Category: Drama

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Superman: The Silver Age Dailies volume 3 – 1963-1966


By Jerry Siegel & Wayne Boring (IDW Publishing/Library of American Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-6134-0179-4 (HB)

his book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

The American comic book industry – if it existed at all – would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s unprecedented invention was fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation and quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Spawning an army of imitators and variations within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and wish-fulfilment which epitomised the early Man of Steel grew to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reforming dramas, sci fi fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East sucked in America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do.

From the outset, in comic book terms Superman was master of the world. Moreover, whilst transforming the shape of the fledgling funnybook biz, the Man of Tomorrow irresistibly expanded into all areas of the entertainment media. Although we all think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as epitome and acme of comics creation, the truth is that very soon after his springtime debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse.

We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers and their hyperkinetic kind long ago outgrew their four-colour origins and are now fully mythologized modern media creatures instantly familiar in mass markets, across all platforms and age ranges…

Far more people have seen and heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comic books. His globally syndicated newspaper strips alone were enjoyed by countless millions, and by the time his 20th anniversary rolled around, at the very start of what we know as the Silver Age of Comics, he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial star, headlined a series of astounding animated cartoons, become a novel attraction (written by George Lowther) and helmed two films and his first smash, 8-season live-action television show. He was a perennial sure-fire success for toy, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers and in his future were even more shows (Superboy, Lois & Clark, Smallville, Superman & Lois), a stage musical, franchise of blockbuster movies and almost seamless succession of games, bubble gum cards and TV cartoons. These started with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and have continued ever since. Even superdog Krypto got in on the small-screen act…

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the previous century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail that all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and often the planet – it was seen by millions, if not billions, of readers and generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic-books. It also paid better.

And rightly so: some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were created to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them grew to be part of a global culture. Mutt and Jeff, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Charlie Brown and so many more escaped their humble tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Most still do…

The daily Superman newspaper comic strip launched on 16th January 1939, supplemented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by luminaries like Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring), the mammoth task required the additional talents of Jack Burnley and writers like Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz. The McClure Syndicate feature ran continuously until May 1966, appearing at its peak, in over 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers; a combined readership of more than 20 million. Eventually, Win Mortimer and Curt Swan joined the unflagging Boring & Stan Kaye whilst Bill Finger and Siegel provided stories, telling serial tales largely divorced from comic book continuity throughout years when superheroes were scarcely seen.

Then in 1956 Julie Schwartz kicked off the Silver Age with a new Flash in Showcase #4 and before long costumed crusaders began returning en masse to thrill a new generation. As the trend grew, many publishers began to cautiously dabble with the mystery man tradition and Superman’s newspaper strip began to slowly adapt: drawing closer to the revolution on the comicbook pages. As Jet-Age gave way to Space-Age, the Last Son of Krypton was a comfortably familiar icon of domestic America: particularly in the constantly evolving, ever-more dramatic and imaginative comic book stories which had received such a terrific creative boost when superheroes began to proliferate once more. The franchise had been cautiously expanding since 1954 and by 1961 Superman was seen not only in Golden Age survivors Action Comics, Superman, Adventure Comics, World’s Finest Comics and Superboy, but also in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane and Justice League of America. Such increased attention naturally filtered through to the more widely-read newspaper strip and resulted in a rather strange and commercially sound evolution…

This third and final  hardback collection (encompassing November 25th 1963 to its end on April 9th 1966) opens with a detailed Introduction from Sidney Friedfertig, disclosing the provenance of the strips; how and why Siegel was tasked with repurposing recently used and soon to be published scripts from comic books; making them into daily 3-and-4 panel black-&-white continuities for an apparently more sophisticated, discerning newspaper audience.

It also offers a much-needed appreciation of the author’s unique gifts and contributions…

If you’re a veteran comic book fan, don’t be fooled: the tales “retold” here might seem familiar but they are not rehashes: they’re variations and deviations on an idea for audiences seen as completely separate from the kids who bought comic books. Even if you are familiar with the traditional source material, the serialised yarns here will read as brand new, especially as they are gloriously illustrated by Wayne Boring at the peak of his illustrative powers.

After a few years away from the feature, Boring had returned to replace his replacement Curt Swan at the end of 1961, regaining the position of premiere Superman illustrator to see the series to its demise. Moreover, as the strip drew to a close many strip adaptations began appearing prior to the “debut” appearances in the comics. As an added bonus, the covers of the issues these adapted stories came from have been included as a full, nostalgia-inducing colour gallery…

Siegel & Boring’s astounding everyday entertainments recommence with Episode #145, ‘The Great Baroni’ (November 25th to September 14th 1963), revealing how the Caped Kryptonian helps an aging stage conjuror regain his confidence and prowess. It’s based on a tale by Siegel & Al Plastino from Superboy #107 (which had a September 1963 cover-date).

‘The Man Who Stole Superman’s Secret Life’ (December 16th 1963 to 1st February 1964 as first seen in Superman #169, May 1964, by Siegel & Plastino) was a popularly demanded sequel to the story where the Man of Tomorrow lost his memory and powers, but fell in love.

When his Kryptonian abilities returned he returned to his regular life, unaware that he had left heartbroken Sally Selwyn behind. She thought her adored Jim White had died…

Now as Clark investigates a crook who is a perfect double for Superman, he stumbles into Sally and a potentially devastating problem…

Episode #147 – February 3rd to March 9th – saw the impossible come true as ‘Lex Luthor, Daily Planet Editor’ (by Leo Dorfman, Swan & George Klein from Superman #168 April 1964) reveals how the criminal genius flees to 1906 and lands the job of running a prestigious San Francisco newspaper – until a certain Man of Tomorrow tracks him down…

March 9th saw Clark, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane begin ‘The Death March’ (originally an Edmond Hamilton & Plastino tale from Jimmy Olsen #76, April 1964): an historical recreation turned agonisingly real after boss Perry White seemingly has a breakdown. Of course, all is not as it seems…

‘The Superman of 800 Years Ago’ has a lengthy pedigree. It ran in newspapers from April 6th to May 18th but was adapted from an unattributed, George Papp illustrated story, ‘The Superboy of 800 Years Ago’. That debuted in Superboy #113 (June 1964), and was in turn based upon an earlier story limned by Swan & Creig Flessel from Superboy #17 at the end of 1951. Here a robotic Superman double is unearthed at a castle in Ruritanian kingdom Vulcania, so our inquisitive hero time-travels back to the source to find oppressed people and a very familiar inventor. Suitably scotching the plans of a usurping scoundrel, he leaves a clockwork champion to defend democracy in the postage stamp feudal fiefdom…

‘Superman’s Sacrifice’ was the 150th daily strip sequence, running from May 18th to June 20th (adapted from a Dorfman & Plastino thriller first seen in Superman #171, August 1964). Here the Man of Steel is blackmailed by advanced alien gambling addicts Rokk and Sorban, who want to wager on whether Superman will kill an innocent. If he doesn’t, they will obliterate Earth. The callous extraterrestrials seem to have all the bases covered and, even when the Metropolis Marvel thinks he’s outsmarted them, the wicked wagerers have an ace in the hole…

It’s followed by another tale from the same issue wherein Hamilton & Plastino first described ‘The Nightmare Ordeal of Superman’ (June 22nd – July 25th) wherein the Action Ace voyages to another solar system just as its power-bestowing yellow sun novas into red. Deprived of his mighty powers, our hero must survive a primitive world, light-years from home; battling cavemen and monsters until rescue comes in a most unlikely fashion…

The author of ‘Lois Lane’s Love Trap’ was unattributed, but the tale was drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger when seen in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane # 52 (October 1964). As reinterpreted here by Siegel& Boring (July 27th to August 22nd) however, it tells how Lois and Clark travel to the rural backwoods to play doctor and cupid for diffident lovers, after which August 24th to October 10th depicts ‘Clark Kent’s Incredible Delusions’ (seen in comic books in Superman #174, January 1965 by Hamilton, Swan, Plastino & Klein).

