The surly squad of sorry reprobates were the first of three teams concocted by men-on-fire Kirby & Lee to secure fledgling Marvel’s growing position as the publisher to watch. Sgt. Fury started out as a pure Kirby creation. As with all his various war comics, The King made everything look harsh and real and appalling: the people and places are all grimy and tired, battered yet indomitable.

The artist had served in some of the worst battles of the war and never forgot the horrific and heroic things he saw – and more graphically expressed in his efforts during the 1950s genre boom at a number of different companies. However, even at kid-friendly, Comics Code-sanitised Marvel, those experiences perpetually leaked through onto his powerfully gripping pages. The saga began with blistering premier ‘Sgt. Fury, and his Howling Commandoes’ (that’s how they spelled it in the storrie-title – altho knot ennyware else): a rip-snorting yarn bursting with full-page panels interrupted by ‘Meet the Howling Commandos’ – a double-page spread spotlighting the seven members of First Attack Squad; Able Company. This comprised Fury himself, former circus strongman/Corporal “Dum-Dum” Dugan and privates Robert “Rebel” Ralston (a Kentucky jockey), college student Jonathan “Junior” Juniper, jazz trumpeter Gabriel Jones, mechanic Izzy Cohen and movie heartthrob Dino Manelli.

Controversially – even in the 1960s – this battle Rat Pack was an integrated unit, with Jewish and black members as well as Catholics, Southern Baptists and New York white guys all merrily serving together. The Howling Commandos pushed envelopes and busted taboos from the very start. The first mission was a non-stop riot pitting ‘Seven Against the Nazis!’ and putting the squad through their unique paces: a ragged band of indomitable warriors taking on hordes of square-necked Nazis to save D-Day and rescue a French resistance fighter carrying vital plans of the invasion…

A low-key introduction served for the next debut as something different debuted at the back of Strange Tales #110. When the budding House of Ideas introduced a warrior wizard to their burgeoning pantheon in the summer of 1963 it was a bold and curious move. Bizarre adventures and menacing monsters were still incredibly popular but mention of magic or the supernatural – especially vampires, werewolves and their eldritch ilk – were all severely proscribed by a censorship panel which dictated almost all aspects of story content.

At this time – almost a decade after an anti-comics public campaign led to Senate hearings – all comics were ferociously monitored and adjudicated by the draconian Comics Code Authority. Even though some of the small company’s strongest sellers were still mystery mags, their underlying themes and premises were almost universally mad science and alien wonders, not necromantic or thaumaturgic horrors. That might explain Lee’s unobtrusive introduction of Steve Ditko’s mystic defender: an exotic, twilit troubleshooter inhabiting the shadowy outer fringes of rational, civilised society in one of those aforementioned monster titles.

Tales of Suspense #41 (May 1963) had seen newcomer Iron Man battle deranged technological wizard Doctor Strange, and with the name legally in copyrightable print, preparations began for a truly different kind of ongoing hero. The company had recently published a quasi-mystic precursor in balding, trench-coated Doctor Droom (later renamed Dr. Druid) and when Stephen Strange scored big, the prototype would be subsequently retro-written into Marvel continuity as an alternative candidate and precursor for the ultimate role of Sorcerer Supreme. Thus, without any preamble, our first meeting with the man of mystery comes courtesy of a quiet little chiller which has never been surpassed for sheer mood and imagination. Lee & Ditko’s ‘Doctor Strange Master of Black Magic!’ in Strange Tales #110 (July 1963) saw a terrified man troubled by his dreams approach an exceptional consultant in his search of a cure. That perfect 5-page fright-fest introduces whole new realms and features deceit, desperation, double-dealing and the introduction of both a mysterious and aged oriental mentor and devilish dream demon Nightmare in an unforgettable yarn that might well be Ditko’s finest moment…

After a period of meteoric expansion, by mid-1963 the ever-expanding Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the successful DC concept that cemented the legitimacy of American comics’ Silver Age – the concept of putting a bunch of all-star eggs in one basket which had made the Justice League of America such a winner and inspired the moribund Atlas outfit to try superheroes again. Nearly 18 months after Fantastic Four #1, the fledgling House of Ideas had a viable stable of leading men (if only sidekick women) so Lee & Kirby assembled a handful of them and moulded them into a force for justice and soaring sales…

Seldom has it ever been done with such style and sheer exuberance. Cover dated September 1963, The Avengers #1 kicks off with ‘The Coming of the Avengers’: one of the cannier origin tales in comics. Instead of starting at a zero point and acting as if the reader knew nothing, Stan & Jack (plus inker Dick Ayers) assumed readers had at least passing familiarity with Marvel’s other titles and wasted very little time or energy on introductions.

In Asgard, God of Mischief Loki is imprisoned on a dank isle, hungry for vengeance on his half-brother Thor. Observing Earth, the wicked Asgardian espies monstrous, misunderstood Hulk and mystically engineers a situation wherein the man-brute seemingly goes on a rampage, simply to trick the Thunder God into battling the brute. When the Hulk’s sidekick Rick Jones radios the FF for assistance, devious Loki diverts the transmission and smugly awaits the outcome of his trickery Sadly, Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp also pick up the redirected SOS. As the heroes converge in the American Southwest to search for the Jade Giant, they soon realize that something is oddly amiss…

This terse, epic, compelling and wide-ranging yarn (New York, New Mexico, Detroit and Asgard in 22 pages) is Lee & Kirby at their bombastic best, but that same month they also premiered another super squad that was the hero team’s polar opposite. X-Men #1 introduced gloomy, serious Scott Summers (Cyclops), ebullient Bobby Drake AKA Iceman, wealthy golden boy Warren Worthington III codenamed Angel, and erudite, brutish genius Henry McCoy as The Beast. These teens were very special students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and achieving integration between the sprawling masses of humanity and Homo Superior: an emergent off-shoot race of mutants with incredible extra abilities.

Scripted by Lee, ‘X-Men’ opens with the boisterous students welcoming new classmate Jean Grey (promptly dubbed Marvel Girl): a young woman possessing the ability to move objects with her mind. Whilst Xavier is explaining the team goals and mission in life, actual Evil Mutant Magneto is single-handedly taking over American missile-base Cape Citadel. A seemingly unbeatable threat, the master of magnetism is nonetheless valiantly driven off by the young heroes on their first outing in under 15 minutes…

It doesn’t sound like much, but the gritty, dynamic power of Kirby’s art, solidly inked by veteran Paul Reinman, imparted a raw aggressive energy to the tale which carried the bi-monthly book irresistibly forward.

As Henry Pym matured from Ant-Man to Giant-Man, he took on a crimefighting partner in Janet Van Dyne – The Wasp. Although she almost never got a chance to solo star, with Tales to Astonish #52 (January 1964) Jan won a back-up series where she narrated horror stories like this one. Crafted by Lee, Lieber & Roussos, ‘Somewhere Waits a Wobbow!’ is a standard cautionary tale of fate and justice catching up to a crooked ne’er-do-well and is followed here by a similar new position for an alien first introduced in Fantastic Four #13. By the same team and in the same month, Tales of the Watcher launched in Tales of Suspense #49 as the omnipotent intergalactic voyeur relates ‘The Saga of the Sneepers!’ wherein predatory extraterrestrials observe Earth and make plans to conquer humanity…

As the evolved Atlas Comics grew in popularity, it gradually supplanted its broad variety of genre titles with more and more superheroes. The recovering powerhouse was still hampered by a crippling distribution deal that limited the company to 16 titles per month (which would restrict their output until 1968), so each new untried book would have to fill the revenue-generating slot (however small) of an existing title. Moreover, as costumed characters were selling, each new similarly-themed title would limit the breadth of the monster, western, war, humour or girls’ comics that had been the outfit’s recent bread and butter. It was putting a lot of eggs in one basket, and superheroes had failed twice before for Marvel.

So, Daredevil, the Man Without Fear (April 1964) might have seemed a risky venture. Yes, the artist was one of the industry’s most talented veterans, but not to the young kids who were the audience. Crucially, he wasn’t Kirby or Ditko. ‘The Origin of Daredevil’ recounts how young Matthew Murdock grew up in the slums, raised by his father Battling Jack Murdock, a second-rate prize-fighter. Determined that the boy will be something, the father extracts a solemn promise from his son that he will never fight. Mocked by other kids who sarcastically dub him “Daredevil”, Matt abides by his vow, but secretly trains his body to physical perfection.

