Category: Environmentalism

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Rex Generations


By Ted Rechlin (Rextooth Studios/Sweetgrass Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59512-229-4 (HB)

Got your eggs yet? Some come pretty big…

I’ve never met a kid who didn’t love dinosaurs, and that gleeful fascination doesn’t fade with age or what we laughingly regard as maturity. Ted Rechlin clearly ascribes to that belief too, and has made it his life’s work, whether it’s in his 30+ books (including End of the Ice Age, Jurassic, Epsilon: a Yellowstone Wolf Story, Howl, Comicquest Time Travel Trouble or the award-winning Sharks: A 400 Million Year Journey) or superhero stuff such as freelance commissions for the likes of DC Comics, Dark Horse or Dover Publications.

Rex Generations is an incredibly informative and engaging book about family, rendered with great deftness, gleeful aplomb, and packed with the latest scientific thinking regarding arguably the most famous species of big lizard (or is that bird?) on Earth.

In case you weren’t paying attention, the clan in question is thundering great tyrannosaur Cobalt and his feisty mate Sierra, just getting by in what is nowadays Hell Creek, Montana.

This stunning full-colour hardback, however, opens in the Mesozoic bit of the Cretaceous Period, or approximately 66 million years ago on a very special night. Here our anxious apex predators proudly celebrate the hatching of four eggs, heralding the start of a new generation, after which we’ll closely follow the pack over the next decade or so. The parents teach and provide in a casually lethal environment packed with a wide variety of dangerously capable prey, rival predators and unknown perils of every description.

This is dinosaurs and natural history, not Lady and the Tramp with really big teeth, so brace yourself and your own youngsters with a little spoiler alert: not everybody present at this antediluvian nativity is going to make it…

Compelling, beguilingly educational and splendidly entertaining, T. Rex Generations is a glorious celebration of Earth’s earlier Saurian inhabitants and our enduring love affair with them. Get this read the rest and go wild!
© 2018 Ted Rechlin. All rights reserved.

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Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future – The Venus Campaign (Complete Collection volume 1)


By Frank Hampton, George Beardmore, Eric Eden, Don Harley, Harold Johns, Greta Tomlinson, & various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78586-292-2 (Album HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are quite a few comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but a few are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I’m again abusing my privileges here to carp about another brilliant vintage book, criminally out of print and not slated for revival either physically or in digital formats…

Launching on April 14th 1950 and running until April 26th 1969, Eagle was the most influential comic of post-war Britain, and possibly in our nation’s history. It was the brainchild of a Southport vicar, the Reverend Marcus Morris, who was increasingly concerned about the detrimental effects of American comic-books on British children and wanted a good, solid, middle-class Christian antidote.

Seeking out like-minded creators he peddled a dummy edition around British publishers for over a year with little success until he found an unlikely home at Hulton Press, a company that produced general interest magazines such as Lilliput and Picture Post. The result was a huge hit which soon spawned age and gender-specific clones Swift, Robin and Girl which targeted the other key demographic sectors of the children’s market.

A huge number of soon-to-be prominent creative figures worked on the weekly, and although Dan Dare is deservedly revered as the star, many strips were almost as popular at the time, with many rivalling the lead in quality and entertainment value according to the mores and developing tastes of that hope-filled, luxury-rationed, fresh-faced generation. Eagle’s mighty recurring pantheon included radio and film star attraction PC 49, soon-to-be TV sensation Captain Pugwash, radio cowboy Jeff Arnold/Riders of the Range and the inimitable Harris Tweed – who swiftly became stars other media and promotional tie-in like books, puzzles, toys, games, apparel and comestibles as well as and all other sorts of ancillary merchandising.

At its peak, the original Eagle sold close to a million copies a week, but inevitably, changing tastes and a game of “musical owners” killed the title. In 1960, Hulton sold out to Odhams, who became Longacre Press. A year later they were bought by The Daily Mirror Group who evolved into IPC. In cost cutting exercises many later issues carried cheap(er) Marvel Comics reprints rather than British-originated material. It took time, but those Yankee Cultural Incursionists won out in the end. In 1969, with the April 26th issue Eagle was subsumed into cheap ‘n’ cheerful iron clad anthology Lion, eventually disappearing altogether. Successive generations have revived the title, but not the success. Never as popular, a revived second iteration ran from 27th March 1982 to January 1994 (having switched from weekly to monthly release in May 1991).

However as we celebrate 75 years of post-empire wonderment, let’s just be clear on one thing. It’s Dan & Digby we all recall most fondly…

There is precious little that I can say about Dan Dare that hasn’t been said before and better. What I will say is that everything you’ve heard is true. Vintage strips by Frank Hampson and his team of dedicated artists are a high point in world, let alone British comics, ranking beside Tintin, Asterix, Tetsuwan Atomu, Lone Wolf & Cub and the best of Kirby, Adams, Toth, Noel Sickles, Milt Caniff, Roy Crane, Carl Barks and Elzie Segar. If you don’t like this stuff, there’s probably nothing any of us can do to change your mind, and all we can do is hope you never breed…

Breakneck pace, truly astonishing high concepts underpinned by hard science balanced with nonstop action leavened with wholesome music hall larks and some of the most beautiful and powerful art ever to grace a comic page makes the introductory exploit of Hampson’s Dan Dare as much a magical experience now as it was in 1950. Many companies have kept the legend alive in curated collections over the decades, and this 2018 Titan edition combines material from three of their 2004-2009 hardback collections.

Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future – The Venus Campaign merges and re-presents – on paper and digitally – the first two adventures of the strip that headlined groundbreaking, legendary Eagle. Spanning 14th April 1950 to September 28th 1951 for riotous rocket romp Voyage to Venus and followed by sequel saga The Red Moon Mystery as it appeared between October 5th 1951 and June 20th 1952, this tome introduces Colonel Daniel MacGregor Dare of the Interplanet Space Fleet and his batman Albert Fitzwilliam Digby – the truest of Brits who ever spacewalked – and an ever-expanding captivating cast to a eagerly anticipating nation.

The comics glories are preceded by an exuberant reminiscent Introduction by the artist’s son Peter Hampson, picture-packed background essay ‘The Genesis of Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future’ by Nick Jones, and bullet point biography of the series’ “Special Science Consultant” Arthur C. Clarke, all accompanied by a visual aid revealing ‘Who’s Who in Dan Dare’.

… And then it’s blast off as we learn in vibrant, vividly colourful 2-page chapters that Earth is slowly starving and must find new resources to feed its hungry billions. Space Fleet, despite three tragic losses, readies another exploratory mission to mystery planet Venus, where it is believed such agrarian resources may lie hidden beneath all-enveloping cloud cover. Earth’s last hope might be a strong-jawed, taciturn pilot and his podgy Lancastrian manservant…

Thus begins a fantastic, frenetic rollercoaster of action and wonderment, replete with all the elements of classic adventure: determined heroes, outlandish but deadly villains, fantastic locales and a liberal dose of tongue-in-cheek fun. Weeks pass and perils pop up and are dealt with in turn – everything from malfunctions, monsters, deadly new environments and hostile foes – but the clock is still counting down…

After a year of constant revelation, exploration and confrontation, Earth is still starving! Dan Dare and his team have not been heard from in weeks but humanity’s only hope is that the expeditionary force lost on Venus finds food and some way home!

The Colonel has his own problems. Surviving a deadly radiation barrier, ship explosion and crash, hostile terrain, drowning, enemy action and total separation from the rest of his team, he has learned that Venus is inhabited by two advanced races locked in a Cold War lasting for millennia. The situation is further complicated by the fact that one super-scientific side keeps slaves: partially and divergently evolved humans abducted from Atlantis on Earth millennia previously!

The ancient impasse on Venus ended the moment modern Earthmen penetrated the radiation screen bottling up the mysterious planet and got involved. Aiding apparently benevolent Therons against the ruthless reptilian Treens – malevolent emotionless myrmidons led by a genetically-created super brain dubbed the Mekon – leads to the vile mastermind advancing his long nurtured plans and launching an invasion of Earth!

Thankfully Dan and his crew are on hand, reunited and ready to stop him…

The victory segues straight into The Red Moon Mystery as Dan and his team – having broached the mysteries of Venus – move on to greater deeds. Attempting to top all that for sheer spectacle the creative cohort of Hampson and his associates (co-scripter George Beardmore and fellow artists Eric Eden, Don Harley, Harold Johns, Greta Tomlinson and others) delivered a splendid blend of suspense, tension and action as – thanks to an archaeological dig on Mars led by Dan’s uncle Ivor Dare – humanity is forewarned (barely) of impending supernal doom….