Incredible incidents begin after a visitor to the Daily Planet casually reveals he is secretly Superman. Not only does he have the powers and costume, but Clark cannot summon his own abilities to challenge the newcomer. Can Kent have been hallucinating for years? The real answer is far more complex and confusing…

A tip of the hat to a popular TV show follows as a deranged actor trapped in a gangster role kidnaps Lois and her journalistic rival, determined to prove her companion is a mobster and ‘The “Untouchable” Clark Kent’ (October 12th – November 7th): a smart caper transformed by Siegel from a yarn by Dorfman, Swan & Klein in Superman #173 November 1964.

‘The Coward of Steel’ (Siegel & Plastino, Action Comics #322, March 1965) ran November 9th to December 19th, revealing how Superman’s pipsqueak act becomes all-consuming actuality after aliens ambush the hero with a fear ray.

The year changed as Lois went undercover to catch a killer in ‘The Fingergirl of Death’ (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane # 55 by Otto Binder & Schaffenberger; February 1965), reinterpreted here by Siegel & Boring from December 21st 1964 to January 23rd.

‘Clark Kent in the Big House’ – January 25th to March 6th – by Binder & Plastino was seen in Action #323 April 1965 and saw Clark in a similar situation: covertly infiltrating a prison to get the goods on an inmate. Sadly, once he’s there the warden has an accident and nobody seems to recognise Kent as anything other than a crook getting his just deserts…

There was more of the same in ‘The Goofy Superman’ (March 8th to April 12th, taken from Robert Bernstein & Plastino’s tale from August 1963’s Superman #163). This time though, Red Kryptonite briefly makes Clark certifiably insane. After he is committed and gets better, he sticks around to clear up a few malpractices and injustices at the asylum before heading home. A different K meteor causes extremely selective amnesia ‘When Superman Lost His Memory’ (from April 14th to May 22nd and originally by Dorfman, Swan & Klein from Superman #178 July 1965). This time the mystified Man of Steel must track down his own forgotten alter ego…

‘Superman’s Hands of Doom’ was the 160th strip saga, running May 24th through June 26th, as adapted from a Dorfman & Plastino thriller in Action #328 (September 1965). It detailed the cruelly convoluted plans of big-shot crook Mr. Gimmick who tries to turn Superman into an atomic booby trap primed to obliterate Metropolis, after which a scheming new reporter uses dirty tricks to make her mark at the Planet, landing ‘The Super Scoops of Morna Vine’ (June 28th– August 21st) through duplicity, spying, cheating and worse in a sobering tear-jerker first conceived and executed by Dorfman, Swan & Klein in Superman #181, November 1965.

The comic book version of ‘The New Lives of Superman’ – by Siegel, Swan & Klein – didn’t appear until Superman #182 in January 1966, but the Boring version (such an unfair name for a brilliant artist!) ran in papers from August 23rd – October 16th 1965: detailing how Clark has an accident which would leave any other man permanently blind. Not being ordinary, Superman had to find another secret identity and hilariously tries out being a butler and disc jockey before finding a way for Clark to return to reporting…

Something like the truly bizarre ‘Lois Lane’s Anti-Superman Campaign’ was seen in SGLL #55 (Dorfman & Schaffenberger, January 1966). As reinterpreted by Siegel & Boring for an adult readership from October 18th to December 18th, the stunts produced for the Senatorial race between her and Superman are wild and whacky (and could never happen in real American politics, No Sirree Bob Roberts!), even if 5th Dimensional pest Mr. Mxyzptlk is behind it all. (and wouldn’t that be a comforting reason for the last year of campaigning…)

Running December 20th 1965 through January 8th 1966, as adapted from a Dorfman & Pete Costanza thriller in Superman #185 (which eventually saw full-colour print in April 1966), ‘Superman’s Achilles Heel’ offers a slick conundrum as the Man of Might must wear a steel box on his hand after losing his invulnerability in one small area of his Kryptonian anatomy. The entire underworld tries to get past that shield, but nobody really thinks the problem through…

The end of the hallowed strip series was fast approaching, but it was business as usual for Siegel & Boring who exposed over January 10th through February 26th ‘The Two Ghosts of Superman’ (Binder & Plastino from Superman #186, May 1966) as our hero goes after crafty criminal charlatan Mr. Seer. Fanatical fans might be keen to see the cameo here from up-&-coming TV superstar Batman before the curtain comes down…

The era ended with another mystery. ‘From Riches to Rags’ (Dorfman & Plastino from Action Comics #337, May 1966) has Superman compulsively acting out a number of embarrassing roles – from rich man to poor man to beggar-man and so forth. Spanning February 28th to April 9th, it sees a hero at a complete loss until his super-memory kicked in and recalled a moment long ago when a toddler looked up into the night sky…

Superman: The Silver Age Dailies 1963-1966 is the last of three huge (305 x 236 mm), lavish, high-end hardback collections starring the Man of Steel and a welcome addition to the superb commemorative series of Library of American Comics which has preserved and re-presented in luxurious splendour such landmark strips as Li’l Abner, Tarzan, Rip Kirby, Polly and her Pals and many of the abovementioned cartoon icons. If you love the era or just crave simpler stories from less angst-wracked times these yarns are great comics reading, and this is a book you simply must have…
Superman ™ & © 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Lord of the Flies – The Graphic Novel


By William Golding, adapted and illustrated by Aimée de Jongh (Faber & Faber)
ISBN: 978-0-571-37425-0 (HB/Digital edition)

In 1954, after many disappointments, one philosophy teacher, sailor (and Royal Navy D-Day veteran), actor and musician finally sold his first novel. Strangers from Within was a reaction to R. M. Ballantyne’s Christian-centric children’s classic The Coral Island, seen through the lens of a sensitive school teacher who had seen man at his very worst and was recuperating during the earliest era of a growing Cold War.

The book was knocked back many times before one editor at Faber – Charles Monteith (who liked and published Samuel Beckett, John Osborne, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, P. D. James, Philip Larkin and Alan Bennett and so many, many more gifted individuals) – saw something there and decided to have a punt…

As Lord of the Flies, the book hit the shelves and steadily grew to become one of the most revered, beloved and inspirational stories of all time and one that has literally reshaped social thought and opinion. In this 70th anniversary year, the book will be re-issued in an exclusive deluxe hardback edition, but its status as milestone and groundbreaker deserved more. Thus award-winning graphic novelist Aimée de Jongh (The Return of the Honey Buzzard, Days of Sand) was commissioned to create this adaptation and visual synthesis to celebrate the initial publication. The result is truly remarkable…

Golding went on to write more amazing books – such as The Inheritors, The Free Fall, Pincher Martin, The Double Tongue, and Booker Prize winner Rites of Passage, and was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature, and it’s very likely this pictorial treat will garner a few more glittering citations and prizes…

You may not have read it, but sheer cultural osmosis means you already know Lord of the Flies to some degree.

A plane carrying a large group of pre-adolescent British schoolboys crashes into the Pacific Ocean and a number of survivors make the arduous swim to a desolate but lush mountainous island. Shocked, stunned and starving, the ineffectual gaggle initially unite to find food and water and quickly evolve processes and systems to stay alive. A reflection of their schoolboy experiences soon divide the group into leaders and followers, as much by confusion and inertia as ambition or duty. The search for sustenance and means of rescue is constantly marred by a growing unease that their prison harbours monsters…

All too soon oppressive regulation and the nascent rules of conduct and governance – like only speaking at gatherings when holding the “Conch shell” – creates entrenched opposing viewpoints, factionalism and inevitably escalating violence…

Adaptor de Jongh magnificently captures the dichotomy of a paradise that is also hell and the inexorable mounting pressure upon narrative beacons Ralph, Piggy, Simon and Jack Merridew as the drama unfolds…

This superb creation is not a substitute for the three film adaptations, many stage and radio plays or the novel itself: it’s just another sublime opportunity of accessing a milestone tale in an increasingly and regrettable post-literate era where direct visual information has largely augmented if not yet replaced the semantic and semiotic processing of prose. It is, however, just as compelling and evocative as Golding’s world-shaking masterpiece and you really need to read both. I don’t have the conch of speaking anymore, so it’s up to you to choose which you do first…

Lord of the Flies © William Golding 1954. Adaptations and illustrations © Aimée de Jongh 2024. All rights reserved.
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Simply Unmissable …10/10

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Astonishing X-Men volume 1: Gifted


By Joss Whedon, John Cassaday & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0785146957 (HB/Digital Edition)

The loss of John Cassaday is sudden and shocking but at least we have his wonderful work to console ourselves with. Here’s one of his best, that you should see or revisit…

Joss Whedon turned his inimitable skills with choreographing ensemble casts to the ultimate team-book when he started writing the high-profile Astonishing X-Men (the first six issues of which are collected in this volume). With the supremely talented John Cassaday (Hellboy, Just Imagine, Lone Ranger, Flash) as artist the comic was always going to look great and sell well, but the ease with which Whedon slips into the characters and lifts them out of the mire of decades of convoluted clichés and continuity was a joy to behold.

