Category: Drama

Posted on

The Creeper by Steve Ditko


By Ditko, Don Segall, Denny O’Neil, Michael Fleisher, Mike Peppe, Jack Sparling & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2592-6 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s Steve Ditko’s 99th birthday today and I’m not letting the fact that he’s no longer with us stop us enjoying his wonders and celebrating his unique storytelling mastery…

Steve Ditko was one of our industry’s greatest and most influential talents and, during his lifetime, amongst America’s least lauded. Always reclusive and reticent by inclination, his fervent desire was always just to get on with his job, tell stories the best way he can and let his work speak for him.

Whilst the noblest of aspirations, that attitude was usually a minor consideration – and even an actual stumbling block – for the commercial interests which for so long controlled all comics production and still exert an overwhelming influence upon the mainstream bulk of the comic industry’s output. After Ditko’s legendary disagreements with Stan Lee led to his quitting Marvel – where his groundbreaking efforts made the reclusive genius (at least in comicbook terms) a household name – he found work at Warren Comics and resumed his long association with Charlton Comics.

That company’s laissez faire editorial attitudes had always offered him the most creative freedom, if not greatest financial reward, but in 1968 their wünderkind editor Dick Giordano was poached by the rapidly-slipping industry leader and he took some of his bullpen of key creators with him to DC Comics. Whilst Jim Aparo, Steve Skeates, Frank McLaughlin and Denny O’Neil found a new and regular home, Ditko began only a sporadic – if phenomenally productive – association with DC.

It was during this heady if unsettled period that the first strips derived from Ditko’s interpretation of the Objectivist philosophy of novelist Ayn Rand began appearing in fanzines and independent press publications like Witzend and The Collector, whilst for the “over-ground” publishing colossus he devised a brace of cult classics with The Hawk and the Dove and the superbly captivating concept re-presented here: Beware The Creeper. Later efforts would include Shade, the Changing Man, Stalker and The Odd Man, plus truly unique interpretations of Man-Bat, the Legion of Super-Heroes and many more… including a wealth of horror, mystery and sci fi shorts reminiscent of his Charlton glory days.

The auteur’s comings and goings also allowed him to revisit past triumphs and none more so than with The Creeper – who kept periodically popping up like a mad, bad penny. This superb hardcover compilation – still tragically and inexplicably languishing with other classics DC hasn’t got around to making available in digital formats – gathers every Ditko-drafted/delineated Creeper classic from a delirious decade for your delight, and the spooky superhero spectacle kicks off with an effusive Introduction from appreciative fan Steve (30 Days of Night) Niles.

This collation curates tales from Showcase #73; Beware the Creeper #1-6; 1st Issue Special #7; World’s Finest Comics #249-255 and Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2/Showcase #106 (collectively spanning March/April 1968 to February/March 1979), so settle in for a long ride…

Like so many brilliant ideas before it, Ditko’s bizarre DC visions first exploded off the newsstands in try-out title Showcase. Issue #73 heralded ‘The Coming of the Creeper!!’ with veteran comics & TV scripter Don Segall putting the words to Ditko’s plot and illustrations. The moodily macabre tale introduces suicidally-outspoken TV host Jack Ryder, whose attitude to his show’s sponsors and cronies loses him his cushy job. His brazen attitude does, however, impress network security chief Bill Brane and the gruff oldster offers him a job as an investigator and occasional bodyguard.

Jack’s first case involves tracking down recent Soviet defector Professor Yatz who has gone missing. The CIA suspect has been abducted by gangster Angel Devilin and sold to Red agent Major Smej. Displaying a natural affinity for detective work, Ryder tracks a lead to Devilin’s grand house and interrupts a costume party designed as a cover to make the trade. Promptly kicked out by thugs, Ryder heads for a costume shop but can only find a box of garish odds and ends… and lots of makeup.

Kitted out in a strange melange of psychedelic attire and accoutrements, he breaks back in but is caught and stabbed before being thrown into a cell with the missing Yatz. The scientist – also grievously wounded – is determined to keep his inventions out of the hands of evil men. These creations comprise an instant-healing serum and a Molecular Transmuter, able to shunt whatever a person is wearing or carrying into and out of our universe. A fully equipped army could enter a country as harmless tourists and materialise a complete armoury before launching sneak attacks…

To preserve them, Yatz lodges the Transmuter inside Ryder’s knife wound before injecting him with the untested serum. The effect is instantaneous and doesn’t even leave a scar. The investigator is also suddenly faster, stronger and more agile…

When Jack presses a handheld activator, he is instantly naked, and experimentation shows that he can make his motley costume appear and disappear just by touching a button. Of course, now, whenever it is activated, neither makeup nor wig, bodystocking, boots or gloves will come off. It’s like the crazy outfit has become his second skin…

When the gangsters come for their captives, Yatz is burning his notes. In the fracas that follows he catches a fatal bullet and, furious, guilt-ridden and strangely euphoric, Ryder goes after the thugs and spies. By the time the cops arrive he finds himself (or at least his canary yellow alter ego) blamed by Devilin for the chaos and even a burglary. The mobster has even given him a name – The Creeper…

As soon as the furore dies down vengeful Ryder returns to exact justice for the professor and discovers his uncanny physical prowess and macabre, incessant unnerving laughter give him an unbeatable edge whilst winning him a supernatural reputation…

After that single yarn the haunting hero hurtled straight into his own bimonthly series. Beware the Creeper #1 debuted with a May/June cover-date. Behind one of the most evocative covers of the decade – or indeed, ever – ‘Where Lurks the Menace?’ (scripted by Denny O’Neil under his occasional pen-name Sergius O’Shaughnessy) finds Ryder and the Creeper hunting an acrobatic killer beating to death numerous shady types in a savage effort to take over the city’s gangs. Sadly, Jack’s relentless pursuit of “the Terror” and careful piecing together of many disparate clues to his identity is hindered by the introduction of publicity-hungry, obnoxious glamour-puss ‘Vera Sweet’. The TV weathergirl thinks she has the right to monopolise Ryder’s time and attention, even when he’s ducking fists and bullets…

The remainder of the far-too-brief run featured a classic duel of opposites as a chameleonic criminal mastermind insinuated himself into the lives of Jack and the Brane bunch. It all began with ‘The Many Faces of Proteus!’ in BtC #2 (by Ditko & O’Shaughnessy) wherein a pompous do-gooder’s TV campaign against The Creeper is abruptly curtailed after the Golden Grotesque shows up at the studio and throws bombs.

Caught in the blast is baffled and battered Jack Ryder, and he’s even more bewildered when Brane informs him that a tip has come in confirming the Creeper is working for gambler gangboss Legs Larsen…

Dodging Vera, whose latest scheme involves a fake engagement, the real Creeper reaches Larsen’s gaming house in time to see a faceless man put a bullet into the prime suspect. In the ensuing panic the Laughing Terror transforms back into Ryder and strolls out with Larsen’s files, unaware that the faceless man is watching him leave and putting a few clues together himself…

The documents reveal a lone player slowly consolidating a grip on the city’s underworld but discloses no concrete information, so the Creeper goes on a very public rampage against all criminals in hopes of drawing Proteus out. The gambit works perfectly as a number of close friends try to kill Ryder, but only after frantically fending off flamethrower-wielding Vera in his own apartment does the Creeper realise that Proteus is far more than a madman with a makeup kit. A spectacular rooftop duel ends in a collapsed building and apparent end of the protean plunderer… but there’s no body to be found in the rubble…

Beware the Creeper #3 has our outré hero tearing the city’s thugs apart looking for Proteus, but his one-man spook-show is curtailed when Brane sends Ryder to find Vera. Little Miss Wonderful is determined to be the first to interview an island society cut off from the world for over a century, but all contact has been lost since she arrived. Tracking her to ‘The Isle of Fear’ Jack finds her in the hands of a death cult. More important to Ryder, however, is the fact that the Supreme One leading the maniacs is actually a top criminal offering sanctuary to Proteus flunkies he’s been scouring the city for…