The ancient Martians were seemingly destroyed 200,000 years ago by an astral event involving a “red moon”, and as Dan & Digby ponder the fanciful story, their chief Sir Hubert Guest urgently despatches them into the deeper space to investigate a wandering object threatening to shatter the Earth colony on modern Mars. They press are calling the hurtling projectile the red moon…

Soon, all of Space Fleet is mustered to evacuate Mars but face an escalating crisis as the super-magnetic anomaly changes course and imperils the entire solar system before locking trajectories with Earth. When Dan leads a mission to survey the mystery asteroid prior to blowing it up, he uncovers a shocking secret beneath its surface, one that derails Space Fleet’s plan to save the world and humanity…

Gripping, trenchantly exploring humankind under pressure of global annihilation, beautifully illustrated and progressing at a breathless pace, this is a superb piece of End of the World drama, easily matching the best of post-war doom-smiths like John Wyndham or J. G. Ballard. It’s also got a happy, if portentous, ending…

Dan Dare, his faithful crew and the Eagle were a key part of British life from the outset and the secret is the sheer quality of the artwork and accessibility of the stories. Hampson & Co brought joy and glamour into the lives of a weary nation and this tome compellingly recaptures it all. The volume concludes with more picture-draped documentary material beginning with ‘An Interview with Frank Hampson’ as conducted by Alan Vince, biography ‘Tomorrow Man – Frank Hampson 1918-1985’ and the ‘Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future Checklist’…

Solid, cleanly wholesome entertainment, timeless and produced to the highest standards, this is a glorious tribute to unforgettable heroes of a forgotten future, deserving of and demanding your attention. If you’re into comics, you should own this volume. If you love a good read, you should seek out this book and its sequels. Simply put, if you’re just Decent and British, Dammit, you should love these stories! It almost makes one proud to be an Earthling…
Dan Dare and all related characters and elements depicted herein are © 2018 Dan Dare Corporation Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Noggin the Nog


By Oliver Postgate & Peter Firmin (Egmont)
Noggin the King ISBN: 978-1- 4052-8152-2 (HB)
Noggin and the Whale ISBN: 978-1- 4052-8153-9 (HB)
Nogbad Comes Back ISBN: 978-1- 4052-8155-3 (HB)
Noggin and the Dragon ISBN: 978-1- 4052-8154-6 (HB)
Nogbad and the Elephants ISBN 978-1- 4052-8142-3 (HB)
Noggin and the Moon Mouse ISBN: 978-1- 4052-8141-6 (HB)
Noggin and the Storks ISBN: 978-1- 4052-8144-7 (HB)
Noggin and the Money ISBN: 978-1- 4052-8143-0 (HB)

Baby Boomers like me consider our childhoods – no matter how feted or feral, and personally privileged or dire and deprived – to have been a golden age in terms of liberty, agency and especially entertainment. That’s probably due in large part to being exposed to the gentle, life-affirming fantasy worlds of these guys.

Today celebrating a century of being splendid, Richard Oliver Postgate was a writer, puppeteer, animator and unrepentant itinerant storyteller who was born to an extremely prestigious, overachieving and drama-drenched family. He entered the world on April 12th 1925 in Hendon Middlesex and was eventually educated at Woodstock School, Woodhouse Secondary, the legendary Dartington Hall School/College and Kingston College of Art. He joined the Home Guard in 1942 but when at last called up, declared himself a Conscious Objector – just as his father had during the Great War. Court martialled and sentenced to Feltham Prison, Oliver eventually became a land-worker growing crops. After the war he worked for the Red Cross in Occupied Germany. On returning to Britain in 1948, he went to Drama School and drifted from job to job.

In 1957, whilst working as a stage manager for commercial TV company Associated Rediffusion, he observed the appalling quality of children’s programming up close and knew he could do better for the same paltry money offered. Writing Alexander the Mouse he convinced a Central School of Art tutor named Peter Firmin to draw the backgrounds for him. After moving on to short-lived deaf-viewer project The Journey of Master Ho, in 1959 the creators formalised their partnership as independent studio Smallfilms. The rest is history… and fantasy and wonder and charm and devastating nostalgia…

When not shaping the minds of 30-years-worth of kids, Postgate continued trying to save the world and refine its inhabitants. He was active in the CND movement, penning their pamphlet The Writing on the Sky and 1981 book Thinking it Through: The Plain Man’s Guide to the Bomb. In 1986, he created a 15-meter artwork for his latterday romantic partner Naomi Linnell’s book Illumination of the Life and Death of Thomas Beckett, repeating the exercise for The Triumphant Failure (about Christopher Columbus) and triptych A Canterbury Chronicle, which ended up in the city’s Royal Museum Art Gallery and Eliot College Campus…

Working when he pleased, Postgate narrated – in the calm, quietly compelling voice that became hardwired into the brains of millions – radio comedy and documentary shows, more books such as autobiography Seeing Things, and accompanied (arguably) his greatest creation Bagpuss – voted in 1999 the Most Popular Children’s Television Programme of All Time – as the plushly-stuffed purple & white cat accrued awards such as an honorary degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury.

Postgate died – hopefully properly and rightly well-contented – in Broadstairs Kent, on December 8th  2008.

Peter Arthur Firmin was born in Harwich on 11th December 1928. Following training at Colchester School of Art and National Service in the Royal Navy, he attended Central School of Art and Design in London from 1949 to 1952. A creative man of many talents and disciplines, he then worked as a stained-glass designer, jobbing illustrator and lecturer.

Whilst teaching at Central in 1957 he was targeted by audacious, up-and-coming children’s TV writer Oliver Postgate who believed (quite rightly) that clever individuals could produce high-quality kids’ viewing at reasonable cost.

After crafting backgrounds for Postgate’s Alexander the Mouse and The Journey of Master Ho, Firmin became equal partner in new venture Smallfilms, which grew in and out of a shed at the artist’s Canterbury home. The kindred spirits initially produced hand-drawn cartoons and eventually stop motion animation episodes for series including Ivor the Engine, Pingwings, The Saga of Noggin the Nog, Pogle’s Wood/The Pogles, Bagpuss, The Clangers and much more. Postgate wrote, voiced and filmed, whilst Firmin – roping in any family and friends in the immediate vicinity – drew, painted, built sets and made puppets. Their spouses were often dragooned too, if they showed useful talents like sewing or knitting…

During those early days Firmin seemed tireless. In addition to the Smallfilms job he also devised, designed and populated other kids shows such as The Musical Box and Smalltime. In 1962 with Ivan Owen he created a fox puppet for The Three Scampies. That creation soon had his own show and career as Basil Brush…

Throughout his life, Firmin continued his cartooning and illustration career. This included writing and/or illustrating a number of books including Basil Brush Goes Flying, The Winter Diary of a Country Rat, Nina’s Machines and Postgate’s Seeing Things – An Autobiography. Firmin also worked as a printmaker and engraver, designer and educator. In 1994 he was asked to create a British postage stamp and produced a magnificent offering featuring Noggin and the Ice Dragon.

Even at their most productive and overworked, Postgate & Firmin always ensured there was plenty of ancillary product such as Christmas Annuals, comic strips, spin-off books, games and puzzles for their devoted young fans. One of the most charming and enduring was a series of “Starting-to-Read” books released by Kaye & Ward between 1965 and 1973. Postgate & Firmin crafted all 8 books in a kid-friendly format gently sharing the further adventures of the Nicest Norseman of Them All…

In 2016 the octet of all ages, easy-going comedy dramas and gently humorous escapades were rereleased as superb hardcover editions perfect for tiny hands, but are now (at least thus far) out-of-print-&-hard-to-find. Starring the full TV cast and illustrated in a variety of duo-toned line-&-colour tomes, they display all the wit and subtle charm of the irrepressible Firmin whilst Postgate seductively and seditiously showed how much nicer things could be if we all tried a little harder to get on with each other.