You’re either aware or not of mutant continuity, so I’ll forego the usual précis and simply state that new readers can jump on with the minimum of confusion, and – aided by a skilful use of banter – be brought up to speed as the team of Cyclops, Emma “White Queen” Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde and The Beast re-unite as proactive mutant do-gooders, but with a new and rather subversive mission statement.

In a world that hates and fears mutants, these heroes have traditionally fought secretive, furtive battles to save the day, with humanity despising them all the while. Their new agenda is simple: do the battling and saving, but in a public-relations savvy society, do it in such a way that the entire world knows who to thank. They will become public heroes and saviours, changing public opinion by doing good publicly.

The plan to alter those perceptions begins by ending a hostage situation where anti-mutant terrorists led by an alien named Ord of the Breakworld crash a swanky High Society function. Even as hungry paparazzi are mobbing the victorious heroes, however, word comes that the media blitz may be unnecessary. An announcement has been made that science has found a cure for the mutant gene…

That news divides not just the mutant community, but even the team itself. Is “mutant-ness” even a disease? Is it better to conform or be unique? Where did the cure come from and who actually benefits? What role does Ord play in these earth-shattering events and is he working alone? None of these deep issues get in the way of a rollercoaster-ride of action and genuine suspense that’s been missing since the earliest days of these characters.

Combining breathtaking illustration and stunning action with superb characterisation in a mystery/conspiracy tale is a Whedon trademark. Adding alienation metaphors that have been such a strong part of the X-Men mystique and fan psychology made this a powerful yet entertaining read that appealed to almost everybody. Having it rendered shockingly realistic and authentic-seeming by a modern comics master made it unmissable.
© 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Dynamite Art of John Cassaday


ISBN: 978-1-52410-936-3 (HB/Digital edition)

It’s only Wednesday and already a grim week for lost heroes. On the back of hearing of the death of wonderful James Earl Jones and undeservedly forgotten Zoot Money comes news from closer to home as we learn that John Cassaday has gone far, far too early…

Born Texan in 1971, Oklahoma-raised John Cassaday was a multi-award-winning comics artist, actor and TV director, legendary for his depictions of Ghost, Captain America, The Astonishing X-Men, Planetary, Desperadoes, I Am Legion and Star Wars as well as his unforgettable procession of covers for many companies and characters. His particularly iconic, stridently symbolist use of imagery made his work globally known, admired and sought after whilst his imagination and imagery featured in numerous animated films and poster books.

Cassaday was self-taught with a superb eye for landscape and location. It underpinned a primal understanding of the body language of evil and heroism and deep affection for the classic landmarks and groundbreakers of our somewhat simplistic genre: combining to inform the astounding visuals in this mammoth hardback (234 x 307 mm) or digital catalogue of comic and fantasy masterpieces.

In 2006 Cassaday began a long and wonderfully fruitful association with Dynamite Entertainment, generating covers for a vast pantheon of stars comprising generational household names and the best of new concepts, and many are gathered here for you to ogle…

Following context and potted history from Dynamite Publisher Nick Barrucci’s Introduction and a Foreword by comics everyman Scott Dunbier, the Gallery of Graphic Wonders opens with 100+ pages of ‘The Lone Ranger’ and includes commentary by scripters Brett Matthews and Mark Russell and editor Joe Rybandt, augmenting pencil roughs, sketches and those astounding covers (including colour variants).
Throughout, Cassaday’s own colour work is bolstered by contributions from Dean White, Laura Martin, Francesco Francavilla, Marcelo Pinto, Ivan Nunes, José Villarrubia, June Chung & Tony A?ina
Garth Ennis’ war anthology ‘Battlefields’ boasted some of Cassaday’s most engaging images, and those paintings are here supplemented by designs, working sketches and colour variants as is Project Superpowers spinoff ‘The Death-Defying ‘Devil”’, and vintage stars ‘Buck Rogers’ and ‘Sherlock Holmes’.

‘The Complete Dracula’ boasts iconoclastic covers and commentary from co-writer Leah Moore before a return to pulp fictioneers offers additional character studies and designs for a staggering swathe of bombastic eyecatchers gracing the many series and crossover team-ups featuring ‘The Green Hornet’, ‘The Shadow’, ‘The Spider’ and ‘Doc Savage’.

Then ‘Grand Passion’ and ‘Ian Fleming’s James Bond’ artworks bring us to a selection of ‘Other Covers’ including ‘Red Sonja’, ‘The Boys’, ‘Zorro’, ‘Blackbeard: Legend of the Pyrate King’, ‘The Complete Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Project Superpowers Chapter 2’, ‘Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt’, ‘Will Eisner’s The Spirit’, ‘Kiss’, ‘John Wick’ and ‘Battlestar Galactica vs Battlestar Galactica’, and they are all simply beautiful and unmissable.

There are many books – both academic and/or instructional – designed to inculcate a love of comics whilst offering tips, secrets and an education in how to make your own sequential narratives.

There are far more intended to foster and further the apparently innate and universal desire to simply make art and do so proficiently and well, but here the emphasis is on promoting the artist’s sheer unassailable visual excitement and his treatment of a lexicon of legends. This book will delight everyone who wants to see a master in his element; showing that nobody does it better…
All properties © 2020 their respective rights holders. All rights reserved.

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Afrika


By Hermann (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-844-6 (HC) eISBN: 978-1-62115-865-3

Hermann Huppen is a master of comics storytelling, blending gritty tales of human travail and personal crisis with astoundingly enticing illustration and seamless storytelling. His past masterpieces include Bernard Prince, Comanche, Jeremiah, Towers of Bois-Maury, Sarajevo-Tango, Station 16 and many others.

Far too little of his work exists in English translation but this brief yet potent contemporary excursion into the Heart of Darkness is unquestionably one of his most evocative. Delivered in an oversized full-colour hardback edition, stand-alone tale Afrika is set on a Tanzanian Wildlife preserve, tracing the final fate of irascible man of mystery Dario Ferrier.

This passionate and dedicated preserver of the continent’s most iconic animals is facing the prospect of outliving the magnificent creatures under his protection. All his team’s efforts mean nothing in the face of the constant sustained depredations of well-funded poachers and the callous indifference of world governments.

Their slide into extinction is inexorable and the battle all but lost, yet Dario carries on day after day, bolstered only by the passionate attentions of “his” woman Iseko and the dogged determination of his comrades-in-arms. However, even they are under constant pressure to abandon him…

When a headstrong but gullible European photo-journalist is foisted upon him, Dario sees the end in sight. Charlotte dogs his heels and challenges his cynical macho assumptions all across the veldt, but when she accidentally films atrocities and war crimes perpetrated by unassailable people of wealth and authority, the stunned “whites” quickly find themselves the quarry in a pitiless hunt through the bush.

Sadly for the pursuers, they have no conception of how dangerous Dario truly is…

Determined to get Charlotte to safety, the world-weary guardian knows his own life is over; all he wants now is to go out his way…

Plotted with deceptive subtlety, packed with visceral, uncompromising action and painted with breathtaking skill, Afrika is a truly perfect adventure comic and a phenomenal personal vision of modern infamy and the oldest of motivations: more potent and relevant now than it was on its initial release nearly two decades ago…
© 2007 SAF Comics.