Back in civilisation again, ‘Which Face Hides My Enemy?’ sees Ryder expose High Society guru and criminal mesmerist Yogi Birzerk’s unsuspected connection to Proteus. The cops drive The Creeper away before he can get anything from the charlatan, and when he dejectedly returns home Jack walks into an explosive booby trap in his new apartment. The “warning” from Proteus heralds the arrival of Asian troubleshooters Bulldog Bird and Sumo who claim to be also pursuing the faceless villain. They reveal he was a high-ranking member of the government of Offalia who stole a chemical which alters the molecular composition of flesh, before suggesting they all team up. Heading back to Bizerk’s place, it soon becomes clear that they are actually working for Proteus and that the faceless fiend knows Ryder’s other identity…

With #5, inker Mike Peppe joined Ditko & O’Neil as the epic swung into high gear with ‘The Color of Rain is Death!’ Proteus makes his closing moves, attacking Jack’s associates and framing him again whilst preparing for a criminal masterstroke which will win him much of the city’s wealth. Luring the Creeper into the sewers as a major storm threatens to deluge the city, the face-shifter reveals a scheme to blow up the drainage system and cause catastrophic flooding. After a brutal battle, he also leaves The Creeper tied to a grating to drown…

The stunning saga closed with final issue Beware the Creeper #6 (March/April 1969), by which time Ditko had all but abandoned his creation. ‘A Time to Die’ saw tireless, reliable everyman artist Jack Sparling pencil most of the story as the Howling Hero escapes his death-trap, deciphers the wily villain’s true gameplan and delivers a crushing final defeat. It was fun and thrilling and – unlike many series which folded at that troubled time – even provided an actual conclusion, but it somehow it wasn’t satisfactory and it wasn’t what we wanted.

This was a time when superheroes went into another steep decline with supernatural and genre material rapidly gaining prominence throughout the industry. With Fights ‘n’ Tights comics folding all over, Ditko concentrated again on Charlton’s mystery line, an occasional horror piece for Warren and his own projects…

In the years his own title was dormant, the Creeper enjoyed many guest shots in other comics and it was established that the city he prowled was in fact Gotham. When Ditko returned to DC in the mid-1970s, try-out series 1st Issue Special was alternating new concepts with revivals of old characters. Issue #7 (October 1975) gave the quirky crusader another shot at stardom in ‘Menace of the Human Firefly’ – written by Michael Fleisher & inked by Mike Royer. Here restored TV journalist Jack Ryder is inspecting the fantastic felons in Gotham Penitentiary just as manic lifer Garfield Lynns breaks jail to resume his interrupted costumed career as the master of lighting effects. By the time the rogue’s brief but brilliant rampage is over, the Creeper has discovered something extremely disturbing about his own ever-evolving abilities…

The story wasn’t enough to restart the rollercoaster, but some years later DC instituted a policy of giant-sized anthologies, and the extra page counts allowed a number of lesser lights to secure back-up slots and shine again. For World’s Finest Comics #249-255 (cover-dated February/March 1978 to February/March 1979) Ditko was invited to produce a series of 8-page vignettes starring his most iconic DC creation. This time he wrote as well as illustrated and the results are pure eccentric excellence. The sequence begins with ‘Moon Lady and the Monster’ as Ryder – once again a security operative for Cosmic Broadcasting Network – must ferret out a grotesque brute stalking a late-night horror-movie hostess, after which #250’s ‘Return of the Past’ reprises the origin as Angel Devilin gets out of jail and goes looking for revenge…

In WFC #251, ‘The Disruptor’ proves to be a blackmailer attempting to extort CBN by sabotaging programmes whilst ‘The Keeper of Secrets is Death!’ in #252 follows the tragic murder of Dr. Joanne Russell who was accused on a sensationalistic TV show of knowing the Creeper’s secret identity. Next issue ‘The Wrecker’ offers an actual grudge-bearing mad scientist who has built a most unconventional robot, whilst ‘Beware Mr. Wrinkles!’ in #254 debuts a villain with the power to age his victims. Neither, however, are a match for the tireless, spring-heeled Technicolor Tornado, whose too-short return culminates in a lethal duel with a knife-throwing jewel thief in #255’s ‘Furious Fran and the Dagger Lady’…

Until this volume, that was it for Ditko devotees and Creeper collectors, but as the final delight in this splendid compendium reveals, there was more. An ill-considered expansion was followed by 1978’s infamous “DC Implosion”, when a number of titles were shut down or cancelled before release. One of those was Showcase #106 which would have featured a new all-Ditko Creeper tale.

It was collected – with sundry other lost treasures – in a copyright-securing, monochrome, minimum print-run internal publication entitled Cancelled Comics Cavalcade. Here, from CCC #2 (1978) and presented in stark black & white, fans can see the Garish Gallant’s last Ditko-devised hurrah as ‘Enter Dr. Storme’ pits the Creeper (and cameo crimebuster The Odd Man) against a deranged weatherman turned climatic conqueror able to manipulate the elements.

Fast, fight-filled, furiously fun and devastatingly dynamic, Beware the Creeper was a high-point in skewed superhero sagas and this is a compendium no lovers of the genre can do without.
© 1968, 1969, 1975, 1978, 1979, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1926 Harvey Comics star and Anthro originator Howie Post was born, followed a year later by the mighty Steve Ditko. Just scroll back up or look anywhere on this blog, dude!

Sadly, it’s also the anniversary of Wally Wood’s death in 1981. We last looked closely at Ditko’s frequent collaborator in Cannon.

Posted on

Lola – a Ghost Story


By J. Torres & Elbert Or (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-934964-33-0 (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-93266-424-9 (PB)

These days young kids are far more likely to find their formative strip narrative experiences online or between the card-covers of specially tailored graphic novels rather than the comics and periodicals of my long-dead youth.

In times past the commercial comics industry thrived by producing copious amounts of gaudy, flimsy pamphlets subdivided into a range of successfully, self-propagating, seamlessly self-perpetuating age-specific publications.

Such eye-catching items generated innumerable tales and delights intended to entertain, inform and educate such well-defined target demographics as Toddler/Kindergarten, Younger and Older Juvenile, General, Girls, Boys and even Young Teens, but today the English-speaking world can only afford to maintain a few paltry out-industry licensed tie-ins and spin-offs for a dwindling younger readership.

Where once cheap and prolific, comics periodicals in the 21st century are extremely cost-intensive and manufactured for a highly specific – and dwindling – niche market, whilst the beguiling and bombastic genres that originally fed and nurtured them are more immediately disseminated via TV, movies and assorted interactive games, media or streaming services.

Happily, old-school prose publishers and the graphic novel industry still have a different business model and more sustainable long-term goals, so magazine makers’ surrender became their window, as solid, reassuringly sturdy Comic Books bucked the pamphlet/papers trend.

Some of the old-fashioned publishers even evolved and joined the revolution…

Independent comics mainstay Oni made the switch to sturdy stand-alone one-offs at the end of the last century, publishing a succession of superbly illustrated tales splendidly pushing the creative envelope whilst providing memorable yarns irresistibly luring young potential fans of the form into our world.

That looks quite creepy in type-form but that’s okay – this is a beguilingly spooky story and you should be on your guard.

Aimed at readers of seven and above, Lola – a Ghost Story follows young Canadian Jesse as he returns to the rural Philippines farm where his parents grew up. It’s not his first visit, but it is the saddest. They’re going back for the funeral of his grandmother…

In the Tagalog language Lola means “grandmother” and Jesse’s was pretty scary. She was old and ugly, had a hump on her back and – he thinks – she tried to drown him when he was a baby. Grandma Lola also saw dead things and monsters and the future… just like Jesse does. Despite all this he loved her very much and really doesn’t want to accept that she’s gone forever.