This is the Saga of Noggin the Nog… Upon the death of his father, quiet, unassuming Noggin becomes king of the northland Viking tribe known as the Nogs. He rules with understanding and wisdom – generally thanks to his advisors: wife Nooka who hails from the far north (we’d call her an Inuit or Inuuk princess these days), bluff old codger Thor Nogson and wisdom-stuffed talking green cormorant Graculus. Despite many fantastic but necessary adventures, Noggin prefers a quiet home life with his people and his boisterous son Knut…

Noggin the King opens with bucolic pastoral scenes of the Nogs, with the good-hearted sovereign helping his people however he can. However, whilst happily repairing the roof of an old farmer, the ruler dislodges a bird’s nest. Bringing the nest and its occupants back to his castle, he cares for the fledglings and mother, pondering if he is also the King of birds in the Land of Nogs. If he is, then they are his subjects too and thus he is responsible for their safety and welfare. Riven with doubt, the King, with Nooka at his side, sets out on a short quest/ fact-finding mission to confirm his suspicions and is rewarded by the feathered kingdom with a great but grave new honour…

Noggin and the Whale features far more light-hearted aspects of kingship as the mild-mannered monarch celebrates his birthday in the usual manner: doling out gifts to all the children of his realm. This year they all get musical instruments, but when they hold an impromptu concert on a boat in the little walled harbour, the merriment is interrupted by a most insistent whale.

Every time the kids get going the cetacean surges up under the boat and eventually even placid Noggin loss his temper and orders the sea-beast to swim away. Instead it glides over to the open harbour gate and sulkily blocks the way, just as Noggish fishing boats are trying to moor up for the night. Nothing the townsfolk can do will shift the surly creature.

Suddenly Prince Knut has an idea. He realises why the whale has been acting so strangely and, after consulting with his father, commissions Royal Inventor Olaf the Lofty to create a unique present for the morose marine mammal…

Originally released in 1966, Noggin and the Dragon sees little Prince Knut and his chums pestering the royal couple to let them go on a dragon hunt. Noggin and Nooka are reluctant at first – Dragon Valley is no place for little boys and besides, the best thing to do with dragons is give them sweets and make friends – but eventually the proud parents capitulate to pester power. To ensure things go smoothly they insist doughty old warrior Thor Nogson goes with them, but as the unruly boys trek into a gathering storm, no one has any idea of the shocking surprise in store for them all…

From the same year, Nogbad Comes Back highlights the return from exile of Noggin’s wicked usurping uncle, just in time to try and spoil the King’s annual animal and vegetable show. Living up to his name, Nogbad the Bad tries to win the glittering jewel-encrusted cup for best flora and fauna by devious cheating and, when that fails, through simple shameful theft. Thankfully, Nooka is not as forgiving and kind as her husband and has been keeping a close eye on her outlaw in-law…

The next year saw two more tomes: one of which may have been a notional precursor to one of Smallfilms’ most successful franchise creations. Noggin and the Moon Mouse begins with Knut enacting an official ceremony at a water trough. Proceedings are utterly disrupted when a strange silver ball crashes down and a child-sized rodent-like creature emerges. Caught up in the excitement, the prince and his unruly pals give chase… until Queen Nooka takes charge. After admonishing the boys, she and Noggin befriend the strange visitor (who actually comes from another world) helping him gather odd household items he requires to return to the stars.

And yes, a few years later a peculiar band of armoured woolly beasties began communicating with us all in their universally comprehensible pennywhistle pipings in a little show called The Clangers…

Nogbad and the Elephants proves there are many perks to being royal. One is wonderful presents such as the gigantic gem-encrusted, long-nosed big-eared beast presented to Prince Knut by the King of Southland. Sadly, the wonderful creature is perpetually unhappy and falls under the sway of crafty Nogbad who lures it away to steal its jewelled coat. Realising it’s been hoodwinked, the piteous pachyderm takes restorative action in its own unique manner, compelling Knut to make his first grown-up decision…

The last brace of tales originated in 1973, beginning with hilariously anti-capitalist tract Noggin and the Money. Here Court Inventor Olaf the Lofty suffers a setback in his dream to modernise the nation. Nogs have been happily soldiering on using barter and trade as long as anyone can remember, so when the big thinker creates coins as currency, he thinks he’s made life easier for everybody. Thor Nogson soon disagrees after he’s despatched to acquire eggs for the royal breakfast and meets rather a lot of resistance to this new-fangled commerce nonsense…

Wrapping up the fun is Noggin and the Storks as the King sagely deals with a minor ecological crisis. Sooty Storks have nested on the chimneys of the town for decades, using the heat of human cooking fires to warm their eggs. This year, as the birds are particularly numerous, the populace are continually being smoked out of their own homes.

Despite his people angrily petitioning Noggin to let them chase the pests away, as king of birds as well as people, the smooth sovereign seeks another, more equitable solution. Cue Olaf the Lofty, who has an idea involving an old chalk quarry, a stand of hollow trees, masses of convoluted piping, steel sheets and tons of firewood…

Serenely bewitching, engaging and endlessly rewarding (both these books and their much-missed, multi-talented originators) the works of Postgate and Firmin shaped generations of children and parents. If you aren’t among them, do yourself a great favour and track down those DVD box sets, haunt the streaming services and buy these books and anything else with their names on it. You won’t regret it for an instant.
Text © The Estate of Oliver Postgate 1965-1973. Illustrations © Peter Firmin/The Estate of Peter Firmin 1965-1973.

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John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude


By Lomig, translated by Christopher Pope (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-352-3 (Album HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-352-353-0

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

We don’t get nearly enough access to philosophy or big thinkers in comics, but whenever some creator does set out to explore and address deeper issues or formative moments in human culture, the results are more often than not splendidly successful.

Self-schooled author, cartoonist and illustrator Lomig (Le cas Fodyl, Dans la forêt) cut his teeth on edgy, Speculative Fiction graphic novels exploring the declining relationship between humanity and its environment, and here turns his questioning gaze on one of the USA’s greatest naturalists: a man who literally changed the way the nation thought about its lands and populations – human and otherwise.

Here in the form of a bucolic memoir via the explorer’s own words and stunning sepia toned line drawing, Lomig traces Muir’s 1000 mile walk in the woods. It began in September 1867, and on it he collected plant samples, made drawings and recorded the variety of life – plant and otherwise – all the way from Indiana to Florida (and even Cuba). The genesis of the jump from unhappy 29-year-old carpenter to inspired naturalist was almost losing his sight in an accident at a lumber mill.

During his long and dreary convalescence – six months in a darkened room under the care of the remarkable Catharine Merrill: educator, Civil War nurse/physician, cofounder of Indianapolis Home for Friendless Women and the second ever female university professor in the United States – Muir had a revelation. He decided that the rest of his life would benefit humanity by understanding nature…

The long, eventful but astoundlingly non-thtreatening trek ends with Muir finding his promised land in the wild of Yosimte and experiencing another mind-expanding vision of revelation…

Born in Dunbar, Scotland on April 21st 1838, “John of the Mountains” was 11 when his father moved the whole family of nine to Wisconsin. From ealrly on, Muir was a prolific and inspired inventor, earning many patents and attending college unhappily before taking up the family business as a woodworker. The accdent that ended that period of his life led to not just the epic trek detailed here, but also a life of pioneering efforts to preserve America’s wild places. The naturalist, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, geologist and glaciologist advocated tirelessly, using skilled argument, charismatic example, books and articles and by creating in San Francisco in 1892 grass roots movement turned activism focal point The Sierra Club.

He also had no truck with war mongers or racists and truly lived his life hoping everyone would just get along with each other. He died on December 24, 1914 and John Muir Day is celebrated on his birthday in California and Scotland as well as many other places..

This beautiful and lavish commemoration is filled with appreciation and wonder for Muir’s life, lifestyle and achievements, and it’s truly terrifying to consider that all the great works of Muir  and his many converts could be so easily undone by a bunch of greedy jerks with mean hearts, stupid policies, orange bottle tans and big black Sharpies…

This lavish, deliciously oversized (280 x 216 mm) sepia-toned hardback is not a history or biography text. You won’t learn much about Muir’s formative experiences in Scotland or time at the Unversity of Wisconsin, but the comprehensive essay and appreciation at the back does cover that in detail, copiously adorned with a wealth of photograpic, drawn and found images from his notebooks. The biography comes from archivist and scholar MikeWurtz – Director of the Holt Atherton Special Collections and Archives/Library of the University of the Pacific at Stockton, California – filling some gaps whilst clarifying the first American naturalist’s place in history and legacy for the modern world.
© Sarbacane, Paris 2023 published in arrangement with Sylvain Coissard Agency. © 2025 NBM for the English translation.