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Night of The Devil – War Picture Library volume 3


By Hugo Pratt, Tom Tully, Gordon Sowman & various (Rebellion Studios/Treasury of British Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-903-3 (HB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Born in Rimini, Ugo Eugenio Prat, AKA Hugo Pratt (June 15th 1927 – August 20th 1995) wandered the world in early life, whilst becoming one of its paramount comics creators. His enthralling graphic inventions since Ace of Spades (in 1945 whilst still studying at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts) were many and varied. His signature character – based in large part on his own exotic formative years – is mercurial soldier (perhaps sailor is more accurate) of fortune Corto Maltese.

Pratt was a consummate storyteller with a unique voice and a stark expressionistic graphic style that should not work, but so wonderfully does: combining pared-down, relentlessly modernistic narrative style with memorable characters, always complex whilst bordering on the archetypical. After working in Argentinean and (from 1959) English comics like top gun Battler Briton, and on combat stories for extremely popular digest novels in assorted series such as War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, War at Sea Picture Library and others – Pratt returned to and settled in Italy, and later France. In 1967, with Florenzo Ivaldi he produced a number of series for monthly comic Sgt. Kirk.

In addition to the Western lead star, he created pirate feature Capitan Cormorand, detective feature Lucky Star O’Hara, and a moody South Seas saga called Una Ballata del Mare Salato (A Ballad of the Salty Sea). When it folded in 1970, Pratt remodelled one of Una Ballata’s characters for French weekly, Pif Gadget before eventually settling in with the new guy at legendary Belgian periodical Le Journal de Tintin. Corto Maltese proved as much a Wild Rover in reality as in his historic and eventful career…

In Britain Pratt found rich thematic pickings in the ubiquitous mini-books like Super Picture Library, Air Ace Picture Library, Action Picture Library and Thriller Picture Library: half-sized, 64-page monochrome booklets with glossy soft-paper covers containing lengthy complete stories of 1-3 panels per page. These yarns were regularly recycled and reformatted, but the supernaturally-tinged stories gathered here – from Battle Picture Library #62 (June 1962) and War Picture Library #91 (March 1961) – have only appeared once… until now…

Resurrected and repackaged by Rebellion Studios for their Treasury of British Comics imprint, Night of the Devil is a brooding blend of mystery, revenge and supernatural doom scripted by astoundingly prolific long-serving Glasgow-born Tom Tully. His canon of classic delights include Roy of the Rovers, Heros the Spartan, Dan Dare, The Leopard from Lime Street, Adam Eterno, Janus Stark, Mytek the Mighty, Master of the Marsh, The Wild Wonders, Nipper, The Mind of Wolfie Smith, Johnny Red, Harlem Heroes, Mean Arena, Inferno, Football Family Robinson, Buster’s Ghost and countless more.

He’s supported here by co-writer/unsung company stalwart Gordon Sowman who toiled during the 1950s & 1960s on Picture Library publications and weekly features as well as writing numerous Sexton Blake Library novels under the nom du crime Desmond Reid. He might even have written the sadly uncredited second jungle combat tale here…

A fulsome and informative Foreword from Chloe Maveal shares some more astounding real life adventures of Pratt and traces his celebrated career before we step into creepy comics combat mode with ‘Night of the Devil’ (BPL #62)…

Deep in Burma’s jungles a seven-man British Army platoon races to blow up the bridge at Taigu and slow the inexorable advance of Japanese forces. However ‘The Lieutenant’ in command is untested, arrogant and vainglorious, only seeing the task as a means to secure promotion and praise.

Ignoring the advice of tested veterans such as Lance Corporal Paddy Price and Sergeant Matt Brind, smugly superior Lieutenant Robert Salter pushes his team mercilessly and makes one costly mistake after another. When his recklessness causes his scout’s death and makes them a pinpoint target of the enemy, the remaining squad snatch a few hours’ sleep before pressing on and taking refuge in an ancient edifice far from their planned route home. ‘The Temple’ is pre-Buddhist, eerily magnificent and occupied by a single native priest dedicated to the worship of ancient Phya Yomaraj. That doesn’t save him when Salter panics and opens fire with a machine gun…

As the cleric dies vowing doom to all, the gunfire alerts the enemy outside and triggers ‘The Siege’ which gradually but spectacularly winnows the team down. Tensions aren’t eased any when Private Don Evans finds a tourist guide and mordantly reads out the history of the arcane temple and its god who is “king of the devils” and ruthless with all transgressors…

Salter is descending into madness but still hopeful of escape, triumph and glory. Despatching the Sarge and Price to complete the mission and blow up ‘The Bridge’ simply to distract encroaching waves of Japanese soldiers, he then betrays them to save his own skin. As his end approaches, Salter experiences ‘The Awakening’, but as he shakes sleep from his head and readies his team to resume the mission to Taigu something occurs and he realises it was no dream but a horrific prophecy…

A powerful psychological thriller breaking the rules of kids’ combat comics, Night of the Devil is subtly subversive, straightforwardly told and startlingly compelling, far from the bread & butter war stories that sustained British readers for decades.

Pure horror overtones are dialled down in follow-up ‘The Bayonet Jungle’. Far less overtly spooky in delivery, this catalogue of jungle warfare originated in War Picture Library #91 (March 1961) with Pratt limning a more traditional episode, albeit one similarly steeped in psychological angst. It begins as a hard-pressed, cut-off British unit in Burma is disturbed and conflicted by new replacement Jack Green. Although a capable soldier, many of his new comrades believe him a jinx because twice he has been the ‘Sole Survivor’ of in-country patrols. Minor events seem to constantly confirm those fears and superstitious squaddie Jenkins can’t stop speculating aloud despite every effort of solid soldiers Sergeant Freeman and Major Webb…

With mail drops and supply runs failing, snipers, air raids and ‘Jungle Ambush’ bedevilling the embattled survivors, the last thing they need is demoralising accidents too, but only after a Burman native working for the Japanese infiltrates the unit and leads them into an ambush at the ‘Village of Treachery’ is rationality is restored with the ‘Test of Courage’ in fighting their way out inspiring the spooked warriors to battle towards reinforcements, turn the tables on the enemy and score an explosive victory…

What happens next is powerful, exhilarating and exactly what you’d expect from a kids’ comic crafted to sell in the heyday of UK war films commemorating the conflict their parents lived through.

At the end are the original full-colour painted covers by superb Pino Dell’Orco as first seen on Battle Picture Library #62 (June 1962 ‘Night of the Devil’) and War Picture Library #91 (March 1961 ‘The Bayonet Jungle’).

Potent, powerful, genre-blending and oddly cathartic, these are brilliant examples of the British Comics experience – and if you’re a connoisseur of graphic thrills and dramatic tension – utterly unmissable.
© 1961, 1962, 2021 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All rights reserved.

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The Marquis of Anaon volumes 1 & 2: The Isle of Brac & The Black Virgin


By Vehlmann & Bonhomme, coloured by Delf: translated by Mark Bence (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-255-3 (PB Album/Digital edition Brac) & 978-1-84918-265-2 (PB Album/Digital edition Virgin)

These books include Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

In 1972 Fabien Vehlmann entered the world in Mont-de-Marsan. He was raised in Savoie, growing up to study business management before taking a job with a theatre group. His prodigious canon of pro comics work began in 1998 and has earned him the soubriquet of “Goscinny of the 21st Century”.

In 1996, after entering a writing contest in Le Journal de Spirou, he caught the comics bug and two years later – with illustrative collaborator Denis Bodart – produced a mordantly quirky, sophisticated portmanteau period crime comedy entitled Green Manor. From there on his triumphs grew to include – amongst many others – Célestin Speculoos for Circus, Nicotine Goudron for L’Écho des Savanes and major-league property Spirou and Fantasio…

Scion of an artistic family, Matthieu Bonhomme received his degree in Applied Arts in 1992, before learning the comics trade working in the atelier of western & historical strip specialist Christian Rossi. Le Marquis d’Anaon was Bonhomme’s first regular series, running from 2002-2008, after which he began writing as well as illustrating a variety of tales, from L’Age de Raison, Le Voyage d’Esteban, The Man Who Shot Lucky Luke and much more.