After hours of exhausting travel into the forbidding wild regions, Jesse and his folks at last arrive at the old farmhouse which has witnessed so much tragedy. The little visitor fulsomely greets his uncle and cousin Maritess, but won’t acknowledge her brother JonJon. That kid’s acting like a jerk as usual, and besides he’s been dead for over a year and no-one else can see him…

Soon the family are gathered together: eating, memorialising the departed and telling stories of Lola – like the time she saw the giant devil-pig and saved the entire family from financial ruin. Despite a convivial atmosphere, Jesse is still ill at ease. Even though everyone here believes grandmother had second sight and blessed gifts, the sensibly modern boy can’t bring himself to believe the things he sees are real. Maritess believes though, and she suspects what Jesse won’t admit even to himself…

After JonJon teases him some more and taunts him with the giant bestial, cigar-smoking Kapre lurking at the window, Jesse finally drops into an exhausted, nervous slumber. The funeral next day is horrible. Everybody is sad, the church is filled with so many shockingly damaged spirits and Jesse is afflicted with a vision of being trapped and burning which makes him run screaming from the ceremony.

Still traumatised that evening, he finds JonJon’s old toybox on his bed and Maritess guesses what has happened. She tells her cousin the story of the bloodsucking Manananggal which attacked Lola’s mother, causing her unborn daughter’s hump back and magical sight. Such gifts and curses usually skip a generation and Maritess always assumed she’d be the one to get the sight, but now that it’s clear Jesse is the one to inherit the power, she’s determined to give him all the help he needs.

The recovered box is full of JonJon’s toy cars, and, after playing with them, Jesse and the dead boy romp over by the farm wall… the one where nobody is allowed to go anymore…

Jesse’s uncle isn’t doing very well: all the tragedies have made him very sad and he’s drinking an awful lot. There are other problems bothering Jesse too. The entire family have stories about grandmother and it’s clear she was brave and determined and fought monsters all her life: is that, then, why she tried to drown him when he was a baby?

Maritess tells her Canadian cousin about the time little Lola saved her school friends from a predatory Tiyanak – a baby-shaped carnivorous monster – and he readies himself to ask her if she thinks he might be evil. Just then her father comes in very drunk and shouts at him for leaving JonJon’s cars in the garden.

They are all he has left to remember his son and the boy’s favourite one is already missing. Jesse knows which one it is… the striped one JonJon calls “Zebra” which he wouldn’t share with him last night by the wall…

Uncle Tim hates the wall. It had something to do with his son’s death and Jesse knows he’ll get into trouble if he goes over it. But Uncle is so sad. He misses his boy and really wanted to bury Zebra with JonJon, but it’s gone and the man is so drunk and angry all the time now…

Jesse’s fear that Lola saw something evil in him is calmed by Maritess, who thinks he should use his gift to help people – just like just their grandmother used to. So, when JonJon appears again, Jesse climbs the despised wall and vanishes into the wild unknown beyond…

With Jesse’s first good deed successfully accomplished, JonJon can rest and Uncle Tim is at peace. The troubled psychic is even a little less disturbed by his power and apparent destiny. Sadly, that all changes on the trip back to the airport when Jesse sees something utterly horrifying…

Evocative, compelling, gently enthralling and with a genuinely scary shock ending, this superb child’s chiller is filled with a fascinating new bestiary of monsters and bogey-men to bedazzle Western eyes and imaginations, but mostly relies on captivating art and top-notch storytelling to draw readers in.

I loved it and so will you…
Lola is ™ & © 2009 J. Torres. All other material © 2009 Oni Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Black Jesus volume 1


By Jimmy Blondell & David Krintzman, Nicholas Da Silva & Bigjack Studios (Brazil)  (Arcana)
ISBN: 978-1-897548-55-4 (TPB)

I’m always keen to spark a little controversy, so here’s an intriguing parable you probably missed when it launched in 2009 or the last time we plugged it. Moreover, remember as you proceed that even worse than being oppressed, deliberately deprived or “othered” is being denied your own existence…

Superheroes are often cited as a new mythology and occasionally comic books dabble with the idea that there’s not much difference between gods and metahumans. In a world where unnatural powers are common currency – at least in our fictions and entertainments and certain religions – what happens when a genuinely different being appears and acts in ways neither the guardians of society nor the laws of physics will tolerate?

Conceived and written by Jimmy Blondell & David Krintzman with art from Nicholas Da Silva (assisted by Brazil’s Bigjack Studios) this gripping thriller presents all the facets of an urban/horror/conspiracy thriller but don’t be fooled. There’s more going on here than first appears…

Chris is a young black man in New York City. He’s a bit weird, and not just because of the recurrent nasty visions of cruel hunters slaughtering animals in the Serengeti. Chris lives a peaceful life in a city where criminality, intolerance and hostility are everywhere, harming no one and caring for his pigeons in their rooftop roost.

He’s got friends, a part-time job and plenty of questions about the strange things that keep happening around him. Case in point: despite never practising, he can score a basket from anywhere on the court without even trying. It’s a trick that’s earned the respect of violent angry young men throughout the neighbourhood. When he’s not anywhere else the loner spends time breaking into Central Park Zoo to feed animals, or studying with scholarly Rabbi Goldberg, a man who knows more about the boy’s past than he’s letting on…

An already complex existence takes a frantic turn the day Chris pulls some kids out of a car sinking into the Park Lake. He had to walk across the water to get to them and footage of the rescue made the news everywhere. Thankfully, he kept his hoodie up and most viewers don’t know who he is. That’s not a problem for the devout leader of the Black Christian Gang whose agenda is to reclaim the Messiah for people of colour and destroy forever the myth of a blond, blue-eyed white Christ. He sets his many brothers in the BCG to finding the miracle worker at all costs…

So does black televangelist Reverend Carnivean, whose millions of worshippers, billions of dollars and soaring political ambitions can’t afford such obvious competition. Rather than true believers, he sets his moneymen, whores and assassins to finding the mystery man the media have dubbed Black Jesus…

That becomes even more urgent after a second tragedy strikes and witnesses at a charity gala all report seeing an anonymous young black waiter heal a woman mauled by a lion…

So begins the frantic race to control a potentially divine force or the next stage in human evolution: a trail peppered with bodies and shocking outrages. Of course, it doesn’t help that Chris himself has no idea what he truly is…

Understated and thoughtful, Black Jesus is a thriller about being born different (and yes, I do think that’s a metaphor for being black in America today, and as much so here too and France and…) and exploring dangerous ideas about the nature of divinity, poverty, status and belonging. It also has a strong shot at attempting to debunk the biggest and most divisive lie in politico-religious history.

The series was delving into some truly interesting corners before slumping into a hiatus triggered by the project being optioned as movie. Maybe when the film is finished, we can finally see how the comic would have progressed from the conclusion – but not ending – it reached…

Certainly not for everyone, but smart and compelling enough for you perhaps?

I mention just as an interesting aside here that I googled this book and their fancy-schmancy AI butted in on my digging to say it didn’t exist.

It does.

Check Good Reads, for example, and then buy a copy and read it
© 2009 by Black Jesus LLC. All rights reserved.

Today in 1904 pulps legend and Silver Age Superman, Batman & Legion of Super-Heroes writer Edmond was born. Thirty years later France and most of Europe welcomed the first issue of Disney vehicle Le Journal de Mickey.

In 1995 we grieved the loss of maestro Jesús Blasco whose The Steel Claw: The Cold Trail made devotees of many when we reviewed it.

Posted on

Misty featuring Moonchild & The Four Faces of Eve (volume 1)


By Pat Mills, Malcolm Shaw, John Armstrong, Brian Delaney, Shirley Bellwood & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-452-6 (album TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Spooky Treats for Every Stocking… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Like most of my comics contemporaries I harbour a secret shame. Growing up, I was well aware of the weeklies produced for girls but would never admit to reading them.

My loss: I now know that they were packed with some great strips by astounding artists and writers, many of them personal favourites when they were drawing stalwart soldiers, evil aliens, marauding monsters or strange superheroes (all British superheroes were weird and off-kilter…).

