Category: Drama

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Wandering Star


By Teri S. Wood (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-80162-9 (HB/Digital edition)

The 1980s were an immensely fertile time for English-language comics and creators. In America a whole new industry grew around a boom in specialist shops as dedicated retail outlets sprung up all over the country. Operated by fans, for fans, they encouraged and emboldened a host of new creators and publishers to experiment with format, genre and content, whilst eager readers celebrated the happy coincidence that for the first time in a long time they seemed to have a bit of extra cash to play with.

Consequently, the comics-creating newcomers were soon aggressively competing for the attention and cash of consumers who no longer had to get their sequential art fix from DC, Marvel, Archie and/or Harvey Comics. European and Japanese material started creeping in too, and by 1983 a host of young companies such as WaRP Graphics, Pacific, Eclipse, Capital, Now, Comico, Dark Horse, First and many others had established themselves and were making impressive inroads.

Most importantly, by avoiding traditional family-focussed sales points such as newsstands, and general stores, more grown-up material could be produced: not just increasingly violent or sexually explicit, but also more politically astute and intellectually challenging. And even – just occasionally – addressing classic genres with a simple maturity comic books had not been allowed to express since the Comics Code shut down EC Comics.

New talent, established stars and different thematic takes on old forms converged, finding a thriving forum hungry for something a little different. Small companies and even foreign outfits had a fair shot at the big time and many great publications came – but, almost universally, as quickly went – without getting the attention or success they warranted. The era encouraged many untried creators to take a shot and, although the surge led to a spectacular implosive bust, a few truly impressive series weathered the storm and left their mark.

One such was Wandering Star by Teri S. Wood who soldiered on to create a true epic. After self-publishing for years, in 2016 the entire 21-issue odyssey was collected in a monumental and prestigious hardback edition. We all hoped it would belatedly transform the tale from beloved cult classic to the pioneering trail blazer of comics science fiction it deserves to be. We’re not there yet, but the book is still available if you want to come late to the party…

Resa Challender started out as most cartoon aspirants did back then; selling strips to fan press publications (Amazing Heroes), progressing to a regular series gig at one of the smaller companies (Rhudiprrt: Prince of Fur for MU Press) and all the while looking for a signature concept to cement inevitable stardom.

For Teri/Resa that was proudly self-professed space opera Wandering Star, which she originally self-published in 1988 (Happy 35th, kiddo!) without appreciably troubling the comics-buying masses…

That original exuberant, raw-edged first episode is included in the copious Bonus Material section at the back of this book, accompanying an Afterword from Carla Speed McNeil (and I will get around to covering her fabulous Finder series soon…), plus a 30-page full-colour section displaying a vibrant gallery of covers and promotional prints created during the series’ original run from 1993-1997 …and again Happy Anniversary!!

Nearly 500 pages earlier Maggie Thompson starts the ball rolling with her reminiscence-rich Foreword, recalling the author’s early days and connection to Comics Buyers Guide, which Wood expands upon in her own fact-filled Introduction.

When she was ready, Teri S. Wood returned to her 30-page draft of Wandering Star and severely retooled it. The result then launched through her own Pen and Ink Comics for 11 issues of a loudly touted 12 issue maxi-series, before being picked up Sirius Press who took away all the administrative hassles and let her get on with writing and drawing it until its actual conclusion with #21.

I called this a space opera, and it qualifies in the truest sense of the term. The story of an Earthling stuck at a hostile pan-species university overcoming alien prejudice and – with a small group of allies – becomes instrumental in stopping a vast intergalactic war is the very essence of that particular genre, but Wandering Star was different then and still delights today because it avoids all the easy pit-stops and pitfalls of the trope.

There is an overwhelming threat to universal peace, there is a monstrous and dreadful cosmic personal antagonist (in the form of brutal Commander Narz) and there is a doughty, trusty crew of allies. These include blind psionic powerhouse Madison, energy being Elli, wise old veteran Graikor and hateful bully-turned-staunch-comrade Mekon Dzn Appogand, plus (latterly) fellow human Joey – all frantically hurtling across the cosmos as embattled heroes trying to keep the fugitive vessel Wandering Star out of the clutches of an invading army willing and able to rip the Galactic Alliance to shreds…

From the start Wood favoured emotional involvement rather than over-used and obvious action/spectacle to engage her readership: deftly utilising the serial form to shape cast and characters, and show scary, painful, funny and ultimately intimately revelatory moments.

Stooping to an obvious if rather unfair comparison, it’s something Star Wars movies have never accomplished, and why those players are so wooden and 2-dimensional, whereas TV series like Star Trek (especially Picard and Strange New Worlds), Farscape, Firefly or Killjoys excel at making theirs authentic and believable. They use screen time for interaction, not extra action…

That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty of cataclysmic cosmic conflict and ominous, last-ditch clashing, only that Wood knew from the get-go that people – no matter what shape, colour or construction – are infinitely more interesting than one more exploding planet or looming astral dreadnought. Most importantly, she knew how to use them and when to expend them for maximum impact…

It all begins on peaceful planet Machavia as history student Aldar tracks down celebrated recluse Casandra Andrews and convinces the aged Earther to share the true story of how 30 years ago a bunch of raw kids on the legendary Wandering Star saved the Galactic Alliance from the seemingly invincible, duplicitous and rapacious Bono Kiro Empire…

Potent, powerful, uplifting and breathtaking authentic, this is a war story that deals with consequences rather than simple victories and defeats.

Wandering Star is a true and pure example of sequential narrative as Art. Wood produced it practically as a labour of love; for precious little financial reward or public acclaim. She improved and gained confidence with every page and every issue and she did it because she had a story that wouldn’t let her go until she told it…

And once you read it, it won’t loosen its hold on you, either…
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 2016 Teri S. Wood. Foreword © 2016 Maggie Thompson. Afterword © 2016 Carla S. McNeil. All rights reserved.

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The Provocative Collette


By Annie Goetzinger, translated by Montana Kane (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-170-3 (HB)

Publisher NBM struck pure gold with their line of European-created contemporary arts histories and dramatized graphic biographies. This one is one of the very best but is tragically still only available in physical form. Hopefully that oversight will be addressed soon as it is a most enticing treat: diligently tracing the astoundingly unconventional early life of one of the most remarkable women of modern times.

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (January 28th 1873 – August 3rd 1954) escaped rural isolation and stagnation via an ill-considered marriage but, by sheer force of will and an astonishing gift for self-expression, rose to the first rank of French-language (and global) literature through her many novels and stories. The one you probably know best is Gigi, but you should really read a few more such as La Vagabonde or perhaps The Ripening Seed…

For her efforts she was elected to the Belgian Royal Academy in 1935 and France’s Académie Goncourt a decade later. She became its President in 1949, the year after she was nominated for a Nobel Prize. Her grateful country also celebrated her as Chevalier (1920) and Grand Officer (1953) of the Légion d’honneur.

Colette’s relentless search for truths in the arena of human relationships – particularly in regard to women’s independence in a hostile and patronising patriarchal society – also led her to pursue freedom of expression through dance, drama, acting & mime, in film and as a journalist.

The fact that – for most of her early life – men controlled her money also prompted her far-reaching career path until she finally managed to win control of her own destiny and coffers…

Our drama unfolds in 1893 as 20-year-old Sidonie-Gabrielle readies herself for her wedding to prestigious and much older music journalist Henry Gauthier-Villars. The great man is celebrated nationally under his nom de plume “Willy”.

