Category: Drama

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Butterscotch (The Flavour of the Invisible)


By Milo Manara, translated by Tom Leighton (Eurotica/NBM) or (Catalan Communications)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-109-4 (HB NBM) or 978-0-87416-047-5 (TPB Catalan)

These books include Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

If the cover images haven’t already clued you in, for some the graphic novels under review here will be unacceptable.

If that’s you, please stop right now and come back tomorrow when there will be something you’ll approve of but which will surely offend somebody else.

Today in 1945 Maurilio Manara – you can call him “Milo”- was born, and since I’m feeling all grown up and continental today, here’s a long overdue review of some milder masterpieces by one of the world’s greatest graphic eroticists.

Originally translated into English by Catalan in 1987, Butterscotch was re-released in 2002 under NBM’s Eurotica imprint, but has since languished in that great big limbo-land of the inexplicably Out-of-Print.

Manara has always been a puckish intellectual and whimsical craftsman with a dazzling array of artistic skills ranging from architecture, product design, filmmaking & animation, painting and of course an elegant, refined, clear-clean line style with pen and ink. He is best known for his wry and always controversial sexually explicit material – although that’s more an indicator of our comics market than any artistic obsession. He’s even drawn the X-Men – but mostly the women…

After studying painting and architecture he became a comics artist in 1969, beginning with the Fumetti Neri series Genius, and thereafter working on the magazine Terror. His life’s goal came in 1971 as he began his “adult” career (see what I did there?) illustrating Francisco Rubino’s Jolanda de Almaviva which led, four years later, to his first major work and success. Originally released as Lo Scimmiotto, The Ape was a bold and bawdy reworking of the Chinese tales of the Monkey King.

By the end of the seventies he was working for Franco-Belgian markets where he is still regarded as an A-list creator. It was while working for Charlie Mensuel, Pilote and L’Écho des savanes that he created signature series HP and Giuseppe Bergman for A Suivre. In 1986 he wrote and drew, in his inimitable blend of social satire, classicist bawdy burlesque and saucy slapstick, the incredible tale of the ultimate voyeur’s dream in Il profumo dell’invisibile, translated here as Butterscotch…

Our star is a rather brilliant, incredibly naive nerd-physicist who has invented a lotion that bends light rays around anything smeared with it. He also has an unnervingly innocent and utterly sexless fascination with prima ballerina Beatrice D’Altavilla… which is a pity as she is a heartless, sadistic power-mad monster… and the biggest slut in creation.

Honey is Beatrice’s extremely liberated, licentious and hot-blooded associate (The Beatrice don’t do “friends”) and when she discovers a naked, semi-invisible man in the dancer’s bedroom, she feels it her duty to show the innocuous stalker what his dream girl is really like. Sadly, there are none so blind as those who will not see, especially if we can’t see them either, and her many and various attempts to open his invisible eyes lead to violence and a bizarre sexual co-dependence; what with divine Beatrice being far too virginal and perfect for that nasty, dirty stuff…

As Honey perpetually and ever-more frantically attempts to prove the existence of her invisible man – whose cloaking lotion smells powerfully of butterscotch sweets – her already low position in the ballerina’s entourage plummets and the abuses intensify. Finally, however, as Honey grows increasingly closer to the omnipresent, unseen (but so regularly felt) voyeur, she finally succeeds in exposing Beatrice’s true nature, leading to a tempestuous climax nobody expected and some might not survive…

Couched in Manara’s beautifully rendered, lavish line-work, this witty, highly explicit, sexually charged tale casts fascinating light on what people can’t and won’t see around them. Absolutely for adults only, Butterscotch is a captivating exploration of love, obsession and misperception.

Raunchy, funny and extremely hard to find, this is a book desperately worthy of a new edition.
© 1987 Milo Manara. English Language edition © 1987 Catalan Communications. © 2002 NBM. All rights reserved.

Indian Summer


By Milo Manara & Hugo Pratt, translated by Jeff Lisle (/NBM/Catalan Communications)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-107-0 (NBM TPB) 0-87416-030-2-8 (Catalan TPB)

Hugo Eugenio Pratt (June 15th 1927 – August 20th 1995) was one of the world’s paramount comics creators, and his enthralling graphic narratives inventions since Ace of Spades (whilst still a student at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts) in 1945 were both many and varied. His signature character – based in large part on his own exotic early life – is mercurial soldier of fortune Corto Maltese. You can learn more about him via our coverage of his UK war comics such as War Picture Library – The Crimson Sea please link to 30th July 2025.

However, a storyteller of Pratt’s vast creative capabilities was ever-restless, and as well as writing and illustrating his own tales, he scripted for other giants of the industry. In 1983 he crafted a steamy tale of sexual tension and social prejudice set in the New England colonies in the days before the Salem Witch Trials. This tale is timeless, potent and – naturally – out of print in English. In a world of digital publishing I find that utterly incomprehensible…

Tutto ricominciò con un’estate indiana (which was published as Indian Summer – although a more appropriate and illustrative translation would be “All things begin again with an Indian Summer”) was brought to stunning pictorial life by fellow graphic raconteur Milo Manara.

Remember his breakout series HP and Giuseppe Bergman for A Suivre? The “HP” of the title is his pal Hugo Pratt…

New England in the 17th century: The Puritan village of New Canaan slowly grows in placid, if uneasy, co-existence with the natives who have fished and hunted these coastal regions for centuries. When young Shevah Black is raped by two young Indians, outcast Abner Lewis kills them both. Taking the “ruined” girl back to his mother’s cottage in the woods, he introduces her to the entire family: mother Abigail and siblings Jeremiah, Elijah and Phyllis. They are a whole brood of damned sinners banished by Shevah’s uncle, the so-pious Reverend Pilgrim Black…

The mother was once a servant in the Black household, but has lived in the woods for 20 years, ever since Pilgrim Black’s father raped her. When Abigail fell pregnant, she was cast out for her sin and her face still bears a sinner’s brand. Aided by Indians, the reluctant mother built a cabin, and over the years had three further children. Her progeny are all wild creatures of nature; healthy, vital and with many close ties both to the natives (from personal preference and choice) as well as the truly decadent Black family (by sordid, unwelcome history and association)…

Now blood has spilled and passions are roused: none of those ties can prevent a bloodbath, and as the day progresses, many dark secrets come to light as the intolerance, hypocrisy and raw, thwarted lust of the upstanding Christians leads to an inexorable clash with the “savages and heathens” who are by far the most sensible and decent individuals in the place, with the pitifully isolated, ostracized and alienated Lewis clan stuck in the middle and betrayed by all sides…

Beautiful, disturbing and utterly compelling, this thoroughly adult examination of sexual tension, religious hypocrisy, attitudinal eugenics and destructive, tragic love is played out against the sweltering seductive heat and primitive glories of a natural, plentiful paradise which only needs its residents to act more like beasts and less like humans to achieve a perfect tranquillity.

Sadly, every Eden has serpents and here there are three: religion, custom and pride…

Pratt’s passion for historical research is displayed by the graphic afterword in which he not only cites his extensive sources – including a link to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter – but adds some fascinating insights and speculations on the fates of the survivors of the New Canaan massacre.

Although there is a 1994 NBM edition, I’m reviewing my 1986 Catalan copy principally because I own that one, but also because the Catalan copy has a magnificent four-page foldout watercolour cover (which I couldn’t fit onto my scanner no matter how I tried) and some pretty amazing sketches and watercolour studies gracing Javier Coma’s insightful introduction.

This is a classic tale of humanity frailty, haunting, dark and startlingly lovely. Whatever version you find, you must read this superb story; and if any print or digital publisher is reading this, you know what you should do…

© 1986, 1994 Milo Manara & Hugo Pratt. English language edition © 1986 Catalan Communications. All rights reserved.

Today marks the birth in 1897 of Walter B. Gibson, the magician turned author who wrote The Shadow.

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Star Trek: Gold Key Archives volume 1


By Dick Wood, Nevio Zaccara, Alfredo Giolitti & various (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-61377-922-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Star Trek debuted on American televisions on September 8th 1966 and ran until June 3rd 1969: three seasons comprising 79 episodes. A moderate success, it only really became popular after going into syndication, running constantly throughout the 1970s. It was also sold all over the world, popping up seemingly everywhere and developing quite a devoted fanbase.

Being a third world country, Britain didn’t see the show until July 12th 1969 during the rocket fever surrounding the Apollo moon landings, when BBC One screened “Where No Man Has Gone Before” in black-&-white before proceeding to broadcast the rest of the series in the wrong order. “Arena” was the first episode screened in colour (November 15th 1969), but viewers didn’t care. We were all hooked anyway and many of the show’s catchphrases – many erroneous and some entirely fictitious – quickly entered the popular lexicon of the nation.

The series spawned a licensed, British-originated comic strip which ran in Joe 90, TV21 and TV21 and Valiant from the late 1960s into the 1970s. These have also been collected and I’ll get to them in the fullness of time and space.

In the USA, although there was some merchandising, things were a little less enthusiastically embraced. Even though there was a comic book – from “properties magnate” Gold Key and running for almost a decade after the show’s cancellation – authenticity at the start wasn’t really a watchword. Nor was immediacy or urgency an issue. In fact, only six issues were released during the show’s entire three-season run. Published between July 1967 and December 1968, they are all gathered in this first archive Star Trek…

Printing giant Whitman Publishing had been producing their own books and comics for decades through their Dell and Gold Key imprints, rivalling and often surpassing DC and Timely/Marvel at the height of their powers in sales and popularity. Famously Whitman never capitulated to the wave of anti-comics hysteria resulting in the crippling self-censorship of the 1950s and Dell Comics never displayed a Comics Code Authority symbol on their covers.

They never needed to: their canny blend of media and entertainment licensed titles were always produced with a family market in mind and the creative staff took their editorial stance from the mores of the filmic Hayes Code and the burgeoning television industry.

Just like the big and little screen, the product enticed but never shocked and kept contentious social issues implicit instead of tacit. It was a case of “violence and murder are fine, but never titillate”…

Moreover, the vast majority of their adventure comics’ covers were high quality photos or paintings – adding a stunning degree of veracity and verisimilitude to even the most outlandish of concepts for us wide-eyed waifs in need of awesome entertainment. The company seemed the only logical choice for a licensed comic book, and to be honest, these stories are cracking space opera yarns, even if they occupy an odd position in the hearts of older screen-dominant fans. In the UK, distribution of US comics was haphazard at best, but Gold Key Trek yarns were reprinted in our beloved and trusted hardback Christmas annuals. Nevertheless, the earliest ones bore little resemblance to what we’d seen on TV.

Our little minds were perplexed and we did wonder, but as the tales offered plenty of action and big sci fi concepts we just enjoyed them anyway.

Original British Star Trek yarns came in serialised comic-strip form, superbly illustrated and bearing a close resemblance to the source material. The feature only appeared as 2 or 3-page instalments in weekly anthologies, but was at least instantly familiar to TV viewers.