I believe – in terms of quality and respect for the readership’s intelligence, experience and development – “girls’ periodicals” were far more in tune with the sensibilities of the target audience. I absolutely wish I’d paid more attention to Misty back then…

Thus, I’m overjoyed to re-recommend this superb first collection from what originating editor Pat Mills reveals in his Foreword was intended to be as iconoclastic and groundbreaking a publication as his previous creation.

You know the one: 2000 AD…

Despite never living up to his expectations – for all the traditional self-sabotaging editorial reasons that have scuppered bold visions since the days of Caxton – Misty was nothing like any other comic in the British marketplace: a Girls’ Juvenile periodical addressing modern issues through a lens of urban horror, science fictional and historical mysteries couched in terms of tense suspenseful dramas. It was also one of the best drawn comics ever seen and featured stunningly beguiling covers by unsung legend Shirley Bellwood: a veteran illustrator who ought to be a household name because we’ve all admired her work in comics and books since the 1950s even if we’ve never been privileged to see her by-line…

Unlike most weeklies, Misty was created with specific themes in mind – fantasy, horror and mystery – and over its too-short existence introduced numerous self-contained features serialised like today’s graphic novels, rather than continuing adventures of star characters.

Although adulterated from Mill’s original design, the comic launched on February 4th 1978 and ran until January 1980 whereupon it merged with the division’s lead title Tammy, thus extending its lifeline until 1984. As was often the case, the brand also continued through Annuals and Specials, running from 1979 until 1986.

The first of a series working under the umbrella of The Treasury of British Comics, this compact monochrome softcover compilation offers two complete part-work novellas from the comic’s canon of nearly 70 strip sagas, starting with the gripping history of the Moonchild.

Written by Mills and illustrated by John Armstrong (Bella in Tammy; The Secret Gymnast in Bunty; Grange Hill), the eerie adventure was based on Stephen King’s Carrie, and ran as lead feature in issues #1-13. It traced the turbulent coming-of-age of abused and confused schoolgirl Rosemary Black: born into a family afflicted with an apparent curse. All women who bore a hereditary crescent birthmark on their foreheads were eventually consumed by psychokinetic powers…

Rosemary’s mother brutally and zealously tries to suppress her daughter’s burgeoning abilities but with sociopathic mean girls Norma, Dawn & Freda making her their constant target for bullying and humiliation, the force inside Rosemary keeps expressing itself in ever more violent manner. Moreover, when school physician Doctor Armstrong realises the truth about the girl so often sent to see him, he sees nothing but an opportunity to be exploited…

When Norma’s bullies embark on their most ambitious scheme to torture Rosemary, sheer disaster is barely averted after the Moonchild’s long missing grandmother suddenly appears with a shocking secret to share…

Following a handy hints feature – how to make a Witch’s Hat – The Four Faces of Eve carries on the chilling bewilderment.

Created by Malcolm Shaw (Misty’s editor and writer of dozens of strips in Britain and Europe) & Brian Delaney (Hart to Hart; Grange Hill; The Professionals) this marvel of malign medical malpractice ran in #20-31, tracing the seemingly paranoid path of Eve Marshall, recently discharged from hospital but still suffering partial amnesia. Despite returning to her home and high-powered scientist parents, Eve remains troubled, especially by horrifically vivid dreams of other girls who died painful, violent deaths…

Inconsolable and increasingly suspicious, Eve snoops around a house she doesn’t remember and discovers mounting evidence that the Marshalls are not her real parents. When the house is later burgled, the police forensics team uncover another impossible anomaly: Eve’s fingerprints match a thief who died months ago…

Scared and haunted by traumatic dreams, Eve runs away and hides in a circus, only to be tracked down and dragged back home by her faux parents. However, pieces are inexorably falling into place and she soon must face the appalling truth she has deduced about herself and the monsters she lives with…

Also including a fulsome tribute to ‘Shirley Bellwood – An Unsung Heroine of British Comics’, creator biographies and one final activity page (‘Misty Says… Be a Devil – and Here’s How’) this supremely engaging tome is a glorious celebration of a uniquely compelling phenomenon of British comics and one that has stood the test of time. Don’t miss this second chance to get in on something truly special and splendidly entertaining
Misty © Egmont UK Limited 1978. All rights reserved.

Today in 1955 René Goscinny & André Franquin debuted humour strip Modeste et Pompom in Le Journal de Tintin – a fact and feature that has still singularly not impressed any English-language comics publishers.

Posted on

Steve Ditko Archives volume 2: Unexplored Worlds


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on

Galveston


By Johanna Stokes, Ross Richie, Todd Herman & various (Boom! Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-93450-668-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic effect.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Jean Baptiste Lafitte was a French privateer and slave trader based in New Orleans – and later Barataria Bay – who famously turned down a huge bribe from the British and instead stood beside the Americans during the War of 1812. His alliance with General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans is the stuff of American mythology.

When the victorious Americans then started cracking down on piracy, Jean and his older brother Pierre became spies for the Spaniards during the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821). Relocating to Galveston Island, Texas they continued their trade as freebooting privateers targeting Central American ports. After they established a pirate colony called Campeche to facilitate their maritime activities, Jean died – or at least dropped from sight – sometime around 1823.

Jim Bowie is more myth than man. Born in Kentucky around 1796, he was a pioneer, frontiersman, law officer, land speculator and quintessential warrior. After accruing wealth and a certain reputation in New Orleans, he eventually relocated to Texas (whilst it was still part of Mexico), married and settled down. Of all the legends surrounding him the two truest are his proficiency with the lethal “Bowie knife” (created from the fearless fighter’s design by bladesmith James Black) and that he died in Texas at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.

With such a historic pedigree and so little verifiable fact, it’s perfectly natural somebody should place these two bellicose American icons together, and that’s exactly what scripter Johanna Stokes (with input from Ross Richie, Tom Peyer & Mark Rahner) and illustrator Todd Herman – ably assisted by colourists Digikore Studios & Andres Lozano and letterer Marshall Dillon – did in this light-hearted action-romp which is as much buddy/road movie as pirate yarn or western…

Originally released as a 4-issue miniseries in 2009, Galveston begins in the Gulf of Mexico in 1817, where the infamous Jean Lafitte’s crew are trying to kill him. It’s not personal: they simply heard that he’s hidden a huge stash of gold donated by the Emperor Napoleon for helping him escape from France. Lafitte’s only ally is a wiry American he’d recently befriended: a man named Bowie. The greed-inciting gold story was circulated by Cyrus Wesley, an old acquaintance from New Orleans and no friend of the pirate captain…

After escaping certain doom through quick-wittedness and a certain amount of chicanery, Lafitte brings Bowie to the pirate colony he’s built in Galveston, introducing him to the glories of the Maison Rouge and the light of his life: a fiery tongued and ferociously independent woman named Madeline Ragaud…

She seems welcoming enough, but also brings news of a ship full of spies masquerading as traders. All too soon Bowie is experiencing first-hand how his pirate pal deals with real threats to his people…

A bigger worry is Wesley. Acting on behalf of vengeful Louisiana Governor Claiborne, the old enemy has brought a small army of bought-&-paid-for lawmen into the shady new town, ready to deal with Lafitte on the slightest pretext. A man of absolutely no principles, Cyrus is, however, quite prepared to let the mission slide if Lafitte gives him Napoleon’s gold…

It would be a sound bargain if there actually was any bullion, but Lafitte swears all he got for his services was a brace of ornamental cannon. They don’t even work…

Temporarily escaping his problems, the wily pirate accompanies Bowie on his own mission to set up trading ties with the Comanches, but Cyrus’ threat to harm Madeline lingers, prompting Jean to bicker with his buddy and storm off in a fury. By the time Jean gets back to Galveston the settlement is in flames and Wesley is ensconced aboard a warship in the bay.