That’s also the name under which he will publish his wife’s first four, hugely successful Claudine novels whilst pocketing all the profits and attendant copyrights…

Eventually breaking free to live a life both sexually adventurous and utterly on her own terms, Colette never abandoned her trust in love or reliance on a fiercely independent spirit. And she shared what she believed about the cause of female liberty with the world through her books and her actions…

This bold, life-affirming chronicle was meticulously crafted by the superb and much-missed Annie Goetzinger (18th August1951 – 20th December 2017). Tragically it was her last in a truly stellar career. The award-winning cartoonist, designer and graphic novelist (The Girl in Dior, The Hardy Agency, Félina, Aurore, Marie Antoinette: Phantom Queen, Portraits souvenirs series) supplied here sumptuous illustration perfectly capturing the complexities and paradoxes of the Belle Epoque and the wars and social turmoil that followed. Her breezy, seductively alluring script brings to vivid life a wide variety of characters who could so easily be reduced to mere villains and martinets, but instead resonate as simply people with their own lives, desires and agendas…

The scandalous escapades are preceded by an adroit and incisive Preface from journalist and author Nathalie Crom: and bookended with informative extras such as ‘Literary References’, and full ‘Chronology’ of the author’s life, plus potted biographies of ‘Colette’s Entourage’: offering context and background on friends, family and the many notables inevitably gathered around her.

Additional material includes a suggested Further Reading and a Select Bibliography.

A minor masterpiece honouring a major force in the history and culture of our complex world, this book should be at the top of the reading list for anyone who’s thought “that’s not fair” and “why do I have to?”

The Provocative Colette is a forthright and beguiling exploration of humanity and one you should secure by any means necessary.
© DARGAUD 2017 by Goetzinger. All rights reserved. © 2018 NBM for the English translation.

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Represent!


By Christian Cooper, Jesse J. Holland, Regine Sawyer, Nadira Jamerson, Tara Roberts, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Onyekachi Akalonu, N. Steven Harris, Justin Ellis, Frederick Joseph, Gabe Eltaeb, Dan Liburd, Keah Brown, Camrus Johnson, Alitha E. Martinez, Mark Morales, Doug Braithwaite, Eric Battle, Brittney Williams, Yancey Labat, Valentine De Landro, Travel Foreman, Keron Grant, Koi Turnbull, Don Hudson, Tony Akins, Moritat & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77951-419-6 (HB/Digital)

Originally published digitally in 14 chapters from September 2020 to June 2021, Represent! was – in the words of Executive Editor Marie Javins – “designed to showcase and introduce creators traditionally underrepresented in the mainstream comics book medium.” As such it was part of a greater effort by that mainstream – which contemporaneously sparked a similar project from the House of Ideas that became a string of one-shot anthologies known as Marvel Voices…

Operating in conjunction with writers, artists and other creatives of colour (both In- and especially Out-Industry) allowed greater leeway and by displaying editorial willingness to address issues, themes and opinions – and even formerly entirely-ignored and marginalised sectors of society – the series was not dictated to by commercial economics and a militant fanbase addicted to continuity.

The results were admittedly mixed, but generally the freedom elevated the material to the levels of the best of adult European comics…

Here, the result is an engaging trek through history, studied observation, personal anecdote and even fantasy, with perspectives seldom – if ever – seen in your everyday funnybook. It could not possibly all be to everyone’s taste, but this weary, aged, comfortably privileged-yet broken English white boy found plenty to enjoy and much to ponder…

Exploring all aspects of the non-white American experience, from inner-imaginative landscapes and escapes to personal ideologies, each literary-leaning comics tales comes with a brief bio of the writer (sometimes that’s also the illustrator) and unless stated otherwise is lettered by the tireless Deron Bennett.

Not so Chapter 1:‘It’s a Bird’, which sees Robert Clark put words to a heartwarming tale of family and generational birdwatching written by 1990s comics creator Christian Cooper (Star Trek, The Darkhold, Excalibur and Marvel’s first openly gay writer/editor). The modern day rights activist is here supported by illustrated by Alitha E. Martinez (Heroes, World of Wakanda, Iron Man, Mighty Crusaders, Batgirl) & Emilo Lopez.

Editor, Educator, broadcaster, historian and author Jesse J. Holland (Black Panther: Who is the Black Panther?, Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Finn’s Story, The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House) unites with British born Doug Braithwaite (Hulk, Captain America, Justice, Judge Dredd, The Punisher) & colourist Trish Mulvihill to relate a true tale. In disjointed yet carefully tailored flashbacks, a saga of endurance on a farm in rural Mississippi from 1980 to now unfolds: tracing the lives of the Hollands – a family still working land secured by ancestor and freed slave Conklin Holland in 1899…

‘Food for Thought’ comes courtesy of award-winning writer, small press publisher, essayist and journalist Regine Sawyer, with Eric Battle (Kobalt, Hardware, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Flash, Walking Dead) & Bryan Valenza rendering joyous reminiscences of a daughter shopping, cooking, talking and learning with her father in Queens, NYC, after which journalist Nadira Jamerson joins Brittney Williams (Goldie Vance, Betty & Veronica, Rugrats, Shade the Changing Girl, Lois Lane and the Friendship Challenge, Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat) & Andrew Dalhouse on the harrowing, but ultimately triumphant, journey of a black mother fighting a hostile medical system to secure an accurate diagnosis of a mystery ailment. Sometimes, all that’s necessary is to find someone to ‘Believe You’…

Chapter 5 declares ‘My Granny Was a Hero’ as Tara Roberts – educator, writer, editor and fellow of both MIT’s Open Documentary Lab and the National Geographic Storytelling project – unites with Yancey Labat (DC Superhero Girls, Legion of Super-Heroes) & colourist Monica Kubina as a little girl in 1983 changes her idol from Wonder Woman to someone far closer to home after learning how her own family unwillingly “came to America” from Cameroon in 1860…

Coloured by Emilio Lopez, ‘The Lesson’ is otherwise an all-Dominike “Domo” Stanton (Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Starbrand & Nightmask, Nubia & the Amazons) affair about violent high school days and one crucial path to escape, before writer/journalist Onyekachi Akalonu connects with Valentine De Landro (Bitch Planet, Marvel Knights: 4, X-Factor, Silver Surfer: Ghost Light, Black Manta) & Marissa Louise to offer social context on repressed young black lives by advocating ‘Fight Fires with Spray Cans’…

Coloured by Walt Barna, Chapter 8 stands ‘In Defense of Free Speech’ as 20-year comics veteran N. Steven Harris (Aztek: The Ultimate Man, Batman: Officer Down, Deadpool, X-Force, Generation X, The Wild storm: Michael Cray, Indigo Clan) recalls a time when college lectures on black culture and experience required volunteer security teams to be heard at all…

‘Weight of the World’ – by writer/editor/media producer Justin Ellis (Problem Areas, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, The Cruelty of Nice Folks), Travel Foreman (Cla$$war, Doctor Spectrum, Immortal Iron Fist, Star Wars, Black Cat) & Rex Lokus – explores the pressures family can innocently inflict on a black kid graduating high school… and how the right librarian at the right moment can turn the page on the future…

For ‘The Flightless Bird’, prominent activist, philanthropist and bestselling author Frederick Joseph collaborates with Keron Grant (Fantastic Four, Kaboom, Son of Vulcan, Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus, New Mutants) on a tale of introspection and hope when a young man is diagnosed with a killer disease.

Gabe Eltaeb (Aquaman, Batman, Star Wars) then exposes an ‘American Mongrel’ with middle school kid Abdul learning some painful truths in 1991 as his mixed Hispanic/Iraqi heritage make him an instant and easy target during the first Iraq war. Thankfully, his grampa has seen all this before…

Celebrated sports science specialist Dan Liburd asks Koi Turnbull (Fathom, Wolverine: Dangerous Games, Superman Confidential) & Tony A?ina to join him at ‘The Water’s Edge Within Reach’; exploring the assumed limits of human aspiration and physical achievement via a career in “ironman” eventing, before journalist, actor, screenwriter and author Keah Brown (The Pretty One, Sam’s Super Seats) luxuriates in superhero excess with Don Hudson (Nick Fury/SHIELD, Forever Amber, Scalped, Curse of Brimstone) & Nick Filardi. They enquire ‘Who Hired the Kid?’: debuting a sheer escapist delight in time-travelling, monster-fighting schoolgirl adventurer “The Vet”…

The wonderment concludes by going out big with actor, director, animator and comics writer Camrus Johnson joining Tony Akins (Terminator, Star Wars, Hellblazer: Papa Midnight, Fables, Jack of Fables, House of Mystery, Wonder Woman), Moritat (Harley Quinn, The Spirit, Elephantmen, All Star Western, Hellblazer, Batman, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, Transmetropolitan) & colourist Dee Cunniffe for ‘I’ll Catch up’. It finds the author in painful nostalgia mode, recalling how his big brother Mo used to visit in New York every summer, teaching the kid all the tricks of staying alive and protesting in a white world whilst still making his voice heard and his opinions count…

The stories are augmented by Darran Robinson’s iconic ‘Cover Gallery’ and supplemented by fascinating ‘layouts’ of various stories as crafted by Braithwaite, Harris & Akins…

Visually compelling, extremely well-executed, imaginative, purely poetic and operating with a degree of allegory seldom seen in regular comics whilst offering a wide and disparate use of the medium, Represent! is stunning, intriguing and entertaining but still feels something of a mixed bag… but then, it’s not really meant for me, is it?