I discovered the answer to the jarring discrepancy, years later. Apparently scripter Dick Wood (a veteran writer who had worked on hundreds of series from Batman and the original Daredevil to Crime Does Not Pay and Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom) had not seen the show when commissioned to write the comic book iteration, and both he and Italian artists Nevio Zaccara – and latterly Alberto Giolitti – received only the briefest of outlines and scant reference materials from the show’s producers. They were working almost in the dark…

When you read these stories, you’ll see some strange sights and apparent contradictions to Trek canon lore, but they were all derived from sensible assumptions by creators doing the very best with what meagre information they had. If you’re likely to have your nostalgic fun spoiled by wrong-coloured shirts or Lasers rather than Phasers, think alternate universe or read something else. Ultimately, you are the only one missing out…

That’s enough unnecessary apologising. These splendidly conceived all-ages tales don’t deserve or need it, and even the TV wellspring was a constantly developing work-in-progress, as fan and occasional Trek scripter Tony Isabella reveals in his Introduction ‘These Are the Voyages…’

Accompanied by the stunning photo-collage covers and endpapers (an expensive rarity at the time outside Gold Key titles) the quirky collation of cosmic questing commences with ‘The Planet of No Return’ (by Wood & Zaccaria, from #1, July 1967) as the Enterprise enters a region of space oddly devoid of life and encounters predatory spores from a planet designated Kelly-Green. This is a world of horror where vegetative life contaminates and transforms flesh whilst mindlessly seeking to constantly consume and conquer. After the survivors of the landing party escape deadly doom and return to the safety of space, there is only one course of action Captain Kirk can take…

‘The Devil’s Isle of Space’ was released with a March 1968 cover-date and found the ever-advancing Enterprise trapped in a space-wide electronic net. The technology was part of a system used by an alien race to pen death-row criminals on asteroids, where they would be (eventually) executed in a truly barbarous manner. Sadly, it’s hard not to interfere in a sovereign culture’s private affairs when the doomed criminals hold Federation citizens hostage and want Kirk to hand his ship over to them…

Bombastic. beguiling and spectacular, ‘Invasion of the City Builders’ (#3, December 1968) saw legendary Alberto Giolitti take the artistic reigns. Prolific, gifted and truly international, his work and the studio he founded produced a wealth of material for three continents; everything from Le Avventure di Italo Nurago, Tarzan, The Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon, Zorro, Cisco Kid, Turok, Gunsmoke, King Kong, Cinque anni dopo, Tex Willer and dozens more. In England, the Giolitti effect enhanced many magazines and age ranges; everything from Flame of the Forest in Lion to Enchanted Isle in Tammy. His textural adeptness and gritty line-work added visual terseness and tension to the mix, as seen in his first outing here, as Enterprise crewmembers land on a planet where automated machines originally programmed to build new homes and roads have been out of control for a century. Forcing the organic population to the edge of extinction, the mechs build cities no one can live in over the soil they need to grow food. The machines seem utterly indestructible, but Mr. Spock has an idea…

Social commentary gave way to action and suspense when ‘The Peril of Planet Quick Change’ (June 1969) finds the explorers investigating a world of chimerical geological instability, only to see Spock possessed by beings made of light. These creatures use him to finally stabilise their unruly world, but once the crisis is averted, one of the luminous spirits refuses to exit the Vulcan and plans to make the body its own…

‘The Ghost Planet’ (September 1969) was fast approaching parity with the TV incarnation as Enterprise reaches a world ravaged by radiation rings. Its twin rulers are eager for the star men’s help in removing the rings, but don’t want them hanging around to help rebuild the devastated civilisation. A little quiet investigation reveals that most of the carnage is due to eternal warfare which the devious despots plan to resume as soon as the Federation ship destroys the radiation rings and leaves…

Wrapping up this initial TV treasure-trove is ‘When Planets Collide’ (December 1969): a classic conundrum involving two runaway worlds inexorably drawn to each other and mutual destruction. What might have been a simple observable astronomical event becomes fraught with peril when the Enterprise’s crew discover civilisations within each world: both of which would rather die than evacuate their ancient homes…

With time running out and lives at stake there’s only one incredible chance to save both worlds, but it will take all Spock’s brains and Kirk’s piloting skill to avert cosmic catastrophe…

Bold, expansive and epic, these are great stories to delight young and old alike and well worth making time and space for. Why not explore lost worlds and sagas of guaranteed merit via the comics wayback machine? You know the one: it’s the comic shop located on the Edge of Forever?

® and © 2014 CBS Studios, Inc. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today Finnish cartoonist Lars Jansson was born today in 1926. You can see his work in Moomin Volume 9.

Today in 1937, Archie Goodwin was born: a gentle genius and still the Nicest Man in Comics, of whom you can learn more and appreciate his subtle mastery by checking Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin.

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The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection volume 11: Nine Lives Has the Black Cat (1978-1980)


By Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Roger Stern, David Michelinie, Jim Starlin, Keith Pollard, John Byrne, Rich Buckler, Sal Buscema, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney, Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Terry Austin, Gene Day, Pablo Marcos, Bob McLeod, Frank Springer, Marie Severin, Alan Kupperberg & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5641-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Spectacular Seasonal Spider Sensationalism … 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peter Parker was a smart yet alienated kid when he was bitten by a radioactive spider during a school science trip. Developing astonishing arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – the boy did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night, the cocky teen didn’t lift a finger to stop him. When Parker returned home he learned that his beloved guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, finding, to his horror, that it was the self-same felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help others…

Since that night he has tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them, and by the time of the tales in this full-colour compendium of web-spinning adventures the wondrous wallcrawler was a global figure and prime contender for the title of the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero. Spanning November 1978 to July 1980, chronologically re-presenting Amazing Spider-Man #186-206, Annual #13 & Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1 the transformative tales are an attempt to reconcile the tragic, ill-fated young man with the changing world of the fast-approaching, take-no-prisoners 1980s; and regrettably they don’t always succeed in our hindsight-equipped 21st century eyes…

Previously: old girlfriend and current neurotic stranger Betty Brant-Leeds returned after fleeing a dying marriage. She was absorbed with nostalgic notions to rekindle old flames with first love Peter Parker, but that mature-&-moved-on, almost-college-graduate’s social life was already deeply out of control. For his arachnid alter ego life involved constant attacks especially from increasing out-of-whack J. Jonah Jameson who funds yet another fringe science secret scheme to trap Spider-Man…

At this time a star of (1970s) television, the webslinger’s adventures were downplaying traditional fantasy elements as Keith Pollard became penciller for #186. Now, ‘Chaos is… the Chameleon!’ sees the devious disguise artist seeking to discredit the webslinger, even as District Attorney Blake Tower works to dismiss all charges against him, and is followed by a moody tale of lockdowns and plague as Spider-Man and Captain America unite to stop a voltaic villain inadvertently using ‘The Power of Electro!’ (Marv Wolfman, Jim Starlin & Bob McLeod) to trigger a biological time bomb…

Ruthlessly violent thugs are on the rampage next as ASM #188 depicts ‘The Jigsaw is Up!’ (illustrated by Pollard & Mike Esposito) after the river party cruise Peter, his pals and increasingly insistent Betty are enjoying is hijacked. Jameson’s secret then gets out to inflict ‘Mayhem by Moonlight!’ in a sharp two-part shocker limned by John Byrne & Jim Mooney. Exploited by malign and dying science rogue Spencer Smythe, Jonah is abducted by his own monster-marked son John leaving the wallcrawler ‘In Search of the Man-Wolf!’ Forced to witness the (presumed) death of his child at his worst enemy’s hands leads to a savage confrontation with Smythe’s Spider-Slayer robots in ‘Wanted for Murder: Spider-Man!’ (#191 by Pollard & Esposito) before all Jonah’s debts are paid and another death results after Spidey & Jonah are bound to the same bomb and given ‘24 hours Till Doomsday!’ …

Eluding doom by the skin of their shackled wrists, a new phase in the Jonah’s psychotic enmity begins in ASM #193’s ‘The Wings of the Fearsome Fly!’ with Wolfman, penciller Keith Pollard and inker Jim Mooney recapping how would-be Spider-Slayer Spencer Smythe had handcuffed JJJ to his despised bête noir Spider-Man in an explosive deathtrap and how that drew mutual old enemy The Fly as well as causing the death of John Jameson in his monster form of the ferociously feral Man-Wolf…

Peter is most disturbed by a half-remembered moment. In that clash Jonah might have peeked under the arachnid’s mask whilst the wallcrawler was briefly unconscious, and not knowing is driving Parker crazy. The loss of his son has absolutely unhinged the publisher, however, and, after firing Peter, Jonah swears to destroy Spider-Man, even as Peter dutifully hunts down the Fly. He finally finds him robbing the Metropolitan Museum of Art and succumbs to an opportunity to release his pent-up anger. It ends badly…

In the aftermath, another plot strand resurfaces as Ned Leeds show up and punches Parker out. The incensed reporter thinks its justifiable as his (recently estranged) wife Betty has been nostalgically and aggressively pursuing old flame Peter. Meanwhile at May Parker’s empty house, a strangely familiar figure is tearing walls down hunting for something. After eventually giving up, he moves on to the Restwell Nursing Home where the widow Parker currently resides… and finds a situation he can readily exploit…

With life in turmoil Peter is poorly prepared for the major change that begins in #194, painfully learning ‘Never Let the Black Cat Cross Your Path!’ after encountering a svelte femme fatale costumed jewel thief with luck always on her side. However, she seems to have forsaken profit for a new, darker agenda. Inked by Frank Giacoia, the tale sees her recruit a crew to break someone out of jail, and – despite an obvious (and mutual) attraction to sexy Spidey – she will let nothing stop her…

Now working as a photographer for rival paper the Daily Globe where he immediately sparks the curiosity of reporter April Maye, Peter continues to pursue the feline felon in a chase to disaster, quickly realising ‘Nine Lives Has the Black Cat!’ (collectively inked by “M. Hands” Mooney, Mike Esposito & Al Milgrom). This affords an origin for the curvaceous crook and culminates in shocking news for Peter…

I’d normally give lip service here to “spoilers” and indeed back then, the death of Aunt May was – for a brief moment – a big deal, but it wasn’t real and didn’t last long. In-world though, Peter is crushed by the loss of his last relative and only family, with ‘Requiem!’ – limned by Milgrom, Mooney & Frank Giacoia – seeing him shattered by her “peaceful passing” whilst he was elsewhere, and at this moment still blithely unaware of a plot by unctuous home director Dr. Rinehart. Many older fans had already clocked who he really was…

Dazed and reeling, the hero is just starting to suspect something isn’t right as he’s ambushed by thugs and dragged to ‘The Kingpin’s Midnight Massacre!’ in ASM #197. Here Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney show the soon-to-be-retired crime lord packing to leave and up against an immovable deadline. To please his beloved wife Vanessa, the villain will cease his illegal activities at the witching hour. All that’s left on his to-do list is to kill Spider-Man, but the clock’s ticking and the wallcrawler just won’t die…

Building up to the anniversary spectacular and illustrated by Sal Buscema & Mooney, most dangling plot threads start cleaving together when Peter realises who Rinehart actually is and bursts into the Restwell Home in ‘Mysterio is Deadlier by the Dozen!’ to find the master of illusion preying on sundowning oldsters and teamed up with the burglar who shot Uncle Ben. Out of jail and desperate to retrieve something long hidden in the Parker house, the long-discarded thug has hijacked Mysterio’s comfortably risk-free scam and attracted the wrath of a really, really angry Spider-Man…

Despite fighting back fiercely in ‘Now You See Me! Now You Die!’ the writing is truly on the wall for the now-at-odds bad guys who meet their fates in The Amazing Spider-Man #200’s extra-length conclusion ‘The Spider and the Burglar… A Sequel!’ – cover dated January 1980 and courtesy of Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney.