It’s time for old war-hero Lafitte to rally his piratical troops for a showdown, but he might be less fired up if he knew that his aggravating paramour has despatched a message to even the odds. Hopefully, Madeline’s young courier can find Bowie and his Indian friends before it’s too late…

With it all culminating in a classic and epic underdog vs. bad guys showdown whilst delivering a marvellously traditional twist in the tale, this rowdy, raucous riot of fun is a sheer delight for all lovers of straightforward, no-nonsense matinee thrills.
© 2009 Boom Entertainment Inc. and Johanna Stokes. All rights reserved.

Today was big for comics and strips. in 1905 Winsor McCay’s sublime landmark Little Nemo first appeared. I must do that again. In the meantime why not look up Daydreams and Nightmares – The Fantastic Visions of Winsor McCay?

In 1938 the UK greeted anthology weekly Radio Fun for the first time, and three years later Americans met Archie Andrews in his first out in Pep Comics #22.

In 2004, the marvellous Irv Novick laid down his tools for the last time. Examples of his work span the length of the artform and can be found all over this blog. Go look, you’ll be impressed…

Posted on

Adam Eterno book 2: Grunn the Grim


By E. George Cowan, Chris Lowder, Tom Tully, Francisco Solano López, John Catchpole, Eric Bradbury, with Jack Le Grand, Geoff Kemp, Tom Kerr & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-470-6 (TPB/Digital edition) 978-1-83786-480-5 (Exclusive edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: History in the Unmaking… 9/10

British comics had a strange and extended love affair with what can only be described as “unconventional” (for which feel free to substitute “creepy”) heroes. So many of the stars and potential role models of our serials and strips were just plain “off”: self-righteous, moody voyeurs-turned vigilantes like Jason Hyde, sinister masterminds like The Dwarf, deranged geniuses like Eric Dolmann, so many reformed criminals like The Spider or just outright racist supermen like Captain Hurricane…

… And don’t get me started on our legion of lethally anarchic comedy icons or that our most successful symbol of justice is the Eagle-bedecked jack-booted poster boy for a fascist state. Perhaps that explains why these days we can’t even imagine or envision what a proper leader looks like and keep on electing clowns, crooks and oblivious privileged simpletons…

All joking aside, British comics are unlike any other kind and simply have to be seen to be believed and enjoyed. One of the most revered stars of the medium has finally begun to be collected in archival editions, and perfectly encapsulates our odd relationship with heroism, villainy and particularly the murky grey area bridging them…

Until the 1980s, comics in the UK were based on an anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character on a weekly – or sometimes fortnightly – basis. Humorous periodicals like The Beano were leavened by thrillers like Billy the Cat or General Jumbo and adventure papers like Lion or Valiant always included gag strips such as The Nutts, Grimly Feendish, Mowser and a wealth of similar quick laugh treats. Thunder and Jet were amongst the last of this fading model. Fleetway particularly was shifting to themed anthologies like Shoot, Action and Battle, whilst venerable veterans like Lion, Valiant and Buster hung on and stayed fresh by absorbing failing titles.

Thunder ran for 22 weeks before being absorbed by a stronger title to become Lion & Thunder. The merger/acquisition brought Black Max, The Steel Commando, The Spooks of Saint Luke’s and Adam Eterno to the new combined roster. With Steel Commando, time travelling tramp Adam would survive and thrive, as the periodical later merged into Valiant & Lion (June 1974) until the ultimate end in 1976. He also appeared in numerous Annuals and Specials thereafter.

Eterno was initially devised by Thunder assistant editor Chris Lowder – AKA “Jack Adrian” – and editor Jack Le Grand, with top flight artist Tom Kerr (Monty Carstairs, Rip Kerrigan, Kelly’s Eye, Charlie Peace, Captain Hurricane, Steel Claw, Kraken, Mary-Jo, Tara King/The Avengers, Billy’s Boots) initially designing and visualising the frankly spooky antihero. He also drew the scene-setting first episode. The feature was scripted by equally adept and astoundingly prolific old hand Tom Tully (Roy of the Rovers, Heros the Spartan, Janus Stark, The Wild Wonders, Dan Dare, Johnny Red, The Leopard from Lime Street), who only finally left it in 1976. Kerr, Donne Avenell, Scott Goddall &Ted Cowan would also write subsequent adventures. In fact, Tully might have scripted some of the material in this collection including the first instalment here: a handy recap/catchup limned by Francisco Solano López (and his family studio) that swiftly shifts to a gripping tale of “Conquistadore” atrocity…

Thanks to spotty record keeping, like so much in life and comics, it’s all a big mystery…

Gathering episodes from weekly Lion & Thunder spanning March 20th through August 28th 1971, plus pertinent material from Lion & Thunder Holiday Special 1971 & 1972, the chronal calamities and dark doings resume following Chris Lowder’s informative flashback essay ‘A Writer’s Trip Through Time’.

What you need to know: Delivered in stark, moody monochrome, the saga tales of tragic immortal chronal castaway Adam Eterno began life in the 16th century. He was an ambitious apprentice and less than sterling moral character, indentured to alchemist Erasmus Hemlock. When Adam’s master perfected an immortality serum, the headstrong, impatient acolyte sampled the potion against the sage’s express command. This precipitated the ancient’s death and a fiery conflagration that gutted the house. Hemlock’s last act was to curse his faithless student to live forever and “wander the world through the labyrinths of time”. Surcease would come from a mortal blow struck by a weapon of gold…

The curse was truly effective and as centuries passed, Adam became a recluse: his never-changing appearance driving him away from superstitious mortals and perpetually denying him simple contact with humanity. He fought in all of Britain’s wars, but hard-earned combat comradeships always ended whenever a seemingly fatal blow or wound left him unharmed…

Everything changed and the second part of the alchemist’s curse came true in 1970 when the traumatised, barely sane 421-year-old tramp staggered into a bullion robbery. He was shot by the thieves who rapidly realised that their victim was invulnerable, and attempted to use him in a raid on the Bank of England. When that went sideways too, Adam was struck by a fully-gold-plated limousine of a speeding millionaire…

The impact would be fatal for any other being, but for Adam Eterno it was the beginning of redemption as the shock hurled him into the timestream to land over and again in different eras…

The drama continues in that opening recap as Adam drops out of the timestream and is immediately cut down and hurled into quicksand by rapacious Spaniard Don Morto and his pitiless mercenarios, seeking the Incas fabled City of Gold. Dragging himself out of the mire, soon Adam is sought out by an Inca shaman and undergoes outrageous trials (many involving bonds and weapons of gold!) to become their champion in defeating the merciless invaders and liberating hostage king Tazuma Capa…

The resistance is long and bloody but ultimately triumphal after Eterno introduces and mass-produces a weapon from the future that turns the tables on the armour, powder and shot of the invaders…

The bittersweet victory – after all, the traveller already knows more invaders will follow and ultimately succeed – sees Adam returned to chronal limbo only to rematerialise for the first time in the far future: a totalitarian dictatorship policed by brutes and thugs in armour of gold led by a monstrous tyrant: Grunn the Grim. The extended war to liberate tomorrow ends successfully but with the wanderer again returned to falling through eras, with the first hints that the penitent troubleshooter is not randomly drawn to rising manifestations of evil and crossroad moments of menace…

The latest stopover is Dark Ages Eastern Europe where a struggle for the throne sees an evil yet trusted relative seeking to usurp Duke Ctharmis of Carathia, after abducting the prince and true heir. Now as a local wild-child terrorises the populace, and packs of (were?)wolves congregate everywhere, a tatty stranger arrives and starts making trouble. Nobody knows Adam has been recruited by local wizard Mageis to set destiny aright and end the schemes of wicked Baron Draxa, before being deposited in far more familiar territory: England during the Civil War…

Obsessive anti-royalist Captain Raker ravages the locality searching for Lord Benham and the funds he holds in the King’s name. His brutal acts draw the immortal man into the pointless conflict, despite persistent, prophetic visions of doom hampering the antihero… until a final face-to-face duel ends matters and catapults Adam into the New World and a new kind of wickedness. In 1920s New York City, money not power motivates mobster Rikki Delgano, but his tactics are just as cruel and just as ineffectual against an enemy who will not die…