John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude will be published on April 15th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

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The Helltrekkers


By John Wagner, Alan Grant, Horacio Lalia, Jose Ortiz & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1786187963 (Rebellion 2000 AD)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

This book also includes Discriminatory Content included for comedic and dramatic effect.

Britain’s last great comic icon has been described as a combination of the other two, merging the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the shocking anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s also well on the way to becoming the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics pantheon, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second weekly issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD. As such, he’s also spawned a rich world where other stars have been born and thrived…

Judge Dredd and the ever-expanding, ultra-dystopian environs of Mega-City One were devised by a creative committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and many others, with the major contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner, who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own and via several pseudonymous names.

In a 22nd century America, Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated sentinel of the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days stacked like artificial cordwood in a world where robots are cheaper and more efficient than humans and jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity. Boredom has reached epidemic proportions and every citizen is just one askance glance away from meltdown or blow-up. Judges are peacekeepers maintaining – actually enforcing – order and passivity at all costs: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot.

Justice is always immediate. They are necessary fascists in a world permanently teetering on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realised is that the entire milieu is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicariously cathartic action. Just keep telling yourself, some situations demand drastic solutions. It’s what all politicians and world leaders do…

As hometowns go, Mega-City One does not generally engender fond feelings or happy memories, but thankfully does lend itself to all manner of stories from supernatural thrillers to cop procedurals to savagely satirical social broadsides. It’s a place where any kind of tale is begging to be told. Thus John Wagner, Alan Grant & Horacio Lalia’s Helltrekkers – a no-nonsense sci fi thriller B-feature masquerading as a future western and the first serial spin-off from the burgeoning Dredd universe (Dreddiverse?) to not focus on Judges and perps but rather the pitiful proles they pacify and push around. This tome collects the strips from 2000 AD progs 387-415. and was popular enough in its day to win a rotating spot in the comic’s coveted colour section, meaning alternating monochrome and technicolour moments of mirth and madness.

The ancillary feature was written by Alan Grant with regular writing partner John Wagner, co-scribing the voyage as enigmatic “F. Martin Candor” and visually kicked off by fantasy stalwart José Ortiz before Horacio Lalia waded in to illustrate the majority of episodes from the second onwards. This collection offers a note of gloriously gory circularity to proceedings, by closing with a brace of full colour Ortiz “Star Scan” recap features as seen in Progs #387-388 as well as a Lalia cover gallery…

José Ortiz Moya’s 60 plus year career began after he won a contest in Spanish magazine Chicos. During the 1950s, he worked on many digest strips for Editorial Maga, including Capitan Don Nadie, Pantera Negra and Jungla. Agency work saw him produce several strips for foreign publishers, particularly Britain where he illustrated Caroline Barker, Barrister at Law for The Daily Express, Smokeman and UFO Agent for Eagle magazine and The Phantom Viking in anthological top seller Lion. During the 1970s & 1980s Ortiz worked on several popular British strips including The Tower King and House of Daemon for the new Eagle, Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd for 2000 AD and The Thirteenth Floor for Scream! This last was another stunning horror-show Ortiz co-created with Wagner & Grant.

Whilst doing all of this work on UK kid’s comics, in the US Ortiz was also working on – and is arguably best known – for illustrating stories for Warren’s horror titles, especially Eerie and Vampirella.

Born January 28th 1941, Horacio Nestor Lalia made his first professional sale in 1964 to Hora Cero, and began an association with publisher Columba a year later. After assisting Argentinian comics stars Eugenio Zoppi (Mysterix, Zig Zag, Lord Cochrane) and Alberto Breccia (The Eternaut, Ernie Pike, Sherlock Time, Mort Cinder) in 1966 Lalia started agency work for the Solano Lopez studios on strips for the UK market: generally war stories released by Fleetway. He moved on in 1968, but returned to British comics in the late 1970s, mostly Future Shock stories in 2000 AD.

In 1975 Lalia became a main illustrator for publisher Record but continued working in UK comics and elsewhere. This included for Eura in Italy, Spain’s Norma, Bastei in Germany and France’s Albin Michel whilst simultaneously contributing to Argentinian daily La Razón and Spanish publishing house Bruguera.

So as if Judges, mutants and dinosaurs aren’t enough for you, what’s this all about?

Fed up with their appalling lives in Mega-City One, a doughty band of bold pioneering families – each with their own sordid baggage and backstories – opt to escape civilisation’s dubious security and cross the “Cursed Earth” in heavily-armoured mobile homes in search of a better life and (possibly) less lethal promised land…

Led by – and unfolding via the narrated records of – Trekkmaster Lucas Rudd and assorted survivors, the tale opens with Ortiz draughting the dawn departure of 28 Radwagons carrying 111 former citizens from the city’s West Gate 13. Ignoring Judge advice, the doomed hopefuls are ready to voyage 2000 kilometres to the highly speculative – if perhaps fully fictional – “New Territories”.

Reasons for departure range from painful to tragic. The Glemps want somewhere to raise their mutant baby free from shame, whilst hillbilly criminal clan the Nebbs are getting out before the Judges finally get something actionable on them. The mutual goal lies across a nuke-ravaged, devasted radiation desert left after the war that ended civilisation. Somehow this trackless wasteland can still support life – as represented by mutant enclaves and would-be messiahs, bandit camps, fugitives from Judge justice, hermit hideaways, and the detritus of abandoned science projects. They include resurrected and reconditioned dinosaurs and other abandoned megafauna who have carried on evolving, plus all manner of fresh and interesting lifeforms and monsters guaranteed to keep the Helltrekking lively and never dull…

Veteran guide Banjo Quint rides with the Rudds – Lucas, his wife Amber and son Bud – in the lead wagon, seeking to ride roughshod on the most mismatched, unsuitable and unlikely re-settlers he’s ever seen. Unprepared idiots addicted to a dream, the waggoners are uniformly menaces to themselves and others: a perfect snapshot of why humanity is doomed. That’s confirmed on day one on reaching abandoned theme park Sauron Valley to learn that resurrected dinosaurs are magnificent and tasty. A little later their knowledge expands further as they discover T-Rexes bear grudges, hunt in packs and will stalk prey for thousands of klicks just to get more of that choice, yummy human flavour…

Family units like the Turtles, Lovejoys, Diefenakers, Jumbys, Clampeets, Zapoteks, and Koosh merge but seldom mix, and don’t associate with single seekers like utterly unprepared Mo-Pad hobbyist Rollo Peterson or proper weirdoes like circus family the Hubbles or the hippie Guppy Commune… at least outside of the increasingly common sunset mass-buryings. The Nebbs in Wagon 17 are really a menace to others and seemingly regard their fellow pioneers as an expendable emergency resource. Their selfish wayward antics cause as many fatalities as “natural” Cursed Earth threats like dino herds, radiological diseases such as Black Scab, radioactive smog, sucking patches of quick-quag, flesh-melting acid rainstorms, predatory “mutie” tribes and fugitive criminals from the Mega cities…

It’s no wonder Quint doesn’t make it far past St Louis. The halfway point, it’s only seen by 72 trekkers and as the quest stubbornly continues, that death toll inexorably mounts…

Crafted during the bleakest moments of the last third of the Cold War and unswervingly based on classic western prairie wagon train tales, albeit amped to a mordantly dark and satirically trenchant high point, the grimly attritional saga of the Helltrekkers and its frankly unexpectedly upbeat conclusion is a pure piece of politicized polemic as cathartic entertainment: subversively hilarious, frequently deeply moving and rendered with appropriately stark line and whimsical imagination.

The kind of tale that made 2000 AD such a reliably revolutionary read and anarchically rebellious outpost of dissident counter culture, this complete collection comes with a chilling realisation that maybe those days aren’t over yet…
© 1984, 1985, 2022 & 2023 Rebellion 2000 AD Ltd. All rights reserved.

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The Phantom: The Complete Sunday Archive volume Four 1950-1953


By Lee Falk, Ray Moore & Wilson McCoy, with Dick Wood, Pat Fortunato, Bill Lignante, José Delbo, Sal Trapani & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-137-3 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes some Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

In this month of romantic anticipation and disillusionment, it’s worth remarking that every iconic hero of strips and comics has a dutiful, stalwart inamorata waiting ever so patently in the wings for a moment to spoon and swoon. Here’s another date with one of the earliest and most resolute…

Born Leon Harrison Gross, “Lee Falk” created the Ghost Who Walks at the request of his King Features Syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician. Although technically not the first ever costumed champion in comics, The Phantom became the prototype paladin to wear a skin-tight body-stocking and the first to have a mask with opaque eye-slits…

The generational champion debuted on February 17th 1936, in an extended sequence pitting him against an ancient global confederation of pirates. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over illustration to artist Ray Moore. The spectacular and hugely influential Sunday feature began in May 1939.