So, what’s going on here? Imagine The X-Files set in France in the Age of Enlightenment (circa 1720s), played as a solo piece by a young hero growing reluctantly into the role of crusading troubleshooter. With potent overtones of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Fall of the House of Usher and similar traditional gothic romances, 2001’s L’Isle de Brac was the first of 5 albums (all available in English-language paperback and digital formats) tracing the development of a true champion against darkness and human venality.

Under-employed scholar and middle class, pragmatic philosopher Jean-Baptiste Poulain is the son of a merchant, an ardent disciple of Cartesian logic and former medical student. Educated but impoverished, he accepts a post to tutor the son of the mysterious Baron of Brac. It is a career decision that will shape the rest of his life…

As he approaches the windswept, storm-battered and extremely isolated island off the Brittany Coast, Poulain cannot understand the fear and outrage in the downtrodden villagers who initially believe him to be a visiting nobleman. Taken under the wing of another passenger – an itinerant professional storyteller – the teacher-in-waiting learns that the surly peasant inhabitants secretly call their master and liege lord “the Ogre”. Moreover, Poulain is utterly astounded by how violently protective they are in regard to the village’s few children…

In an oppressive atmosphere and crushed beneath ever-mounting social tensions, the facts gradually unfold. Even as the young man endures suspicion and veiled hostility from the lowly classes, he gradually nurtures a deep appreciation for the forward-thinking, rationalist and compellingly charismatic Baron de Brac. However, when the heir – and his sole student – Nolwen is found brutalised and murdered, heightened feelings spike and Poulain painfully learns that this is not the first body to be found…

From then on, it’s hard to determine who is friend or foe and – although a trained thinker always inclined to challenge the old superstitions – the tutor increasingly ponders if unworldly forces are in play…

Conversations with the roaming mariner known only as The Storyteller lead to Poulain being attacked by some villagers – or perhaps they are merely opportunistic thieves? Barely escaping, the dazed, astounded scholar sees poor murdered Nolwen before passing out…

The baffled teacher awakes under the Baron’s care and resolves to leave at the first opportunity by any means necessary. When disturbed housemaid Ninon begs him to take her with him, an incredible secret history of unremitting horror is exposed, leading to the Baron ruthlessly hunting his fleeing employees and caging them in a hidden laboratory.

Here Poulain discovers the appalling truth of his employer. The elder savant is obsessed with unlocking all secrets of the human mind and man’s inner world, and has over many years devised pitiless experiments to test all his theories. Of course they yield the best results if carried out on unformed minds…

Trapped but not helpless, Poulain uses the tests and data de Brac has indulged and fanatically compiles against him, before escaping to expose the ghastly secret of the “ghosts” who walk the island. When the Baron and his terrifying flunkey come for him, fortune finally favours the tutor and apparently divine justice is rendered unto all…

In the aftermath, Poulain quits the island alone, as much to avoid the pitifully grateful, still fearful villagers as to resume his interrupted life in healthier climes. Sadly, he cannot outrun the obnoxious title they have bestowed upon him in their Bretagne argot: Le Marquis d’Anaon – “the Marquis of Lost Souls”…

The Black Virgin

Jean-Baptiste Poulain returned in 2003’s La Vierge Noire (with Cinebook’s translated tome released in October 2015) as his travels and compulsions bring him to isolated, snowbound Puy-Marie in the middle of Advent. Here the populace are far less diffident, actively poking into his affairs and even his luggage. Finding worthless books – and a loaded pistol – they back off and a pedlar engages him in conversation, assuming he’s here to observe the witchcraft and murder all are expecting to manifest once again on the sacred solstice…

Women have been horrendously killed at the Christmas feast for years now and a ghastly trade in sensationalistic, prurient gutter prints and memorabilia has grown up around the phenomenon of “the Demon of Puy-Marie” and its connection to the Shrine of the Black Virgin. Poulain has indeed travelled from Paris to observe the expected imminent atrocity, but does not believe the killer is a supernatural force…

Despite wanting the Christmas Eve murders stopped, the Count of Puy-Marie is far from encouraging, but does actually not forbid the scholar’s investigations, which begin in mid-December at the woodland shrine. Local priest Fra Guillaume despairs: his parishioners still believe the little relic in the woods has magical powers and even admits it is also a focus for those who still believe in the old practises of witchcraft… most notably the heathen gypsies who travel to the shrine every yuletide and are currently infesting the woods around the village. He also urges the godless rationalist to abandon his morbid unhealthy curiosity and leave things alone…

With every pauper, vendor and lord anticipating another torture/murder in the days to come, Poulain ponders again the horrid discoveries and fascinations of Baron de Brac and debates whether this might be another case of twisted human madness unleashed. If so, it is one he can end…

After using his medical knowledge to help a woman “cursed by gypsies”, he gets some of the terrified citizens onside even as sporadic incidents of blood magic denote “the Demon” is back and flexing his infernal muscles. One such incident even deprives Poulain of his most trusted and faithful companion, and his new friends readily fall back on old prejudices and condemn the homeless, impious, degenerate and debauched “Egyptians” in the forest…

When another village girl is found horrifically mutilated by the shrine days earlier than expected, the scholar fears escalation in the perpetrator’s behaviour but must first head off potential mob retaliation. With the appalled Count’s approval he visits the Roma encampment and has a most disturbing encounter with a brazen young fortune teller Sarah, who seems to know all his secrets. She rattles his intellectual composure so much that Poulain almost issues a crucial clue when her guardians Allesandro and Lucas come to blows over her gifts and reputation…

In the village tempers are still flaring and when Poulain discovers a nasty warning to back off, he only intensifies his enquiries: learning key background from the oldest woman in town that at last points him in the right direction. This in turn unearths more shocking secrets and illicit affairs that would rock the status quo if exposed…

With too much information to sift through, Poulain again despairs: even backsliding to consider a supernatural culprit, but when The Demon strikes, making him the next Christmas offering, the proximity of agonising extinction sharpens the detective’s wits. Deducing the killer’s identity, Poulain shamefully employs psychological tricks gleaned from Baron de Brac’s journals to turn the maniac’s hatred fatally, finally inward…

Vehlmann’s tight, taut authentic compellingly scripting, backed up by Bonhomme’s densely informative but never obtrusive realistic illustration delivers moody, ingenious, utterly enthralling tales of modern horror tropes imbedded in an era of superstition, class separation, burgeoning natural wonder, reason ascendant and crumbling belief: spooky crime mysteries with a troubled, self-doubting quester holding always at bay the crippling notion that all his knowledge might be trumped by the lurking unknown…

The Marquis of Anaon is a mystery milestone well-deserving of a greater audience and one no mystery maven should miss.
Original edition © Dargaud Paris 2002, 2003 by Vehlmann & Bonhomme. All rights reserved. English translations © 2015 by Cinebook Ltd.

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Charley’s War – The Definitive Collection volume 2: Brothers in Arms


By Pat Mills & Joe Colquhoun & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-620-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect. If any incidence of such slurs, epithets, terms, behaviours or treatments might offend you, you really should not be reading this book or – arguably – maybe you need it more than most.

The Great War officially started today in 1914. I can’t tell you how glad I am that we got all that jingoism, racism, seductive superiority, addictive violence and nationalistic avarice out of our collective systems back then. It’s a much calmer, nicer world now, right?

Meanwhile, here’s more of the best story – bar none in any medium – to translate those appalling, internationally insane, diplomatically deranged and pointlessly self-destructive days into scenarios we can accept if not understand: evocatively and emotionally depicting not only the mud and mire and military madness and mass mortality of that conflict, but also shared with the young and impressionable its impact on the poor and the mighty who survived into the totally different world that came after. You must read it and the other two collected volumes. Message ends.