If you’re like me, get it read and learn something…
© 2021 DC Comics, All Rights Reserved.

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Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, restored & edited by Michael Gagné (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-502-0 (HB)

Comics dream team Joe Simon & Jack Kirby presaged and ushered in the first American age of mature comics – not just with the Romance genre, but through all manner of challenging modern graphic dramas about real people in extraordinary situations… before seeing it all disappear again in less than eight years.

Their small stable of magazines – produced for a loose association of companies known as Prize/Crestwood/Pines – blossomed and wilted as the comics industry contracted throughout the 1950s.

As the popularity of flamboyant escapist superheroes waned after World War II, newer yet more familiar genres like Crime, Westerns and Horror returned to the fore in all popular entertainment media, as audiences increasingly rejected simplistic, upbeat or jingoistic fantasy for grittier, more sober themes.

Some comic book material, such as Westerns or anthropomorphic “Funny Animals”, hardly changed at all, whereas gangster and detective tales were utterly radicalised by the temperament of the post-war world.

Stark, uncompromising, cynically ironic novels, plays and socially aware, mature-themed B-movies that would be later defined as Film Noir offered post-war civilian society a bleakly antiheroic worldview that often hit too close to home and set fearful, repressive, middle-class parent groups and political ideologues howling for blood.

Naturally, these new forms and sensibilities seeped into comics, transforming good-natured, two-fisted gumshoe and Thud-&-Blunder cop strips of yore into darkly intriguing, frightening tales of seductive dames, last chances, big pay-offs and glamorous thuggery.

Sensing imminent Armageddon, the moral junkyard dogs bayed even louder as they saw their precious children’s minds under seditious attack…

Concurrent to the demise of masked mystery-men, industry giants Simon & Kirby – who were already capitalising on the rapidly growing True Crime boom – legendarily invented the genre of comic book Romance with mature, beguiling, explosively contemporary social dramas equally focussed on a changing cultural scene and adult-themed relationships. They also – with very little shading – discussed topics of a sexual nature!

After testing the waters with the semi-comedic prototype My Date for Hillman in early 1947, Joe & Jack plunged in full force with Young Romance #1 in September of that year. It launched through Crestwood Publications: a minor outfit which had been creating (as Prize Comics) interesting but far from innovative comics since 1940.

Following Simon’s plan to make a new marketplace out of the grievously ignored older girls of America, they struck gold with stories addressing serious issues, pitfalls and even genuine hazards of relationships…

Not since the invention of Superman had a single comic book generated such a frantic rush of imitation and flagrant cashing-in …although you might argue that MLJ’s Archie Andrews came close in 1942-1943.

Young Romance #1 was a monumental hit and the team acted accordingly: rapidly retooling and expanding, “S&K” released spin-offs Young Love (February 1949), Young Brides and In Love, all under a unique profits-sharing deal that quickly paid huge dividends to the publishers, creators and a growing studio of specialists.

All through that turbulent period, comic books suffered impossibly biased oversight and hostile scrutiny from hidebound and panicked old guard institutions such as church groups, media outlets and ambitious politicians. A number of tales and titles garnered especial notoriety from those conservative, reactionary doom-smiths and when the industry buckled and introduced a ferocious Comics Code, it castrated the creative form just when it most needed boldness and imagination.

Comics endured more than a decade and a half of savagely doctrinaire self-imposed censorship until swiftly changing youthful attitudes, a society in crisis and plummeting profits forced the artform to adapt, evolve or die.

Those tales all come from a simpler time: exposing a society in meltdown and suffering cultural PTSD – and are pretty mild by modern standards of behaviour – but the quality of art and writing make those pivotal years a creative highpoint well worthy of a thorough reassessment…

In 1947, fictionalising True Crime Cases was tremendously popular and profitable, and of the assorted outfits generating such material, nobody did it better than Simon & Kirby. Crucially they proved that a technique of first-person confession also perfectly applied to just-as-uncompromising personal sagas told by a succession of archetypal women and girls who populated their new comic book smash.

Their output as interchangeable writers, pencillers and inkers (aided from early on by Joe’s brother-in-law Jack Oleck in the story department) was prodigious and astounding. Nevertheless, other hands frequently pitched in, so although these tales are all credited to S&K, art-aficionados shouldn’t be surprised to detect traces of Bill Draut, Mort Meskin, Al Eadeh, George Roussos or other stalwarts lurking in the backgrounds… and minor figures and…

Michelle Nolan’s ‘Introduction’ for this rousing full-colour compilation analyses the scope and meteoric trajectory of the innovation and its impact on the industry before the new era opens with ‘Boy Crazy’ from Young Romance #2 (cover-dated November/December1947) wherein a flighty teenager with no sense of morality steals her aunt’s man with appalling consequences…

From the same issue, Her Tragic Love’ delivers a thunderbolt of melodrama as an amorous triangle encompassing a wrongly convicted man on death row presents one woman with no solution but a final one…

Scripted by Oleck, ‘Fraulein Sweetheart’ (YR #4, March/April 1948) reveals dark days but no happy endings for two German girls eking out existence in the American-occupied sector of post-war Marburg, whilst ‘Shame’ – from #5 – deals with an ambitious, social-climbing young lady too proud to acknowledge her own scrub-woman mother whenever a flashy boyfriend comes around.

Next is ‘The Town and Toni Benson’ from Young Romance #11 (contemporarily designated volume 2, #5, May/June 1949) which offers a sequel to ‘I Was a Pick-Up’ from the premiere issue (which tale is confusingly included in the sequel to this volume Young Romance 2: The Early Simon & Kirby).

Here, however, S&K cleverly build on that original tale, creating a soap opera environment which could so easily have spawned a series, as the now-newlywed couple struggle to make ends meet under a wave of hostile public scrutiny…

On a roll, the creative geniuses began mixing genres. Western Love #2 (September/October 1948) provides ‘Kathy and the Merchant of Sunset Canton!’, as a city slicker finds his modern mercenary management style makes him no friends in cowboy country – until one proud girl takes a chance on getting to know him…

‘Sailor’s Girl!’ (Young Romance #13/Vol. 3, #1, September 1949) then picks over the troubles of an heiress who marries a dauntless sea rover working for Daddy. She is absolutely confident that she can tame or break her man’s wild, free spirit…

We head out yonder once more to meet ‘The Perfect Cowboy!’ (Real West Romances # 4, October/November 1949) – at least on set – a well as the simple sagebrush lass whose head he briefly turns, before social inequality and petty envy inform brutally heavy-handed ‘I Want Your Man’ (Young Romance #21/Vol. 3 #9, May 1950).

Here a young woman of meagre means realises almost too late the cost of her vendetta against a pretty little rich girl…

In the name of variety ‘Nancy Hale’s Problem Clinic’ (Young Romance #23/Vol. 3 #11, July 1950) offers a brief dose of sob-sister advice as “treatment for the troubled heart” before the romantic rollercoaster rides resume with ‘Old Fashioned Girl’ (YR #34/Vol. 4 #10 June 1951) as a forceful young woman raised by her grandmother slowly has her convictions about propriety challenged by intriguing men and her own barely subsumed passions… Alternatively, ‘Mr. Know-It-All Falls in Love’ (Young Love #37/Vol. 7 #10, September 1952) takes a rare opportunity to speak with a male narrator’s voice as a buttoned-down control freak decides that with his career in order it’s time to marry. But who’s the best prospect?