One day he saves a blind man from being hit by a speeding truck, only to be struck in the face by its radioactive cargo. His sight is burned away forever but his other senses are super-humanly enhanced and he gains a sixth: “radar-sense”. He tells no-one, not even his dad. The senior Murdock is in dire straits. As his career declined, he signed with The Fixer, knowing full well what the corrupt promoter expected from his fighters. Yet Jack’s star started to shine again and his downward spiral reversed itself. Unaware he was being set up, Murdock got a shot at the Big Time, but when ordered to take a dive, refused. Winning was the proudest moment of his life. When his bullet-riddled corpse was found, the cops had suspicions but no proof. Heartbroken Matt graduated college with a law degree and set up in business with his room-mate Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. They hired a lovely young secretary named Karen Page and, with his life on track, young Matt now had time to solve his father’s murder…

His promise stopped him from fighting; but what if he became somebody else?

Scripted by Lee and moodily illustrated by the legendary Bill Everett (with assistance from Ditko) this is a rather nonsensical yet visually compelling yarn that just goes through the motions, barely hinting at the magic yet to come.

A cover gallery highlighting Marvel Tales Annual #1, Tales to Astonish #60 and photo mag Monsters to Laugh With #1 then leads to the return of Captain America in his own series. After his resurrection in Avengers #4, the Golden Age Cap grew in popularity and was quickly awarded his own solo feature, sharing Tales of Suspense with Iron Man. Sparsely scripted by Lee with the ideal team of Kirby & Chic Stone illustrating, ‘Captain America’ is one phenomenal fight scene as an army of thugs invades Avengers Mansion because “only the one without superpowers” is at home. They soon learn the folly of that misapprehension…

Veteran war-hero Nick Fury was reimagined in Fantastic Four #21 (December 1963) as a grizzled, world-weary and cunning CIA Colonel at the periphery of really big events in a fast-changing world. Fury’s latter-day self then emerged as a big-name star once espionage yarns went global in the wake of popular TV sensations like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The elder iteration was given a second series beginning in Strange Tales #135 (August 1965). Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. combined Cold War tensions with sinister schemes of World Conquest by a subversive, all-encompassing, hidden enemy organisation. The unfolding saga came with captivating Kirby-designed super-science gadgetry…

Kirby’s genius for graphic wizardry and gift for dramatic staging mixed with Stan Lee’s manic melodrama to create a tough and tense series which the writers and artists who followed turned into a non-stop riot of action and suspense. The main event starts with ST #135 as the Human Torch lead feature is summarily replaced by ‘Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ – which back then stood for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division…

In the rocket-paced first episode, Fury is asked to volunteer for the most dangerous job in the world: leading a new counter-intelligence agency dedicated to stopping secretive subversive super-science organisation Hydra. With assassins dogging his every move, the Take-Charge Guy with the Can-Do Attitude quickly proves he is ‘The Man for the Job!’ in a potent 12-page thriller by Lee, Kirby & Ayers.

Originally devised by Bill Everett in 1939, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the offspring of a water-breathing Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer: a hybrid being of immense strength, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly and exist above and below the waves. Namor technically predates Marvel/Atlas/Timely Comics. He first caught the public’s attention as part of the fire vs. water headlining team in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939 and Marvel Mystery Comics from the second issue onward), sharing honours and top billing with the original Human Torch, but he had originally been seen (albeit in a truncated black and white version) in Motion Picture Funnies: a weekly promotional giveaway handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year. Rapidly emerging as one of the company’s biggest draws, Namor gained his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941) and was one of the last super-characters to go at the end of the first heroic age. In 1954, when Atlas briefly revived its “Big Three” (the Torch and Captain America being the other two) costumed characters, Everett returned for an extended run of superb fantasy tales, but even so the time wasn’t right and the title sunk again.

When Lee & Kirby started reinventing comic books in 1961 they revived the all-but-forgotten awesome amphibian as a troubled, semi-amnesiac, and decidedly more regal, grandiose anti-hero in Fantastic Four #4. The returnee despised humanity; embittered at the loss of his sub-sea kingdom (seemingly destroyed by American atomic testing) whilst simultaneously besotted with Sue Storm. Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe for a few years, squabbling with other assorted heroes such as the Hulk, Avengers and X-Men, before securing his own series as one half of Tales to Astonish. In 1968 the company ended its restrictive publishing commitments and expanded exponentially.

After spectacularly battling Daredevil in the Scarlet Swashbuckler’s 7th issue, Tales to Astonish #70 heralded ‘The Start of the Quest!’ as Lee, Gene Colan (in the pseudonymous guise of Adam Austin) & Vince Colletta set the Sub-Mariner to storming an Atlantis under martial law ordered by his usurping Warlord Krang. The effort is for naught and the returning hero is rejected by his own people. Callously imprisoned, the troubled Prince is freed by his oft-neglected and ignored paramour Lady Dorma, compelling him to begin a mystical quest to find the lost Trident of King Neptune which only the rightful ruler of Atlantis can hold…

More covers follow – Monsters Unlimited #1, Patsy Walker’s Fashion Parade #1, reprint anthologies Marvel Collectors’ Items Classics #1, Fantasy Masterpieces #1, Marvel Tales #3, King Size Special Marvel Super-Heroes #1 and Thor #126 (a first issue as Journey into Mystery was sensibly retitled) before a new masked-&-costumed western hero debuted in Ghost Rider #1 (December 1966). ‘The Origin of the Ghost Rider’ by Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas, Ayers & Colletta revealed how Eastern teacher Carter Slade is shot by fake Indians and brought back from the brink of death by real ones. Saved by recently-orphaned Jamie Jacobs, Slade is healed by shaman Flaming Star who trains him in combat and gives him gifts which enable him to perform tricks of stage magic (such as night-time invisibility, image projection and bodily discorporation). Creating a glowing costume, Slade goes after the plundering white men impersonating native tribes – and who killed Jamie’s parents – as a spectral avenging spirit: “He who rides the Night Wind”…

Older fans – or their parents – might possibly recognise this hero as the western legend created by Ray Krank & Dick Ayers for Tim Holt #11 (Magazine Enterprises, 1949), later immortalised by Frank Frazetta. They are stunningly, litigiously similar and Marvel made good use of the original’s reputation and recently voided copyright ownership…

The same holds true for their next superhero addition, who crops up following another cover gallery featuring Not Brand Echh #1 and animated cartoon tie-in one-shot America’s Best (TV) Comics #1. After years as an also-ran/up-and-comer, by 1968 Marvel Comics was in the ascendant. Their sales were catching up with industry leaders National/DC Comics and Gold Key, and they finally secured a new distribution deal that would allow them to expand their list of titles exponentially. Once the stars of Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish and Strange Tales all got their own titles, the House of Ideas just kept on going.

One dead-cert idea was a hero named after the company – and one with a huge amount of popular cachet and nostalgic pedigree as well. After the DC/Fawcett court case of the 1940s-1950s, the name Captain Marvel disappeared from the newsstands, but in In 1967 – during the superhero boom and camp craze generated by the Batman TV show, publisher MLF secured rights to the name and produced a number of giant-sized comics featuring an intelligent robot who could divide his body into segments and shoot lasers from his eyes.

Quirky, charming and devised by the legendary Carl (Human Torch) Burgos who had recently worked for Marvel, the feature nevertheless could not attract a large following. Upon its demise, the name was quickly snapped up by the resurgent Marvel Comics Group.

Marvel Super-Heroes was a brand-new title: it had been giant-sized reprint comic book Fantasy Masterpieces, combining monster and mystery tales with Golden Age Timely classics. With #12, it added an all-new lead experimental section for characters without homes such as Medusa and Black Knight when not debuting new concepts like Guardians of the Galaxy, Phantom Eagle (for some reason not included here) – and, to start the ball rolling, a troubled alien spy sent to Earth from the Kree Galaxy. He held a Captain’s rank and his name was Mar-Vell.

Courtesy of Lee, Colan & Giacoia, the initial MS-H 15 page-instalment ‘The Coming of Captain Marvel!: Phase One!!’ devolved directly from Fantastic Four #64-65 wherein the quartet defeated a super-advanced robotic Sentry from a mythical alien race, only to be attacked by a high official of those long-lost extraterrestrials in their very next issue!

After defeating Ronan the Accuser, the FF heard no more from the far-from-extinct Kree, but the millennia-old empire was once again interested in Earth. Dispatching a surveillance mission, the Kree wanted to know everything about us. Unfortunately, the agent they chose was a man of conscience; whilst his commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was a ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una. No sooner has the good captain made a tentative planet-fall and clashed with the US military from the local missile base than the first instalment ends…

Although cover-dated January 1968, Capt. Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #1 was released in November of the previous year, and promoted a supporting character from Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos to lead status and WWII’s Pacific Theatre of War. Crafted by Friedrich, Ayers & Syd Shores, ‘The Last Banzai!’ sees US submarine commander Simon Savage placed at the head of a squad of elite (multicultural/multi-ethnic) marines to clear the way for the imminent Allied landing on the fortified atoll of Tarawa. It’s a dirty job but…

The aforementioned expansion is celebrated in the covers for Groovy #1, Captain America #100, Incredible Hulk #102, Iron Man and The Sub-Mariner #1, Iron Man #1, Sub-Mariner #1, Captain Marvel #1, Doctor Strange #169, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 and Spectacular Spider-Man #1 and cemented by the first full solo tale of one the company’s breakthrough stars. Although pretty much a last-minute addition to Fantastic Four #48-50’s ‘Galactus Trilogy’, Jack Kirby’s scintillating creation the Silver Surfer quickly became a watchword for depth and subtext in the Marvel Universe and one Stan Lee kept as his own personal toy for many years.