With the truth out and May restored, Peter is ready for whatever the future holds as we segue into The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #13 where Wolfman, Byrne & Terry Austin occupy ‘The Arms of Doctor Octopus’ with a murderous scheme to regain his underworld reputation and dominance. The plot is brought to Spider-Man’s attention by murdered federal agent Kent Blake, who blackmails the hero into going undercover in the gang to recover stolen plans and ends with a catastrophic clash that sees the villain maimed…

Although momentarily defeated, Ock isn’t finished with New York or Spider-Man, and the saga continues and concludes in the first annual of a companion Spider-title. Before that, though, Annual traditions are upheld by additions to ongoing feature ‘A Gallery of Spider-Man’s Most Famous Foes’. Rendered by Pollard, the roster expands for The Molten Man, The Looter, The Rhino, The Shocker, The Kingpin, Silverman and Man-Mountain Marko, The Prowler and The Kangaroo before ending on ‘A Mighty Marvel Bonus’ offering updated locations and floorplans for ‘Peter Parker’s Pad!’, The Daily Bugle & Daily Globe offices and Empire State University Campus – and Peter’s colleagues.

The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1 details the denouement in ‘And Men Shall Call Him… Octopus!’ as Bill Mantlo, Rich Buckler & Mooney follow a furious and confused webslinger who uses Ock’s severed metal tentacle to lure the near-insane-with-pain-&-shock villain into a cataclysmic showdown aboard a ship’s graveyard in the East River and apparently final clash in an undersea base…

Dried out and back to business basics, the hero’s journey resumes in ASM 201’s ‘Man-Hunt!’ as Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney reunite the hero with The Punisher, whose hunt for a gang boss turns up a suspicious connection between photo seller Parker and his star subject Spider-Man…

Further muddying the waters is the latest woe to befall Jonah, whose nervous collapse devolves into pure mania, prompting his escape into delusion and the city’s back alleys. Guilt-ridden Parker can’t do much for his favourite gadfly, but can send Frank Castle on an identity-saving wild goose chase, before helping to deal with his latest target in concluding chapter ‘One For Those Long Gone!’

More infomercial than adventure – and probably a deadline-busting fill-in – Amazing Spider-Man #203 is one huge plug for Marvel’s disco sensation as Wolfman, Pollard, Esposito & Friends introduce Spider-Man to mutant musician Dazzler. The siren songstress is being hunted by old arachnid foe Lightmaster who needs her energies to bust him free of the light dimension that holds him captive but fails again in ‘Bewitched, Bothered and B-Dazzled!’

Another strong independent woman (re)appears in Pablo Marcos inked #204, as Wolfman signs off with ‘The Black Cat Always Lands on her Feet!’ Here the presumed-dead super thief returns to steal a selection of romance-themed art, and Spidey’s pursuit is the bandit’s actual goal. As seen in #205’s David Michelinie, Pollard & Mooney conclusion ‘…In Love and War!’, second generation purloiner Felicia Hardy has become fixated on the enigmatic masked man and stealing these items is her way of wooing the wallcrawler. Just for a change, this is a challenge requiring Parker’s mind and empathy, not Spider-Man’s might…

With an increasingly angry and unstable Joe Robertson replacing a lost amnesiac Jameson at the Daily Bugle, ASM #206 sees Roger Stern, John Byrne & Gene Day resolve the saga of his breakdown in closing inclusion ‘A Method in his Madness!’ Here it’s revealed that rogue scientist Dr. Jonas Harrow (who remade sundry second-rate thugs into super-foes like Will-O’the-Wisp, Kangaroo and Hammerhead) had turned the publisher’s office into a testing ground for his fringe science. Now that his Mental Attitude-Response Variator ray has driven Jonah to the edge of madness, Harrow plans to turn it on Spider-Man himself, but one last test on the entire Bugle staff gives our hero a heads-up and leads to the devil doctor’s defeat…

With covers throughout from Milgrom, Pollard, John Romita Sr., Buckler, McLeod & Josef Rubinstein, this tome also offers a selection of original art by Pollard with Mooney, Frank Giacoia and Byrne & Austin; Carmine Infantino & Steve Leialoha’s unused cover to Spider-Woman #9 where Wolfman originally intended Black Cat to debut, and Dave Cockrum’s revamped design for her as well as an unused Pollard & McLeod cover for ASM #194 and Cockrum’s rough for the cover they finally used. Completing the extras are House ads for forthcoming landmark ASM #200.

These yarns confirmed Spider-Man’s growth into a global multi-media brand. Blending cultural veracity with superb art, and making a dramatic virtue of the awkwardness, confusion and imputed powerlessness most of the readership experienced daily, resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, especially when delivered in addictive soap-styled instalments, but none of that would be relevant if Spider-Man’s stories weren’t so utterly entertaining. This action-packed collection relives many momentous and crucial periods in the wallcrawler’s astounding life and is one all Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatics must see…
© 2025 MARVEL.

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Approximate Continuum Comics


By Lewis Trondheim, edited & translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-410-8 (TPB)

With well over 100 books sporting his name (which isn’t actually Lewis Trondheim but Laurent Chabosy), the writer/artist/editor and educator is one of Europe’s most prolific comics creators: illustrating his own work and working with the industry’s top artists; overseeing animated cartoons of print successes like La Mouche (The Fly) and Kaput and Zösky and even editing younger readers book series Shampooing for Dargaud. His most famous works are the global hits Les Formidables Aventures de Lapinot (translated as The Spiffy Adventures of McConey) and, with Joann Sfar, the Donjon (Dungeon) series of nested fantasy epics (see the translated Dungeon: Parade, Dungeon: Monstres and Dungeon: the Early Years).

Tireless and prolific, he has written for everything from satirical magazine Psikopat to Le Journal de Spirou and Walt Disney. His scripts for the continent’s most popular artists include Le Roi Catastrophe and Vénézia with Fabrice Parme, Les Cosmonautes du futur (Manu Larcenet), Allez Raconte and Papa Raconte (José Parrondo), Politique étrangère (with Jochen Gerner and which Trondheim adapted into an opera in 2009) and Petit Pére Noël (Thierry Robin).

He is a cartoonist of uncanny wit, piercing, gentle perspicacity, comforting affability and self-deprecating empathy who prefers to control scrupulously what is known and said about him…

I first became aware of Lewis Trondheim’s subtly engaging comics mannerism in Fantagraphics’ Mome anthologies which reprinted excerpts of his utterly entrancing comics blog Little Nothings, wherein Trondheim’s friends and acquaintances, rendered and simultaneously masked as anthropomorphised animals (with him a dowdy, parrot-beaked central figure) revisit episodes of his life, flavoured with philosophy, personal introspection, whimsical inquiry and foible-filled observations.

These mini-treats were gathered into four terrific tomes of drawn diaries for constant re-reading (Little Nothings: Curse of the Umbrella, The Prisoner Syndrome, Uneasy Happiness and My Shadow in the Distance). You might still find the first three available as collected gift set Bigger Nothings…

However, before all that, in 1993 Trondheim first explored the idea as a 4-issue American-styled comic book project and those prototypical slices of wry and winning reportage are finally available in a translated black and white softcover collection. Some of the very first autobiographical works on the French bande dessinée scene, these little gems were a genuine game-changer for cartoonists and storytellers, prompting a rise in personal stories that has generated many works to rival the best of Harvey Pekar himself and created a new (sub)genre of graphic narrative…

In this collected Approximate Continuum Comics the signature blend of visualised introspection and self-condemnatory flagellation finds the younger Trondheim questioning his own professional integrity; violently and graphically wish-fulfilling his way through rush-hour crowds (haven’t we all?); planning – for which read risk-assessing – his forthcoming marriage and dealing with his unfathomable Japanese publisher during the early days of creating his multi-media hit La Mouche.

He regularly gets lost in his own free-associating daydreams and rightly fears being castigated by his own conscience for swimming in megalomania, indecisiveness, forthrightness and deference. Trondheim’s many inner voices don’t like him very much: there are myriad incidences of self-abuse where his alternate egos beat the crap out of him; counterbalanced with gloriously loaded “real-world” episodes where he lampoons and embarrasses his fellow studio-mates of publishing collective L’Association. (To be fair these are fabulously balanced by a marvellous section at the book’s end where such maligned and injured creative colleagues as David B., Emile Bravo, Didier Tronchet, Jean-Christophe Menu, Killofer & Philippe Dupuy among others, as well as civilian friends, his wife Brigitte and even his mother all get a trenchant and routinely hilarious right-to-reply.)

The first inklings of the artist’s perennial problems with technology in general and computer games in particular appear here, as do many childhood memoirs and sundry diatribes against people and places either experienced or sometimes only imagined. One of the best sequences concerns the trip-of-a-lifetime to America (first of many, but he didn’t know that then…) and his apparent inability to think of one single strip idea about it, only surpassed by his behaviour at a raucous party held in his beloved studio.

During the course of these cartoon capers, Trondheim married his fiancée, sired his first child and moved into a new home, but although these major events are thoroughly and compellingly covered they still pale into insignificance against the spectacular battles against his inevitably spreading paunch, obsessively mean-spirited self-criticism and the thunderbolt-like occasional phone call from his mum. …And whenever that’s no longer painful enough there’s always the violent physical assaults and punishment-beatings from his inner selves…

Personal favourites of mine include Les petits riens, Tiny Tyrant, Ralph Azham, Mr. O, Archives of Lost Issues, Mister I, Infinity 8 and A.L.I.E.E.E.N. but if you fancy other kinds of fare, Trondheim’s probably covered whatever you fancy and done it with wit and aplomb…

Superbly skilled at switching imperceptibly from broad self-parody to cripplingly honest and  painful personal revelation; wild surrealism to powerful reportage and from clever humorous observation to howling existentialist inquisition, Trondheim’s cartoon interior catalogue is always a supremely rewarding and enjoyable experience and, as these ancient texts prove, always has been…
© 2001 Lewis Trondheim and Cornélius. This edition © 2011 Fantagraphics Books. All Rights Reserved.

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The Tomb of Dracula Marvel Masterworks volume 1


By Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Gardner F. Fox, Roy Thomas, Vince Colletta, Tom Palmer, Ernie Chan, Jack Abel, Steve Gerber, Rich Buckler & Pablo Marcos, Neal Adams & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2947-3 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today in 1926 Eugene Jules Colan was born. In a long and illustrious career, this is what most people remember him for, and rightly so as it was always his baby…

At the end of the 1960s American comic books were in turmoil, much like the youth of the nation they targeted. Superheroes had dominated the market and zeitgeist for most of the decade; peaking globally before explosively falling to ennui and overkill. Familiar, trusted genres like horror, westerns and science fiction were resurgent, and fed back into comics thanks to radical trends in moviemaking, where the kids who had grown up with Marvel now pursued the bulk of their young adult entertainment needs.

Inspiration isn’t everything. In fact, as Marvel slowly grew to a position of market dominance in the wake of the losing their two most innovative and inspirational creators, they did so less by experimentation and more by returning to and expanding proven concepts and properties. The only real exception to this was the en masse creation of horror titles: an initial response to that industry downturn in super-hero sales – and a move vastly aided and expedited by a rapid revision in the wordings of the increasingly ineffectual Comics Code Authority rules.

The switch to supernatural stars had many benefits. Crucially, it particularly brought a new readership to Marvel comics, one attuned to the global revival in spiritualism, Satanism and all things sinisterly spooky. Almost as important, it gave the reprint-crazy company opportunity to finally recycle old 1950s horror stories that had been rendered unprintable and useless since the code’s inception in 1954.

A scant 15 years later Comics Code prohibitions against horror were hastily rewritten – amazing how plunging sales can affect ethics – and scary comics came back in a big way. A fresh crop of supernatural heroes and monsters popped up on newsstands to supplement the ghosts, ghoulies and goblins already infiltrating the once science-only scenarios of the surviving mystery men titles. Crucially, lifting the Code ban resulted in so many horror titles (both new characters and reprints from the massive, multi company horror-boom of 1949-1955) that it undoubtedly caused a few more venerable costumed crusaders to (temporarily, at least) bite the dust.