For such a long-lived, influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom has been quite poorly served in the English language market (except for the Antipodes, where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god). Many companies have sought to collect strips from one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history, but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success. That began to be rectified when archival specialists Hermes Press launched their curated collections…

This fourth fabulous curated conclave of rain forest romances and jungle action is a lovely landscape hardback (or digital) tome, displaying alternately complete full colour Sunday episodes or crisp monochrome instalments shot from press proofs and digitally remastered. Released in March 2016, its 208 pages are stuffed with sumptuous visual goodies like panel and logo close-ups, comics covers and original art, opening with publisher Daniel Herman’s Introduction ‘The Phantom Sundays March On’. This recaps all you need to know about the ongoing feature and discloses how the advent of a woman superhero might have changed the strip’s dynamic forever…

For those who came in late: 400 years ago, a British mariner survived an attack by pirates, and – after washing ashore on the African coast – swore on the skull of his father’s murderer to dedicate his life and that of his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights evil and injustice from his fabulous lair deep in the jungles of Bengali. Throughout Africa and Asia he is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”…

His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice led to his being considered an immortal avenger by the uneducated, credulous and wicked. Down the decades, one heroic son after another has inherited the task, fought and died in an unbroken family line, with the latest wearer of the mask indistinguishable from the first and proudly continuing the never-ending battle.

In his first published exploit, the Phantom met and fell for wealthy American sophisticate Diane Palmer. His passion for her was soon reciprocated and returned and she became a continuing presence in both iterations of the series as ally, partner, sounding board, a means of reader identification and naturally a plot pawn and perennial hostage to fortune. She was also a handy conduit as the hero occasionally shared four centuries of Phantom history, hearing tales of ancestral Ghosts Who Walked in earlier eras. As was the fashion of the feature almost every saga included powerful, capable and remarkably attractive women as both heroes and villains.

However as the new ultra conservative Fifties decade progressed, that femme fatale policy was gradually but increasingly downplayed. In Falk & Wilson McCoy’s opening tale ‘The Mysterious Passenger’ (running from May 14th 1950 to July 16th 1950), Diana is wholly absent as the mysterious “Mr. Walker” and his faithful wolf companion Devil board ship for Bengali, only to be quickly framed for a huge jewel theft…

Marooned in the vast trackless ocean after jumping ship, the pair are soon hot on the trail of the plunderers and soon bring them to justice.

Evil never sleeps, however, and in the Phantom’s absence horse thieves visited his “native” stable boy Toma and stole the hero’s fabulous steed Hero. ‘The Jungle King’ (July 23rd – October 22nd 1950) proves a far harder proposition to keep than to take, though, and when Mr Walker returns and sets out to recover the wonder horse, the trail leads all over the world and ultimately to an emotional showdown with the world’s richest sportsman and racehorse owner…

A key component of the Phantom’s appeal is the weight of history built into the premise, and that’s perfectly exploited in ‘The Phantom’s Ring’ (October 29th 1950 to June 10th 1951), as the signet that has adorned the fingers of every masked champion since the first one goes missing. Recognised by educated and illiterate alike across Africa and the east, the “Death’s head” has been used to mark felons and acted as a symbol of the ghost’s power for centuries. Now a succession of ne’er-do-wells briefly possess and exploit the soft power of the trinket, but the seasoned detective and his “dog” are rapidly gaining on them and dispensing plenty of jungle justice even without the skull printing adornment. Pursuit of the ring even ends a modern pirate brotherhood – much like the one the first Phantom fought – and acts as cupid bringing a prince and a pauper together forever…

Order restored, a tale very much of its time follows as The Phantom must rescue scientist Dr Archer and his pretty daughter June from cannibal terrors ‘The Rope People’ (June 17th to November 4th 1951), by repeating the herculean tasks he (in actuality his grandfather) had performed generations ago, after which ‘Tale of Devil’ (November 11th 1951 to March 23rd 1952) finds the mighty lupine relentlessly stalked by sadistic visiting royalty with vacant spots on his palace wall and a fondness for bear baiting and other acts of organised animal cruelty.

However, Devil is beloved by Prince Hirk’s son and wife, and even before the Phantom can save his faithful hound – and after the potentate refuses to change his ways – the royal family find a way to stop him for good…

An actual feel-good tale of redemption and repentance, the saga is followed by a return to all-out action as ‘The ‘Copter Pirates’ (March 30th to July 13th 1952) finally reintroduces potential Ghost-Who-Walks-wife Diana Palmer, as she sets out to rejoin her masked man in darkest Bengali, only to be kidnapped. An unwilling spoil of war taken by thieves plundering passenger planes with helicopters, she soon overwhelms unstable lothario Drake and is able to keep him at bay until the Phantom organises an army (navy?) of local tribal fisherfolk to search hundreds of islands and spectacularly lower the boom on the aerial upstarts…

A sublime lost opportunity comes next as ‘The Female Phantom’ (July 20th – October 12th 1952) introduces one of the only woman Crimebusters in US comics of this era. Reunited with “Kit Walker”, Diana has him delve into the meticulous family chronicles to reveal how, a few generations previously, the feisty twin sister of a former Ghost Who Walked took her brother’s place to police the jungles of Bengali after he was shot battling river pirates. Girl Phantom Julie briefly substituted for Kip, saving a hostage missionary that she later married, and kept the Phantom’s Peace until the natural order was restored.

The concept obviously intrigued Falk who carried it on in sequel saga ‘Diana and the Bank Robbers’ (October 19th 1952 to February 1st 1953) wherein Diana “borrowed” Julie’s well-preserved fitted costume for a prank and was captured and entombed by ruthless bullion thieves. Discovered and rescued by super-steed Hero, Diana then let the true, many masked manhunter settle their hash and resumed her rightful place as asker of leading questions…

Closing this section of this compilation, she enquires about ‘The Chain’ (February 8th – May 24th 1953) welded to the Phantom’s throne in the Skull Cave, just in time to reinvigorate the exhausted hero whose constant attempts to forestall an impending tribal war have led him to the brink of resignation and retirement…

As the couple listen to elder Woru, they learn how a similar situation plagued the fearsome forest peacekeeper’s own father and how, after solving his crisis of confidence, escaping slavery, saving his own intended (Kit Walker’s mother-to-be) from abduction and destroying a human monster through sheer persistence, the weary victor attached the links in hopes that they would serve as a reminder for all who followed in his footsteps…

And they do…

Closing this tome ‘Focus: The Female Phantom in the Comics’ discusses the female Phantom (who never appeared again in the 1950s) and provides two tales from her resurrection in the 1960s – albeit not in family oriented strips but in those rowdily anarchic comic books.

Between 1966 and 1967 King Features Syndicate dabbled with a comic book line of their biggest stars Flash Gordon, Popeye, Mandrake and The Phantom: developed after the Ghost Who Walks had enjoyed a solo-starring vehicle under the broad and effective aegis of veteran licensed properties publisher Gold Key Comics. The Phantom was no stranger to funnybooks, having been featured since the Golden Age in titles such as Feature Book and Harvey Hits, but only as straight reformatted strip reprints. The Gold Key exploits were tailored to a big page and a young readership, a model King maintained for their own run.

Here, from the era of superhero saturation and The Phantom #20 (cover dated January 1967, scripted by Dick Wood and illustrated by Bill Lignante) ‘The Adventures of the Girl Phantom’ expands upon the strip sequence above as Julia again dons the purple leotard, mask and gun belt to counter a crime wave following Kit’s incapacitation due to fever. Although more than a match for normal bandits, poachers and evil Europeans, she almost succumbs to the sinister plots of gang boss Lamont until her ferocious jungle cat Fury comes to her aid…

Closing the extra treats is vignette ‘The Secret of the Golden Ransom’ from Charlton’s The Phantom #30 ( February 1969, by Pat Fortunato, José Delbo & Sal Trapani) as Julie and faithful (human) friend Maru face a flamboyant pirate who demands a unique payment for returning her captive brother, the “real Phantom”…

If the kind of fare you’d encounter in a 1940s Tarzan movie or noir thriller might offend, you should consider carefully before starting this book, but if you’re open to oldies with historical cultural challenges there’s a lot to be said for these straightforward and pioneering thrillers. Finally rediscovered, these lost treasures are especially rewarding as the material is still fresh, entertaining and addictively compelling. However, even if it were only of historical value (or just printed for Australians – manic devotees of the implacable champion from the get-go) surely the Ghost Who Walks and fiancée/wife-who-waits is worthy of a little of your time?
The Phantom® © 1950-1953 and 2018 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

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Ducoboo volume 5: Lovable Dunce


By Godi & Zidrou, coloured by Véronique Grobet, translated by Mark Bence (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-311-6 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for comedic effect.