When Pat Mills & Joe Colquhoun began their tale of a patriotic working-class kid who broke the rules to proudly fight for his country just in time for the disastrous Somme campaign, I suspect they had, as always, the best of authorial intentions but no real idea that this time they were making comics history.

The landmark feature was originally published in British anthology Battle (AKA Battle Picture Weekly, Battle Action, etc.). A surprise hit, the serial proper launched in #200, eventually running from January 1979 to October 1986, recounting in heartrending harrowing detail, and with amazing maturity and passion for a Boys’ Periodical, the life of an East End teenager in the British Army reinforcements setting out to fight the Hun in 1916.

The strip contingent in this second stunning collection covers episodes #87-176/1st November 1980 through 10th July 1982 and comprises one of the most powerful and influential characterisations of the oh-so-ironic “war to end all wars”. Lovingly researched, lavishly limned and staggeringly authentic, the stories touch upon many diverse aspects of the conflict and even reveal the effects on the Home Front, all delivered with a devastatingly understated dry sense of horror and cruel injustice, albeit constantly leavened with gallows humour as trenchant as that legendarily “enjoyed” by the poor trench-bound “Tommies” of the time.

In the previous book “the Story of a Soldier in World War One” followed 16-year-old London Bus Company worker Charley Bourne who lied about his age to illegally go “over there” only to discover unending, enduring horrors on the muddy, blood-soaked battlefield of The Somme. He also experienced the callous ineptitude of upper-class idiots running the war and believing their own men utterly expendable.

Military life was alternately hard and unremittingly dull – except for brief bursts of manic aggression and strategic stupidity which ended so many lives. Closely following the recorded course of the war, Mills & Colquhoun placed young Charley in the Westshire Regiment and added a rapidly changing cast constantly whittled away by various modes of combat attrition.

The weekly hellscapes showed lesser known, far from glorious sides of the conflict readers in the 1980s had never seen in any other war comic. Each episode was punctuated by a narrative device of the simple lad’s letters to his family in “Blighty” whilst also cleverly utilising reproductions of cartoons and postcards of the period.

With Boer War veteran Ole Bill Tozer as his mentor, Charley narrowly survived shelling, mudslides, digging details, gas attacks, the Trench Cat, rats, snipers, smug stupidity of commanding officers – although there are examples of good “brasshats” too – and the far too often insane absurdity of a modern soldier’s life.

On July 1st 1916 The Battle of the Somme began and Charley and his comrades were ordered “over the top”: expected to walk steadily into mortars and machine gun fire of entrenched German defenders. When his commanding officer was unable to stand the stupidity and ordered them to charge at a run, it saved the squad but ultimately led to Lt. Thomas being executed by firing squad. Charley and former musical hall ventriloquist Weeper Watkins refused to shoot him and were extensively punished by sadistic military policeman Sergeant “the Beast” Bacon over and over again…

When Charley and his crooked brother-in-law Oliver Crawleigh were caught in the first tank battle in history and the dreadful German response, chancer “Oiley” offered to pay Charley to either protect him or wound him in some minor way that would get safely back to Britain. When Charley refused, Oiley misused a tank to earn his “Blighty” passage home…

As previously stated, Charley’s War closely follows key events, using them as a skeleton to hang specific incidents upon, but this was not the strip’s only innovation. Highly detailed research concentrated more on character development than fighting – although there’s much shocking action – and declared to the readership (which at time of publication was categorically assumed to be boys aged 9-13) that “our side” was as monstrous and stupid as “the Boche.” Mills also fully exercised his own political and creative agendas on the series and was constantly amazed at what he got away with and what seeming trivialities his editors pulled him up on (more fully expanded upon in the author’s informative ‘Strip Commentary’ which concludes this edition)…

No longer a fresh-faced innocent but a weary, battle-scarred veteran, Charley and the strip marched beyond the cataclysmic Somme Campaign into the conflict’s most bloody events. Charley was wounded again and sent home, albeit via torturous routes involving amnesia and U-Boat warfare. Mills & Colquhoun delivered acerbic social criticism as the recuperating lad experienced fresh horrors when the troop ship carrying him and Bill Tozer was torpedoed…

When the perilous North Sea odyssey at last brought Charley back to Silvertown in London’s West Ham, it was in the wake of a real-world catastrophic disaster wherein 50 tons of TNT detonated at a munitions factory, killing 70 workers and injuring a further 400.

No longer comfortable around civilians and with no stomach for the jingoistic nonsense of the stay-at-homes or the lies of boastful “war-hero” Oiley, Charley hangs out in pubs with the Sarge but is caught up in enemy air raids (giving the creators room to explore the enemy side of the conflict via the zealous actions of devoted family man Kapitan Heinrich von Bergmann who leads a squadron of Zeppelins in night sorties against the hated English)…

London was under constant threat, not just from increasingly common aerial bombing raids which provoked mindless panic and destruction at the very heart of the British Empire, but also profiteering British industrialists and greedy munitions magnates who cared more for profit than the safety of their workers or even the victory of their homeland…

During one raid Charley realised his mum was still in the local works as her boss refused to sound air raid evacuation alarms because he had profits and contracts to consider. Charley’s view of the land he was fighting for barely survived his valiant efforts to save his mum and took an even bigger hit when an unscrupulous army recruiter (earning bonuses for every volunteer signed up) attempted to entrap his underaged but conflict-obsessed little brother Wilf Bourne…

This magnificent (mostly) monochrome mega-compilation resumes the saga, opening in March 1917 with another devilish deviation: the testimony of a charismatic deserter. ‘Blue’s War’ was an experimental story within a story with the strip’s titular character reduced to an avid and appalled listener…

Through eerie blacked-out bombed London Streets Red Caps (military police) hunt deserters, led by a pitiless, fanatical dying-of-wounds officer dubbed The Drag Man. He is most interested in a desperate character called Blue. The knife-wielding fugitive encounters Charley by breaking into the Bourne house. Blue is actually looking for Oiley: a cowardly spiv and petty criminal, inexplicably married to Charley’s sister Dolly. When the crook appears Charley learns the cowardly shirker has graduated from thievery and looting to selling passage abroad and fake papers to absconders from the military…

Disgusted with Oiley and his thuggish stooge Snips Parsons but unwilling to force anyone back into the war, Charley agrees to say nothing and instead asks the charismatic stranger the hows & whys of his situation. In return he hears a staggering tale of combat, cruelty, bravery and army ineptitude.

Blue is an Englishman who joined the French Foreign Legion before serving with the French Army, surviving through the hell of Verdun (longest battle of the WWI, lasting from February 21st to December 18th 1916). The astonishing revelations of this forgotten siege commandeer the strip as episodes of Blue’s War describe Verdun’s many and varied horrors as related by a true outsider hero and British rebel (and based on real-world “Monocled Mutineer” Percy Toplis).

The unfolding flashback account is counterpointed by Blue’s – and now Charley’s – tense and dramatic flight from the Drag Man and his brutal minions across the East End and culminates in the rebel’s escape and Bourne’s grudging return to the Western Front. Just before that though, Charley scuppers Oiley’s latest scam – defrauding bereaved soldiers’ mothers via a fake spiritualist – and exposes another thread of bigotry regarding munitions workers like his poor old mum, reaffirming how then and now the feature was one of the most sophisticated and adult dramas ever seen in fiction, let alone the pages of a kids’ war comic.

Mills & Colquhoun’s comic strip condemnation of the Great War (and war-mongering and profiteering in general) slips into sardonic high gear as the recuperating boy-soldier settles his affairs in London before returning to the terrifying trenches and insane warlords on both sides of No-Man’s Land….