Tasked with finding planets for space god Galactus to consume and, despite the best efforts of intergalactic voyeur Uatu the Watcher, one day the Surfer discovers Earth, where the latent nobility of humanity reawakens his own suppressed morality; causing the shining scout to rebel against his master and help the FF save the world. In retaliation, Galactus imprisons his one-time herald on Earth, making him the ultimate outsider on a planet remarkably ungrateful for his sacrifice. The Galactus Saga was a creative highlight from a period when the Lee/Kirby partnership was utterly on fire. The tale has all the power and grandeur of a true epic and has never been surpassed for drama, thrills and sheer entertainment. It’s not included here: for that treat you’ll need to see a Fantastic Four Epic Collection or many other Marvel collections…

In May 1968, after frequent guest-shots and even a solo adventure in the back of Fantastic Four Annual #5, the Surfer finally got his own (initially double-length) title at long last.

‘The Origin of the Silver Surfer!’ is illustrated by John Buscema & Joe Sinnott, with the drama opening on a prolonged flashback sequence of the outcast’s forays on Earth and repeated examples of crass humanity’s brutal callousness and unthinking hostility, detailing how Norrin Radd, discontented soul from an alien paradise Zenn-La, became the gleaming herald of a planetary scourge. Radd had constantly chafed against a culture in comfortable, sybaritic stagnation, but when Galactus shattered their vaunted million years of progress in a fleeting moment, the dissident without hesitation offered himself as a sacrifice to save the world from the Devourer’s hunger.

Converted into an indestructible, gleaming human meteor, Radd agreed to scour the galaxies looking for uninhabited worlds rich in the energies Galactus needs to survive, thus saving planets with life on them from destruction. He didn’t always find them in time…

The stories in this series were highly acclaimed – if not really commercially successful – both for Buscema’s agonised, emphatic and lush artwork as well as Lee’s deeply spiritual and philosophical scripts. The tone was accusatory; with the isolated alien’s travails and social observations creating a metaphoric status akin to a Christ-figure for an audience that was maturing and rebelling against America’s creaking and unsavoury status quo.

The company had early learned the value of reprinting their past glories; both to update new readers and to cheaply monopolise sales points and here a gallery blends ongoing titles such as newly retitled Captain Savage and his Battlefield Raiders #5 and adult-oriented Pussycat #1 with double-sized classics compilations Tales of Asgard #1 and The Mighty Marvel Western #1 before Marvel Super-Heroes #19 (March 1969 and on the stands in December 1968) saw Tarzan analogue Ka-Zar in his first solo story ‘My Father, My Enemy!’ courtesy of Arnold Drake, Steve Parkhouse, George Tuska & Sid Greene,

Beginning as a barbarian wild man in a lost sub-polar realm of swamp-men and dinosaurs, Ka-Zar eventually evolved into one of Marvel’s more complex – and exceedingly mutable – characters. Wealthy heir to one of Britain’s oldest noble families, his best friend is a sabre-tooth tiger, his wife is feisty jungle warrior/zoologist Shanna the She-Devil and his brother is a homicidal super-scientific bandit. He is one of Marvel/Timely’s oldest heroes. Prose pulp hero Kazar predates Martin Goodman’s first foray into comics and strip incarnation Kazar the Great was in Marvel Comics #1, right beside The Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and The Angel…

Lord Kevin Plunder was perpetually torn between the clean life-or-death simplicity of the jungle and the bewildering constant compromises of modern civilisation as he guest-starred in titles as varied as X-Men, Daredevil and Amazing Spider-Man.

As this enjoyable, under-appreciated tale unfolds, many of the hero’s inconsistencies and conflicts are squared as the aristocratic outsider leaves his British castle for the Antediluvian Savage Land to investigate claims that his dead father was a scientific devil intent on using his discovery of anti-metal for evil. Tragically, his warped brother Parnival is ruthlessly determined to hide the truth for his own vile ends. A wild excursion to Antarctica follows, featuring the discovery of a lost land, dinosaurs, lost cities, spectacular locations, mystery and all-out action: it doesn’t get better than this…

Ending the astounding adventures is a tale taken from February 1969 as the industry began experiencing a downturn in superhero sales and the rise of other genres. Co-written and pencilled by Lieber with Thomas, Giacoia & Vince Colletta, ‘This Man… This Demon!’ was the last solo try-out from Marvel Super-Heroes (#20, cover-dated May) before it became an all-reprint vehicle. It restated Dr. Victor von Doom’s origins and revealed his tragic, doomed relationship with a gypsy girl named Valeria. That relationship is then exploited by demon alchemist Diablo who claims to need an ally but actually wants a new slave. The terrifying monarch of Latveria deals with the charlatan in typically effective style…

Marvel continued expanding for the remainder of the decade, but not with superheroes, as a final clutch of covers – Mad About Millie #1, Chili #1, My Love #1, Tower of Shadows #1, Chamber of Darkness #1, Our Love Story #1, Marvel’s Greatest Comics #22, Homer, the Happy Ghost #1, Peter the Little Pest #1, a revived Kid Colt Outlaw (#140), Ringo Kid #1 and Where Monsters Dwell #1 – comes full circle and highlights the publisher’s return to genre themes, after which a brief bonus section reveals Stan Lee’s original synopsis for Fantastic Four #1 and house ads from the early moments of the decade…

The 1960s was the turning point in the history of American comic books: the moment when a populist industry became a true art form. These are the tales that sparked that renaissance and remain some of the best stories and art you will ever experience. Nuff Said?
© 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

The A-Z of Marvel Monsters


By Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0863-8 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fan Smash! … 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

To dyed-in-the-wool comic book fanboys there’s a much beloved period in history when a frankly daft and woefully formulaic trend produced utter, joyous magic. We look back on it now and see only the magnificent art, or talk with loving derision of the crazy (and frequently onomatopoeic) names, but deep down we can’t shake the exuberant thrill inside or the frisson of emotion that occurs when we see or even think of them.

Before Jack Kirby & Stan Lee brought superheroes back to Marvel Comics, the company was on its last legs. Locked into a woefully disadvantageous distribution deal, the company’s output was limited to some sixteen genre titles. But there was hope…

The outside, mainstream, world was currently gripped in an atomic B-movie monster craze, so Lee, Kirby and Steve Ditko dutifully capitalised on it in their anthology mystery titles Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense. In an unending procession of brief inspirational novelettes, dauntless or canny or just plain outsider humans outsmarted a succession of bizarre aliens, mad scientists, an occasional ghost or sorcerer (this was, after all, the heyday of the Comics Code Authority when any depiction of the supernatural was BAD) and a horde of outrageous beasties in a torrent of wonders best described by the catchphrase “monsters-in-underpants.”

Simplistic, moralistic, visually experimental yet reassuringly predictable in narrative, these Outer Limits-style yarns were – and still are – the epitome of sheer unrelenting fun with no redeeming social context required. Marvel have increasingly celebrated that fact in recent years (even folding most of the yarns into their modern multiversal continuity) and – over the course of one month – commissioned a line of 26 “Kirby Monster” variant covers for their periodical releases, all lovingly crafted by a number of top names to highlight the treasured contribution of beasties, things and what-nots…

This volume gathers those images in a handy hardcover primer (and eBook edition) whilst gloriously gilding the lily with a splendid selection of a few of the original mini-epics as created from those pre-Marvel Age masterpieces. The short sharp surprise is suitably augmented by ‘Jack Kirby, Atlas Comics & Monsters!’: a 1994 Introduction from the King himself.

The next bit’s another shopping-list moment, so if you want to skip ahead a little, I shouldn’t be at all surprised…

Augmented by the original cover of each diabolical debut, the worshipful A to Z art-section opens with Erica Henderson’s reinterpretation of ‘The Awesome Android!’ (as first seen in Fantastic Four #15) and rapidly follows up ‘The Blip!’ by Simon Bisley, and ‘The Crawling Creature!’, delineated by Maguerite Sauvage. An extreme late entry in the Kirby-Kritter Circus, ‘Devil Dinosaur!’ launched in his own title in 1978 and his moody reprise from Matthew Wilson is followed by Jeff Lemire’s take on ‘Elektro!’ and ‘Fin Fang Foom!’ – first seen in Strange Tales #89, and rendered here by Walter Simonson & Laura Martin.