Another of those pesky lovers’ triangles then results in one marriage, one forlorn heartbreak, war, vengeance and a most appropriate ‘Wedding Present!’ (Young Love #50/Vol. 5 #8 October 1953) before this cleverly conceived chronicle takes a conceptual diversion – after one last tale from the same issue – detailing the all-business affair of ‘Norma, Queen of the Hot Dogs’ and her (at first) strictly platonic partner…

In 1955 the Comics Code Authority began its draconian bowdlerising of the industry’s more mature efforts and Romance titles especially took a big conceptual hit. Those edgy stories became less daring and almost every ending was a happy one – at least for the guy or the parents…

Following a superbly extensive ‘Cover Gallery’ featuring a dozen of the most evocative images from those wild and free early years, The Post-Code Era re-presents the specific conditions affecting romantic relations from the censorious document, followed by a selection of the yarns S&K and their team were thereafter reduced to producing.

Even the art seems less enthusiastic for the wholesome, unchallenging episodes which begin with ‘Old Enough to Marry!’ (Young Romance #80/Vol. 8 #8, cover-dated December 1955/January 1956) wherein a young man confronts his grizzled cop dad. The patriarch has no intention of letting his son make a mess of his life…

Next, a maimed farmer tries to sabotage the budding romance between his once-faithful girlfriend and the brilliant good-looking doctor who cured him in ‘Lovesick’ from the same issue.

The following four tales all originated in Young Romance #85/Vol. 10, #1 (December 1956/January 1957), beginning with ‘Lizzie’s Back in Town’ as a strong, competent girl returns home to let Daddy pick her husband for her (no, really!).

Next, two guys fight and the winner gets the girl in ‘Lady’s Choice’ whilst another, less frenzied duel results in a ‘Resort Romeo’ marrying the girl of everybody’s dreams, even as ‘My Cousin from Milwaukee’ exposes a gold-digger before reserving her handsome relative for herself…

These anodyne antics mercifully conclude with ‘The Love I Lost!’ (Young Romance #90/Vol. 12 #3, October/November 1957) wherein another hospital case realises just in time that the man she wants is not the man she deserves…

This emotional rollercoaster is supplemented with a number of well-illustrated bonus features including ‘Why I Made this Book’, ‘Simon and Kirby’s Romance Comics: A Historical Overview’; a splendid selection of S&K’s pioneering ‘Photo Covers’ (18 in all) and a fascinating explanation of the process of artwork-rehabilitation in ‘About the Restoration’

The affairs then wrap up with the now-traditional ‘Biographies’ section.

Simon & Kirby took much of their tone – if not actual content – from movie melodramas of the period (such as Mr. Skeffington, All About Eve or Mildred Pierce and/or Noir romances like Blonde Ice or Hollow Triumph) and, unlike what we might consider suitable for romantic fiction today, their stories crackled with tension, embraced violent action and were infested with unsavoury characters and vicious backstabbing, gossiping hypocrites.

Happily, those are the tales which mostly fill most of this book, making for an extremely engaging, strikingly powerful and thoroughly addictive collection of great yarns by brilliant masters of the comics arts: and one no lover (of the medium) should miss…
Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics © 2012 Fantagraphics Books Inc. Introduction © 2012 Michelle Nolan Schelly. All rights reserved.

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Billy’s Boots Book 1: The Legacy of ‘Dead-shot’ Keen


By Fred Baker, Colin Page, Mike Western, Bill Lacey, Tom Kerr & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-671-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Classic Comics Fun and Games… 9/10

British kids have always been utterly besotted with sports and comics have continually fed and fuelled their addiction. Even in the days when children’s only exclusive “entertainment” was primarily prose “Story Papers”, tales of playing field rivals, earnest competition, glorious accomplishments, fair play and sporting prodigies dominated. As comic strips took tight hold of kid’s lives during WWII and after, generations of boys grew up wanting to be Wilson, Alf Tupper, His Sporting Lordship, Skid Solo or Roy of the Rovers.

As the 1950s unfolded, football became the undisputed leader of sporting strips: a peculiarly wide field that had found room for speedway, cricket, motor racing, rugby, boxing, wrestling, athletics and fishing among many, many others. In September 1954, Amalgamated Press launched a companion comic to anthological market leader Lion. Edited by Derek Birnage – until 1963, when Barrie Tomlinson took over – Tiger – The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly was cover-dated 11th September and out in time for the new football season. Primarily sports-themed for its entire run (1573 issues until 1985) it merged with or absorbed Champion (1955), Comet (1959), Hurricane (1965), Jag (1969), Scorcher (1974) and Speed (1980) before itself being subsumed by the relaunched Eagle in April 1985.

Among its most memorable treasures was Skid Solo, Johnny Cougar, Rod and Line, Hot Shot Hamish, Nipper, Football Family Robinson, Billy’s Boots and Roy of the Rovers…

As the 1960s segued into a new decade, across the United Kingdom, football was king in comics: everything from straight sporting drama strips to wild comedies with strange teams and odd motivations, and even supernaturally-tinged strips like Raven on the Wing…

Shoot launched in 1969, a junior, comics-heavy version of adult magazine Goal (which it eventually absorbed!) and Striker in January 1970. Its lead strip would graduate to The Sun newspaper.

Scorcher also kicked off on January 10th 1970, with an all football roster of photo-features sports journalism dedicated to the beautiful game and strips including Kangaroo Kid, Royal’s Rangers, Bobby of the Blues, Sub (He’s always on the sidelines!), Paxton’s Powerhouse, Lags Eleven, Jack of United, Jimmy of City, Hotshot Hamish and Nipper, but the breakout feature proved to be a dramatic reimagining of a comedy strip from Tiger: Billy’s Boots…

Scorcher became Scorcher and Score after 77 issues (merging with Score ‘n’ Roar in early July 1971) and finally called “time” with the October 5th 1974 issue – a further 171 outings. Its favourite features were ultimately absorbed into Tiger in 1980, but Annuals and Summer Specials continued to appear until 1984.

The stories here originally played in Scorcher from 10th January 1970 to 9th January 1970. The strip had taken its name from a comedic feature by Frank Purcell that ran in Tiger from 1961-1963. For a fresh new era, it was overhauled by 50-year veteran scripter Fred Baker (Martin’s Marvellous Mini, Skid Kids, Tommy’s Troubles, Hot-Shot Hamish, and much more in titles including Tiger, Buster, Chips, Radio Fun, Film Fun, Valentine and Roy of the Rovers).

He wrote the feature for most of its first 20 years run which was initially illuminated – in this volume at least – by Colin Page (Adam Eterno, Paddy Payne), Bill Lacey (Rick Random, Super Detective Library, Cowboy Comics Library, Mickey Mouse Weekly, Mytek the Mighty, Rat Pack), Mike Western (Lucky Logan, Biggles, No Hiding Place, The Wild Wonders, The Leopard from Lime Street, Darkie’s Mob, HMS Nightshade, Roy of the Rovers) and Tom Kerr (Little Lew, Fay, Monty Carstairs, Kip Kerrigan, Kelly’s Eye, Captain Hurricane, The Steel Claw, Charlie Peace, Kraken, Black Axe, Boy Bandit, Tara King/The Avengers, Peter the Cat, Clarks Commandos et al).

Billy’s Boots was initially rendered in 2-page, full colour instalments and survived Scorcher’s merger with Tiger in 1974, and amalgamation with Eagle in 1985. A year later Billy migrated to Roy of The Rovers magazine offering new adventures until 1990. Even then, the lad kept kicking, appearing in reprints, Annuals and Best of Roy of the Rovers Monthly, Striker and Total Football magazine into the 21st century.