Almost overnight nasty monsters (and narcotics, but that’s another story) became acceptable fare on four-colour pages and – whilst a parade of pre-code reprints made sound business sense – the creative aspect of the contemporary buzz for bizarre themes was catered to by adapting or incorporating established and still-popular cultural icons before risking whole new concepts on an untested public. As always in entertainment, the watchword was fashion: what was hitting big outside comics must be incorporated into the mix as soon as possible. When science-backed proto-horror Morbius debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (cover-dated October 1971) and the sky failed to fall in, Marvel moved ahead with a line of shocking superstars.

They began with a traditional werewolf and then an already infamous vampire before chancing something new with a haunted biker who tapped into both Easy Rider’s freewheeling motorcycling chic and the prevailing supernatural zeitgeist. Recycling an old western’s title, an all-new Ghost Rider debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5, August 1972. He had been preceded by western hero Red Wolf in #1 and the aforementioned Werewolf by Night in #2-4. From these beginnings, spooky floodgates opened to such an extent there was even room for non-white stars such The Living Mummy, Brother Voodoo and zombie Simon Garth…

This momentously mean & moody compendium collects the neck-nuzzling dark lord’s earliest exploits from a time when he was regarded as an implacable outsider and murderous conquest-obsessed predator. They come from The Tomb of Dracula #1-11, April 1972 – August 1973, and are supported by material from mature-themed, monochrome magazine iteration Dracula Lives! #1-3 which – confusingly for the era – were constantly referenced in the colour comics even if us kids weren’t supposed to have them…

Thus they all lurk at the back of this grimoire of gore rather than unfold chronologically in-world.

Opening with a brace of revelatory, reminiscing Introductions from Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman we learn the convoluted details and twisty path that led to disinterring the Count for his landmark debut in The Tomb of Dracula #1 cover dated April 1972 but actually on sale from November 16th 1971. By all accounts the simple use of a public domain character was an idea with many owners. Publisher Martin Goodman apparently pushed editor Stan Lee and never originally considered the project as a Marvel colour comic book. Nor was Gene Colan in the frame to draw it. The illustrator thought otherwise and aggressively and successfully campaigned for the job…

Eugene Jules Colan – sometimes AKA Adam Austin – was born in the Bronx and drew comics for almost his entire life. They included countless genre shorts in every conceivable field, plus character s like Daredevil, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Howard the Duck, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, The Spectre, Hulk, Avengers, Kid Colt. Outlaw, Brother Voodoo, Star-Lord, Wolverine and more. His co-creations include first African-American superhero The Falcon, Guardians of the Galaxy, two Captain Marvels (Mar-Vell & Carol Danvers), Blade the Vampire Hunter, Dracula’s daughter Lilith, Night Force, Nathaniel Dusk, Silverblade, Detective Inc., Jemm, Son of Saturn, Jughead’s Time Police, Ragamuffins, and much work for Archie, Bongo, Comico, CrossGen, Disney, Fiction House, IDW & and Ziff-Davis Comics.

He also worked on franchises such as Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, Jaws, Meteor, Elvira’s House of Mystery, Little Shop Of Horrors, DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel (#2, 1986 – Robert Silverberg’s Nightwings co-adapted with Cary Bates), Predator, Clive Barker’s The Harrowers: Raiders of the Abyss, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and To Riverdale and Back Again.

Very much the Native New Yorker, Colan was schooled at George Washington High School, Washington Heights before attending the Art Students League of New York and being caught trying to enlist underage in the US Marines. Gene began drawing for pay in 1944 (for Wings Comics). Legitimate military service came quickly enough and he joined the Army Air Corps, but served on the ground in the Philippines until 1946. Thereafter, as a demobbed corporal he quickly found work drawing and lettering for Timely Comics: primarily crime, horror and war shorts… and the last few issues of Captain America Comics.

When the company imploded in 1948, Colan began freelancing for National/DC and Timely’s successor Atlas comics until their subsequent demise. His meticulous, authentic humanist style made him the go-to guy for the surging war comics genre at both companies and led to his first regular gig, illustrating DC licensed property Hopalong Cassidy from 1954-1957. From there he moved into National’s lucrative romance division, contributing regularly to all seven of their titles. Like fellow comics master John Romita and so many others, Colan was lured to Stan Lee’s latest enterprise when the Marvel Phenomenon properly took hold, and became a mainstay on the Man without Fear and literally dozens of other titles. Hedging his bets, at the time of his move he also began working on mature monochrome magazine horror tales for Archie Goodwin at Warren publications, contributing to Eerie and Creepy.

His unique artistic style of fluid motion and moody shadows meant he was always first choice when Marvel tried something off the beaten superhero track, such as Medusa, Doctor Doom and especially Doctor Strange, Howard the Duck (with comics “soulmate” Steve Gerber) and Dracula, but in 1981 increasing tensions between Colan and Editor-in-chief Jim Shooter led to the artist’s return to DC, experiments with the burgeoning Direct Sales marketplace and the most productive and expansive period of his comics career.

He periodically returned to Marvel with an award winning Captain America yarn, a fresh stint on Daredevil, further Tomb of Dracula tales with Marv Wolfman (as well as different Dracula series for Dark Horse) and an epic, revelatory anti-apartheid Black Panther saga penned by preferred collaborator Don McGregor Panthers Quest please link to Black Panther Marvel Masterworks volume 3, 9th August 2021.

In 2009 Captain America #601’s anniversary tale ‘Red, White and Blue-Blood’ (with scripter Ed Brubaker and inker Dave Gutierrez) won Colan an Eisner Award to add to his lifetime of prizes. Despite severe and escalating eyesight problems, Colan worked constantly and – as he had since the 1980s – still found time for gallery shows and teaching the next generation of pictorial storytellers at Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts and Fashion Institute of Technology. He died from complications of cancer and liver failure on June 23rd 2011.

For many afficionados, his work on Tomb of Dracula is probably his finest. Colan’s enthusiasm for the character and project were limitless and he survived a merry-go-round of early writers before the series found its feet. It also survived the crash of horror titles as the 1970s closed and carved a unique space for itself in Marvel continuity. It was revived many, many times, treating classic horror themes and tropes with deference, generating new stars and even wedging the Count into superhero crossovers that should not have worked but did. ToD deftly evolved from classic horror comics into a dark soap opera of character-based terror whilst seeking to get inside the mind of a protagonist who literally thought of humanity as food…

Extra-long, inked by Colan himself, and with the illustrator basing his star on the movie star Jack Palance, ‘Dracula’ stemmed from an idea by Lee, and was plotted by Roy Thomas with the final script coming via Gerry Conway & Colan. It introduces bankrupt wastrel Frank Drake, a bone fide descendent of the legendary literary icon. On learning he has inherited the family castle, Drake heads for Transylvania accompanied his new girlfriend Jeanie Ovington. Distressingly they also bring her last boyfriend Clifton Graves along. He’s convinced Frank to turn the foreboding fortress into a theme park and not-so-secretly seeks to reclaim Jeanie…

The villagers are divided between modernity and genuine fear of their “fictitious” Overlord who clearly hasn’t been dead very long…

Marooned in the village, the Americans take refuge in Castle Dracula where an attack by bats, ill-disguised jealousy and mounting tensions force bitter Clifton to explore. When he finds Count Dracula’s actual tomb, he inevitably pulls a stake out of the skeleton’s chest, and the fate of the world is sealed…

Before travelling from London, Frank had “researched” the project by studying Bram Stoker’s novel, but is utterly unprepared for the very real Lord of Vampires who reconstitutes, disposes of Clifton and hungrily attacks Jeanie. The monster is only driven off by his human relative’s new-found knowledge and unanticipated courage. Still weak and ravenous the Count instead descends upon to the village for much-needed liquid sustenance. With another blood-drained corpse in the street and the thought of a renewed campaign of terror, the villagers rise and attack the castle, but not in time to save Jeannie from Dracula’s assault…

Vince Colletta inks second issue continuation ‘The Fear Within!’ as heartbroken Drake explores his fire-gutted inheritance with new companion Gort. When their search uncovers Clifton still alive, they return to London with the monster’s coffin, blithely unaware that the vampire has already begun reactivating his widespread network of slaves and servants. Within a fortnight Dracula stalks the metropolis again, and sets his hungry thrall Jeanie on Drake and Graves whilst he recovers his dissipated energies in slaughter and feeding. However, when he finally attacks the interfering mortals it is Jeanie who pays the price…

Suicidal after losing his fiancée twice, Drake is saved from plunging off Westminster Bridge in ToD #3 by unsuspected allies. Written by Archie Goodwin and inked by Tom Palmer, ‘Who Stalks the Vampire?’ introduces Rachel van Helsing and mute Indian/Sikh Taj Nital, as well as Scotland Yard’s Inspector George Chelm. The lifelong vampire fighters have followed Drake’s actions and now recruit the despondent descendent, but are unable to prevent the undead devil enslaving Clifton, who then helps Dracula recover his much-needed coffin.

The foray is foiled by both police and thieves and the vampire is driven off, leaving behind not only his desperately needed bier but also the millions in gold bullion secreted within it: operating capital that could have helped the undead disappear from official scrutiny. Now forced to ignominiously flee, Dracula arrives at the isolated mansion of mystical collector Ilsa Strangway…

A faded fashion model obsessed with regaining her beauty, Strangway has obtained Dracula’s journal and bargains with him to “turn” her in return for a mystical looking-glass that can open portals into time. However, his voyaging ‘Through a Mirror Darkly!’ (Goodwin, Colan & Palmer) only occurs after a cruel trick played on the decrepit ingenue, one she fully reciprocates before Frank, Rachel and Taj ambush the plotters and in the melee, Dracula slips into the mirror taking Taj with him…

Pulp stylist Gardner F. Fox signed on for two issues beginning with #5 as ‘Death to a Vampire-Slayer!’ found the Count consigned to a demon-dimension and protecting his human companion as his only viable food supply. Eventually another mirror takes them to 19th century Transylvania affording Dracula an opportunity to assassinate Rachel’s grandfather Abraham van Helsing decades before she was conceived…

His plans and veritable orgy of bloodletting are ruined however, when Rachel & Frank solve the mystery of the Strangway’s mirror and arrive in time to drive him off. Frustrated and furious Dracula returns to 1972 with his age-old vampire bride Lenore in tow…

Hotly pursued by Rachel, Frank and Taj, the chase returns them all to the heaths around the Strangway house where the vampire couple’s first kill is saved by ‘The Moorlands Monster!’ This misunderstood, shambling hulk is a family shame and secret covered up by the manorial Deering clan, who are currently hosting Inspector Chelm after he arrived to investigate more blood-loss killings…

The tragic brute also plays a crucial part in saving the vampire fighters when the Count and Lenore ambush them. After turning the tables on the vampires, Dracula is forced to sacrifice his returned love just to save himself…

Following months of fast paced rapidly changing uncertainty, a degree of stability arrived as Marv Wolfman took over scripting with #7’s ‘Night of the Death-Stalkers!’ When Dracula returns to modern-day London, he attacks young Edith Harker but is driven off her wheelchair-bound father and his dog Saint. He is Rachel’s mentor Quincy Harker (son of one of the original 19th century vampire hunters cited in Stoker’s novel) and a man merging knowledge with high tech innovation. After he summons van Helsing, Taj Nital & Drake, Quincy shares his history of battling Dracula, even as the undead lord further abuses Clifton Graves. Done with his foes’ interference Dracula hypnotically recruits an army of children and rats to destroy them but the attack goes wrong and the Count is poisoned by a wooden dart…

With Ernie Chua/Chan inking, the tale steps into high gear as ‘The Hell-Crawlers’ sees the wounded fiend head for another of his sleeper agents even as the vampire-fighters are surrounded by homicidal knife-wielding children. Although the adults initially escape, the kids’ programming is unshakable and pursuit relentless. However, Dracula’s long absence has weakened his control of clandestine bloodsucker Dr Heinrich Mortte – who has faithfully safeguarded a devilish device to raise the dead as vampires – and his servant rebels, battling his master for the doomsday ray.