Michael & Laura Allred depict latter-day cellulose celluloid star ‘Groot!’ (originating in Tales to Astonish #13), before Francesco Francavilla highlights ‘The Hypno-Creature!’, Paolo Rivera revisits Fantastic Four #24’s weird menace ‘The Infant Terrible!’ and Glenn Fabry regales us with an Asgardian god battling ‘The Jinni Devil!’ in a scene that didn’t make it into 1967’s Thor #137…

Dave Johnson details a key point in the life of ‘Kraa the Unhuman!’ before John Cassaday & Matthew Wilson illuminate the depredations of ‘Lo-Karr, Bringer of Doom!’, after which Geof Darrow whisks us back to Thor #154 to meet again amalgamated atrocity ‘Mangog!’

Kirby’s astounding 1976 Eternals series produced many incredible images, with Paul Pope & Shay Plummer selecting 2,000 feet tall Space God ‘Nezarr the Calculator!’ to set the pulses racing, whilst Mike del Mundo plumps for Strange Tales #90’s ‘Orrgo!’ and James Stokoe recalls Strange Tales of the Unusual #1 (December 1956)’s forgotten fiend ‘Poker Face!’

Recurring FF foe ‘The Quonian!’ first appeared in Fantastic Four #97 and wows again here thanks to Christian Ward, after which Eric Powell previews ‘Rommbu!’ and Tradd Moore pits Ant-Man against Tales to Astonish #39 terror ‘The Scarlet Beetle!’ before Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend show us the power of ‘Thorr!’ Chris Samnee & Wilson expose the fervent ferocity of Journey into Mystery #63’s undersea goliath ‘Ulvar!’ and Arthur Adams & Chris Sotomayor hark back to Tales to Astonish #17 to focus on ‘Vandoom’s Monster’ after which one last FF antagonist features as Cliff Chiang reveals ‘The Wrecker’s Robot!’ as seen in Fantastic Four #12.

Wrapping up this astounding alphabet are Dan Brereton’s rendition of ‘Xemnu!’ and Phil Noto’s depiction of ‘The Yeti!’ who battled Kirby’s Black Panther in #5 before Tony Moore & John Rauch hilariously conclude the countdown with alien outlaw ‘Zetora’.

Okay. Maybe a few of those spooky stalwarts might have been from a later era and star in superhero sagas, but the influence and intent was clearly seen throughout and just sets the tone for the Kirby-crafted fearsome fantasy-fest that follow…

The family-friendly monster mash – featuring scripts by Lee and Larry Lieber with Dick Ayers inking – opens with ‘I Learned the Dread Secret of The Blip!’ (Tales to Astonish #15, January 1961) wherein an openminded radar operator attempts to assist a stranded alien energy being. ‘I Dared to Battle the Crawling Creature!’ comes from TtA #22 (August 1961) as a scrawny High School nerd travels into the bowels of the Earth to face a primitive predator, whilst an aging electronicist creates and eventually counters would-be computerised conqueror ‘Elektro! He Held the World in his Iron Grip!’ (Tales of Suspense #19, January 1961).

The hideous Hypno-Creature harried a very human hero in extra-dimensional invasion epic ‘I Entered the Dimension of Doom!’ (ToS #23, November 1961) whilst facing hulking atomic victim ‘Kraa the Unhuman!’ (ToS #18, June 1961) proves the making of a timid American teacher…

A sunken stone head on a Pacific Island proved to be big trouble when explorers awakened ancient alien invaders in ‘Here Comes… Thorr the Unbelievable’ (Tales to Astonish #16, February 1961) and the origins of Defenders villain Xemnu the Titan are exposed in ‘I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk!’ (Journey into Mystery #62, November 1960) whilst one hapless human proves to be the perfect hideout for extraterrestrial fugitive Zetora in ‘The Martian Who Stole My Body!’, as seen in JiM #57 (March 1960).

Foolish, fabulous, thrill-packed, utterly intoxicating and unforgettable, these are fun-filled tales no puny human could possibly resist.
© 1956-1961, 2017 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Mandrake the Magician: Fred Fredericks Sundays volume 1 – The Meeting of Mandrake and Lothar


By Lee Falk & Fred Fredericks (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-692-6 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Time for another Birthday briefing as we exploit the month of mystery and imagination to celebrate 90 glorious years for another Golden Age stalwart…

Regarded by many as comics’ first superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip on 11th June 1934 – although creator Lee Falk had sold the strip almost a decade previously. Initially drawing it too, Falk replaced himself as soon as feasible, allowing the early wonderment to materialise through the effective understatement of sublimely solid draughtsman Phil Davis. An instant hit, Mandrake was quickly supplemented by a full-colour Sunday companion page from February 3rd 1935.

Falk – as 19-year-old college student Leon Harrison Gross – had sold the strip to King Features Syndicate years earlier, but asked the monolithic company to let him finish his studies before dedicating himself to it full time. Schooling done, the 23-year-old born raconteur settled into his life’s work, entertaining millions with astounding tales. Falk also created the first costumed superhero in moodily magnificent generational manhunter The Phantom, going on to spawn an entire comic book subgenre with his first creation. Most Golden Age publishers boasted at least one (and usually many) nattily attired wizards in their gaudily-garbed pantheons: all roaming the world(s) making miracles and crushing injustice with varying degrees of stage legerdemain or actual sorcery.

Characters like Mr. Mystic, Ibis the Invincible, Sargon the Sorcerer, and an assortment of  “…the Magician”’s like Zatara, Zanzibar, Kardak proliferated ad infinitum: all borrowing heavily and shamelessly from the uncanny exploits of the elegant, enigmatic man of mystery gracing the world’s newspapers and magazines. In the Antipodes, Mandrake was a suave and stalwart regular of Australian Women’s Weekly and became a cherished icon of adventure in the UK, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and across Scandinavia: a major star of page and screen, pervading every aspect of global consciousness.

Over many decades he has been a star of radio, movie chapter-serials, a theatrical play, television and animation (as part of series Defenders of the Earth). With that has come the usual merchandising bonanza of games, toys (including magic trick kits), books, comics and more…

Falk worked on Mandrake and “The Ghost who Walks” until his death in 1999 (even on his deathbed, he was laying out one last story), but also found a few quiet moments to become a renowned playwright, theatre producer and impresario, as well as an inveterate world-traveller. After drawing those first few strips Falk united with sublimely polished cartoonist Phil Davis, whose sleekly understated renditions took the daily strip, and especially the expansive full-page Sunday pages (collected in companion volume The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers), to unparalleled heights of sophistication. Davis’ steadfast, assured realism was the perfect tool to render the Magician’s mounting catalogue of spectacular miracles. Soon the Magician was a major star of page & screen, pervading all aspects of global consciousness as hinted at in a furore of fact features and massed memorabilia treats, beginning with introductory essay ‘The Real Mandrake the Magician’. This discusses real-life stage magician Leon Mandrake – who shared the evocative sobriquet in the mid-20th century – as revealed courtesy of his son Lon. Next on the bill is an appreciation of Davis’ inspired replacement as illustrator, in ‘Fred Fredericks – My Mandrake Artist’ by Andreas Erikson, with incisive exploration of Harold “Fred” Fredericks, who took over art production when Davis died and who ultimately assumed full creative duties when Falk himself passed on in 1999. This briefing covers that his tenure and includes his prodigious pre- and post-Mandrake comics work.

Those in the know are well aware that Mandrake was educated at the fabled College of Magic in Tibet, thereafter becoming a suave globe-trotting troubleshooter. Always and everywhere he was accompanied by African partner-in-crimefighting Lothar and, from early on, capable companion (eventually, in 1997, bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne. Together they solved mysteries and fought evil. Those exploits took the close-knit team literally everywhere, and the strips section of this luxury monochrome landscape hardback opens on ‘Traveler’s Tale’ which ran from March 21st to August 22nd 1965 and saw the last episodes illustrated by Davis, before his death in 1964 from a heart attack.