He’s also an international star, having been translated into Finnish, Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, Bengali, Turkish and more…

In October 1971, John Gillatt took over the art for a 16-year run which truly defined the strip in readers’ eyes and minds, but that’s a treat for another volume…

Here however, in interlinked serials we meet 12-year-old Billy Dane who is an avid – but rubbish – footballer. His earnest desire is simply to play the game but he’s so bad nobody will let him join even a playground kickabout…

An orphan living with his grandmother, Billy’s life changes forever when he dutifully cleans out her attic and finds a battered old pair of football boots. They were a souvenir his grandad had picked up, and had been used by sporting legend Charles “Dead-Shot” Keene. When Billy wistfully dons them and starts mucking about in the backyard, something miraculous occurs.

Suddenly, he can kick with the force and accuracy of an adult professional and later testing shows that the fabulous footwear sends him subconscious messages, enabling to read a field and almost predict the best place to be in any game situation…

Now bursting with confidence and hungry to play, he rapidly moves from friendly games to school caps, county matches and even international fixtures, with a heaping helping of drama accruing from his eagerness frequently leading him to play for rivals and opposing teams…sometimes on the same day…

Further confusions and concerns arise as he researches the life of Dead-Shot and realises that he’s often reliving actual events that affected the star and shaped his astounding career. The phenomenon doesn’t let up even after Billy finally meets and befriends his idol…

Of course, as this is a drama the most challenging problem Billy constantly faces is losing, mislaying, being deprived of and recovering the ratty, tatty, far-out-of-fashion old boots: prompting many manic moments where the plucky kid must humiliatingly go on without the miracle-making fantastic footwear, but always the lad perseveres and overcomes…

It’s also not as if he doesn’t have other problems too. At one stage he’s forced to move across the country, leaving all his friends: encountering school bullies, and teachers and trainers who think he’s troubled…

After its initial set-up the nature of the stories become rather formulaic, with Billy always seeking to be the best he could: trying to wean himself off ghostly footgear and develop innate natural skills. This was usually a huge disappointment as he always failed unless he was wearing the boots of his hero. Thankfully, the astounding illustration always makes the stories feel fresh and the ongoing mystery of how and why the boots work keeps the tension up…

Such narrative repetition was not deemed a problem at the time, since editors held the firm conviction that readers had a definite shelf-life and would quickly move on to better things… like Chaucer, Len Deighton, or the back pages of The Sun or Daily Mirror…

This astoundingly absorbing classic is another perfect example of purely British comics sensibilities: passionate, idealistic and desperately earnest as it follows the path of a working class hero navigating a treacherous path to glory or dismal defeat. This is a welcome reintroduction: inspirational, warm, beautifully rendered and absolutely unforgettable. Another treasure-trove from Rebellion’s ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics, this tale span generations and demands to be in every family bookcase.
© 1970, 1971, & 2020 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

A thankful tip of the fact hat to footy publications site Soccerbilia – for some of the background recycled here.

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Ghost Tree


By Bobby Curnow & Simon Gane; coloured by Ian Herring & Becka Kinzie and lettered by Chris Mowry (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1684055999 (TPB) eISBN: 978-68406-810-4

The innate sadness and intense incompleteness of the spiritual world is something we tend to sideline in modern fiction, but once upon a time the melancholia of both the quick and the dead was far more important than scaring the pants off a thrill-seeking audience.

That old world approach is wonderfully revived in Ghost Tree, where author Bobby Curnow (Night of 1000 Wolves; My Little Pony; Battle Beasts; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), illustrator Simon Gane (They’re Not Like Us; Godzilla; Northlanders; Unfollow; Paris) and primary colour artist Ian Herring (Minor Threats; Ms Marvel; Nova: Resurrection; Junior Citizens) examine loss, legacy and duty. It’s all deftly done through a slowly unfolding search for self in its protagonist, and meaning or closure in the myriad spirits he is unwillingly connected to…

Despite growing up in the USA, Brandt was always close to his Japanese grandfather. However, the gentle old man also had other concerns and seemed to split his time. One day when the boy was visiting the old country, his beloved Ojii-chan wandered deep into the forests around the old ancestral home.

Curiously following, the boy stopped at a strangely twisted willow tree where the old man asked him to make a promise. A dutiful, diligent, loving – but uncomprehending – grandson, Brandt swore to return to this spot ten years after Ojii-chan died…

Decades later, the man Brandt is heading back to Japan. Grown up and married, he’d all but forgotten that day. Now with his world disintegrating and Alice leaving, he’s flying to the ancestral homestead where his widowed grandmother still lives. Cousin Mariko and her new baby meet him at the airport. She’s worried stubborn, headstrong Obaa-chan is not doing well…

Grandmother is as blunt and feisty as ever, hectoring the new generation on how they should live. It’s a little too much and Brandt has to step outside. Reminiscing about those carefree childhood days, he thinks he sees something at the edge of the woods…

Restless and jetlagged, his sleep is also disrupted as he thinks of what might have been if he had stayed here with Arami rather than living in America…

Unaware that he’s under keen scrutiny, Brandt tries to make peace with grandma, and learns that the happy family was anything but. Shocked by revelations of his forebears’ lives lived at odds, he wanders off into the woods. He might have forgotten that Ojii-chan has now been dead for a decade, but everything comes flooding back when he finds the old man waiting for him by that certain willow…

As they chat under the ghost tree, the dead man explains that for generations some family members have been able to see kami and talk to spirits. Moreover, certain places are attractors, and lost souls are drawn to them. They are usually, angry, confused and despairing, haunted by things left unsaid or not done…

Whilst they sit, dozens of dead people and stranger things draw closer. Grandfather explains they expect Brandt to intercede for them and help deal with their unfinished business…

The old man wants him to avoid the family’s burden and nor repeat his own mistakes: to live a life among the living. His advice is wasted and worthless as Brandt has seen his first love Arami is one of the clamorous phantoms…

Soon the mortal is counselling revenants and carrying out minor missions on their behalf, but the renewed activity around the tree has drawn some of the worst horrors of Japanese mythology, and Brandt learns that the Zero – a traditional guardian defender – is slowly fading.

With Grandfather urging him to forsake the dead and spend time with his family, and Arami looking for reasons to stay or pass on, the conflicted man of two worlds is clearly avoiding making decisions, when the choice is taken from him.

With the safety of the living also threatened by encroaching demons, Brandt must confront uncomfortable home truths before devising a solution to satisfy all parties and safeguard both worlds. Then it’s time to tackle the hard job: fixing his marital situation and getting on with life…

Powerful, sensitive, heartwarming and uncompromising, this very human drama offers echoes of classic movie fantasies such as A Matter of Life and Death (1948) and The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947), suggesting that the dead are always with us and that – unlike families – it’s nothing to be scared of…
Ghost Tree. November 2019. © 2019 Curnow. Gane. Herring. © 2019 Idea and Design Works, LLC.

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Lydie


By Zidrou & Jordi Lafebre, translated by Mercedes Claire Gilliom (Europe Comics)
No ISBN: digital edition only

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Lyrical, Lovely, Unforgettable… 10/10

It’s the season for spirits and spectres and we all love a good, healthy scare, but it’s wise to remember that ghost stories aren’t just about revenge, unfinished business or unreasoning irrational terror. So often, what’s at play is feeling of duty and ineffable loss…

As you’d expect, our Continental cousins are exceeding adept at exploring humanity’s softer sides through the medium of comics, and Lydie is a masterclass in emotive, evocative, ruthlessly sensitive storytelling to delight our senses by quietly affirming our better natures.

Be warned though: this tale is funny, heartwarming and sad. No one (at least nobody even borderline human) will scoff or sneer if you need tissues to get you to the end.

Lydie was originally released in 2012, courtesy of empathetically enthralling scripter Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) and illustrator Jordi Lafebre. Drousie is Belgian, Brussels born in 1962 and until 1990 a school teacher – prior to quitting marking books to instead make them. His primary successes include school dunce series L’Elève Ducobu, Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, African Trilogy, Shi, Léonardo, a revived Ric Hochet and so many more. His most celebrated and beloved stories are the Les Beaux Étés sequence (translated by Europe Comics as Glorious Summers) – and this stand-alone saga. Both are illustrated by Spanish artist Jordi Lafebre.