The crook’s hash soon settled, Eterno next appears in the skies over London amidst a storm of ack-ack fire and Luftwaffe planes. Furious and fighting mad, the traveller captures a Nazi bomber and follows the raiders back to their base, delivering a deadly dose of “how do you like it?” before ghosting on to land in the wild west and exonerate unjustly accused drifter the Durango Kid when both are charged with stagecoach robbery. Dodging gunplay and lynchings, Apache tortures and worse, Adam deftly exposes the real bandit before moving on to save all of humanity…

Lost in the early years of the stone age over 35,000 years before his own birth, Eterno roams amidst mammoths, neanderthals and dawn men, but must battle beast men armed with ray guns to foil a plan by alien colonisers. They seek to eradicate emerging humankind and take the world for their own, but Adam is greatly aided by prescient sage Kathon-the-Wise, who seems to see all his past and future secrets… and bears a remarkable resemblance to so many other wizards and mages the nomad of the ages has met…

After a cataclysmic pitched battle, humanity is saved and the spacers defeated, but there’s no rest for the (gradually redeeming) wicked and Eterno lands in shark-filled waters just in time to become the latest target of pirate lord Blackbeard. On foiling that felon, the winds of time waft him to a Viking raid in Anglo-Saxon England where pitiless reiver Geflin One-Eye seems set on taking the kingdom, unless some brave soul can retrieve the fabled Gold Sword of Wulfric from the abbey where it lies and lead the counterattack. Obviously, Adam is not keen on getting that close to his metal nemesis but if the situation demands it…

Bombastic, blood-soaked, inspirational and creepier than you’d imagine possible or permissible in a kids’ comic. the exploits of Adam Eterno are dark delights impossible to put down, so it’s fortunate that there are two more longer complete yarns still to come here.

Taken from Lion & Thunder Holiday Special 1971, the first sadly uncredited yarn (as regards the writer at least) was illuminated by veteran comics illustrator John Catchpole. He was the first to draw Kelly’s Eye – in 1962 for Knock-Out – and limned The Shadow of the Snake & sequel serial Master of Menace between 1972-1974 in Lion where he was part of a rotating team crafting Adam Eterno. As well as Annuals material like Black Bedlam (1975) he inked Jack (Charlie Peace) Pamby on The Potters from Poole Street in Valiant (1976) and was also a book illustrator.

Here all that skill and aplomb is used to detail a moody Victorian mystery as the immortal nomad helps the last of the Calcott line locate a lost family fortune and avoid murder by a monster…

Wrapping up proceedings on a true high (and also lacking a writer credit) the 1972 Adam Eterno special tale was illustrated by the magnificent and prolific Eric Bradbury (1921-2001) began in 1949 in Knockout.

Frequently working with studio mate Mike Western, Bradbury drew strips like Our Ernie, Blossom, Lucky Logan, Buffalo Bill, No Hiding Place, The Black Crow and Biggles. He was an “in-demand” illustrator well into the 1990s, on landmark strips such as The Avenger, Cursitor Doom, Phantom Force 5, Maxwell Hawke, Joe Two Beans, Mytek the Mighty, Death Squad, Doomlord, Darkie’s Mob, Crazy Keller, Hook Jaw, The Sarge, Invasion 1984, Invasion (the unrelated 2000 AD strip), Mean Arena, The Fists of Jimmy Chang, The Dracula Files, Rogue Trooper, Future Shocks, Tharg the Mighty and much more…

All that imagination and experience are seen here, when Adam appears in ancient Atlantis: a dinosaur-infested paragon of human ingenuity and political depravity where a tyrannical queen and audacious space shot lead to the destruction of Earth’s first human civilisation…

Closing with biographies on the creators featured herein and ads for other British lost wonders Adam Eterno – Grunn the Grim is enthralling astonishment awaiting your gaze: a riotously rewarding rollercoaster ride to delight readers who like their protagonists dark and conflicted and their history in bite-sized bursts.
© 1971, 1972, & 2025 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1952 the last weekly instalment of Will Eisner’s Spirit Comics Section was published, whilst in 1974 the final Shiver and Shake entertained diehard UK readers.

In 1994, comics and animation giant Doug Wildey went to the final roundup. Remembered for Tarzan, The Saint newspaper strip and Jonny Quest, he’d prefer you read his elegiac westerns like Doug Wildey’s Rio: The Complete Saga.

Posted on

Vixen: Return of the Lion


By G. Willow Wilson & CAFU, with Bit, Josh Middleton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2512-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Welcome to Black History Month UK 2025. The theme this year is “Standing Firm in Power and Pride” and nobody ever accused us of being subtle…

In 1978 fashion model Mari Jiwe McCabe nearly became the first black woman to star in her own American comic book. Sadly, the infamous “DC Implosion” of that year saw the Vixen series cancelled before release. She eventually premiered three years later in Action Comics #521’s ‘The Deadly Rampage of the Lady Fox’ (by creator Gerry Conway and Superman mainstays Curt Swan & Frank Chiaramonte) and thereafter remained, lurking around the DC Universe until she joined a re-booted JLA (latterly dubbed “JLA Detroit”) in Justice League of America Annual #2.

A classic team-player, over intervening decades working within assorted JLA rosters, Suicide Squad, Ultramarine Corps, Checkmate and the Birds of Prey, Vixen’s origin has changed a lot less than most. It even remained mostly un-meddled-with when she made the jump to TV as part of the DC Legends of Tomorrow show.

Mari Jiwe comes from a line of warriors blessed by animist Trickster god Kwaku Anansi. The mythical creator of all stories claims to have designed her abilities – and those of fellow bestial hero Animal Man – allowing Vixen, through use of an arcane artefact dubbed the Tantu Totem, to channel the attributes and signature abilities of every animal that has ever lived.

As a child in M’Changa Province, Zambesi, Mari’s mother was killed by poachers and her missionary father murdered by his own brother over possession of the Totem. To thwart her uncle, the orphan moved to America, eventually becoming a fashion model to provide funding and cover for her mission of revenge…

At first a reluctant superhero, Vixen became one of the most effective crusaders on the international scene and was a key member of the Justice League (the one just before the New 52 Reboot). Previously, when her powers began to malfunction she was forced to confront Anansi himself (for which tales see Justice League of America: Sanctuary and Justice League of America: Second Coming).

Scripted by author, essayist, journalist and comics scribe G. Willow Wilson (Cairo, Air, Ms. Marvel, Wonder Woman) and illustrated by Carlos Alberto Fernandez Urbano AKA CAFU (Action Comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Imperium, Unity), Vixen: Return of the Lion was originally seen as a 5-part miniseries in 2009. We open here with ‘Predators’ wherein a League operation uncovers a plot by techno-thugs Intergang to fund a revolution in troubled African nation Zambesi.

Amongst impounded files is a record “proving” that 15 years earlier, Vixen’s mother was actually killed by Aku Kwesi, a local warlord working with the American criminal organisation. When Mari learns this truth, not even Superman can stop her from heading straight to her old village to find the man responsible. Africa is not America, however, and the lawless settlement has no time for a woman who does not know her place – even if she does have superpowers. When Kwesi appears, Vixen’s abilities are useless against him and she escapes with her life only because the warlord’s lieutenant Sia intervenes…

In ‘Prey’, broken, gravely wounded Mari is dumped in the veldt by Sia and staggers her way across the war-ravaged plain, battling beasts and hallucinating – or maybe meeting real ghosts – until she is attacked by a young lion and rescued by a holy man.