In April 1917 he is a veteran of the front, posted to the Salient before the Third Battle of Ypres and caught up in daily skirmishes, sudden deaths, more arrant stupidity and a simmering feud as fellow early volunteers Grogan and Zippo ruthlessly bully newly conscripted troops like college graduate “Scholar” for being cowardly slackers forced to do their duty. Bourne’s efforts to stay alive and do his job become more difficult when arrogant old enemy and ruthless aristocrat Captain Snell – who thinks the war a terrific lark – returns as commanding officer and appoints Charley his manservant/dogsbody…

Snell constantly undermines and crushes the spirit of the riffraff cannon fodder under his command and loves making their lives intolerable, a practise mirrored by increasingly out-of-control Grogan. When he finally flips and dies, his pal Zippo holds Charley responsible…

By May the infantry are marching in scorching heat and the creators wallow in bizarre historical accuracy and intriguing gallows humour, capitalising on the lengthy build-up of troops which forced a long period of tedious inactivity upon the already bored soldiery. Life in the trenches was always hard and unremittingly dull: a fact reiterated here by such insanity as a cricket match played out whilst shells rain down, Tommies destroying their own equipment and a dozen other daily insanities of the military mind exposed with devastating effect.

As the Third Battle of Ypres soggily unfolds in August and the build-up to the Battle of Passchendaele intensifies, Snell’s unit is posted to an engineering detail short of manpower. Bourne and his pals endure backbreaking toils as “clay-kickers”, risking cave-ins, flood, gas, explosions and Germans above them digging into their tunnels. This push will complete a year-long project undermining a vast ridge of solid rock that is the enemy artillery emplacement on the Messine Ridge. If they don’t die, Charley and co. will pack the explosives for the biggest manmade explosion the world has ever experienced…

In the build-up to that astounding detonation almost everyone dies, but at least Snell also goes to his infernal reward, with the pitiful survivors despatched to “The Bullring” at Etaples: a brutal retraining centre testing the lower ranks to their limits whilst cossetting commissioned officers. It brings Charley into murderous contact with an organised band of deserters – the Sandbaggers – and reunites him with many lost comrades, whilst in England Oiley gets his revenge by facilitating war-mad Wilf Bourne’s enlistment years before he is legally able to. The older Bourne will spend agonised months trying to find out what happened to Wilf…

The mounting tensions, barbarous treatment and institutionalised class injustice at Etaples leads to a British army mutiny (all but written out of our historical record ever since) in September, before triggering the most shameful moments of Charley’s life when he is forced to join another firing squad…

The mutiny goes on for days, emptying stockades and allowing the settling of many old scores, but Charley’s war is even more complicated after meeting the Sandbaggers’ leader who he recognises as someone he never thought to see again. Bourne is even more astonished by the Army’s capitulation to the mutineers’ terms, and totally unprepared for inevitable retaliations. In response he transfers to the most dangerous job in the army to expiate his guilt…

To Be Concluded…

Lifted to dizzying heights of excellence by the phenomenal artwork of Joe Colquhoun – much of it in colour as the strip alternated between the prized cover spot and almost as prestigious centre-spread slot – these are masterpiece of subversive outrage within the greater marvel that is Charley’s War. Included in this volume are a full cover gallery and restored colour sections (reproduced in monochrome for earlier collections but vibrantly hued here to vivid effect) plus Mills’ amazingly informative chapter notes and commentary on the episodes.

This is a highpoint and benchmark in the narrative examination of the Great War in any artistic medium and exists as a shining example of how good “Children’s Comics” can be. It is also one of the most powerful pieces of fiction ever produced for readers of any age. I know of no anti-war story that is as gripping, as engaging and as engrossing, no strip that so successfully transcends its mass-market origins and popular culture roots to become a landmark of fictive brilliance. I’d bribe Ministers to get these wonderful books onto the National Curriculum. We can only thank our lucky stars no Hollywood hack has made it a “blockbuster” inescapably undercutting the tangibility of the “heroes” whilst debasing the message. There is nothing quite like it and you are diminished by not reading it.
© 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 & 2018 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Charley’s War is ™ & © Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan® of the Apes volume 1


By Edgar Rice Burroughs, adapted by Roy Thomas, Pablo Marcos, Oscar González & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 987-1-50673-236-7 (HB) eISBN: 987-1-50673-335-7

This book includes historical Discriminatory Content.

Beginning with the October 1912 number, Tarzan of the Apes was serialized in anthological pulp magazine The All-Story before being collected into the world famous novel first released in June 1914. It and sequel tales were thereafter constantly adapted into plays, films and newspaper strip form: that last one beginning on January 7th 1929, and illustrated by Hal (Prince Valiant) Foster. A truly spectacular full page Sunday strip began on March 15, 1931, with artwork by Rex Maxon and carried on by some of the greatest illustrators in the business. United Feature Syndicate distributed the strip, which carried new Sunday material until 2002. The Daily strip had ended new material on 29th July 1972, when Russ Manning quit it to concentrate on the Sunday feature and Tarzan books for Europe. From 2003 even the Sundays switched to offering reprints of early classics – due more to the parlous state of US strips and newspapers than a loss of interest in the hero…

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ fantasy epic has been a hugely appreciated and acclaimed property for more than a century. The character has enjoyed countless novel releases (23 official sequels by ERB and many “rogue” tales by others) in every language and in every medium of expression – even a bunch of ballets!

The jungle man is (arguably) a public domain figure these days, spawning a number of hotly-contested crossover team-ups and “unauthorised” exploits. Just over a decade ago, his story was celebrated and commemorated by a return to basics as we’ll see in this review.

As already stated, very soon after his prose debut, Tarzan became a multimedia sensation and global brand. More novels and many, many movies – all created or at least sanctioned by Burroughs and his family – followed. The American comic strip arrived in 1929, followed by a radio show in 1932, and the Ape-Man inevitably carved out a solid slice of television and comic book markets too, once those industries were established. His comic book exploits have been with us since the start: initially gathering newspaper strips until Dell Four Color Comic #134 (February 1947) began a run of original material spanning Dell, Gold Key, Charlton, DC, Marvel, Blackthorne, Malibu, Dark Horse and Idaho Comics Group that is still unfolding.

… And that’s just the USA: Tarzan has been a global byword for adventure for most of the last hundred years, with many countries contributing to the oeuvre if not the canon. In Britain for a while in the 1950s, Michael Moorcock steered the course of Tarzan’s Adventures…

The book look today focuses on a compilation of the latest entertainment platform to go ape. As revealed in the ‘Introduction by Roy Thomas’ the formation of EdgarRiceBurroughs.com led to Thomas and Tom Grindberg reviving and expanding the Ape-Man’s canon via a webcomic – Tarzan: The New Adventures. Those online strips soon spawned a second string to the bow…

The parent company wanted more and Thomas’ solution was to re-adapt Burroughs’ original books as Foster had done in 1929, but by judicious editing of Tarzan of the Apes and its follow-ups, create at last a definitive, fully chronological biography of the immortal hero’s journey from birth to …whenever…

Thus he scoured the 24 canonical novels for revelatory moments, braiding them into a tapestry tracing the wild boy’s development over 127 Sunday instalments based on the material’s many flashback moments. Moreover, the feature would benefit from the experience of Peruvian master artist Pablo Marcos (James Bond 007, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Conan, Tales of the Zombie, Secret Society of Super-Villains) and designer/computer colour painter Oscar González.