The sublimely gifted illustrator and art teacher was born in Barcelona in 1979 and has been a comics professional since 2001 – initially for magazines like Mister K, where he limned Toni Font’s El Mundo de Judy. Lafebre found regular work at Le Journal de Spirou, creating the romance Always Never and collaborating with Zidrou on La vieille dame qui n’avait jamais joué au tennis et autres nouvelles qui font du bien, and La Mondaine.

Even for such gifted creators and in-tune collaborators, Lydie is something special: A combination of semi-tragic feel-good fable and genteel working class ghost story, this is a beguiling confection dealing out potent emotional punches one after another – so be braced with plenty of hankies. Nevertheless, it still manages to find the good and the laudable in us, even in the lowest moments and worst of aspects of our natures: enrobing what should be crushing tragedy in the uplifting actions of a community looking out for all of its members, no matter how flawed or forgotten they might become…

It starts sometime in the last century with a little enclave of an ordinary district in the kind of town that used to be everywhere. The crowded cul-de-sac of Baron Van Dick Court is a tiny, independent world of its own, where everyone knows everyone – and most of their personal business. However, since kids will be kids, when a little bit of mischief occurred, the place became irrevocably and foreverafter “Mustachioed Baby Court”…

The denizens live piled up on each other and are a typical bunch: hard-working, industrious, painfully practical and all eking out a living as best they can, but one night something rather extraordinary happens…

It truly started some time earlier. Down in the backyard, poor, hard-up Victor Lefort was again forced to destroy his cat’s beautiful kittens, even as upstairs Doctor “Fables” Fabian was failing to save a baby. Perhaps it was for the best. Distressed mother-to-be Camille Tirion is painfully simpleminded, and had been cruelly taken advantage of by some vile anonymous sinner, so what possibly life could her child have had?

Camille – and her poor father Augustin – were subject of much gossip in the local general store/bar. Despite being a train driver and often away overnight, he has done his best raising his afflicted daughter all on his own… at least until this…

Camille’s mother also died in childbirth and now cruel fate has struck the family again…

The event affects everyone in the Court and many parents must explain to their own children how – if not why – Camille’s baby has gone and must live in a tiny wooden box under the ground in the church graveyard…

However, once all the necessary ceremonies have taken place and life in the Court moves back towards normal, something happens. It begins when Augustin finds his bereft child crumpled under the little statue of the Madonna that’s been overlooking the court for who knows how long, and continues the next day when Camille dashes joyously into the store, ecstatically telling all inside that her baby has come back.

Of course, little Lydie is invisible now…

Her joy is infectious, and no one wants to disabuse the poor simpleton of her fanciful notion, but things take a stranger turn after the feral and prolific delinquent Ayhard brothers brutally tease the “new mother “and her swaddled, intangible infant. When aged Madame Paris helps distraught Camille comfort the latest addition to the Court, the community rallies around, and before long even the most curmudgeonly dweller in Mustachioed Baby Court is playing along: from crusty shopkeeper Théophile Lefort to acid-tongued sot Madame Malisse. The priest is even cajoled into performing a special baptism for the unseen infant…

…And gradually, with everyone contributing to the fantastic lie for decades, it all seems to come fantastically true…

From this point on, the story takes on a life of its own too, so please for the sake of soul and all the lost joy modern life has stripped from you, find and read this glorious fable dedicated to the miraculous strength of imagination, power of love and irresistible force of humanity united in a grand cause…
© 2018 DARGAUD BENELUX (Dargaud-Lombard s.a.) – Jordi Lafebre and Zidrou. All rights reserved.

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Angola Janga: Kingdom of Runaway Slaves


By Marcelo D’Salete, translated by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-191-8 (HB/Digital edition)

Art historian Professor Marcelo D’Salete is one of Brazil’s most respected authors and graphic novelists. Born in 1979 and a graduate of Carlos de Campos College and the University of São Paulo, he currently resides in Italy. Despite this, the majority of his comics examines Brazil’s history of slavery and consequent issues affecting the vast Afro-Brazilian underclass resulting from it.

After freelancing as an illustrator, D’Salete’s first graphic novel Noite Luz was released in 2008, followed by Encruzilhada in 2011. He acquired a greater degree of fame after his 2014 book Cumbe was translated into English by Fantagraphics in 2017: subsequently garnering a boatload of prizes as Run For It: Stories of Slaves Who Fought for their Freedom.

Technically, the professor followed that multi award-winning volume with this even more ambitious tome, but Angola Janga actually took eleven years to complete and its initial release that same year was simply a fortunate convergence…

This epic expands the story of that escaped slave culture, detailing how Palmares Quilombos (“war camps of runaway slaves”) were crushed by colonisers. Before the story opens, Introduction ‘Mocambos and Plantations’ explains how 16th century Portuguese occupiers moved from enslaving local peoples to importing millions of Africans. These supplemented a huge indigenous workforce toiling to exploit timber, sugarcane and other natural resources for ruthless masters on increasingly prolific and profitable plantations.

Over centuries – but largely due to Dutch attempts to seize control from the Portuguese between 1630-1654 – generations of black slaves (designated “units”) in the Pernambuco region had escaped into the forests and Serra da Barriga hills: founding an outlaw nation of semiautonomous settlements: “mocambos”.

By the time events open here, Palmares or Angola Janga (“Little Angola” in Bantu language Kimbundu) comprised an estimated 20,000 free-living rebellious “blacks”, “Indios”, “mulattos” and other demeaning and pointless designations of mixed race all considered to be property not humanity…

This astounding dramatised examination is delivered in brief vignettes torturously following the entwined paths of key individuals like black leaders Soares, Ganga Zumbi and Ganga Zamba, numerous religious and civic figures and Domingos Jorge Velho: pitiless commander of “Paulista” mercenaries hired to reimpose order and crush the beacon of hope Angola Janga represented.

Crafted in stark edgy monochrome with dialogue and narration at a bare minimum, it begins with ‘The Way to Angola Janga’. Each chapter is preceded by pertinent excerpts from contemporary accounts by the victorious colonisers and historians.

In 1673, two frantic runaways crash through trees and brush. Soares was promised freedom by dying plantation owner Mistress Catarina, but her son Gonçalo chose not to honour her wishes and brutally punished the mulatto (“mixed race”) for demanding his Letter of Emancipation. Now he and companion Osenga are fleeing, searching for a mocambo to take them in. Soares’ past is complex and complicated, but common gossip amongst the slave catchers preparing to bring him back…

‘Birth’ wings back to 1655 and the controversial origins of the “half-caste”: revealing connections that have church and military authorities clashing and colluding in a conspiracy of silence, whilst revealing the inner workings and defence strategies of mocambos and their leaders before the fate of Angolan enclave ‘Aqualtune’ introduces more charismatic defenders of liberty in episodes set in 1677…

When Palmares warriors attack white plantations, outraged plantation owners declare implacable war, but instead of engendering alliances, tribal and sibling rivalries undermine the rebels’ unity with catastrophic consequences…

Moreover, devious white masters employ cruel tactics to regain their valuable Units and maintain the status quo: combining religious tyranny, disease, relentless police actions and bounty hunting with spurious offers of amnesty, designated black Reservations and valueless treaties. These slowly chip away at the hidden free kingdoms, as seen in ‘Scars’, ‘Cucaú’ and ‘Encounters’, with even free-born and emancipated blacks experiencing a rise in intolerance, prejudice and white exceptionalism.