The saga sees Mandrake in the arctic, where iceberg-watching leads to the recovery of an apparent alien in a survival capsule. A physical and mental marvel, while slowly awakening Opolo deduces not just the English language but also that he’s been in hibernation for 60,000 years. He goes on to reveal that he’s actually from Earth, albeit part of a space-faring race that preceded Homo Sapiens. He’s also pining for his estranged true love Adrana, and Mandrake is happy to help him find her and the long buried civilisation they both came from and are the last survivors of…

Incredibly, along the way, the magician also solves an ancient murder mystery and plays cupid to the reunited survivors, before seeing them abandon their birthworld for the stars…

Always well in tune with contemporary zeitgeists – like sci fi and spy fi – Falk dipped into the growing well of supervillains monopolizing book shelves and airwaves by next reviving Mandrake’s personal arch-nemesis as ‘The Cobra Returns’ (August 29th 1965 – April 3rd 1966). The sinister savant was once Mandrake’s tutor at The College of Magic and here begins a globally destabilising assassination spree, provoking crime busting agency Inter-Intel to call in the Magician and his crew to consult. Sadly, the ploy only makes the perfidious plotter turn his full murderous attentions on our heroes, in an escalating series of attacks that ultimately end in a spectacular showdown and apparent end of the evil one…

With global stability secured, organised crime goes wild, and the miracle trio are kept busy helping the good guys crack down on mobsters in ‘The Underworld vs. Inter-Intel’ (April 10th – August 7th 1966), after which ‘The Astro Pirates’ (August 14th – December 25th 1966) highlights a modern spin on an old racket…

When bold bandits begin holding up airliners in the stratosphere they foolishly pick a jet carrying Narda, and a fully-engaged Mandrake and Lothar spare no effort to end the sinister sky-jinks, after which – inspired by the “Great Northeast Blackout” of November 5th 1965 – Falk & Fredericks fill us in on ‘The Blackout Caper’ (January 1st – April 23rd 1967), as a mad scientist teams up with mobsters to use darkness and chaos to get rich quick and fulfil even nastier nuclear ambitions but underestimate the power of the mighty magician…

Fredericks was a liberal and civil rights proponent, and had for months been subtly changing the “happy, loyal native” appearance of the African globetrotter to match the acts and character Falk had been crafting for years. The process was completed with a reboot of their first adventure together spanning April 30th – September 24th. ‘The Meeting of Mandrake and Lothar’ relates how the practically superhuman prince of reclusive kingdom “the 12 Nations” joins Mandrake in stopping crazed fugitive Mad Dog Dill, before abdicating all monarchical responsibilities to fight evil everywhere. However, returning to the present, shocks abound as Lothar agrees to helm his people’s transition to democracy by becoming their president, just as Mandrake and Narda are targeted by a manic gambler turned master-villain.

‘The Game of Chance’ (October 1st 1967 – February 11th 1968) soon sees Lothar return to aid in the comeuppance of devious blackmailer, kidnapper and influence-peddler Baron Chance and, prior to a resurgence of full-on fantasy, returns in ‘Invasion of the Babu’ (February 18th – July 21st 1968). No stranger to space adventure, Mandrake and Co are best friends with Magnon and Carola, Emperor and Empress of the Central Galaxy and benign rulers of one million worlds. The humans were there when the potentates had their baby Nardraka, and, as dutiful “godparents”, pull out all the stops when the toddler princess is abducted by barbaric invaders the Baboos.

Sadly for them, the apelike alien aggressors make a string of mistakes, beginning with hiding the hostage on even more barbaric Earth, continuing with trying to outsmart Mandrake and closing with believing Nardraka is “just” a stupid little female…

With one crisis resolved, Mandrake barely survives the renewed attentions of the Baron as ‘Second Chance’ (July 28th – November 3rd 1968) sees the magician and Inter-Intel hunt the murderous malefactor to his hidden island fortress and strike a major blow against organised crime, after which ‘The All or Nothing Hunt’ (November 10th 1968 – March 30th 1969), heralds the arrival of alien gamblers Alpha and Beta, who have made the mage their next obsession. Hiding a planet-eradicating bomb on Earth, the wagerers expect the wonder wizard to traverse the globe, deciphering clues to deactivate it. Of course, the extraterrestrials don’t play fair, but Mandrake isn’t playing at all…

No good deed goes unpunished, however, and ‘The Galactic Rumble’ (April 6th – September 7th 1969) reveals that Alpha and Beta are intergalactic crime lords with millions of thugs now indulging in an intergalactic gang war Magnon’s military and peacekeepers are helpless to stop. Isn’t it time to call in some consultants with the know-how to fight them on their own terms?

Yes it is, and not even exploding stars and marauding star dragons can long slow them down…

Ending the show are ‘The Fred Fredericks Mandrake the Magician Complete Sunday Checklist (1965-2002)’, plus full biographies of Fred Fredericks and Lee Falk. This thrilling tome offers exotic locales, thrilling action, bold belly laughs, cunning crime action and sheer wonder in equal measure. Paramount taleteller Falk instinctively knew from the start that the secret of success was strong and, crucially, recurring villains to test and challenge his heroes, and make Mandrake an unmissable treat for every strip addict. These stories have lost none of their impact and only need you reading them to concoct a perfect cure for the 21st century glums.
Mandrake the Magician © 2018 King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. All other material © 2018 the respective authors or owners.

Posted on

The Phoenix Presents: The Pirates of Pangaea Book 1


By Daniel Hartwell & Neill Cameron (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-910200-08-7 (TPB)

Why are pirates so mean? I don’t know, they just AARRRR…

Moreover, nobody tells pirates they can only have one day to be themselves, so here’s more buccaneer-bootied bravado and bombast with a little lizardly allure tipped in too…

The Phoenix has been the saving grace of British kids’ comics since 2012, regaling readers with anthology comics for girls, boys and all points between, offering humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy.

Although best known for its comedy stylings, it’s always been pretty strong in its action and mystery yarns…

Crafted by Daniel Hartwell (Urban Beasts) and Neill Cameron (Mo-Bot High, How to Make Awesome Comics), by far the most engaging thriller so far featured is a sublime combination of rip-roaring endeavour and enticing fantasy blending canny corsairs, boldly brilliant kids, suspenseful swashbuckling escapades and gloriously gigantic dinosaurs.

The alternate-history lesson begins with 12-year old Sophie Delacourt voyaging out from England in 1717 to join her Uncle Silas, newly appointed Governor of the lost land of Pangaea.

The colossal continent is reputed the oldest landmass on Earth and a place primarily inhabited by stupendous reptiles of land and air. Master Bosun William takes a paternal interest in the girl, explaining the wondrous nature of the place, but nothing prepares her for the shock of a colossal “long-neck” diving under their vessel and lifting it bodily into the air.

The interior of Pangaea is a vast shifting ocean of long grass afflicted and infested with fast, deadly predators no man afoot could survive or escape, so all ships are picked up out of blue Caribbean waters then carried upon Brobdingnagian beasts’ backs between the rocky high points and plateaux where puny humanity has built its dwellings and settlements.

The big beasts are kept docile and compliant by administration of a herb dubbed “Snuff” and piloted by a skilful class of inland mariners known as “Snuffmen”…

Sophie has never seen anything so wonderful in her life but, as Snuffman John guides the magnificent Bessie and her formerly-seagoing burden towards the Governor’s capital city, the amazed lass catches sight of an ever-present peril besetting this latest outpost of empire.

Through the shifting verdure hails a pirate vessel strapped atop a terrifying black Land Leviathan and soon the voyagers are fighting for their lives in an ‘Ambush on Pangaea’.

Sophie is locked in her cabin as the ferocious freebooters’ devastating attack pillages the outmatched victim-vessel. After insanely cruel Captain Brookes cries victory and makes the crew walk the plank to their deaths, she is the only survivor…

The second chapter opens with the Governor’s niece imprisoned on Brookes’ land-ship, a potential goldmine in ransom for a rapacious maniac. Furiously defiant, Sophie is slowly befriended by the brute’s cabin boy Timothy Kelsey. This lad is the tormented last survivor of a previous foray, having witnessed the murder of his mentor and master Dr. Shaw: a naturalist come to the lost land to catalogue the ‘Indigenous Fauna of the Pangaean Land-Mass’.

After experiencing Brookes’ cruelty, Sophie agrees to assist Timothy’s desperate plan for escape but as they make their move to fly off on the ship’s captive “Great Wing” lizard, they stumble over the first mate. Ten Gun Jones is also engaged in fleeing on the “Razor Beak”, but the din of their stumbling over each other rouses the ship and the three are forced to flee together into the night amidst a hail of musket fire…

Soon the trio are hopelessly ‘Lost in the Sea of Green’ as their gravely wounded pterosaur expires just shy of a high-projecting stony pinnacle. With deadly “Land Sharks” and “Belly Rippers” closing in, all hope seems lost until an even deadlier beast pounces. The “Tyrant” makes short work of the circling velociraptors, but its ravening hunger remains unsated. Only sheer terror carries the fugitives to relative safety – a rocky islet where, frantically scaling the igneous tower with the horror snapping at their heels, they tumble into a cave and find themselves inside an abandoned pirate lair…

The dusty den holds weapons, lamps, water, liquor and even brontosaur jerky: everything needful to outwait the roaring giant outside, but after a sleepless night with Ten Gun less than forthcoming about why he was deserting, Sophie conceives a dangerous idea.