Alarmed at Vixen’s disappearance and further discoveries connecting Kwesi to Intergang, the JLA mobilise in ‘Sanctuary’ as lost Vixen slowly recuperates in a place where the constant conflicts of fang & claw survival are suspended. Here, saintly Brother Tabo offers Mari new perspective and greater understanding of her abilities. Her JLA colleagues, meanwhile, have exposed Intergang’s infiltration but fallen to a power even Superman could not resist…

As the League struggles against overwhelming odds, ‘Risen’ sees a transcendent Vixen flying to the rescue, and picking up some unexpected allies before facing her greatest challenge in shocking conclusion ‘Idols’, wherein more hidden truths are revealed and a greater mystery begins to unfold…

Featuring a gallery of stunning covers by Josh Middleton, this is an exceptional and moodily exotic piece of Fights ‘n’ Tights fluff to delight devotees of the genre and casual readers alike, and one long overdue for re-release and inclusion in the growing library of environmentally-beneficial digital comics and books. This gem isn’t even available digitally and that’s just a crime against comics consuming nature…
© 2006, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1940 was the birthday of groundbreaking comics auteur Richard Corben, creator of Den, although we rather liked his Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft. It also marks the first appearance of Zack Mosely’s Smilin’ Jack newspaper strip, and the passing of Golden Age great Bob Powell, who we most recently lauded via Bob Powell’s Complete Cave Girl.

Posted on

Yoko Tsuno volume 20: The Gate of Souls


By Roger Leloup, coloured by Studio Leonardo & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-160-6 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

On September 24th 1970, “electronics engineer” Yoko Tsuno first began her troubleshooting career as an indomitable intellectual adventurer. Bon anniversaire, ma brave cherie!

Her debut in Le Journal de Spirou was realised in “Marcinelle style” cartoonish 8 page short ‘Hold-up en hi-fi’ and although she is still delighting readers and making new fans to this day, for a while it looked as if she wasn’t going anywhere soon. Thankfully, her astonishing, astoundingly accessible exploits were revised and she quickly evolved into a paragon of peril: helming a highpoint of pseudo-realistic fantasies numbering amongst the most intoxicating, absorbing and broad-ranging comics thrillers ever created. Her globe-girdling mystery cases and space-&-time-spanning epics are the brainchild of Belgian maestro Roger Leloup who launched his own solo career in 1953 whilst working as studio assistant/technical artist on Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin.

Compellingly told, sublimely imaginative and – no matter how implausible the premise of an individual yarn – always firmly grounded in hyper-authentic settings underpinned by solidly-constructed, unshakably believable technology and unswerving scientific principles, Leloup’s illustrated escapades were at the vanguard of a wave of strips revolutionising European comics. Early in the journey, he switched from loose illustration to a mesmerising, nigh-photo realistic style that is a series signature. The long-overdue sea-change in gender roles and stereotyping he led heralded a torrent of clever, competent, brave and formidable women protagonists taking their rightful places as heroic ideals and not romantic lures. That consequently elevated Continental comics in the process. Such endeavours are as engaging and empowering now as they ever were, none more so than the travails of masterful Miss Tsuno.

Her first outings (oft-aforementioned, STILL unavailable Hold-up en hi-fi, and co-sequels La belle et la bête and Cap 351) were introductory vignettes prior to epic authenticity taking a firm grip in 1971 when the unflappable problem solver met valiant but lesser (male) pals Pol Paris and Vic Van Steen. Instantly hitting her stride in premier full-length saga Le trio de l’étrange (in LJdS’s May 13th edition), from then on, Yoko’s efforts encompassed explosive exploits in exotic corners of our world, spy and crime capers, time-travelling jaunts and sinister deep-space sagas such as this one. There are 31 European bande dessinée albums to date, with 21 translated into English thus far, albeit – and ironically – none of them available in digital formats…

Initially serialised in LJdS #3033 to 3044, spanning May 29th to 14th August 1996, La Porte des âmes became Europe’s 21st collected Yoko Tsuno album at year’s end. Following chronologically from The Astrologer of Bruges, it returns our terrestrial troubleshooters to their friends in the sky with another momentous visit with the prodigiously reconstructing Vineans.

In a disturbingly philosophical, metaphysically-tinged caper the Earthlings – including Yoko’s adopted daughter Morning Dew and Mieke (Pol’s fiancée from the 16th century) – all toil in deep space beside the disaster-prone lethally pragmatic alien colonists with their most trusted ally when another echo from the distant past changes lives and destines once again.

Their constant guide and companion is Khany: the competent, commanding single mother who combines parenting her toddler Poky and the humans with saving worlds, leading her people, averting continual cosmic catastrophe and – with Yoko – recovering lost knowledge. Frequently that stems from attempts to restore a moral compass to those ancient survivors ruthlessly rebuilding their fallen civilisation and permanently undermining and gaslighting the upstarts who slept out the apocalypse on another planet. Progress is slow and regularly results in uncovered, long forgotten threats that might end the racial resurrection in flaming instants…

In their initial adventure together, Yoko, Vic and Pol had discovered an enclave of dormant aliens hibernating for eons in Earth’s depths. After saving the sleepers from robotic/AI subjugation, the humans occasionally helped the refugees (who had fled their planet two million years previously) to rebuild their lost sciences. Ultimately, the humans accompanied the Vineans on their return to their natal star system and (wrongly presumed) long-dead homeworld. In the years Vineans slept, primary civilisation collapsed, and the world they strive to reclaim is much changed, with isolated pockets of inhabitants evolved beyond recognition. As the re-migrants gradually restore a decadent, much-debased civilisation and culture, the human trio become regular guests and helpers against sabotage, political intrigue and simple skulduggery…

And as seen here, it’s not just people they must beware of…

On a previous visit Yoko had established a unique psychic link with ancient mech-intellect Queen Hegora: one granting her certain technophilic abilities. A later excursion saw her bonded with an equally antediluvian child-rearing toy robot. “Myna” and her kind were constant sentient companions to young children – until parents abruptly deemed them all too smart and dangerous, before subsequently banishing them to distant asteroid. Now that last relic is hastily consulted as another time-lost probe soars back into Vinean territory from out of history and the (currently) unknown…

A constant cause of contemporary strife is piecemeal rediscovery of ancient beings who have endured due to the Vinean practise of digitally encoding living persons into automatons. Now a space salvage effort is interrupted by a probe from the deep past, and the excited explorers confront the possibility of being able to finally penetrate the fabled mysteries of occluded and forbidden lost colony Ultima. Their actions precipitate shocking and tragic discoveries which expose the downside of immortality.

Deadly strife begins as the discoverers plunge down to the revealed world and find another survivor outpost divided into factions indulging in an unending war of technologies and philosophies. An imminent crash and collision makes allies of advance scout Yoko and a bold indigenous pilot named Litsy, and soon the human learns that here vassals are forced to carry the personalities of other deceased servants. Servitude is eternal with useful, knowledgeable “souls” digitally impressed upon successive bodies. All the lower orders can anticipate is forced reincarnation and losing themselves bit by bit to someone else’s soul’s past history…

In a society where biology and mechanisms are less valuable than knowledge and experience, the newcomers are soon caught up in a devilish scheme challenging and undermining the very nature and fine print definition of life on Ultima, as they expose a long unfolding plot by rebel Isora who currently inhabits a menial flying droid. She illicitly made copies of her soul before committing suicide and now she ruthlessly seeks to recover and reunite her fractured personalities in a fresh – and stolen – body. This is over and despite violent objections of its original occupier Ethera, and once morally-outraged Yoko fully grasps the complexities of the situation she is prepared to do whatever is necessary to end this ghastly refinement of intellectual slavery…

Ultimately, overwhelming institutionalised digital malevolence proves inadequate in the face of Yoko Tsuno’s passionate humanity, bold imagination and quick thinking, but her success comes at great cost and cannot truly be called a triumph. Moreover, as the weary explorers return to established Vinean borders, Isora delivers a chilling message revealing nothing is settled yet…

Blending rocket-paced action with shattering suspense and byzantine twists, this deviously twisted, terrifying plausible battle with bigotry is superbly mesmerising, proving once more how smarts and combat savvy are pointless without compassion. As always, the most potent asset of this edgy outer space dramas is its astonishingly authentic setting, as ever benefitting from Leloup’s diligent research and meticulous attention to detail.