Although triumphant, Dracula is severely wounded by the clash and loses control of his child death squad. He also falls into the ocean, and – with Colletta inking – resurfaces in quiet fishing village Littlepool which is soon blighted by ‘Death From the Sea!’ after local priest Father William exploits “Mr. Drake”’s miraculous survival to drive a local religious revival. However, as locals – such as biker/future vampiric archfoe Lucas Brand, goodtime girl Gladys and petty thug Corker continue to die, the remaining villagers are forced into the same kind of response that drove Dracula from Transylvania…

The colour chapters of our journey conclude with the introduction of what was frankly a daft idea but which was transformed by later writers in a mega-selling character-concept. Not here but soon, readers discovered a mouthy Jazz musician was immune to vampire bites (yes, I know, how feasible is it to be immune to bleeding to death?) whose mother was killed by a vampire whilst he was being born…

Released at the height of the movie “Blacksploitation” phenomenon, The Tomb of Dracula #10 was cover-dated July 1973 and introduced a hip, cool dude who played sax in nightclubs when not butchering Vamps and Fangers. Inked by Jack Abel, ‘His Name is… Blade!’ sees the wooden-knived wonder save dockside teens from Dracula’s ever-growing legions before rejecting a team-up plea from Harker. The rude refusal is a waste of breath as the object of their lethal desires is long gone, having already joined the sybaritic cruise of billionaire Garbiel Trulaine who has spiced up his voyage of Showing Off To Rival One-percenters with a unique guest and showpiece.

To their horror they all soon realise that money isn’t everything…

All but too late, Blade arrives to destroy Dracula but must settle for Clifton Graves and scuttling the Count’s scheme to swell his ranks and coffers, before we neatly segue into the Abel-embellished tale of ‘The Voodoo-Man!’ wherein Dracula’s desperate attempt to outfly the rising sun and reach a coffin stashed in Surrey Forest(!) gives way to some plot thread laying. Safely ensconced on native soil again, the Count considers further punishing the biker gang of Lucas Brand who had the temerity to attack his betters…

That thug is currently employed by iron-lung-entombed grudge-holder Jason Faust, tasked with torturing and killing three people who thwarted the paralysed potentate. The method is what is most important: Brand must use a hex doll and long sharp needle. However, Fate throws Brand to his own unsuspected tormentor when the proxy-killer attacks Faust’s third and final target… Quincy Harker. Dracula chooses to defer vengeance on his oldest enemy and instead play a cruel jest on the pawn he already has plans for…

Although painfully dated in places and cripplingly afflicted with what Americans thought British (and Transylvanian!) people sounded like, the power of the tales and especially Colan’s clearly inspired visualisations make these early exploits unmissable comics. Fans clearly agreed as the title spawned many, spin-off and guest-shots. Once Colan & Co completed the 70-issue series (plus all those extras) Comics Bulletin (2010) judged the result as #5 on the Top Ten List of 1970s Marvel comics…

As previously stated, an adult-oriented adjunct iteration was launched to capitalise on the comic book’s success. Dracula Lives! #1 coincided with the release of ToD #8, sporting a cover by Boris Vallejo and comprised of articles, photos, new comics and horror reprints.

The Contents page and editorial ‘Dracula is Alive and Well and Living on Madison Avenue!’ here join with house ads, recaptioned monochrome classic movie stills prior to black, white & red comics novella ‘To Walk in Daylight!’ as Steve Gerber, Rich Buckler & Pablo Marcos probe the Count’s past. The result finds Dracula prowling 19th century Vienna in search of an alchemist who claims to have a cure for the Undead’s fatal aversion to sunshine…

A grisly next issue ad precedes a selection from Dracula Lives! #2 with a cover by Penalva.

A Contents page, more funny photos precede a stunning historical yarn by Wolfman & Neal Adams. Set in 1459, ‘That Dracula May Live Again!’ observes how heroic Prince Vlad of Wallachia falls to Turkish invaders and why all-conquering Lord Turac came to regret leaving his broken trophy with vampiric gypsy Lianda. Origin done, more ads herald the contents of Dracula Lives! #3 (October 1973) where another Adams cover, Contents page and Movie Still continues the origin saga, as bereft of family, newborn vampire Vlad meets current king of the Undead Nimrod. Crafted by Wolfman, John Buscema & Syd Shores, ‘Lord of Death… Lord of Hell!’ reveals exactly how the proud noble became ruler of the dark legions, after which one last next issue ad brings the comics to a conclusion.

However, more treasure lies in store. As well as covers throughout by Adams, John Severin, Gil Kane, Palmer, John Romita, John Buscema & Frank Brunner, bonus materials include Thomas’s original plot synopsis for ToD #1; Colan’s try-out submission, 13 pages of original art, covers by Colan and Adams, Kane & Palmer cover #5, plus editorial alterations on this always contentious and worrisome title. There’s also Colan’s 1992 cover for The Savage Return of Dracula and a truly massive biographies section.

Beginning in a rather muddled, undirected and opportunistic manner The Tomb of Dracula developed under the guidance of scripter Wolfman and sublime artist Colan – especially when inked by Tom Palmer – into one the most celebrated and popular comics series of all time: one able to be subtracted from its conjoined continuity to stand alone as a classic of horror fiction. By today’s standards these are oddly coy horror stories for a generation born before “video nasties” and teen-slasher movies, so it’s unlikely that you’ll need a sofa to hide behind…
© 2021 MARVEL.

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

Comics master José Ortiz was also born today, in 1932. For more of us on him, you can go to The 10,000 Disasters of Dort or The Thirteenth Floor volume 01.

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No Refuge


By Patrice Aggs & Joe Brady (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-119-2 (PB)

I normally aim to review unpublished and new books relatively close to their release date because people have minds like sieves and seldom sustain interest for unavailable items, but this is a long and eagerly anticipated treat and one everyone needs to be aware of as soon as possible. I might even remind you all closer to the release date… just see if I don’t…

Just imagine a Britain where the leaders ignore laws, suspend Parliament and rule by fiat. Consider curfews and lockdowns, citizens attacking each other over differing views, shortages in shops and direct monitoring and control of what the press and even teachers can say and do. Further ponder on what happens when impassioned protestors organise into militant groups, systematically and violently resisting armed interventions and oppressions doled out by an ever more heavy-handed police force and too-readily deployed army.

That’s what Patrice Aggs & Joe Brady did for their award-winning all-ages thriller No Country. The resulting comic saga was set in contemporary England; following comic-loving middle schooler Bea, her little brother Dom and far-too-bossy older sister Hannah as they were forced to adapt to a rapidly-changing reality. Their dad used to work as a local councillor, but was sidelined on office and relegated to looking after the kids – although he spent his off-hours in quiet, secret meetings with other adults who all had worried faces…

Mum had been gone for a while, but still connected to them via the internet… whenever there was enough electricity. She was safely living in another country, trying to get exit visas and paperwork so the family could be reunited… somewhere safe.

Tensions ratcheted up when a long-declared Martial Law edict was shockingly enforced by New Army divisions who occupied the town and “requisitioned” everything not nailed down. Hannah was just getting to know her first proper boyfriend. He was part of patriotic rebel front Free Kingdom – the other side of a rapidly escalating, ideologically fanatical civil war, ripping sedate stuffy Britain to pieces.

Argumentative but always bonded by their “Sister Code” Bea and Hannah already knew bad days were coming. They didn’t care about stupid politics but as shortages mounted and hunger grew, with home raids and “searches” intensifying daily, friends and teachers started disappearing. When Mum finally contacted them, saying that their documents were ready the girls knew they must act immediately. Tragically, not everyone was there to get the message. Dad was missing…

However, he had wisely drummed a contingency plan into them. With no time to wait, the moment to run had come…

Picking up immediately after the close of No Country, the family history turns even more chilling here as the kids hunker down in a flimsy powered dingy, trusting everything to shady rogues in illegal boats… and the kindness of strangers they haven’t met yet.

How they got to this parlous state unfolds in a grimly harrowing, emotionally challenging flashback of tribulation that begins with Hannah taking charge and dragging Bea and toddler Dom across open country for days. Thankfully unaware of what both New Army and Free Kingdom forces are doing in equally determined searches for them, Bea argues constantly and leaves dangerously revealing picture messages for Dad, who she knows must be following them. She also forces fiercely pragmatic Hannah to let a huge dog join the group. That proves to both wise and ultimately heartbreaking…

Cold, starving, harried and hunted, the family experience hardship and the worst of civilisation in crisis, but are inevitably forced to give themselves up to get medical assistance when Dom succumbs to exhaustion and fever. Initial relief and gratitude turn to panic and fury as their baby brother is “disappeared” and they must escape their draconian girls’ boarding establishment to retrieve him. The frantic attempt takes them to the capital – a high-security oasis of calm and serenity where the rich and privileged have isolated themselves from the country’s troubles and its lesser inhabitants.

Utterly unstoppable, undaunted by continuing disappointment and prepared to face any risk, the girls make unlikely friends – such as a benevolent people trafficker – and persevere until a seeming miracle occurs…

Every bit as compelling and rewarding as its predecessor, this is another superb exploration of the world’s ongoing refugee crisis with the comfy, cosy UK all-too-convincingly substituting for Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine and now also the USA (and please feel free to look up why I chose those countries). This is a brilliant treatment of real-world problems any kid can grasp and be moved by, in exactly the same way books like The Diary of a Young Girl AKA The Diary of Anne Frank, Animal Farm, A Kestrel for a Knave or Lord of the Flies ushered in new, transformational understanding for generations of youngsters.

Read carefully, read open-mindedly, but please do read.

This volume includes a Phoenix Comic Club feature steered by Aggs & Brady, providing discussion questions readers might want to think about after finishing the story…
Text & Illustrations © The Phoenix Comic 2025.

No Refuge is published on 11th September 2025 and available for preorder now.

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Jack Kirby’s The Losers


By Jack Kirby with D. Bruce Berry, Mike Royer & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-194-6 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Despite there being a glorious profusion of Jack Kirby material around these days, much of the best and rarest stuff is still – unforgivably – hard to access. This astounding collection of his too-brief run on DC war comic Our Fighting Forces is, for far too many, an unknown delight. You can still find it in the original 2009 hardback edition, but as far as I know, there’s neither digital nor even n trade paperback edition – in English – to satisfy the desires of fans lacking an infinite bank balance.

Famed for his larger than life characters and gigantic, cosmic imaginings, the King was a decent, spiritual man from another generation, and one who had experienced human horror and bravery as an ordinary grunt during World War II. Whether in the world-weary Verité of his 1950s collaborations with Joe Simon or the flamboyant bravado of his Marvel creation Sgt. Fury, Kirby’s combat comics always looked and felt real: grimy, tired, battered yet indomitable. Back in 1974, with his newest creations inexplicably not setting any sales records at DC, and while he tentatively pondered a return to Marvel, Jack took over the creative chores on a well-established, compelling but always floundering series that had run in Our Fighting Forces since 1970.