If you’re currently experiencing offspring overload, fear not! The Back to School countdown has begun!

School stories and strips about juvenile fools, devils and rebels are a lynchpin of western entertainment and an even larger staple of Japanese comics – where the scenario has spawned its own numerous wild and vibrant subgenres. However, would Dennis the Menace (ours and theirs), Komi Can’t Communicate, Winker Watson, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Power Pack, Cédric or any of the rest be improved or just different if they were created by battle-scarred, shell-shocked former teachers rather than ex-kids or current parents?

It’s no surprise the form is evergreen: schooling (and tragically, sometimes, sufficient lack of it) takes up a huge amount of children’s attention no matter how impoverished or privileged they are, and their fictions will naturally address their issues and interests. It’s fascinating to see just how much school stories revolve around humour, but always with huge helpings of drama, terror, romance and an occasional dash of action…

One of the most popular European strips employing those eternal yet basic themes and methodology began in the last fraction of the 20th century, courtesy of scripter Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) and illustrator Godi. Drousie is Belgian, born in 1962 and for six years a school teacher prior to changing careers in 1990 to write comics like those he probably used to confiscate in class. Other mainstream successes in a range of genres include Blossoms in Autumn, Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, African Trilogy, Shi, Léonardo, a superb revival of Ric Hochet and many more. His most celebrated and beloved stories are the Les Beaux Étés sequence (only available digitally in English as Glorious Summers) and 2010’s sublime Lydie, both illustrated by Jordi Lafebre.

Zidrou began his comics career with what he knew best: stories about and for kids, including Crannibales, Tamara, Margot et Oscar and, most significantly, a feature about a (and please forgive the charged term) school blockhead: L’Elève Ducobu…

Godi is a Belgian National Treasure, born Bernard Godisiabois in Etterbeek in December 1951. After studying Plastic Arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels he became assistant to comics legend Eddy Paape in 1970, working on the strip Tommy Banco for Le Journal de Tintin whilst freelancing as an illustrator for numerous comics and magazines. He became a Tintin regular three years later, primarily limning C. Blareau’s Comte Lombardi, but also working on Vicq’s gag strip Red Rétro, with whom he also produced Cap’tain Anblus McManus and Le Triangle des Bermudes for Le Journal de Spirou in the early 1980s. Godi soloed on Diogène Terrier (1981-1983) for Casterman prior to moving into advertising cartoons and television. He cocreated animated TV series Ovide with Nic Broca, only returning to comics in 1991 to collaborating with newcomer Zidrou on L’Elève Ducobu. The strip began in Tremplin magazine (September 1992) before transferring to Le Journal de Mickey, with collected albums starting in 1997: 28 so far in a raft of languages. When not immortalising modern school days for future generations, Godi diversified, co-creating (in 1995 with Zidrou) comedy feature Suivez le Guide and game page Démon du Jeu with scripter Janssens. That series spawned a live action movie franchise and a dozen pocket books, plus all customary attendant merchandise paraphernalia.

English-speakers’ introduction to the series (5 volumes only thus far) came courtesy of Cinebook with 2006’s initial release King of the Dunces – in actuality the 5th European collection L’élève Ducobu – Le roi des cancres. The indefatigable, unbeatable format comprises short – most often single page – gag strips like you’d see in The Beano, involving a revolving cast; well-established albeit also fairly one-dimensional and easy to get a handle on. Our star is a well-meaning, good natured but terminally lazy young oaf who doesn’t get on with school. He’s sharp, inventive, imaginative, inquisitive, personable and not at all academical. Today he’d be SEN, banished as someone else’s problem, relegated to a “spectrum” or casually damned by diagnoses such as ADHD, but back then, and at heart, he’s just not interested: a kid who can always find better – or certainly more interesting – things to do…

Dad is a civil servant and Mum left home when Ducoboo was an infant. It’s no big deal: Leonie Gratin – the girly brainbox from whom he constantly and fanatically copies answers to interminable written tests – only has a mum. Ducoboo and his class colleagues attend Saint Potache School and are mostly taught and tested by ferocious, impatient, mushroom-mad Mr Latouche. The petulant pedagogue is something of humourless martinet, and thanks to him, Ducoboo has spent so much time in the corner with a dunce cap on his head that he’s struck up a friendship with the biology skeleton. He (She? They!) answer to Skelly – always ready with a crack-brained theory, wrong answer or best of all, a suggestion for fun and frolics…

Released in 2001, Europe’s sixth collected album Un amour de potache became another eclectic collation of classic clowning about that begins with another new term. Mr. Latouche is hard in, training for the trials to come whilst Ducoboo does his utmost to keep fresh young innocents away from the sinister scholastic hellhole. Here, many strips address burgeoning personal technologies as the wayward lad tests aids like earbuds and smartpens but finds nothing cleverer than his teacher or Leonie…

An extended riff on the kinds of comics and magazines – and free gift premiums – kids consume leads to the cheater retrenching and re-exploring tried-&-tested ways of sneaking answers, before Leonie stumbles into new avenues to exploit and educational toys to distract the big oaf with.

Thanks to Skelly, at least anatomy class is a breeze, but when Ducoboo looks for specialist cadavers for use in his other lessons, Latouche loses his cool – and his esteemed position. Inevitably, the pressure proves too great. Sadly, when teacher has a breakdown, the school replaces him with surly cleaning lady Mrs. Mop, who employs extraordinary methods our bad boy cannot overcome…

With swipes at modern methodology and mercantile means – such as teaching-by-photocopy and growing class sizes – a long section on Christmas holidays, festivities and just rewards leads to a new year and more of the same, as times tables, history and poetry increasingly impinge on Ducoboo’s dreary supposedly free days. Nevertheless, he still finds time to defend Leonie from a bully before life goes topsy-turvy with the arrival of a pretty new girl. She’s also called Leonie Gratin, lives in the same house as his educational fount of knowledge wellspring and has just had – reluctantly – her first maternally funded and fuelled makeover…

When that chaos and confusion concludes, mysteriously returned original Leonie agrees to visit a museum with her engaging oaf and again discovers that there are depths he hasn’t plumbed yet: gifts that come in handy when term end approaches and Latouche plans to upgrade the testing/exams and parental reports side of his job.

As summer comes at last the kids enjoy markedly different vacations and activities, but Ducoboo’s take a wild turn as his desperate dad hires a private tutor and accidentally becomes a sort of teacher’s pet himself. It’s clearly a common condition as, far, far away, Leonie succumbs to a holiday urge and finally tries to honestly communicate what she really feels about her truly aggravating classmate…

Despite the accidental and innocent tones of stalking and potential future abuse, these yarns are wry, witty and whimsical: deftly recycling adored perennial childhood themes. Ducuboo is an up-tempo, upbeat addition to a genre every parent or pupil can appreciate and enjoy. If your kids aren’t back from – or to – school quite yet, why not try keeping them occupied with Lovable Dunce, and again give thanks that there are kids far more demanding than even yours…
© Les Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard s.a.) 2001 by Godi & Zidrou. English translation © 2016 Cinebook Ltd.

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Spirou & Fantasio volumes 14 & 16 – The Comet and the Clockmaker and The Z Rises Again


By Tome & Janry with Carlos Rocque and Stuf, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-404-5 (Album PB/Digital edition Clockmaker)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-441-0 (Album PB/Digital edition Z Rises Again)

These books include Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Apparently, there’s no time like the present!

Spirou (whose name translates as “squirrel”, “mischievous” and “lively kid” in the language of the Flemish Walloons) was created by French cartoonist François Robert Velter – AKA “Rob-Vel” – for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis. The evergreen youngster in red was a response to the success of Hergé’s Tintin at rival outfit Casterman. In the beginning, the character Spirou was a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (an in-joke reference to Dupuis’ premier periodical Le Moustique) whose improbable adventures with pet squirrel Spip evolved into astounding and often surreal comedy dramas.