Feeding the monster chunks of dried meat liberally doused in Snuff found in a barrel, in an act of seeming madness Sophie drops onto the horror’s head and soon has it – her, actually – acting like a very dangerous steed…

The fearless child then explains how an elderly servant in England taught her the secrets of horse-whispering before christening her scaly new pet “Cornflower”. Timothy is elated that they can use the Tyrant to safely cross the lethal Sea of Green to civilisation, but Jones has other plans…

The enigmatic seadog’s guarded directions soon bring them to an active volcano – in truth the neutral port used as safe-haven by all pirates plying the grassy deeps. In a tavern the children learn the ‘Secrets of Raptor Rock’ and are introduced to bombastic Captain Ford, who had planted Ten Gun in Brookes’ crew to secretly secure the second half of a disputed treasure map. With both pieces in hand the privateer immediately sets to emerald sea, but Ten Gun insists on bringing Sophie and Tim along. They have barely left the rock before Cornflower breaks out of her pen and doggedly follows…

The children are put to work and Sophie befriends Iwakian Snuffman Tak: a native Pangaean who steers the buccaneers’ bombastic brontosaur Gertrude, before the exploratory voyage comes to a sudden stop after crossing the eerie “Longnecks Graveyard” and approaches the fantastic plateau known in legend as “The Forbidden Isle”…

An expeditionary party is soon driving inland to an ancient temple in ‘Quest for the Golden Skull’ but upon entering, the greedy raiders are astounded to discover the priceless artefact they’re hunting is not a gilded human head but actually a full-size tyrant’s skull cast in precious metal. That’s when ferocious native defenders – the Kron Iwakia – ambush the party, driving them back to the relative safety of Gertrude. Sadly, the rapidly retreating reivers have no idea of what’s happened in the meantime. Young Kelsey, resentful of being enslaved again, has – more by accident than design – blown up the ship and stampeded Gertrude off into the Sea of Green, just as maniacal Captain Brookes arrives intent on reclaiming his map and slaughtering everyone…

Even though the enraged Iwakians vanished when the ship started burning, Ford’s rattled crew are no match for the nautical newcomers and things look bleak and bloody. Sophie and Kelsey desperately retreat to the temple, chased by Brookes’ men with death seemingly imminent until, from nowhere, Cornflower arrives and eagerly despatches the pursuing pirates. This draws the Kron Iwakia from concealment to guide Cornflower and the kids to their destination. The wilderness warriors worship Tyrant lizards and, after a strange ceremony, deem Sophie and her reptile holy. That’s when Tim realises the Golden Skull is not a mere ornament but battle armour for a tyrannosaur Chosen One…

With the Iwakians in close support, the valiant children return to the ongoing pirate war to settle a number of old scores before taking control of their own destinies…

Superbly engaging and utterly enthralling, this astounding all-action romp is a riotous delight of astonishing adventure: a fabulous first compilation that also includes many maps and crucial fact pages on assorted dinosaurs from Dr. Shaw’s ‘Indigenous Fauna of the Pangaean Land-Mass’: specifically ‘Sauropoda’, ‘Pterosauria’, ‘Dromaeosauridae’ and ‘Tyrannosauridae’, all scrupulously crafted, corrected and annotated by erstwhile cabin boy and greatest living expert Timothy Kelsey…

Bright, breezy furious fun for the entire family, so don’t miss this unburied treasure…
Text © Daniel Hartwell 2015. Illustrations © Neill Cameron 2015. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Star Hawks volume 1


By Ron Goulart & Gil Kane, & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-163140-397-2 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

During the later 20th century, comic book publishers worked long and hard to import their colourful wares to the more popular and commercially viable shelves of bookshops, until eventual acceptance came via the hybrid form we know now as graphic novels. Newspaper strips (and periodical humour/satire magazines like Mad) had, of course, been regular fare for these sales points since the 1950s.

By dint of more accessible themes and subjects, simpler page layouts and just plain bigger core readerships, comedy and action newspaper serials easily translated to digest-sized book formats and sold by the bucketload to a broad base of consumers. Because of this, the likes of Peanuts, B.C., Broom Hilda, Flash Gordon, Mandrake and so many others were an entertainment staple for cartoon-loving, joy-deficient kids and adults from the 1960s to the 1990s. In the final accounting comedies and gag books far outweighed dramas. By the TV-saturated 1970s the grand era of newspaper adventure strips was all but over, although some few dynamic holdouts persevered. There were even some new gems still to come.

One such was this astonishingly addictive space opera/police procedural which debuted on October 3rd 1977. The strip was created by novelist, comics scripter and strip historian Ron Goulart slightly in advance of science fiction’s revival and resurgence which culminated in the release of Star Wars (and later continued by the legendary Archie Goodwin who all-but-sewed up the sci-fi strip genre at that time by also simultaneously authoring the Star Wars newspaper serial which premiered in 1979)…

Star Hawks was graced by the dazzlingly dynamic art of Gil Kane and blessed with an innovative format for such fare: a daily double-tier layout allowing far bigger, bolder graphics and panel compositions than a traditional single bank of three or four frames.

The core premise was also magically simple: in our future, humanity has spread throughout the galaxy and inhabits many worlds, moons and satellites… and wherever man goes there’s crime and a desperate need for policemen and peacekeepers…

As revealed in his picture- & photo-packed Introduction ‘In at the Creation’, Goulart began with working title “Space Cops”, which was eventually editorially overruled and superseded with the more dashingly euphonious and commercially vibrant Star Hawks. He goes on to describe resistance the strip suffered from its own syndicate, delays that meant it only launched after Star Wars set the world on fire and how he was ultimately edged out of the creative process altogether…

A brace of mass-market digest paperbacks were released whilst the strip was still running, and at the end of the 1980s, 4 comic book-sized album collections came from Blackthorne Publishing, but these are all now out-of-print and hard to acquire, so let’s be thankful for this first sturdy hardback archival edition…

Printed in landscape format with each instalment fitting neatly onto a page (and almost original publication size), this stirring tome of clean, crisp monochrome art is tight and taut: steaming straight in with the premiere episode. Here we meet villainous Raker and his sultry, sinister boss: child-of-privilege Ilka. They are scouring the slums and ruins of alien world Esmeralda for a desperate girl plagued by dark, dangerous visions…

Enter Rex Jaxan and burly Latino lothario Chavez: two-fisted law-enforcing police officers on the lookout for trouble, and who promptly save the lost lass from slavers only to become embroiled in a dastardly plot to overthrow the local Emperor by scurrilous arms merchants. Also debuting in that initial tale is the officers’ boss Alice K. Benyon – far more than just a sexy romantic foil for He-Hunk Jaxan, and an early example of a competent woman actually In Charge (even if she does it in slinky form-hugging outfits)…

The debuting standbys also include awesome space station “Hoosegow” and Sniffer, the snarkiest, sulkiest, snappiest robo-dog in the galaxy. This mechanical mutt gets all the best lines…

Barely pausing for breath, the star-born Starsky and Hutch (that’s Goulart’s take on them, not mine) are in pursuit of an appalling new weapons system developed to topple the military dictatorship of Empire 13: the “Dustman” process (beginning on November 15th 1977). Before long, searches for the illegal and appalling WMD develop into a full-on involvement in what should have stayed a local matter; and inevitably civil war…

The next sequence (March 17th to June 19th 1978) opens with the jubilant boys investigating stupendous resort satellite Hotel Maximus, with Alice K. along to bolster their undercover image. On Maximus, every floor holds a different daring delight, from dancing to dinosaur wrangling to Alpine adventure – but the return of malevolent Raker heralds a whole new kind of chaos as he is revealed as an agent of pan-galactic criminal cartel The Brotherhood.