The Losers were an elite unit of American warriors cobbled together by amalgamating three pre-existing war series that had reached the end of their solo star roads. Gunner and Sarge (supplemented by “Fighting Devil Dog” Pooch) were Pacific-based Marines; debuting in All-American Men of War #67, (March 1959). They patrolled for 50 issues in Our Fighting Forces (#45-94, May 1959- August 1965), whilst Captain Johnny Cloud – Navajo Ace and native American fighter pilot – shot down his first bogie in All-American Men of War #82 (December 1960) and flew (mostly) solo until issue #115 in 1966. The final component of the Land/Air/Sea team was filled by Captain Storm, a disabled PT Boat commander (he had a wooden leg) who had his own 18-issue title from 1964 to 1967. All three series were created by DC’s comics warlord Robert Kanigher.

The characters had all pretty much passed their sell-by dates when they teamed-up as guest-stars in a Haunted Tank tale (G.I. Combat #138 October 1969), but these “Losers” found a new resonance together in the “relevant-era” and disillusioned, cynical Vietnam years and beyond, when their nihilistic, doom-laden anti-hero adventures claimed lead spot in Our Fighting Forces #123 (January/February 1970). Once again written primarily by Kanigher, these episodes were graced with art from such giants as Ken Barr, Russ Heath, John Severin, Sam Glanzman, Ross Andru and Joe Kubert. With the tagline “even when they win, they lose” the squad saw action all over the globe, winning critical acclaim and a far-too-small, passionate following.

In an inexplicable dose of company politics, discontented Kirby was abruptly given complete control of the series with #151 (November 1974). His radically different approach was highly controversial at the time, but the passage of years has granted a fairer appraisal and whilst never really in tune with the aesthetic of DC’s other war-books, the King’s run was a spectacular, bombastic and singularly intriguing examination of the human condition under the worst of all possible situations.

The combat frenzy kicks off in ‘Kill Me with Wagner’ as The Losers infiltrate a French village to rescue a concert pianist before the Nazis can capture her. The hapless propaganda pawn has one tremendous advantage – nobody knows what she looks like. As with most of this series, a feeling of inevitable, onrushing Gotterdammerung permeates the tale: a sense that worlds are ending and a new one’s coming. The action culminates in a catastrophic wave of destruction that is pure Kirby bravura…

Most of DC’s war titles sported Kubert covers, but #152 featured the first in a startling sequence of hypnotic Kirby collations – almost abstract in delivery – to introduce the team to the no-hope proposition of ‘A Small Place in Hell!’ when they find themselves the advance guard for an Allied push, but dropped in the wrong town: one that has not been cleared…

The spectacular action here is augmented by a potent 2-page Kirby fact feature: Sub-machine guns of WWII, and it should be noted and commended that this collection is also peppered with un-inked Kirby pencilled pages and roughs.

Our Fighting Forces #153 is one of those stories that made traditionalists squeak. Behind a Kirby cover, the story of ‘Devastator vs. Big Max’ veers dangerously close to science fiction, but an admittedly eccentric plan to destroy a giant German rail-mounted super-cannon isn’t any stranger than many schemes actual boffins dreamed up to disinform the enemy during the actual conflict, actually…

That yarn – with two beautiful info-pages on military uniforms and insignia – is followed by a superb parable examining personal honour. A compelling Kirby cover segues into the team’s deployment to the Pacific to remove a Japanese officer whose devotion to ‘Bushido’ inspires superhuman loyalty and resistance to surrender among his men. The means used to remove him are far from clean or creditable…

Bracketed by 2 pages on war vehicles plus a wonderful pencil cover-rough, two more on artillery pieces and the pencils for the cover to that issue, OFF #155’s ‘The Partisans!’ takes the Losers into very dark territory, before they return to America for ‘Good-bye Broadway… Hello Death!’, wherein the boys experience home-front joys of New York whilst hunting a notorious U-Boat commander. Naturally there’s more to the story than first appears…

This fast-paced thriller is complemented by a history of battle headgear and another pencilled rough. Comprising a 2-part saga concerning theft, black marketeering and espionage, #157 & 158 introduce utterly unique personage ‘Panama Fattie!’ Her criminal activities almost alter the course of the war; and conclude in the highly charged ‘Bombing Out on the Panama Canal’, with accompanying pages on ships, subs and Nazi super-planes.

Behind the last Kirby cover (#159), ‘Mile-a-Minute Jones!’ details a smaller-scaled duel. With the Losers relegated to subordinate roles, the tale of a black runner who embarrassed the Nazis at the 1936 Olympics unfolds as a forced rematch with the Nazi ubermensch he defeated back then reignites old passions on the battlefield.

Indicating that Kirby’s attentions were being diverted elsewhere, Kubert & Ernie Chan handled the last three covers of this run, but the stories remain powerful, deeply personal explorations of combat. In ‘Ivan’ (OFF #160) the squad goes undercover, impersonating German soldiers on the Eastern Front, and have an unpleasant encounter with Russian Nazi sympathizers whose appetite for atrocity surpasses anything they have ever seen before. Supplemented by a 2-page tanks feature, the drama resumes in the hellish jungles of Burma which prove an unholy backdrop for traumatic combat shocker ‘The Major’s Dream’ before the volume and Kirby’s DC war work ends in a sly tribute to his 1942 co-creation Boy Commandos.

‘Gung-Ho!’ sees a young Gunner training a band of war orphans in Marine tactics, only to find fun turn to dire necessity after Germans overrun their “safe” position. This is an optimistic, all-out action romp ending on a note of hope and anticipation, even as the King made his departure for pastures not-so-new. From OFF #163 Kanigher picked up where he left off, with artists like Jack Lehti, Ric Estrada & George Evans illustrating, as the Losers returned to their pre-Kirby style and status, with readers hardly acknowledging the detour into another kind of war.

Jack Kirby is unique and uncompromising. If you’re not a fan or simply not prepared to see for yourself what all the fuss has been about then no words of mine will change your mind. That doesn’t alter the fact that his work from 1939 onwards shaped the entire American comics scene, affected the lives of billions of readers and thousands of creators in all areas of artistic endeavour around the world for generations, and which still garners new fans and apostles from the young and naive to the most cerebral of intellectuals. Jack’s work is instantly accessible, irresistibly visceral and deceptively deep whilst being simultaneously mythic and human.

These tales of purely mortal heroism are in many ways the most revealing, honest and insightful of Jack’s incredibly vast accumulated works, and even the true devotee often forgets their very existence. As Neil Gaiman’s introduction succinctly declaims, “they are classic Kirby” and even if you don’t like war comics, you may be in for a surprise…”

You won’t want to miss that, would you?
© 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Savage Sword of Conan volume 1


By Robert E. Howard, Roy Thomas, John Jakes, Lin Carter, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Pablo Marcos, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom, Alfredo Alcala, Tony DeZuñiga, Alex Niño, Vince Colletta, Steve Gan, Tim Conrad, Yong Montano, Jess Jodloman, “The Tribe”, Rudy Mesina, Freddie Fernandez, Sonny Trinidad, & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-838-6 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

During the 1970’s the American comic book industry opened up after more than 15 years of cautiously calcified publishing practises that had come about as a reaction to the censorious oversight of the self-inflicted Comics Code Authority: a publishers’ oversight body created to keep the product wholesome after the industry suffered their very own McCarthy-style Witch-hunt during the 1950s. One of the first literary hardy perennials to be revisited was Horror/Mystery comics and from them came the creation of a new comics genre. Sword & Sorcery stories had been undergoing a prose revival in the paperback marketplace since the release of softcover editions of Lord of the Rings in 1954 and, by the 1960s, revivals of the two-fisted fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline, Fritz Lieber and so many more were making huge inroads into buying patterns across the world. Moreover, the old masters had been constantly augmented by modern writers. Michael Moorcock, Lin Carter and many others kickstarted their prose careers with contemporary versions of man against mage against monster. Even so, the undisputed overlord of the genre was Robert E. Howard with his 1930s pulp masterpiece Conan of Cimmeria.

Gold Key had notionally opened the field in 1964 – and created a cult hit – with Mighty Samson. Then in 1966 came Clawfang the Barbarian’ in Thrill-O-Rama #2. Both steely warriors battled in post-apocalyptic technological wildernesses, but in 1969 DC dabbled in previously code-proscribed mysticism with Nightmaster (Showcase #82 -84), following on from the example of CCA-exempt Warren horror anthologies Creepy, Eerie & Vampirella. Marvel tested the waters with barbarian villain – and Conan prototype – Arkon in Avengers #76 (April 1970) and the same month went all-out with short supernatural thriller ‘The Sword and the Sorcerers’ in their own watered-down horror anthology Chamber of Darkness #4.

Written by Roy Thomas and drawn by fresh-faced Barry Smith (a recent Marvel find just breaking out of the company’s still-prevalent Kirby house-style), the tale introduced Starr the Slayer – who also bore no small resemblance to the Barbarian-in-waiting…

Conan the Barbarian debuted with an October 1970 cover-date and – despite some early teething problems, including being cancelled and reinstated in the same month – the comic-strip adventures of Howard’s primal hero were as big a success as the prose yarns they adapted. Conan became a huge hit: a pervasive brand that prompted new prose tales, movies, TV series, cartoon shows, a newspaper strip and all the other paraphernalia of global superstardom.

And American comics changed forever.

In May 1971, Marvel moved into Warren’s territory for a second time, after an abortive attempt in 1968 to create an older-readers, non-Comics Code monochrome magazine: Spectacular Spider-Man. Now, Savage Tales offered stories with stronger tone, mature sexual themes, less bowdlerised violence and partial nudity… and no superheroes. It was the perfect place to introduce Futuristic Femizon Thundra and the macabre Man-Thing whilst offering more visceral vignettes starring the company’s resident jungle-man Ka-Zar and red-handed slayer Conan…

The anthology had an eventful reception and the second issue didn’t materialise until October 1973 under the aegis of Marvel’s parent company Curtis Distribution. Conan starred in the first five issues before spinning off into his own adult-oriented monochrome magazine which debuted in August 1974. Free of all Code-mandated restrictions, The Savage Sword of Conan became a haven for mature storytelling, with top flight artists queuing up to flex their creative muscles.

In 2007, after acquiring the license to publish Conan comics, Dark Horse began gathering Marvel’s Savage Sword canon in a series of 500+ page Essentials-style volumes. Today these stories are mostly available in heavy, costly macho-man-testing Omnibus editions too, but still not any kind of digital edition. Why, Crom? Why?

This first titanic tome – also available as an eBook – collects pertinent material from Savage Tales #1-5 and Savage Sword of Conan #1-10: collectively covering May 1971 through February 1976; a period when the unwashed lout was swiftly becoming the darling of the comics world, and chief scribe Roy Thomas was redefining what American comics could say, show and do…

It all starts here with a much-reprinted classic.

‘The Frost Giant’s Daughter’ is a haunting, racy tale written by Howard, originally adapted in line and tone by Barry Smith for Savage Tales #1. It was later coloured – and adulterated – for the all-ages comic book (#16) as it detailed how a lusty young Cimmerian chased a naked nymph into the icy winter and found himself prey in a trap set by gods or monsters…

By the time Savage Tales returned after a two-year hiatus, Barry Windsor-Smith had pretty much left comics but had agreed to illustrate ‘Red Nails’ one day if he could do it his way and at his own pace. The eventual result was an utter revelation, moody, gory, soaked in dark passion and entrancing in its savage beauty. With some all-but-invisible art assistance from Pablo Marcos this journey into the brutal depths of obsession and the decline of empires is the perfect example of how to bow out at the top of one’s creative game.