Resistance was common and reprisals inescapable. Always the mocambos called to those brave enough to stand up and fight back, but increasingly they were fighting their own kind rather than their oppressors… sometimes, even their own families…

The saga explores a subtext of religious and political beliefs in opposition, complementing the physical and geographical struggle. ‘Savages’ reveals the turbulent and traumatic early years of Domingos Jorge Velho and how white leaders suborned and seduced native tribes like the Oruazes into joining their ‘War’ against Palmares…

Beginning in 1691 the savage strands converge, as raids by belligerent mocambo warriors and sorties to recapture lost slaves reach lethal levels. With the entire region in turmoil, and death toll mounting, many scared officials and churchmen petition for blanket emancipation to end the bloodshed. However, a final clash is imminent and – risen to high office amongst the runaways – Soares endures the ‘Sweet Hell’ of vindication or defeat, unaware that the foe has deployed the latest weapons technology to conclusively end the struggle …

The triumphant mopping up operation is covered in ‘The Embrace’ as defeated Soares flees, descending into delusion and worse before gaining the truest freedom of all in one last battle, before the end of the campaign and what came after is explored in terms of spirituality and symbolic prognostication with ‘Footsteps in the Night’…

Augmenting this tragic history is a full Glossary of terms, concepts and characters and their originations, and Author’s Afterword ‘Trails and Dreams’ explores the exponential growth of the Portuguese slave trade. Also on view are a ‘Chronology of the Palmares War 1597-1736’, ‘Summary of the Palmares War’, maps and text pieces on ‘Pernambuco, Palmares, towns, mocambos (seventeenth century)’, ‘Principal quilombo and quilombola regions in Brazilian territory’, ‘The region of Angola – one of the largest sources of Africans sent to Brazil’ and truly disturbing charts and maps disclosing ‘Estimates of embarkation and disembarkation of enslaved Africans between 1501 and 1900’. These shocking visual aids are supported by a copious bibliography of References and biography of the author.

Appalling and beautiful, this is a superb testament to the power of resistance and hope: one that should be compulsory reading in every school and college.
© 2019 Marcelo D’Salete. Glossary © 2019 Marcelo D’Salete, Allan da Rosa & Rogério de Campos. Original edition published by Editora Veneta © 2017. All rights reserved.

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Kindred – A Graphic Novel Adaptation


By Octavia E. Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy & John Jennings (Abrams ComicArts)
ISBN: 978-14197-0947-0 (TPB/Digital)

This month we’re (rather crazily!) focussing on material pertinent to Black History Month and simultaneously indulging ourselves in the regular Halloween fright-fest. Maybe one year minorities and women will get a whole month to themselves or perhaps the powers that decree these arbitrary festivals might even acknowledge that these subjects are acceptable everyday fare…

However, here and now let’s consider a very different kind of scary story that qualifies on either and both counts..

Octavia Estelle Butler (1947-2006) overcame the stacked handicaps of being female, shy, dyslexic, depressive, fatherless, poor and black in post-war America to become a shining light of the socially-aware science fiction scene that grew out of the works of Philip K Dick, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Samuel R. Delaney, Zenna Henderson, John Brunner and others.

Reared in ethnically diverse but still segregated Pasadena, California, she studied hard, followed her passions, took every opportunity available to studious young women of colour and became one of the most innovative and lauded science fiction authors of her generation. Butler went to community college just as the Black Power Movement took off and – attending writers workshops – realised that her own experiences could and should inform her writing.

In series like her Parable books, Patternist and Xenogenesis sequences, stand-alone novels and dozens of award-winning short stories, she explored how societies and splinter groups acted, addressing themes of alienation, exclusion, social and biological evolution, control through belief systems, mutual coexistence of species, genetic manipulation, parapsychic abilities and biological adjustment. These subjects were screened through a lens of co-dependent cultures of dominance and submission, and framed in terms of “racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other ‘isms’ that cause so much suffering in the world.”

Elements of loss, contamination, interbreeding, miscegenation, mutation, symbiosis, surrender of autonomy and especially fear continually resurface as scenes of coercion, rape and violence: exploring how and why the weak are ruled by the strong and suggesting such actions are a kind of evolutionary parasitism which might be corrected by sociobiological interventions…

Her works are often associated with the vibrant subgenre of Afrofuturism – as so ideally depicted in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Panther stories – but Butler’s stories are rife with disenfranchised outsiders or lowly minority characters who are putatively weak: born compromised, enduring and tolerating appalling changes of state and status simply to survive.

Such is certainly the case with the protagonist of Kindred. Adapted here by Damien Duffy and illustrated by John Jennings, the 1979 novel was a stand-alone time-travel tale written by Butler in response to a colleague’s questions about why antebellum slaves tolerated captivity and treatment. Her response was this story, offering brutal, inescapable context justifying  how those accepting years of “willing” subservience might have worked…

It’s still in preproduction-limbo for a TV series , but until then you can hunt it out in two kinds of print – prose and pictorial…

The graphic odyssey is preceded by a heartfelt ‘Introduction by Nnedi Okorafor’ before the shocking drama opens with a ‘Prologue’ as African American Dana contemplates the limb she no longer has…

A mystery starts to unravel on June 9th 1976, as she and her white husband Kevin Franklin celebrate her 26th birthday by unpacking the boxes that brought all their worldly goods into their new home. They’re both writers and have lots to stuff into this house, but dreamy domesticity ends abruptly as she’s seized by an uncanny force and vanishes. She reappears by ‘The River’ just in time to save a little a white boy named Rufus from drowning…

Dana is then attacked and beaten by his mother and shot at by his father before warping back to Kevin and home. Her soaked, dishevelled condition categorically proves that what she experienced was no delusion: an inexplicable event that has shattered her joy and composure. Dana no longer feels safe or secure: here or anywhere…

The dreaded incident reoccurs mere hours later with Dana manifesting in Rufus’ bedroom just as he’s sparking ‘The Fire’ that would have destroyed the vast plantation house he lives in. The boy is at least four years older and deeply disturbed, but Dana patiently establishes a working relationship with him, based on a shared fear of his parents. With open mind and terrified conviction, Dana has concluded that she is somehow being pulled through time to a place where her kind are objects bought and sold, a fact Rufus confirms when he reveals the year is 1815…

Further cautious conversation draws from the boy his surname – Weylin – and the plantation’s location in Maryland. With horror, Dana recalls snippets of her own family history and realizes this half-crazed, privileged, firebug – WHITE – brat is her direct ancestor…

Despite her bizarre clothes, hair, manners and spurious claims to be a freed woman, Dana tries to flee the manorial house but is caught up in a slave-taker’s punishment raid. After torturing runaways, they then turn on her and a callous beating edges into a sexual assault that only a sudden switch back to 20th century California prevents from becoming her last moment.

Grievously battered, she refuses to let Kevin call an ambulance. By his reckoning, she’s only been gone for three minutes, but cannot bear the thought of vanishing again from a hospital…

Anticipating another vanishing, they assemble a “go-bag” of 20th century medicines and tools for her next abduction and Kevin bones up on black history from their reference library. Here and now, knowledge is power…

Fondly recalling how they first got together, Dana is unprepared for the next summoning, but when the force grips her now, Kevin reacts rapidly. Grabbing her, he goes with her and sees for himself the living past. Rufus is visibly older and has just broken his leg in ‘The Fall’…

Reacting with fury to the news that these adults are married – scandalously illegal miscegenation! – Rufus is taken into their confidence as they conclusively prove they come from the future.