Moreover, the Maximus is the site of their greatest coup – a plot to mass mind-control the universe’s richest and most powerful citizens. So pernicious are these villains that the Brotherhood can even infiltrate and assault Hoosegow itself…

Foiling the raiders, Jaxan & Chavez quickly go on the offensive, hunting the organisation as a new epic begins on June 20th (which frustratingly leaves this initial collection paused on a tense cliffhanger). The investigation takes them to pesthole planet Selva: a degraded world of warring tribes and monstrous mutations, where ambitiously dogged new recruit Kass seeks to distinguish himself, even as on Hoosegow the Brotherhood is deadly and persistent with new leader Master Jigsaw executing his plan to destroy the Star Hawks from within…

Wrapping up the starry-eyed wonderment is the first part of Daniel Herman’s biographical assessment ‘Gil Kane: Bringing a Comic Book Sensibility to Comic Strips’…

The Star Hawks strip ran until 1981, garnering a huge and devoted audience, critical acclaim and a National Cartoonists Society Award for Kane (1977 Story Comic Strip Award). It is quite simply one of the most visually exciting, rip-roaring and all-out fabulous sci-fi sagas in comics history and should be part of every action fan’s permanent collection. These tales are a “must-have” item for every thrill-seeking child of the stars and fan of the classic space age…
© 1977, 1978, 2017 United Features Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Fantastic Four Omnibus volume 2


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby with Chic Stone, Frank Giacoia, Vince Colletta, Sam Rosen, Art Simek & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: ?978-0-7851-8567-3 (HB/Digital edition)

It’s not an international public holiday yet but August 28th is the birthday of Comics’ Greatest Imagineer…

Jacob Kurtzberg AKA Jack Curtiss, Curt Davis, Lance Kirby, Ted Grey, Charles Nicholas, Fred Sande, Teddy The King and others was born on this day in 1917 in New York City, U.S.A. Before dying on February 6th 1994 he did lots of stuff and inspired millions of people. This is some of the most inspirational stuff he did…

In my opinion Fantastic Four #1 is the third most important Silver Age comic book ever, behind Action Comics #1 – introducing Superman – and All Star Comics  #3, which invented superhero teams with the debut of The Justice Society of America. Feel free to disagree…

After a troubled period at DC Comics (National Periodicals as it then was) and a creatively productive but disheartening time on the poisoned chalice of the Sky Masters newspaper strip (see Complete Sky Masters of the Space Force), Jack Kirby settled into his job at a small outfit that used to be publishing powerhouse Timely/Marvel/Atlas Comics. He churned out high quality mystery, monster, romance and western material in a market he feared to be ultimately doomed, as always doing the best job possible. That generic fare is now considered some of the best of its kind ever seen. However, his fertile imagination couldn’t be suppressed for long and when the Justice League of America caught readers’ attention it gave him and writer/editor Stan Lee an opportunity to change our industry forever.

According to popular myth, a golfing afternoon led to ever-opportunistic publisher Martin Goodman ordering his nephew Stan to do a title about a group of super-characters like the DC crowd then dominating the marketplace.

The resultant team took those same fans by storm. It wasn’t the powers: they’d all been seen since the beginning of the medium. It wasn’t the costumes: they didn’t have any until the third issue. It was Kirby’s compelling art and the fact that these characters weren’t anodyne cardboard cut-outs. In a real and recognizable location – New York City – imperfect, raw-nerved, touchy outsider people banded together out of tragedy, disaster and necessity to face the incredible. In many ways, The Challengers of the Unknown (Jack’s prototype partners-in-peril for National/DC) had already laid all the groundwork for the wonders to come, but staid, nigh-hidebound editorial strictures of the market leader would never have allowed the undiluted energy of the concept to run all-but-unregulated.

Concocted by “Lee & Kirby”, with inks by George Klein & Christopher Rule, Fantastic Four #1 (bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961) saw maverick scientist Dr. Reed Richards summon his fiancée Sue Storm, their close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s teenaged brother before heading off on their first mission. They are all survivors of a private space-shot that went horribly wrong when Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding and mutated them all.

Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible, Johnny Storm could turn into living flame and tragic Ben devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. It was crude, rough, passionate and uncontrolled excitement unlike anything young fans had ever seen before. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on it and the raw storytelling caught a wave of change starting to build in America. It and succeeding issues changed comic books forever.

This second omnibus compendium collects Fantastic Four #31-60, double-sized Annuals #2-4 and and a tale from parody vehicle Not Brand Echh #1 (spanning September 1964 to August1967): issues of progressive landmarks cannily building on that early energy to consolidate the Fantastic Four as the leading title and most innovative series of the era.

Following typically effusive “found footage”, Foreword: A Universal Favorite from Stan – with two more to follow as these many pages turn – precedes the contents of Fantastic Four Annual #2 (September 1964) with Chic Stone inking ‘The Fantastic Origin of Doctor Doom!’ A short (12 page) scene-setter, it momentously details how brilliant Roma (called “gypsy” back then) boy Victor Von Doom remakes himself into the most deadly villain in creation. Ruthlessly surmounting obstacles such as ethnic oppression, crushing poverty and the shocking stigma of a sorceress mother, he rises to national dominance and global status…

Following a batch of villains in ‘A Gallery of the Fantastic Four’s Most Famous Foes!’ (Super-Skrull, Rama-Tut, Molecule Man, Hate-Monger, The Infant Terrible and Diablo) plus pin-ups of Johnny, Sue, Ben, Alicia Masters and Reed, Past informs Present as the ultimate villain believes he has achieved ‘The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!’ through guile, subterfuge and mind-control whereas he has in fact suffered his most ignominious defeat…

Monthly wonderment resumes with #31’s ‘The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man!’ which precariously balances a loopy plan by the subterranean satrap to steal entire streets of New York City with a portentous subplot featuring a mysterious man from Sue’s past, as well as renewing the quartet’s somewhat fractious relationship with The Mighty Avengers…

After the first of every Fantastic 4 Fan Page letter column included for your delectation, the mystery man’s secret is revealed in ‘Death of a Hero!’: a powerful tale of tragedy and regret spanning two galaxies starring the uniquely villainous Invincible Man – who is not at all what he seems…

Supplemented by a glorious Kirby & Stone ‘Prince Namor Pin-up’ and adorned with an experimental photo montage cover from Kirby, FF #33’s ‘Side-by-Side with Sub-Mariner!’ follows, bringing the aquatic antihero one step closer to his own series as the quarrelsome quartet lend surreptitious aid to the embattled undersea monarch against deadly debuting barbarian Attuma after which ‘A House Divided!’ sees the team almost destroyed by power-hungry Mr. Gregory Hungerford Gideon, a Richest Man in the World who still can’t get all he wants…

Following a wry ‘Yancy Street Pin-Up’, #35’s ‘Calamity on the Campus!’ sees the fighting family visit Reed’s old Alma Mater in a tale designed to pander to a burgeoning college fan-base Marvel was then cultivating. Incorporating a cameo role for then-prospective college student Peter Parker, the rousing yarn brings back demon alchemist Diablo and introduces monstrous misunderstood homunculus Dragon Man.

Fantastic Four #36 premiered the team’s theoretical nemeses ‘The Frightful Four’: a group of villains comprising The Wizard, Sandman, Trapster (he was still Paste Pot-Pete here, but not for much longer) plus enigmatic new character Madame Medusa, whose origins were to have a huge impact on the heroes in months to come…

Most notable in this auspicious, action-packed, guest-star-stuffed (all the Avengers and X-Men) but inconclusive duel is the official announcement after so many months of Reed & Sue’s engagement – in itself a rare event in the realm of comic books at that time.

The team spectacularly travel to the homeworld of the shapeshifting Skrulls in #37, seeking justice or vengeance for Sue & Johnny’s recently-murdered father in ‘Behold! A Distant Star!’ They return only to be ‘Defeated by the Frightful Four!’ in #38: a sinister sneak attack and catastrophic clash of opposing forces with a startling cliffhanger that marked Chic Stone’s departure in suitably epic manner.

Frank Giacoia – under the pseudonym Frank Ray – stepped in to ink #39’s ‘A Blind Man Shall Lead Them!’ wherein a suddenly-powerless FF are targeted by an enraged and humiliated Doctor Doom, with only sightless vigilante Daredevil offering a chance to keep them alive.

The saga concludes in ‘The Battle of the Baxter Building’ as Vince Colletta assumes inking duties for a bombastic conclusion dramatically displaying the undeniable power, overwhelming pathos and indomitable heroism of the brutish Thing.

Pausing for another Lee Introduction – ‘When Inspiration Struck’ – a new era of fantastic suspense begins with the first chapter of a tensely traumatic trilogy in which the other (EVIL) FF brainwash the despondent and increasingly isolated Thing: turning him against his former team-mates. It starts with ‘The Brutal Betrayal of Ben Grimm!’, continues in rip-roaring fashion as ‘To Save You, Why Must I Kill You?’ pits the monster’s baffled former comrades against their best friend and the world’s most insidious villains, before concluding in bombastic glory with #44’s ‘Lo! There Shall be an Ending!’