By way of introduction, this version of Tarzan of the Apes opens in a bar where Edgar Rice Burroughs meets with a man with an extraordinary tale to tell…

It – and ‘Tarzan of the Apes: A Classic Adaptation’ – begins in 1888 as, following a shipboard mutiny, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke and his wife Lady Alice are marooned on the African coast. At least they have their possessions, including books for their soon-to-be-born baby…

Against appalling odds they persevere, with Greystoke building a fortified cabin to shelter them from marauding beasts – particularly curious and savage apes roaming the region. Despite the birth of a son, eventually the jungle wins and the humans die. However, their son is saved by a grieving she-ape who adopts the infant to replace her own recently dead “Balu”…

Here the saga diverges, as incidents latterly revealed in short stories comprising ERB’s 6th book Jungle Tales of Tarzan are intercut with the ongoing adaptation. Tragic circumstance leads to the wild boy discovering he can swim whilst further moments see the foundling exercise his growing intellect and penchant for practical jokes against older apes like bullies like Tublat and Kerchak before the origin resumes. As the ugly hairless freak thrives under mother Kala’s doting attentions, he grows strong but increasingly aware of his differences. He only discovers the how and why after years of diligent effort when – through sheer intellectual effort and the remnants of his father’s books and papers – the boy teaches himself to read and deduces that he is actually a “M-A-N”…

These lone forays to the abandoned cabin also lead to a major rite of passage as the boy is attacked by a berserk gorilla and almost perishes in the process of making his first kill…

No sooner has Kala nursed him back to health than Tublat attacks her and the “the hairless one” (the meaning of the term “Tarzan”) scores his second magnificent bloody triumph…

The tale within a tale continues as the boy rises to prominence amongst his hirsute kin. Through observation, imagination and ingenuity he invents a lasso, creates warm protective clothing and masters the beasts of his pitiless environment: most by force but some – like the elephants (“Tantor”) by friendly mutual cooperation…

When cannibalistic natives settle in the area Tarzan has his first contact with creatures he correctly identifies as being M-E-N like him. The situation leads to the greatest tragedy of his life, as one of M’Bonga’s tribe kills beloved, devoted Kala, teaching Tarzan the shock of loss and bestowing an overpowering hunger for revenge – which he inflicts on the whole tribe with chilling ruthlessness. The punitive actions grant him mastery of another infallible weapon: a hunting bow and poisoned arrows…

Weekly instalments adapt more vignettes from Jungle Tales, beginning with ‘Tarzan’s First Love’, detailing how the adolescent is increasingly drawn to fetching young she-ape Teeka. Incomprehensibly, no matter what he does, the young maiden just isn’t interested in her ardent pink admirer yet somehow sees his friend Taug as ideal…

Clearly, the heart wants what the heart wants and Tarzan understands: even nobly saving his rival from the M’Bonga’s relentless hunger for bushmeat. They call Tarzan “Forest-Devil”, and ‘The Capture of Tarzan’ follows, revealing how overconfidence leads to his downfall but also how his relationship with elephants saves him.

Reworkings continue in ‘The Battle for the Balu’ as Teeka & Taug become incomprehensibly aggressive after the birth of their first balu, and build in ‘The God of Tarzan’ with the ever-curious jungle wonder overdosing on his dead dad’s books and suffering a brain-expanding religious experience. As a result, a search for divinity takes him all over his savage kingdom and into clashes with beasts and men…

Next comes ‘Tarzan and Black Boy’ (often retitled ‘Tarzan and the Native Boy’) with the young outsider experiencing paternal yearnings. After abducting a small human boy and learning guilt, folly and shame, the Ape-Man gains his first human arch-enemy by spoiling greedy fetish-man Bukuwai the Unclean’s scam to impoverish the distraught mother of his kidnapped prize Tibo…

To Be Continued

Supplemented by Creator Biographies of Thomas, Marcos and Gonzalez, this tome is a fascinating addition to the pictorial annals of the Ape-Man and a monument to romantic fantasy, wild adventure and comics creativity no lover of the medium, character or genre can do without.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan® of the Apes © 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2022 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks Tarzan®, Tarzan of the Apes™ and Edgar Rice Burroughs® are owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. and used with permission. All rights reserved.

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Retro Classics: The Victor Presents: Alf Tupper – The Tough of the Track


By various anonymous and Peter Sutherland (Retro Classics/DC Thomson)
No ISBN, digital only edition

If you grew up British any time after 1960 and read our comics you probably cast your eye occasionally – if not indeed fanatically – over DC Thompson’s venerable “Boys’ Paper” The Victor. For over 100 years the Dundee-based company has been a mainstay of British reading entertainment with its strong editorial stance informing and influencing a huge number of household names over the decades.

Post-WWII, Victor was very much the company’s flagship title for action/adventure and featured amongst its grittily realistic pantheon of stars a perpetually grimy, soot-stained, incorrigibly working-class young(ish) sportsman called Alf Tupper; forever immortalised as The Tough of the Track. Gathered here is a clever compilation of early episodes from a sublimely never-ending soap opera story (sampled from the 1960s, illustrated by Peter [Mike Fink, Spy 13, Kit Carson, Battler Britton, Super Detective Library, Cowboy Comics Library, Thriller Picture Library] Sutherland) commemorating the unique DC Thomson comics experience and offering a splendid taste of the Running Man’s gritty charms.

The main tenet of Thomson adventure philosophy was a traditional, humanistic sense of decency. Talented, determined distance runner Tupper might be a poor, rough, ill-educated working-class orphan competing – we’d call it “punching up” – in a world of hostile “Toffee-Nosed Swells”, but he strives tirelessly and excels for the sheer reward of sportsmanship, not for gain or glory.

He’s the kind of man most decent folk used to want their kids to grow up into…

Friendly, helpful, short-tempered but big-hearted (and looking a little like everyman Norman Wisdom), Alf was actually created by in 1949 by Bill Blaine before featuring in a non-stop series of prose stories in “Boys Story-Paper” The Rover. The majority of those exploits were written by Gilbert Lawford Dalton with single illustrations by Len Fullerton, Ian McKay, Fred Sturrock, Jack Gordon, George Ramsbottom, Calder Jamieson and James “Peem” Walker.

As the 1950s ended the publisher was finally accepting that their readers no longer wanted all-prose periodicals, and comic strips were the way to go. Alf was retooled as just such a pictorial headliner, transferring to The Victor where he persevered if not prospered, carrying on until the title folded. His last 20th century appearance was in 1992 for The Sunday Post: training for the impending Barcelona Olympics. However, his spirit truly was indomitable and in April 2014 Tupper came out of enforced retirement, to begin a monthly page-per-issue strip in monthly international magazine Athletics Weekly…

Vulgar but decent, rowdy, earthy, barely-educated and perpetually sticking it to all those posh boys monopolising athletics, Alf was a proudly individualistic sportsman and one of the greatest natural distance runners who ever lived. He fought prejudice, discrimination, poverty and especially privilege to win races, medals and accolades. When he wasn’t training, competing or eating fish & chips (his secret weapon for success), the comic strip Alf was a welder in the northern industrial town of Greystone, originally apprenticed to shifty, shiftless Ike Smith before eventually setting up in business for himself.

Tupper was all about determination overcoming ill-fortune, adversity and even enemy action… and he just hated to be beaten. When he occasionally was, he didn’t dwell on excuses, but resolved to win the rematch…

Our True Brit sporting legend apparently had a big influence on the development of many of our actual sporting greats, such as Brendan Foster CBE, and the reason why can be seen in this carefully edited compilation of weekly episodes beginning with a race for the Greystone Harriers that ends in a fist fight with a fellow runner and Alf being kicked off the team and out of the club…

Barred from competing, Alf races along the verge of the track and beats them all…

As an apprentice welder, Alf spent lots of time in sports venues that were being refurbished and helped himself to empty tracks and unused facilities, gradually being noticed by coaches and selectors. However, every attempt to integrate him with the country’s top athletes ended in some smug elitist saying the wrong thing or even sabotaging the uppity oik; with Alf paying a working man’s penalty for it…

Further complicating Tupper’s life was his exploitative Aunty Meg, who controlled his wages, pawned his kit and prizes and generally gaslit him until he finally ran away from home – or rather the shed she rented to him…

In this brief collection, Alf’s career slowly progresses, comprising many clashes with the Greystone running elite, an on-off relationship with Olympic sporting academy Granton Hall, shoes and kit crises, high profile competitions in London, France, Belgium and beyond, hitchhiking troubles, clashes with the law and brushes with gamblers and race fixers, and dalliances with different distances and even other disciplines such as hurdles, long jump, 4X4 relay and steeplechase …and plenty of “boxing” too.

His biggest battle was against a top sports dietician who banned fish & chips and made him eat salads…

Wry and full of olde-worlde pluck, this seasoned sporting sampler is a wonderfully accessible slice of truly British nostalgia and a certain delight for every fan of classic competition and great comics.
VICTOR™ & © D.C. Thomson & Co. Associated text, characters and artwork © D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.