Forced to be Dana’s “owner” whilst a guest in the Weylin household, Kevin spends too much time apart from his wife whilst she is assigned to the plantation staff. After savagely beating her for teaching blacks to write, her shameful ability to read is secretly exploited by Rufus’ parents, who remain unaware that the strange slave is making many friends and useful connections amongst the lower orders. However, when the future calls her again, Kevin is nowhere to be found and left behind…

And so the story unfolds, with years passing as eyeblink instalments with Dana gradually building a seditious second life among slaves she secretly seeks to radicalise and protect, under the aegis of her family recollections.  She searches in vain for her missing husband and contrives a disturbing, discordant and deeply unhealthy relationship with the cruelly manipulative – adult – ancestor/owner Rufus in ‘The Fight’, before the time-lost lovers are finally reunited in ‘The Storm’.  And at last an ending arrives after Dana’s lowest moments in ‘The Rope’…

The scattered threads of family are then drawn together in an ‘Epilogue’ that trusts but cannot prove that the mystery is done and the travelling finished…

A chilling, complex and extremely challenging reappraisal of many kinds of status quo, Kindred is more topical and germane than ever, examining social, racial and gender roles in a culture that has never been less stable or secure. Delivered with the full, uncompromising force of graphic narrative and in the charged, unrestrained terms and language of the 19th century via 1970s liberal outrage, this is a rewarding, informative yet potentially shocking narrative demanding your full attention and a tacit acceptance that history must not be shaded or censored. If unsanitised violence, non-voyeuristic nudity and harsh language are more distressing to you than learning uncomfortable truths, you might be better served by today’s other review…

Adding value here, this adaptation (which was followed by the team’s treatment of Butler’s Parable of the Sower and the still-forthcoming Parable of the Talents) includes biographies ‘About Octavia E. Butler’ and ‘About the adaptor and artist’ plus ‘Acknowledgements’ and material recommended ‘For Further Reading’…

Kindred is powerful and upsetting, just like it was always meant to be, and is a story you should know in all its forms. There’s no time like the present…

Kindred © The Estate of Octavia E. Butler. Adaptation © 2017 Damian Duffy and John Jennings. Introduction © 2017 Nnedi Okarador. Based on the novel Kindred by Octavia E.
Butler © 1979. All rights reserved.

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Glorious Summers volume 1: Southbound! (1973)


By Zidrou & Jordi Lafebre, with additional colour by Mado Peña translated by Lara Vergnaud (Europe Comics)
No ISBN: Digital edition only

Until comparatively recently, comics in the English-speaking world mostly comprised comedic or various adventure sub-genres (crime, superhero, horror, sci fi), with only a small but vital niche of “mundane world” ventures, usually depicted via graphic biographies and autobiographies such as They Called Us Enemy, Coma, Death Threat, Love on the Isle of Dogs, Wage Slaves or Sour Pickles offering a different feel and flavour. Even historical sagas were treated as extraordinary moments with larger-than-life characters whenever possible.

What we have never had – and still largely don’t enjoy – is a comics equivalent to general fiction, drama and melodrama. That’s not so in Japan and Europe, where a literal “anything goes” attitude has always accommodated human-scaled, slice of life stories depicting ordinary people in quiet as well as extraordinary moments.

Surely it can’t be that hard to tell engaging stories in pedestrian, recognisably ordinary settings? Medical traumas, love stories, school tales and family tragedies about common folk seem to play well on various-sized screens around the world, so why not in English-“speaking” comics? The closest we seem to get are comedy series like John Allison’s brilliantly superb Giant Days (which I really must review soon)…

People being people is more than enough for our European neighbours. They apparently have an insatiable appetite for everyday events aimed at properly “mature readers”, all joyfully sans vampires, aliens or men in tights. These even have sub-genres of their own. For example, there’s a wealth of superb material just about going on holiday…

So, since our own Government-in-Absentia have ensured that it’s now all-but-impossible for any UK-based citizens to pop across and have une petite vacances in Europe, let’s at least stare covetously at them having a good time. After all, over there holidays are an inalienable right, and they have some simply fabulous tales about a simple break. This is probably the best you’ll ever read…

One of the absolute best examples of fantasy vacations made real, Glorious Summers: Southbound! (1973) is a nostalgia-drenched confection by Zidrou and frequent collaborator Jordi Lafebre: a sublime example of idyllic group memory transformed into graphic sorcery and an everyday account utterly unafraid to temper humorous sweetness and light with some real-world tragedy and suspense…

Perhaps a little context is in order. Summer holidays – “Midi” – are a big deal in France and Belgium. The French even divide into two tribes over the annual rest period, which generally lasts an entire month.

Juilletistes only vacation in July and wield dogma and facts like rapiers to prove why it’s the only way to take a break. They are eternally opposed, heart, soul, and suntan lotion, by majority faction the Aoûtiens, who recharge their batteries in August whilst fully reciprocating the suspicion, disdain and baffled scorn of the early-leavers.

Many European sociologists claim the greatest social division today is not race, religion, gender, political affiliation or whether to open boiled eggs from the top or the bottom, but when summer holidays begin and end…

Les Beaux Étés 1: Cap au Sud! is the first of a string of family visits that began in 2015 courtesy of scripter Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) and illustrator Jordi Lafebre. Drousie is Belgian, born in Brussels in 1962 and a school teacher prior to quitting marking books in 1990 to begin making them. His main successes are school dunce series L’Elève Ducobu, Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, African Trilogy, Léonardo, the revival of Ric Hochet, Shi and many more. His most celebrated and beloved stories are this sequence and 2010’s Lydie, both illustrated by Spanish artist Jordi Lafebre.

The sublimely gifted, empathically sensitive illustrator and art teacher was born in Barcelona in 1979 and has created comics professionally since 2001, first for magazines like Mister K, where he limned Toni Font’s El Mundo de Judy. He soon found regular work at Le Journal de Spirou, creating the romance Always Never and collaborating with Zidrou on La vieille dame qui n’avait jamais joué au tennis et autres nouvelles qui font du bien, Lydie, and La Mondaine.

A combination of feel-good fable and powerful comedy drama, Southbound! begins “now”, as an aging couple sit on deftly-assembled camping seats in their beloved regular holiday spot. Gazing outwards and back, they remember how all their shared yesterdays almost died unborn during that difficult time in 1973…

It’s August then and Maddie Faldérault tries to amuse her four impatiently waiting kids as their father Pierre frantically puts the finishing touches to his latest comic strip. He has to: the publisher has stationed a gofer at his side to deliver the pages directly to the printer the moment the drawing stops.

The pages were due last Wednesday – as was the start of the annual Faldérault escape from gloomy Brussels for a month in sun-drenched France. That sun has long set, but such is the life of a minor star of the Belgian comics industry. Once the job is despatched, dad and long-suffering Maddie bundle the fractious kids into the car that’s been packed for days, heading for the border and some long anticipated R & R.

The kids are immune to bedtimes and wrapped up in time-honoured holiday rituals like shouting, fighting and singing odd songs. Shy lad Louis reads Lucky Luke to his invisible friend “Beekoo”, self-conscious oldest girl Jolly-Julie spars constantly with Nicole – cruelly picking on her weight – and hyperactive toddler Paulette (Peaches to you and her) bounces everywhere seeking attention and “fench fries an’ maynaze”…

They have no idea that it will be the last family holiday. The parents are planning to separate after the break and  have fooled themselves into thinking the odd atmosphere and strained behaviour will be put down to Aunt Liliane being sick with the cancer…

However, as they make their way south, clocking up priceless, inconsequential memories and acting like fools and bandits in overnight camps and rest stops, the strain starts to hit the beleaguered family in ways none will forget…

This tale is a beautifully rendered and realised series of memories stitched seamlessly together. It’s funny and charming and delivers painful blows you never see coming. There aren’t any spectacular events and shocking crises and that’s the point: awful events can happen to any of us… sudden death, job insecurity, funerals, demands for divorce, an abrupt change of mind…

If you’re British – and old enough – this series (six translated albums thus far, plus a French omnibus edition) will stir deep-seated memories of family sitcoms like Bless This House or Butterflies and generational ads starring the “Oxo Family”. If that description doesn’t fit you, I pity your browsing history if you look up any of that…

The rest of you in need of an opening (but unfair comparator) could break out the Calvin and Hobbes collections and re-examine the bits with his embattled parents when the kid’s out of the picture…

Lyrical, laconic, engagingly demure, and debilitatingly nostalgic, this holiday romance is sheer visual perfection wrapped in sharp dialogue and a superbly anarchic sense of mischief.

Vacations are built of moments and might-have-beens, channelled here in compelling clips that make the mundane. This is an irresistible tale of woe, wonder and second starts; all the more perfect because of it.
© 2018 -DARGAUD BENELUX (Dargaud-Lombard s.a.) – ZIDROU & LEFEBRE, LLC.