The Gate of Souls is a magnificently tense all-action psycho- thriller, taut and compelling, and surely appealing as much to fans of blockbuster space opera as ordinary general purpose comic addicts.

Original edition © Dupuis, 1996 by Roger Leloup. All rights reserved. English translation © 2025 Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1972, talented wee nipper Jock was born. You can remind yourself how good an artist he is by looking at Green Arrow Year One – The Deluxe Edition.

Posted on

Uncanny X-Men Marvel Masterworks volume 1


By Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, Dave Cockrum, Bob McLeod, Sam Grainger, Frank Chiaramonte & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3702-3 (TPB) 978-0-7851-1192-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless Mutant Masterpieces for all Blockbuster Comics Addicts… 9/10

In the autumn of 1963 The X-Men #1 introduced Scott (Cyclops) Summers, Bobby (Iceman) Drake, Warren (Angel) Worthington, Jean (Marvel Girl) Grey and Hank (The Beast) McCoy: very special students of Professor Charles Xavier. The teacher was a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo Superior; considered by many who knew him as a living saint.

After nearly eight years of eccentrically spectacular adventures the mutant misfits virtually disappeared at the beginning of 1970, during another periodic downturn in superhero comics sales. Just like the closing years of the 1940s, mystery men again faded away as supernatural mysteries and traditional genre themes once more dominated the world’s entertainment fields.

Although their title returned at the end of the year as a cheap reprint vehicle, the missing mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players throughout the ongoing Marvel universe, whilst the bludgeoning Beast was opportunistically transformed into a scary monster to cash in on the horror boom. Then, as sales of the spooky stuff subsequently waned in 1975, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas green-lighted a bold one-shot as part of the company’s line of Giant-Size specials and history was made…

This fabulous compendium collection (available in luxurious hardcover, trade paperback and eBook editions) is perfect for newbies, neophytes and even old lags nervous about reading such splendid yarns on fragile but extremely valuable pulp paper. It celebrates the revival and unstoppable march to market dominance through the exuberant and pivotal early stories: specifically, collectively and cumulatively spanning May 1975 to August 1976 via Giant Size X-Men #1, and issues #94-100 of the definitely “All-New, All-Different” X-Men.

Tracing the reinvigorated merry mutants from young, fresh and delightfully underexposed innovations to the beginnings of their unstoppable ascendancy to ultimate comic book icons, in their own title and through an increasingly broad clutch of guest shots, the epic voyage begins with a classic mystery monster mash from Giant Size X-Men #1.

Len Wein & Dave Cockrum (the much-missed latter then a very red-hot property following his stint reviving DC’s equally eclectic fan-fave super-team Legion of Super-Heroes) detail in ‘Second Genesis!’ how the original squad -all but then-new Avengers recruit The Beast – have been lost in action. With no other choice Xavier is forced to scour Earth and the Marvel Universe for replacements…

To occasional foes-turned-friends Banshee and Sunfire is added a one-shot Incredible Hulk adversary dubbed The Wolverine, but the bulk of time and attention is lavished upon original creations Kurt Wagner, a demonic-seeming German teleporter codenamed Nightcrawler; African weather “goddess” Ororo Monroe – AKA Storm; Russian farm boy Peter Rasputin who turns into a living steel Colossus and bitter, disillusioned Apache superman John Proudstar who is cajoled into joining the makeshift squad as Thunderbird. The second epic introductory chapter ‘….And Then There Was One!’ reintroduces battered, depleted but unbowed team-leader Cyclops who swiftly drills the newcomers to a semblance of readiness before leading them into primordial danger against monolithic threat ‘Krakoa… the Island That Walks Like a Man!’

Overcoming the phenomenal terror of a rampaging rapacious mutant eco-system and rescuing the “real” team should have led to a quarterly Giant-Size sequel, but so great was fan response that the follow-up adventure was swiftly reworked into a 2-issue tale for a rapidly reconfigured comic book which became a bimonthly home to the new team. X-Men #94 (August 1975) began ‘The Doomsmith Scenario!’ – plotted by editor Wein, scripted by Chris Claremont and with Bob McLeod inking man-on-fire Cockrum – in a smart Armageddon-thriller with a newly pared-down strike-squad deprived of Sunfire and still-recuperating Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman, Havok (Scott’s brother Alex) and magnetic Lorna Dane.

The neophytes are called in by Beast to stop criminal terrorist Count Nefaria starting an atomic war. The insidious mastermind has seized control of the US Norad citadel with a gang of artificial superhumans and accidentally escalated a nuclear blackmail scheme into an inescapable countdown to holocaust. Thus, the untrained, unprepared mutants are the only hope of saving the world in epic conclusion ‘Warhunt!’ (inked by Sam Grainger).

One of the new team doesn’t make it back…

X-Men #96 saw Claremont take full charge of the writing (albeit with plotting input from Bill Mantlo) for ‘Night of the Demon!’ Here, guilt-wracked Cyclops blames himself for the loss of his teammate, and in his explosive rage accidentally unleashes a demonic antediluvian horror from Earth’s primordial prehistory for the heroes-in-training to thrash. The infernal Nagarai would periodically return to bedevil mankind, but the biggest innovation in this issue was the introduction of gun-toting biologist/housekeeper Moira MacTaggert and the first inklings of the return of implacable old adversaries…

A long-running, cosmically-widescreen storyline began in #97 with ‘My Brother, My Enemy!’ as Xavier – tormented by visions of interstellar war – tries to take a vacation, just as Havok and Lorna (finally settling on superhero nom de guerre Polaris) attack: apparently willing servants of a mysterious madman using Cyclops’ old undercover alter ego Eric the Red. The devastating conflict segues into a spectacular 3-part yarn, as pitiless robotic killers return under the hate-filled auspices of mutant-phobic Steven Lang (and his mysterious backers in Project Armageddon). The action opens with #98’s ‘Merry Christmas, X-Men… the Sentinels Have Returned!’…

With coordinated attacks capturing semi-retired Marvel Girl plus Wolverine, Banshee and Xavier, Cyclops and the remaining mutant heroes co-opt a space shuttle and storm Lang’s orbital HQ to rescue them in ‘Deathstar Rising!’ (inked by Frank Chiaramonte): another phenomenal all-action episode. The saga concludes on an agonising cliffhanger with the 100th issue anniversary tale. ‘Greater Love Hath No X-Man…’ (with Cockrum inking his own pencils) sees new X-Men apparently battle the original team before overturning Lang’s monstrous schemes forever. However, their catastrophic clash destroys the only means of escape and, as a gigantic solar flare threatens to eradicate the satellite-station, their only chance of survival means certain death for another X-Man…

To Be Continued…

With even greater excitement and innovation to follow in succeeding issues, these superb comics classics revolutionised a moribund genre and led directly to today’s ubiquitous popular cultural landscape where superheroes are as common as cops, cowboys, monsters or rom-com Romeos. They even made it into movies without looking ridiculous…

Extras include an introduction by Claremont; issue covers by Gil Kane, Cockrum, Marie Severin, Sal Buscema & Rich Buckler; Kane’s cover for eventual all-reprint Giant-Size X-Men #2; Cockrum’s designs for The Outsiders (a Legion of Super-Heroes 5-page spin-off pitch rejected by DC); character designs for Phoenix, Colossus & Nightcrawler; the cover to F.O.O.M.  #10 and caricatures of the X-Men creative team by Marie Severin; House ads and original art pages, roughs and covers by Kane & Cockrum completing the perfect primer/introduction to the New X-Men phenomenon.

The immortal epics compiled here are available in numerous formats but for a selection that will survive the continual re-readings of the serious, incurable fan there’s nothing to beat the sturdy and substantial full-colour feel of these Marvellous Masterwork editions.
© 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.