The other red-headed boy adventurer premiered on April 21st 1938 in an 8-page tabloid (in (French and/or Dutch) magazine bearing his name to this day. Fronting a roster of new and licensed foreign strips – Fernand Dineur’s Les Aventures de Tif (latterly Tif et Tondu) and US newspaper imports Red Ryder, Brick Bradford and Superman – Le Journal de Spirou expanded exponentially, adding Flemish-edition Robbedoes on October 27th 1938, boosting page counts and adding action, fantasy and comedy features until it was an unassailable, unmissable necessity for continental kids. His likeness and exploits fuelled mountains of merch, public acclaim, statues and civic art and in 2018 he got his own theme park.

Spirou and chums helmed the magazine for most of its life, with many notable creators building on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin, who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939. She was aided by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943, when Dupuis purchased all rights to the feature. Thereafter comic strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (“Jijé”) carried it until 1946 when his assistant André Franquin inherited the entire affair. Gradually, the new auteur retired traditional short gag vignettes in favour of longer adventure serials, introducing a wide returning cast. Ultimately, Franquin created his own milestone character. Phenomenally popular animal Marsupilami debuted in 1952’s landmark yarn Spirou et les héritiers, swiftly evolving into a scene-stealing regular and eventually one of the most significant stars of European comics.

Jean-Claude Fournier succeeded Franquin: overhauling the feature over nine stirring serial adventures between 1969-1979 by tapping into a rebellious, relevant zeitgeist in tales of drug cartels, environmental concerns, nuclear energy and repressive regimes. By the 1980s, the series seemed stalled; three different creative teams alternated on the serial: Yves Chaland, Raoul Cauvin & Nic Broca, and Philippe Vandevelde writing as “Tome” & illustrator Jean-Richard Geurts – AKA Janry. These last reverently referenced the revered and adored Franquin era: reviving the feature’s fortunes over 14 wonderful albums between 1984-1998. On their departure the strip diversified into parallel strands: Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and guest-creator specials A Spirou Story By…

Later teams and guests to tackle the wonder boys include Lewis Trondheim, Jean-Davide Morvan & Jose-Luis Munuera, Fabien Vehlmann & Yoann, Benoît Feroumont, Emile Bravo, Jul & Libon, Makyo, Toldac & Tehem, Guerrive, Abitan & Schwartz, Frank le Gall, Flix and many more. By my count that brings the album count to approximately 92 if you include specials, spin-offs series and one-shots, official and otherwise. Happily, in recent years, even some of the older vintages have been reprinted in French, but there are still dozens that have not made it into English yet. Quelle sodding horreur!

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since October 2009, initially concentrating on bringing Tome & Janry’s superb pastiche/homages of Franquin before dipping into the original Franquin oeuvre and latterly adding tales by some of the bunch listed above.

On January 3rd 1924, (belated bon anniversaire!) Belgian superstar André Franquin was born in Etterbeek. Drawing from an early age, he began formal art training at École Saint-Luc in 1943. When the war forced the school’s closure a year later, he found work as an animator at Compagnie Belge d’Animation in Brussels. There he met future bande dessinée superstars Maurice de Bevere (Lucky Luke-creator “Morris”), Pierre Culliford/Peyo (creator of The Smurfs) and Eddy Paape (Valhardi, Luc Orient). In 1945 everyone but Culliford signed on with Dupuis, and Franquin began his career as a jobbing cartoonist/illustrator. He produced covers for Le Moustique and scouting magazine Plein Jeu and, throughout those early days, was (with Morris) trained and mentored by Jijé. At that time main illustrator at Le Journal de Spirou, Jijé turned the youngsters and fellow neophyte Willy Maltaite – AKA Will (Tif et Tondu, Isabelle, Le jardin des désirs) – into a creative bullpen known as the La bande des quatre. This “Gang of Four” promptly revolutionised Belgian comics with their engaging “Marcinelle school” style of graphic storytelling.

Jijé handed Franquin all responsibilities for the flagship strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriquée, (LJdS #427, June 20th 1946) and the eager beaver ran with it for two decades, enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every episode, fans would meet startling new characters like comrade/rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor The Count of Champignac. Spirou & Fantasio were globe-trotting troubleshooting journalists, endlessly expanding their exploits in unbroken four-colour glory. They travelled to exotic places, uncovering crimes, capturing the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of extraordinary arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Zantafio. Along the way Franquin premiered one of the first strong female characters in European comics – competitor journalist Seccotine (Cellophine in current English translations).

In an admirable example of good practise, Franquin mentored his own apprentice cartoonists during the 1950s. These included Jean Roba (La Ribambelle, Boule et Bill), Jidéhem (Sophie, Starter, Gaston Lagaffe) and Greg (Bruno Brazil, Bernard Prince, Zig et Puce, Achille Talon), who all worked with him on Spirou et Fantasio. In 1955, a contractual spat with Dupuis led to Franquin signing up with rivals Casterman on Le Journal de Tintin, where he collaborated with René Goscinny and old pal Peyo whilst also creating raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon. Franquin quickly patched things up with Dupuis and returned to LJdS, subsequently co-creating Gaston Lagaffe (AKA Gomer Goof) in 1957, but was still obliged to carry on those Casterman commitments too…

From 1959, writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem began regularly assisting Franquin, but by 1969 the master storyteller had reached his Spirou limit. He quit, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him. Later creations include fantasy series Isabelle, illustration sequence Monsters and bleak adult conceptual series Idées Noires, but his greatest creation – and one he retained all rights to on his departure – was Marsupilami, which – in addition to comics – has become a megastar of screen, plush toy store, console and albums.

Plagued in later life by bouts of depression and cardiac problems, Franquin passed away on January 5th 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics. The payout for all that good practise can be enjoyed here as we review hopefully happier if undoubtedly weirder days as,via the vagaries of publishing (almost as byzantine as time travel in its own way) we encounter a continued story annoyingly broken up for English readers due to an adventure published out of sequence…

Spirou & Fantasio volume 14 – The Comet and the Clockmaker

Serialised in 1984, Tome & Janry’s L’Horloger de la comète was their 4th tale together, running in Le Journal de Spirou  #2427-2448 before becoming the 36th S&F album in February 1986). In it, the valiant lad and his inseparable pal are foolishly left housesitting the wonder-packed chateau of their inspirational boffin buddy: mushroom-mutating magician Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas, comte de Champignac AKA Count Champignac… and someone else who turns 75 this year…

In the course of the evening, the lads use the installed telescope to track a comet across the sky but are distracted by a ship crashing into the lawn. Inside it is a time traveller who is also the Count’s descendant Aurélian de Champignac. Accompanied by his faithful pet Snuffeller Timothy, Aurélian has come on a mission of extreme importance, one crucially linked throughout history by the comet’s regularly returning appearances. Sadly, his task – to gather plants and reseed the barren world of tomorrow – is made more dangerous by unsuspected and extremely sinister seeming pursuers from beyond his own lifeless era, intent on keeping the future’s status quo intact…

And then the new allies are off, triggering alarms and military responses all over the world as they head for deepest, greenest Palombia, land of lunacy and the Marsupilami. Of course, everything goes wrong and before long our dauntless saviours are not only lost in the green hell but also in time. Fetching up in Portuguese-colonised climes circa 1531 anno Domini, the regreening of Earth seems destined to fail when they crash smack in the middle of a native resistance to European expansion and an internal power-grabbing insurrection amongst the invaders. But then…

If you’re fussy, the Zordolt story which breaks up the narrative flow (volume 15: Shadow of the Z) was reviewed here, so if it makes you more comfortable stop now, go read that and return here once that affirms your particular or preferred take on reality.