The adaptation began in ST #2 as Conan and pirate queen Valeria survive a trek through scorching deserts to fetch up in a vast walled city. Stealing inside they find immense riches casually ignored as the last members of the tribes of Tecuhlti and Xotalanc pick each off or wait for the monsters infesting the place to take them. All too soon, the visitors are embroiled in a simmering, oppressive war of extinction. The third issue completed the ghastly epic as the slow conflict between rival branches of a decadent race explodes into a paroxysm of gore and aroused monsters…

Savage Tales #4 (May 1974) held a brace of tales. ‘Night of the Dark God’ was limned by Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Marcos & Vince Colletta from Howard’s tale The Dark Man. It revealed how Conan came hunting abductors of his childhood first love and found them just as a terrify mystery idol began exerting its own malefic influence on a hall full of already-enraged warriors…

‘Dweller in the Dark’ was Smith’s swansong and saw the wandering warrior become a plaything for lascivious Queen Fatima of Corinthia. Her lusts were matched only by her jealousy, however, and it wasn’t long before she had turned against Conan and tried to feed him to the monster lurking below the city…

The fifth and final Conan appearance in Savage Tales was ‘Secret of Skull River’: a wryly laconic yarn Thomas adapted from a John Jakes plot, illustrated by Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom. The barbarian sell-sword is hired to remove a wizard whose experiments are polluting a town. The reward lusty Conan claims for his murderous services surprises everybody…

From there it was only a short jump to his own mature-themed starring vehicle, but although Savage Sword starred Conan it was initially a vehicle for numerous barbarian themed yarns – such as a serialised reprinting of Gil Kane’s epic Blackmark – and other Howard properties such as Bran Mac Morn or Red Sonja. Those aren’t included here, but are well worth searching out too…

The SSOC experience opens with the first issue and ‘Curse of the Undead-Man’ by Thomas, John Buscema & Marcos, adapted from Howard’s short story Mistress of Death. Here Conan encounters old comrade Red Sonja amongst the fleshpots of “The Maul” in Zamora’s City of Thieves before falling foul of sorcerer Costranno: a mage for whom being chopped to mincemeat is only a minor inconvenience…

Thomas wrote all SSOC Conan material included here: blending adaptations of Howard’s stories – Conan’s and his other fearsome fighting men as well – and such successor authors as Lin Carter or L. Sprague de Camp with original tales. A stunning visual tour de force, ‘Black Colossus’ in #2 was illustrated by Buscema & Alfredo Alcala; detailing how antediluvian priest Natohk returns from death to imperil the kingdom of Princess Yasmela… until stalwart general Conan leads her armies to a victory against armed invaders, uncanny occultism and a legion of devils.

SSOC #3 contributed two tales, beginning with Buscema & Marcos’ ‘At the Mountain of the Moon-God’ with Conan high in Yasmela’s court and attempting to head off the kingdom’s annexation from encroaching neighbours and encountering mountain-dwelling bandits and a demon pterosaur. The issue concluded with ‘Demons of the Summit’ – an adaptation of Bjorn Nyberg & de Camp’s People of the Summit – turned into comics by Thomas & Tony DeZuñiga as an encounter with more high-living brigands brings the Cimmerian into conflict with a dying race of wizards who want his latest curvy companion to mother their next generation…

Issue #4 features Howard’s ‘Iron Shadows on the Moon’, realised by Buscema & Alcala. Having lost a war whilst leading a Kozak horde, Conan flees into the Vilayet Sea with escaped slave Olivia after killing enemy general Shah Amurath. On an uncharted island they then encounter ancient statues which come to life at the moon’s touch. The bloodthirsty horrors fall upon a band of pirates watering on the island and after leading them to victory against the supernatural fiends Conan manoeuvres himself into the captain’s role and begins a life of freebooting piracy…

Howard’s ‘A Witch Shall Be Born’ took up most of Savage Sword of Conan #5. Illustrated by Buscema and The Tribe – a loose association of Marvel’s Filipino art contingent (DeZuñiga; Steve Gan; Rudy Mesina; Freddie Fernandez and others) it saw virtuous Queen Taramis replaced by her demonic twin sister Salome, who debauches and ravages the kingdom of Kauran whilst her accomplice Constantius has her guard captain Conan crucified. After (almost) saving himself, the Cimmerian recuperates with desert-raiding Zuagirs, and after ousting their brutal chieftain Olgerd Vladislav returns to save Taramis and revenge himself upon the witch…

The epic is balanced by two shorter tales in the next issue. ‘The Sleeper Beneath the Sands’ is a Thomas original limned by Sonny Trinidad revealing how Olgerd encounters a caravan of clerics en route to pacify an elder god buried since time immemorial beneath the desert. The rejected bandit-lord senses a chance for revenge but soon regrets allowing the beast to wake and luring Conan into its path…

Howard’s Celtic reincarnation thriller ‘People of the Dark’ is radically adapted by Thomas and stunningly illustrated by master stylist Alex Niño next as, in modern times, Jim O’Brien plots to kill rival Richard Brent to win the hand of Eleanor. However, a fall into an ancient cavern transports the would-be killer into antediluvian prehistory where – as Conan – he battles the debased descendants of things which were once men. In that forgotten hell a burden is placed upon him and, once returned to the present, O’Brien faces another monster and pays a millennial debt…

‘The Citadel at the Center of Time’ by Thomas, Buscema & Alcala in #7 finds the Cimmerian leading desert-raiding Zuagirs and attacking a caravan only to be confronted by a sabretooth tiger. After despatching the wanton killer, Conan learns from the surviving merchants of a great ziggurat with vast riches and only attendant priests to guard them. Ever-needful of loot to placate his greedy followers, Conan leads an expedition against the eerie edifice but soon finds himself captured and offered up as a sacrificial tool to time wizard Shamash-Shum-Ukin and battling dinosaurs, beasts and brutes from many ages before finally settling his score with the time-meddler…

SSOC #8 offered many short sharp shockers beginning with ‘The Forever Phial’, illustrated by Tim Conrad doing his best Windsor-Smith riff. Here immortal wizard Ranephi desires to end his interminable existence and manipulates a certain barbarian into helping him out. The main part of the issue continues Thomas & Kane’s adaptation of Howard’s King Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon, which had begun in Giant-Size Conan but foundered as Marvel ended their oversized specials line. Inked by Yong Montano, ‘Corsairs Against Stygia’ resumes the tale with shanghaied King Conan leading a slave revolt on the ship he’s been abducted upon. Back in Aquilonia, a cabal of nobles backed by Stygian wizard Thutothmes has usurped his throne…

Having taking control of the ship Conan opts to infiltrates the evil empire to rescue the stolen talisman known as the Heart of Ahriman and end the conflict…

Wrapping up this segment is Lin Carter’s evocative poem ‘Death Song of Conan the Cimmerian’ adapted by Thomas and Jess Jodloman…

Issue #9 offered another new tale by Thomas & Marcos as Conan’s Zuagirs raid another priest-packed caravan and come under the diabolical influence of a small statue with great power. ‘The Curse of the Cat-Goddess’ corrupts, divides and promises many great things: causing the doom of many brothers in arms before the iron-willed Cimmerian ends its seductive threat. The adaptation of The Hour of the Dragon concludes in this hefty tome’s final chapter as SSOC #10 reveals how ‘Conan the Conqueror’ (rendered by Buscema & The Tribe) sneaks into Stygian capitol Khemi to defeat snake-worshipping priests, immortal vampire queen Akivasha and Thutothmes’ inner circle, before stealing back the Heart of Ahriman and heading home to occupied Aquilonia to destroy wizard king Xaltotun and his human lackeys, and reclaim his stolen throne…

With a painted covers gallery – reproduced only in black-&-white here – by Buscema, Marcos, John Romita, Adams, Boris Vallejo, Mike Kaluta, Niño, Frank Magsino, Frank Brunner & Bob Larkin and pin-up/frontispiece art by Marcos, Adams & Esteban Maroto, this weighty collection provides a truly epic experience for all fans of thundering mystic combat and esoteric adventure.

If the clash of arms, roar of monsters, unwise gloating of connivers and destruction of empires sets your pulse racing and blood rushing, this titanic tome is certainly your cup of mead. There are plenty of Thrones in peril, but this all-action extravaganza of sex, slaughter, snow, sand and steel is no Game. Get it and see what real intrigue and barbarism look like…
Savage Sword of Conan® and © 2007 Conan Properties International, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Cannon


By Wally Wood & various, introduction by Howard Chaykin (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-702-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As with any historical perspective addressing popular mass-entertainments and evolving societies, a look back often finds uncomfortable material that can jar some modern sensitivities and set today’s collective hackles rising. That’s especially true of this lovely but confounding collection compiling seldom seen material by one of the industry’s greatest stars…

This is quite frankly a lovely book of beautiful work that I now find hard to recommend to a general audience. That’s more to do with how society has evolved rather than its admittedly always deeply flawed and often unsavoury content…

We all carry within us the seeds of our own destruction and probably none more so than troubled comics genius Wallace Allan Wood (June 17th 1927 – November 2nd 1981): one of the greatest draughtsmen and graphic imagineers our art form has ever produced. Woody was a master of every aspect of the business. He began his career lettering Will Eisner’s Spirit newspaper strip, readily moving into pencilling and inking as the 1940s ended and, ultimately into publishing. After years working all over the comic book and syndicated strip markets, as well as in book illustration, package-design and other areas of commercial art, he devised the legendary T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents franchise and even predated and anticipated the counter-culture’s Underground Commix phenomenon by launching in 1965s one of the first adult-oriented, independent comics: Witzend.

The troubled genius was frequently his own worst enemy. Woody’s life was one of addiction (guns, booze & cigarettes); traumatic relationships; tantalisingly close yet always inevitably frustrated financial security; illness and eventually, suicide. It was as if all the joy and beauty in his existence stayed on the pages and there was none left for real life.

Although during his time with EC Wood became the acknowledged, undisputed Master of Science Fiction art in America, he was equally adept, driven and accomplished in the production of all genres. He was a lusty man and was a pioneer of sexually explicit, ultra-violent (but always beautiful) and titillating comics where sex played a major role. Remember, even if everybody loves comics, it’s not always about superheroes and cosmic quests. Men like sexy comics and cartoons. I’m not saying that it’s right or proper to ogle women, but it is a sad fact of life and has made many publishers rich for centuries. This customer base especially likes looking at beautiful naked women and amongst so very many cartoonists over the decades, Wood was arguably the paramount exponent of the subgenre…

Remarkably and without in any way seeking to apologise for it, I can confirm that this gritty strip was made to entertain REAL-MEN!! It abounds with naked, nude, undraped and forcibly undressed women (and men, but not as many or as often as the women). Somehow less controversially it also heavily features mega violence, and both physical and psychological torture because that’s what the audience wanted. If you don’t believe me go and rewatch Goldfinger (1964) but this time watch and listen closely…

Cannon’s inbuilt misogyny is a feature not a bug with levels of abusive behaviour and conduct that seldom exceed those of any 1960-1970s Bond or Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie. There’s practically no gadgets either, but loads of fast flashy cars, planes and boats… and much sublimely rendered, awesomely accurate ordnance because that’s one thing your average GI or swabbie will spot instantly if fudged…

This cartoon series captures a moment in history that was deeply, deeply unfair to women, even if – for its time – the feature was uncharacteristically racially & socially diverse and most equitable in its treatment of African-American, Hispanic, Arabic and Asian guys. This was probably as much about the target readership – the desegrated but still mostly male US Military Service personnel – as Woody’s views on the Civil Rights movement. Wally was always utterly professional and diligent in all his work commitments and liberated from all editorial constraints, but his own experience gave the audience exactly what they wanted…

Following Howard Chaykin’s ‘Intro’ confirming the best and worst of the legends, the strip unfolds in one unbroken stream of non-stop blockbuster action heavily seasoned with geopolitical themes and contemporary headline fodder. It’s fitting to note here that Woody utilised and mentored dozens of guys who went on to their own notoriety. If you’re a fanatic, you’ll spot many of them – Pearson, Reese, Wenzel, Hama et al – as characters in the strip, but in-jokes aside, this one’s all about satisfying manly urges.