After that Colletta signed off by inking the most crowded Marvel story yet conceived. Cover-dated November 1965, Fantastic Four Annual #3 famously features every hero, most of the villains and lots of ancillary characters from the company pantheon (such as teen-romance stars Patsy Walker & Hedy Wolf and even Stan & Jack themselves). ‘Bedlam at the Baxter Building!’ spectacularly celebrates the Richards-Storm nuptials, despite a massed attack by an army of baddies mesmerised by diabolical Doctor Doom. In its classical simplicity it signalled the end of one era and the start of another…

FF #44 was also a landmark in so many ways. Firstly, it saw the arrival of Joe Sinnott as regular inker: a skilled brush-man with a deft line and a superb grasp of anatomy and facial expression, and an artist prepared to match Kirby’s greatest efforts with his own. Some inkers had problems with just how much detail the King would pencil in; Sinnott relished it and the effort showed. What was wonderful now became incomparable…

‘The Gentleman’s Name is Gorgon!’ premieres a mysterious powerhouse with ponderous metal hooves instead of feet: a hunter implacably stalking Medusa. She then entangles the Human Torch – and thus the whole team – in her frantic bid to escape, and that’s before tmonstrous android Dragon Man shows up to complicate matters. All this is mere prelude, however: with the next issue we meet a hidden race of super-beings secretly sharing Earth for millennia. ‘Among Us Hide… The Inhumans’ reveals Medusa to be part of the Royal Family of Attilan, paranormal aristocrats on the run ever since a coup deposed the true king.

Black Bolt, Triton, Karnak and the rest would quickly become mainstays of the ever-expanding Marvel Universe, but their bewitching young cousin Crystal with her faithful giant teleporting dog Lockjaw (“who’s a Guh-hood chunky Boh-oy?”) were the real stars here. For young Johnny it is love at first sight, and Crystal’s eventual fate would finally season and mature his character, giving him a hint of angst-ridden tragedy to resonate greatly with the generation of young readers who were growing up with the comic…

‘Those Who Would Destroy Us!’ and ‘Beware the Hidden Land!’ (#46 – 47) see the team join the Inhumans as Black Bolt struggles to take back the throne from his bonkers brother Maximus the Mad, only to stumble into the usurper’s plan to wipe “inferior” humanity from the Earth.

Ideas just seem to explode from Kirby at this time. Despite being only halfway through one storyline, FF #48 trumpeted ‘The Coming of Galactus!’ so the Inhumans saga was swiftly but satisfyingly wrapped up (by page 6!) with the entire clandestine race sealed behind an impenetrable dome called the Negative Zone (later retitled Negative Barrier to avoid confusion with the sub-space gateway Reed worked on for years). Meanwhile, a cosmic entity approaches Earth, preceded by a gleaming herald on a board of pure cosmic energy…

I suspect this experimental – and vaguely uncomfortable – approach to narrative mechanics was calculated and deliberate, mirroring the way TV soap operas increasingly delivered their interwoven overlapped storylines, and used here as a means to keep readers glued to the series.

They needn’t have bothered. The stories and concepts were more than enough…

‘If this be Doomsday!’ sees planet-eating Galactus setting up shop over the Baxter Building despite the FF’s best efforts, whilst his coldly gleaming herald has his humanity accidentally rekindled by simply conversing with The Thing’s blind girlfriend Alicia. Issue #50’s ‘The Startling Saga of the Silver Surfer!’ concludes the epic in grand manner as the reawakened ethical core of the Surfer and heroism of the FF buy enough time for Richards to literally save the world with a boldly-borrowed Deus ex Machina gadget…

Once again, the tale ends in the middle of the issue, with the remaining half concentrating on the team getting back to “normal”. To that extent, Johnny finally enrols at Metro College, desperate to forget lost love Crystal and his unnerving jaunts to the ends of the universe. On his first day, the lad meets imposing and enigmatic Native American Wyatt Wingfoot, who is destined to become his greatest friend…

That would be a great place to stop but its only a final pause and third Lee Introduction ‘A Combo That’s Hard to Beat’ before moving on to a tale many fans consider the greatest single FF story ever. Illustrated by Kirby and inked by Sinnott, ‘This Man… This Monster!’ finds Ben’s grotesque body usurped and stolen by a vengeful, petty-minded scientist harbouring a grudge against Reed. The anonymous boffin subsequently discovers the true measure of his unsuspecting intellectual rival and willingly pays a fateful price for his envy…

By now the FF had become the most consistently groundbreaking and indisputable core title and series of Marvel’s ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation: a forge for new concepts and characters at a time when Kirby was in his conceptual prime and continually unleashing his vast imagination on plot after spectacular plot as Lee scripted some of the most passionate superhero sagas that Marvel – or any publisher for that matter – has ever seen.

Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their creative powers, and full of the confidence that only success brings, with The King particularly eager to see how far the genre and the medium and even society could be pushed…

Without preamble the wonderment recommenced with an actual cultural revolution as a new unforgettable character debuted. ‘The Black Panther!’ (#52, cover-dated July 1966) was an enigmatic African monarch whose secretive kingdom was the only source of a vibration-absorbing alien metal. Mineral riches had enabled him to turn his country into a technological wonderland and – bold and confident – he lured the quartet into his savage super-scientific kingdom as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father. He was the first black superhero in American comics.

After battling the team to a standstill, King T’Challa reveals his tragic origin in ‘The Way it Began..!’, therby also introducing sonic supervillain Klaw. In the aftermath Johnny and tag-along college roommate Wyatt embark on a quest to rescue Crystal (still imprisoned with her people behind an impenetrable energy barrier in the Himalayas). The journey is paused when they discover the lost tomb of Prester John in #54’s‘Whosoever Finds the Evil Eye…!’ and almost perish in devastating, misguided combat…

For aiding the FF against Galactus, the Silver Surfer was imprisoned on Earth by the vengeful space-god. The brooding, perpetually moralising former herald had quickly become a fan-favourite and his regular appearances were always a guarantee of something special. ‘When Strikes the Silver Surfer!’ sees him in uncomprehending, brutal battle with Ben Grimm, whose insecurities over his sightless girlfriend explode into searing jealousy when the gleaming skyglider comes calling, before business as unusual resumes when ‘Klaw, the Murderous Master of Sound!’ ambushes the team in their own home in #56.

Throughout all the stories since their imprisonment, a running sub-plot with The Inhumans had been slowly building, with Johnny & Wyatt stuck on the other side of the Great Barrier: wandering the Himalayan wilds whilst seeking a way to liberate the Hidden City.

Their quest led directly into spectacular battle yarn ‘The Torch that Was!’: lead feature in the fourth FF Annual (November 1966) wherein The Mad Thinker recovers and resurrects the original Human Torch (in actuality world’s first android and a major star of Timely/Marvel’s Golden Age). The reawakened revanant is soon reprogrammed to destroy the flaming teenager who succeeded him and the blistering battle briefly reunites the entire team, leading into an epic clash with their greatest foe…

Fantastic Four #57-60 is Lee & Kirby at their sublime best, with unbearable tension, breathtaking drama and shattering action on all fronts as the most dangerous man on Earth steals and empowers himself with the Silver Surfer’s cosmic forces, even as The Inhumans at last win their freedom and we learn the tragic secret of mute Black Bolt in all its awesome fury.

It begins with a jailbreak by Sandman in #57’s ‘Enter… Dr. Doom!’, escalates in ‘The Dismal Dregs of Defeat!’ as Doom tests his limitless stolen power and crushes all earthly resistance; builds to a crescendo in ‘Doomsday’ with the heroes’ utter defeat and humiliation before culminating in brains and valour saving the day – and all humanity – in truly magnificent manner in ‘The Peril and the Power!’

After all the heartstopping action and suspense the affair ends for the present on a comedic note, with a pertinent parody from spoof title Not Brand Echh, opening with #1 (August 1967) and Lee, Kirby & Giacoia’s reassessment of Doom’s theft of the Power Cosmic in ‘The Silver Burper!’…

Art lovers and history buffs can also enjoy a boundless hidden bounty at the end of this volume as we close with fascinating freebies in the form of essays ‘Fantastic Four’s Golden Year’ by Roy Thomas, ‘From This Day Forward: How Marriage Changes Everything (Even for the FF)’ by Jon B. Cooke, ‘Wonderment Aplenty’ by Mark Evanier, ‘What’s in a Name’ by John Morrow and ‘The Start of a Revolution’ by Reginald Hudlin, all supported by visual treats including numerous house ads, initial designs for Coal Tiger (who evolved into the Black Panther), Kirby & Sinnott’s unused first cover for FF #52, an unmodified version of the cover for #38, bolstered by the covers for FF reprint titles Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics/Marvel’s Greatest Comics #1-43 and Marvel Triple Action #1-4 by Kirby, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Jim Starlin and Kirby augmented by original art pages and Ladrönn’s cover for the 2007 FF Omnibus #2 edition.

Epic, revolutionary and unutterably unmissable, these are the stories which made Marvel the unassailable leaders in comics fantasy entertainment and they remain some of the most important superhero stories ever crafted. The verve, conceptual scope and sheer enthusiasm shines through on every page and the wonder is there for you to share. If you’ve never thrilled to these spectacular sagas then this book of marvels is the perfect key to another – far brighter – world and time.
© 2022 MARVEL.

And since So Many Others are already talking of Yule fuel…
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Total Entertainment Perfection… 10/10