Spirou & Fantasio volume 16 – The Z Rises Again

In Europe, L’Horloger de la comète was promptly followed in Le Journal de Spirou #2487-2508 by Le réveil du Z which in September 1986 became the 37th collection. A wry, satirically-charged notional sequel to Franquin’s 1960 yarn Z is For Zorglub, it sees a kind of return for the pompous, conflicted Bond-style supervillain…

Back in their present, Spirou & Fantasio strive to return to their regular lives only to discover that although they have had enough of time travel, it has not had enough of them. Scorned, derided and disbelieved at home and the editorial office, our unruly investigators are suddenly kidnapped to 2062 by Aurélian de Champignac’s assistant So-Yah, where Zorglub Junior is using his ancestor’s mind-bending technologies and mastery of Champignac’s time travel techniques to become ruler of the world…

Happily, the Count has a plan to foil the ascendant tyrant, so all Spirou & Fantasio – with Timothy the Snuffeller – have to do is liberate Aurélian from the forbidding timeless citadel where the villain’s army of ruthless Zorglmen are holding him captive until their war of chronal conquest is won…

… Oh and probably destroying the giant Zorglock device enslaving every mind and directing every life on Earth might be beneficial too…

Fast-paced, wry, edgily-barbed, compellingly convoluted and perfectly blending helter-skelter excitement with keen suspense and outrageous slapstick humour, The Z Rises Again is a terrific romp to delight devotees of easy-going adventure and a perfect counter to the riotous eco-adventure that precedes it. Read together, they comprise a superbly wild sci-fi ride any fan of the genre or just good storytelling will adore. Easily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with the beguiling style and seductively wholesome élan that make Asterix, Lucky Luke and Tintin so compelling, these are enduring tales from a long line of superb exploits, as deserving to be a household name as much as those series.
Original editions © Dupuis, 1986 by Tome & Janry. All rights reserved. English translations 2018, 2019 © Cinebook Ltd.

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Mac Raboy’s Flash Gordon volume 4


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

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Be Continued… by other hands

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

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Buster Book 1974


By many and various (IPC)
No ISBN: ASIN: 85037-054X

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The 1950s ushered in a revolution in British comics. With wartime restrictions on printing and paper lifted, a steady stream of new titles emerged from many companies, and when Hulton Press launched The Eagle in April 1950, the very idea of what weeklies could be altered forever. Fleetway was an adjunct of IPC (at that time the world’s largest publishing company) and had, by the early 1970s, swallowed or out-competed all other English companies producing mass-market comics except the exclusively television-themed Polystyle Publications. As it always had been, the megalith was locked in a death-struggle with Dundee’s DC Thomson for the hearts and minds of their assorted juvenile markets – a battle the publishers of The Beano and The Dandy would finally win when Fleetway sold off its diminishing comics line to Egmont publishing and Rebellion Studios in 2002.

At first glance, British comics prior to Action and 2000 AD seem to fall into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and/or fantastic preschool fantasy; a large selection of licensed entertainment properties; action; adventure; war; school dramas, sports and straight comedy strands. Closer looks would confirm that there was always a subversive merging, mixing undertone, especially in such antihero series as Dennis the Menace or our rather strained interpretation of superheroes. Until the 1980s, UK periodicals employed a traditional anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character on a weekly – sometimes fortnightly – basis. Primarily humorous comics like The Beano were leavened by action-heroes like The Q-Bikes or General Jumbo whilst adventure papers like Smash, Lion or Valiant always carried palate-cleansing gagsters like The Cloak, Grimly Feendish, Mowser and other laugh treats. Buster offered the best of all worlds.

Accomplishing 1902 issues from May 28th 1960 to 4th January 2000,(plus specials, spin-offs and annuals), Buster juggled drama, mystery, action and comedy, with its earliest days – thanks to absorbing Radio Fun and Film Fun – heavily spiced with celebrity-licensed material starring popular media mavens like Charlie Drake, Bruce Forsyth and Benny Hill backing up the eponymous cover star who was billed as “the son of Andy Capp” – cartoonist Reg Smyth’s drunken, cheating, skiving, wife-beating global newspaper strip star. The comic became the final resting place of many, many companion papers in its lifetime, including The Big One, Giggle, Jet, Cor!, Monster Fun, Jackpot, School Fun, Nipper, Oink! and Whizzer and Chips, so its cumulative strip content was always wide, wild and usually pretty wacky…

From 1973 (all UK annuals are forward-dated to next year), just as Marvel UK was making inroads with its own brand of comics madness, comes this experimental collation. Fleetway’s hidebound, autocratic bureaucracy still ruled the roost, even though sales had been steadily declining in all sectors of the industry – Pre-school, Juvenile, Boys and Girls, Educational – since the 1960s closed, and increasingly the company were sanctioning niche products to shore up sales rather than expand or experimental endeavours like the Buster Book of Scary Stories and others.

That’s all reflected here in the oversized, soft-card covered Buster Book 1974 which opens with a sporty fishy visit to Buster’s Dream-World (probably scripted by editor Nobby Clark and illustrated by Spanish mainstay Ángel Nadal Quirch) wherein our lad conflates rugby with angling, before dipping into drama with a tale of Fishboy – Denizen of the Deep: a kind of undersea teen Tarzan mostly produced by Scott Goodall & John Stokes but is here limned by possibly Fred Holmes or an overseas artist unknown to me. Here the briny boy hero scuppers the schemes of sinister, polluting, illegal uranium prospectors, before we segue to spooky nonsense in Rent-A-Ghost Ltd., courtesy of Reg Parlett, as the haunts for hire discourage someone’s noisy neighbour, whilst domestic sitcom clones The Happy Family endure a nosy noisome aunt’s visit and The Kids of Stalag 41 (by Jimmy Hansen or Mike Lacey?) face another cold Christmas outwitting Colonel Schtink and his oafish Nazi guards whilst Clever Dick – by Leo Baxendale – builds another labour-intensifying manic invention.

Drifter Long – The Football Wanderer finds his superstitious nature works to his advantage in a short tale by someone doing a passing impression of Tony Harding, as a selection of cartoon gags offer Fun Time! apre Parlett’s Dim Dan the Film Stunt Man and idiot pet shop pooch Bonehead leading into a dentist dodging caper for Face Ache (possibly by Ken Reid but more likely unsung substitute hero Ian Mennell), before fish out of water drama ‘The Laird of Lazy Q’ sees kilt-wearing Scottish highlander Duncan MacGregor inherit a ranch in Kansas and face hostility, gunfighters, fake “injuns” and murderous gold-stealing owlhoots before making the place his home. The tale was a reformatted serial from companion comic Knockout in 1967 which originally ran as ‘McTavish of Red Rock’.

Well-travelled veteran strip kid Smiler (by Eric Roberts, as also seen in Whoopee and Knockout) loses a pin next, whilst Sam Sunn – the Strongest Boy in the World finds circus life profitable, after which classic monster yarn Galaxus – The Thing from Outer Space finds the size-shifting alien ape and his human pals Jim & Danny Jones still hunted by humanity but finding time to save an explorer from lost Inca tribesmen in a cracking tale from the Solano Lopez studio.

More Clever Dick by Baxendale precedes car crash yarn Buster Tells a Tale before Eric Bradbury shines in a short tale of evil hypnotist Zarga – Man of Mystery and Face Ache visits a haunted house whilst Hobby Hoss – He knows it all!– sees the smug mansplainer prove his lack of equestrian expertise in advance of more gags in Linger for a laugh and fresh jungle hijinks for old Valiant expat/lion lag Tatty-Mane – King of the Jungle (Nadal again?)

Baxendale cowboy spoof Pest of the West segues into more mirthful magical mystery with Rent-A-Ghost Ltd., and Dim Dan the Film Stunt Man prior to clueless cub scout Bob-A-Job wrecking a jumble sale before western drama The Laird of Lazy Q (drawn by Mike Western?) concludes and Baxendale’s anarchic pachyderm Nellyphant debuts, just as The Happy Family go treasure hunting even as Another Tale from Buster reveals bath night woes with a guest appearance by Andy Capp’s long suffering “missus” – AKA Buster’s mum – Flo…

Willpower Willy – The Coward who Turned Tough details how a bullied schoolboy turns the tables after becoming a boffin’s human guinea pig, and model plane enthusiasts fail to benefit from their lecture by Hobby Hoss (who still knows it all!) before more Bonehead antics, Sam Sunn exertions and Smiler capers bring us to time travelling thievery courtesy of Jack Pamby whose rendition of The Astounding Adventures of Charley Peace find the old rogue on the right side of the law for once…

Animal fun and frolics then wrap up festivities with Tatty-Mane – King of the Jungle facing imminent usurpation and Nellyphant learning to fly…

Eclectic, eccentric, egalitarian  and always packed with surprises, Buster offered variety in all forms for any palate, and could well be a still-accessible treat you should seek out and share.
© IPC Magazines Ltd., 1973 All rights reserved throughout the world.