Guaranteeing sex, death and horror and NAKED WOMEN in almost every episode, Cannon by Wood and his ever-shifting studio ran from 1970-1973 in three separate editions of The Overseas Weekly: a tabloid specifically created and disseminated to US military personnel stationed overseas. He & Steve Ditko later recycled the character in an abortive indie publishing venture Heroes, Inc., which we’ll cover at the end.

John Cannon was a U2 pilot captured and tortured by the Red Chinese. Broken and turned into their assassin, he threw off the ministrations of their top brainwasher Madame Toy but suffered a psychological collapse that left him a relentless, emotionless living weapon pointed by the CIA at any target that needed killing.

His successes didn’t affect him at all but did make him a permanent target of the Chinese and Soviet governments. The latter tasked beautiful lethal killer Sue Smith to remove him by any means and at all costs, but her attempts were as frequent and futile as Toy’s, who doggedly and repeatedly seeks to recapture or kill him. Both curvaceous killers spent as much time shagging Cannon as shooting, stabbing, electrocuting, drowning, poisoning, bombing and running over the implacable agent.

Encountering and exterminating hundreds of spies Cold War spies and assassins, Cannon saves US-friendly middle-Eastern Ismiria from infiltration and insurrection; defends US ally Israel from subversion; shatters the schemes (and sleeper agent army) of Comrade Gorsk and saves Latin American San Sierra from both Red-backed rebels and the incumbent US-friendly fascist dictatorship. He even gets to save a few lives along the way, like his own Uncle Fred back in Iowa and charming conman/serial bigamist/accidental hitman Charles M. Fogarty…

At home, Cannon eradicates gangsters and spies as his conditioning begins to fade. No longer a reliable asset, he tries to retire to his old family home but trouble follows and the CIA soon re-recruit him. With Toy & Sue Smith perpetually hunting him and “cat-fighting” each other, Cannon even clashes with killer hippies in a murder commune and an ultra-conservative millionaire with his own private militia seeking to set the nation back on the Right path. John even has a couple of shots at true love and a Happy Ever After, but inevitably learns over and again that “women are just no damn good”…

Along the way he experiences every kind of action from scuba combat to aerial dogfights, and even battles a killer cyborg, He’s particularly adept at ferreting out leftover Nazis and dodges more than his fair share of atomic detonations. This is a strip very much of its time and for adults if not grown-ups, so like many of his audience, our hero even has to face up to the consequences of his actions when one paramour falls pregnant. The wedding is an utter disaster…

As much a document of art history as an expertly-targeted wank-book, Cannon comes with fascinating bonus features for comics fans, beginning a voluminous Appendix section with a brace of long lost cover paintings.

These augment the Roger Hill’s essay ‘The Overseas Weekly Discovery’ detailing the bizarre circumstance that led to the retrieval of the material forming this book, and compliments a

‘Letter by Wallace Wood’ exhorting how the industry must change. These are followed by the tamed down, general audience full-colour Cannon story by Wood & Ditko as seen by almost nobody in 1969’s Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon, and another similar but monochrome lost Wood & Ditko treat from Heroes, Inc. No. 2 (1976) once again kicking the stuffing out of stubborn Nazis by Wood & Ditko. The experience ends as it should with a fulsome and fair “Bio” of Wally Wood by J. David Spurlock.

Fast, furious and ferociously unreconstructed and sexist, this can be a hard read: one packed with pitfalls, but undeniably honest in its intent and delivery. If you like this kind of thing you’ll love it, and if you find it offensive, you’re still free enough for the moment to reject and not buy it. However, if you do feel the urge to condemn, do us all the courtesy of reading it first…
“Intro” © 2014 Howard Chaykin. “The Overseas Weekly Discovery” © 2014 Roger Hill. “Bio” © 2014 J. David Spurlock. Photos © Bhob Stewart & Paul Kirchner. All other contents © 2014 Wallace Wood Properties LLC. All rights reserved.

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Barefoot Gen volume 10: Never Give Up


By Keiji Nakazawa (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-601-6 (TPB) 978-0-86719-840-9 (HB/School Edition)

Whilst we are all commemorating the 80th anniversary of VJ Day (the Americans hold theirs on September 2nd), it’s only appropriate to remember how that war ended and what victory and defeat meant to a world forever changed after the conclusion. In comics, that means Keiji Nakazawa and Hadashi no Gen. A standby of anti-nuclear movements since first release in 1983, new hardback editions combining two paperback editions per volume are underway and will be on sale from January 15th 2026 – if we manage to live that long. You could wait or even check out our past reviews or simply save your time & energy by buying the still-available 10 tank?bon set right now.

After many years of struggle the entire piecemeal epic semi-autobiographical saga was remastered as an unabridged and uncompromising 10-volume English-language translation by Last Gasp under the auspices of Project Gen: a multinational organisation dedicated to peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. Constantly revised and refined by its creator until his death from lung cancer in December 2012, Barefoot Gen is the quintessential anti-war tract and plea to humanity for peace. The combined volumes are angry and uncompromising, and never forgive those who seek to perpetuate greed, mendacity and bloody-handed stupidity.

Hadashi no Gen was first seen in Japan in 1973, serialised in Gekkan Shōnen Janpu Jampu (Monthly Boys Jump) following an occasional 1972 series of stand-alone stories in various magazines which included Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (Struck by Black Rain) and Aru Hi Totsuzen (One Day, Suddenly).

The scattered tales eventually led Shonen Jump’s editor Tadasu Nagano to commission 45-page Ore wa Mita (I Saw It) for a Monthly Jump special devoted to autobiographical works. Nagano clearly recognised that the author – an actual survivor of the world’s first atomic atrocity – had much more to say which readers needed to see and commissioned the serial which has grown into this stunning landmark epic.

The tale was always controversial in a country which still generally prefers to ignore rather than confront past mistakes and indiscretions and, after 18 months, Hadashi no Gen was removed from Jump, transferring firstly to Shimin (Citizen), then Bunka Hyåron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyåiku Hyåron (Educational Criticism). Just like his indomitable hero, Keiji Nakazawa never gave up and his persistence led to a first Japanese book collection in 1975, translated by the newly-constituted Project Gen team into Russian, English and other languages including Norwegian, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Indonesian, Tagalog and Esperanto.

Born in March 14th 1939 and changed forever on August 6th 1945, the hibakusha (“atom bomb survivor”) author first completed his account in 1985 and his telling testament of survival has since been adapted into live-action & anime films; operas; musicals and live television dramas; each spreading the message across every continent and all generations.

Today we’re looking again at the concluding volume which brings the story of irrepressible, ebullient Gen and his friends to a close. One last time we see the forceful vitality of a select band of bomb survivors pitted against the constant shadow of tragedy which implacably dogs them in the city slowly recovering from nuclear conflagration.

Here the indomitable idealistic individualist, having finally found a way to express his anger and effectively fight back against the idiocies and injustices of a world which lets Atom bombs fall but is seemingly incapable of learning from its mistakes, at last strikes back at the demagogues and monsters who still keep the bad old ways alive… even after their people suffered the most hideous of consequences…

Barefoot Gen: Never Give Up begins following an inspirational ‘Gen’s Message: A Plea for Nuclear Abolition’ by the Translators & Editors and – as previously – the other end of this monochrome paperback balances the essay with a biography of the author and invaluable data ‘About Project Gen’…

The graphic manifesto resumes in March 1953 as Gen prepares for his school graduation ceremony, despite seldom attending that hidebound institution over the past few years. Fellow bomb orphans Ryuta and quietly stolid Musubi – who have shared Gen’s shabby shack for years – are also in high spirits. They have been constantly selling dresses made by radiation-scarred outcast Katsuko on Hiroshima’s rebuilt street corners, diligently saving the proceeds until she has enough money to open a shop. Now the manager of one of the big stores wants to buy all the clothes they can manufacture to sell in his fashionable venues…

At the Graduation Ceremony Gen once again loses his temper when the faculty begin memorialising the past and celebrating the failed regime of the empire. Later, his savage confrontation with teachers and visiting dignitaries sparks a minor student revolution. For many of the juvenile delinquents it’s also an opportunity to inflict some long-delayed retribution on the educational bullies who have oppressed and beaten them for years…

Encouragingly, however, not all parents and attending adults take the teachers’ side, and a potentially murderous confrontation is (rather violently) defused by Gen. The boy’s life then changes forever when he bumps into a young woman and is instantly smitten. His pursuit of Mitsuko will bring him into conflict with her brutal father, former employer and unrepentant war-lover Nakao who is now a highly successful businessman going places in the reconstructed city…

Gen has been studying with elderly artist Seiga Amano, learning the skills his own father would have passed on had he not died in 1945. The mentor/father-figure encourages his protégé to pursue Mitsuko… and it costs them both their jobs. However, the seeming setback is in fact liberating and before long the star-crossed youngsters are in a fevered euphoria of first love. So engaged is Gen that he is not there when stolid Musubi is targeted by a cruel Yakuza honeytrap who addicts him to drugs before fleecing him of all Katsuko’s hard-earned savings…

With a happy ending so close he can touch it, Gen is dragged back down to earth by a trio of tragedies which leave him near-broken and all alone. The legacies of the bombing have again cost him almost everything…

After a horrendous bout of death and vengeance-taking, Gen seems to have nothing to live for, but the despondent young man is saved by aged Amano who rekindles his spirit and wisely advises him to get out of Hiroshima and start his real life in the world beyond it…

Keiji Nakazawa’s broad cartoon art style has often been subject of heated discussion; his simplified Disney-esque rendering felt by some to be at odds with the subject matter, and perhaps diluting the impact of the message. I’d like to categorically refute that.

The style springs from his earliest influence, Osamu Tezuka, Father of Anime & God of Manga who began his career in 1946 and whose works – Shin Takarajima/New Treasure Island, Tetsuwan Atomu/Astro Boy and so many more – assuaged some of the grim realities of being hibakusha, providing escape, hope and even a career path to the young illustrator. Even at its most bleak and traumatic the epic never forgets to shade horror with humour and counterpoint crushing loss with fiery idealism and enthusiasm.

As such the clear line, solid black forms and abstracted visual motifs act as tolerable symbols for much of the horror in this parable. The art defuses but never dilutes the horror of the tragedy and its aftermath. The reader has to be brought through the tale to receive the message and for that purpose drawings are accurate, simplified and effective. The intent is not to repel (and to be honest, even as they are they’re still pretty hard to take) but to inform, to warn.

Shocking. Momentous. Bleak and violent but ultimately astoundingly uplifting, Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen is without peer and its legacy will be pervasive and long-lasting. So now you’ve been warned, buy this old book. Buy the entire series. Buy the new editions as they come out. Tell everyone you know about it. Barefoot Gen is an indisputable classic and should be available to absolutely everyone.
© 2009 Keiji Nakazawa. All rights reserved.