Category: Fantasy

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Acid Box


By Sarah Kenney, James Devlin, Emma Vieceli, Ria Grix, Sophie Dodgson, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou & various (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-917355-05-6 (HB/Digital edition)

The entirety of all worlds and each and every time is readily available to any open-minded comics connoisseur. Here’s a fun extrapolation on an old plot, with plenty of twisty raucous fun fully baked in for anyone with an open mind. A working knowledge of recent history (yes, I know that’s a relative term!) and breadth of musical tastes won’t be wasted if you can lay your hands on that too…

Most importantly, if you can remember the Nineties, you might well have been there, but probably a bit too far from the speaker-stacks…

In that context, the term Acid (noun: PRO: “Ass-SEeeeed”) denotes a popular youth culture movement concerned with music, recreational drugs, dancing and wandering about trying to find where the action was happening. It also had lots to do with a specific bit of clever kit called a Roland TB-303 Bass Line (AKA the “303”) that became instrumental in electronic music movements such as “techno”, “Chicago-house” and “acid house”…

At this moment of now in opening chapter ‘Fully Munted’, it’s 2026 in Glasgow and cleaner/presumed orphan Jade Nyo is hoping to forget the shitty world, crap prospects of survival and especially younger brother Rory’s persistent tortured nightmares of tsunamis and global collapse, as personified in recurring images of a big angry sod he calls “AngryMan” leading the inundations.

There’s not a lot she can use to get out and away – and so much to get away from – but her abiding fascination with dance music history tops the list, so soon she’s necked an “E” at local club Tempus and is living in the beats and sweat and non-stop motion. Rory’s there too but his crutches and callipers aren’t really rave-conducive…

Life gets worse and better all at once when three really weird skanky women drag her and Rory into a rather tacky corner that didn’t used to be there, and make an outrageous request/demand. Apparently, Yemaya, Angie and Tracey are “Liminals” commanding the forces of time, space, matter and energy and they have an urgent job that needs doing: restoring order to the geological continuum… or else…

Soon – while disbelieving every minute of it – Jade is jaunting all over infinity, drawn to key and crucial rave moments and beat history milestones chasing vibrations and saving the universe with the aid of a handy little widget dubbed (sorry! Sorry!!) an Acid Box. This one is missing three dials that Jade just must restore to it… or Earth will shake itself to dust within three days. Moreover, AngryMan is very real and resolved to make that big finish happen…

First stop, once all the “yeah, but”-ing is done with, is Berlin in 1994 (devotees of musical culture will soon comprehend what these key moments in time travel mean, and the rest of us can just revel in the pacy action and extremely effective character-play from here on…) as Jade musters some allies – such as tough local-time operators Fizzy & Rhonda – and faces increasing grief and terror in successive, potentially self-explanatory escalating episodes ‘Make Techno Not Friends’, ‘The Fear’ and ‘Go Hard or Go Home’.

The chase exposes family skeletons, loads of closets and repeatedly lands her in 1994 – somehow simultaneously in Detroit, Bradford, Berlin again, Johannesburg, Mysore and Hyde Park, London – gathering allies for an environmental showdown in at La Palma volcano in 2026, supplanted by ten-yearly confrontations in 2034, 2044 and 2054 all round the imperilled world until the big is done… one way or another…

Packed with and augmented by utterly absorbing sidebar bonus material, this is a sublimely absorbing romp embroidered with true love of the period and source music material that will no doubt make a fabulous and funny film one day. The primary creators are led by Sarah Kenney (Surgeon X, She Could Fly, Planet Divoc-91) who writes socially informed speculative fiction (the other, accurate, term for Science Fiction) and works as a scripter, producer and director for the Games industry and television. Her visual collaborator on  Surgeon X and Planet Divoc-91 is Glasgow-based James Devlin (Tomorrow, LaGuardia) who here joins multidisciplinary performance artist Emma Vieceli (Life is Strange, BREAKS) and illustrator Ria Grix (The Anomalous Adventures of Viola Holm and Kotiin).

This macroscopic, musically-inclined peregrination includes further input and compelling comics fare culled from an international workshop group about comics, music, science culture and planet Earth run by Kenney & Kirsten Murray. That resulted in compelling essays and graphic sorties all packed in here too, all stage-set by an accommodatingly informative ‘Afterword’ by Kenney.

The textual thoughts comprise ‘Happy Place by Sarah Zad’; ‘Fund, Marry, Chill: The Ultimate Guide to Guaranteed Creative Success by Adrian Saredia-Brayley’; ‘Research and Discussion of the potential benefits of MDMA on PTSD sufferers by Bobby Gunasekara’; ‘Reviving Rave Roots Resurgence of Clean Rave Culture by Sevitha ’Vadlamudi’; ‘Fact and Fiction by Sarah Zad’ and ‘The Lens of Life… Storytelling and facilitating change through art by Whitney Love’. These are followed by a selection of ‘Youth Workshop Comics’ beginning with eco-chiller ‘We Can’t Stay Here Any Longer’ by Adrian Saredia-Brayley and followed by Ben Avey-Edwards cyber-thriller ‘Vibe’ (lettered by Rob Jones).

ShyWhy shares the joys of ‘Mind Travel’ and Lara Sloane depicts ‘A Housewives Revolution’ before ‘Dancing On My Own’ – scripted by Nyla Ahmad with art by Adrian Saredia-Brayley – carries us to Lucy Porte’s ‘Bad Trip’ after which Paula Karanja brings ‘A Gift to Share’. Rounding out the jam session, Saredia-Brayley limns Phelisa Sikwata’s ‘Sinking HomeS’ and Hannah Maclennan closes the show with ‘Hurry Up! Our Song is Playing!’
© Wowbagger Productions 2025. All rights reserved.

Today in 1929 US Golden Age artist Joe Gallagher was born, as was James Vance (Kings in Disguise, Omaha the Cat Dancer, Aliens, Predator) in 1953, and Todd Nauck (Young Justice, Spider-Man) in 1971.

In1867 Britain and the world lost pioneering cartoonist/caricaturist/political commentator Charles H. Bennett, and in 2002 Stan Pitt (officially the first Australian artist with original material published US  comic books – The Witching Hour #14 & Boris Karloff – Tales of Mystery # 33!) who ghosted Al Williamson’s Secret Agent Corrigan in 1969 and 1972. Also, in 2009 we lost the great unsung Frank Springer (Secret Six, Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, Phoebe Zeit-Geist, The Dazzler, Friday Foster, Rex Morgan M.D., Mary Perkins on Stage, The Incredible Hulk newspaper strip).

In 1958 Goscinny & Uderzo’s Oumpah-pah debuted in Le Journal de Tintin.

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The Little Prince – A Graphic Novel adapted from the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry


By Joann Sfar, with colours by Brigitte Findakly, translated by Sarah Ardizzone (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-46-1 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

The Little Prince was written by warrior, aeronaut, aristocrat, illustrator and auteur Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Published in 1943 in the US in French & English, and again posthumously in1946 (as the pilot/writer had been Missing; Presumed Dead for two years), it became a glabally popular classic. You should read it in the language of your choice. It’s been adapted into every form of human expression and never failed to impress or deeply move.

In 2008 Joann Sfar adapted it to his preferred medium, and Le Petit Prince: d’après d’oeuvre d’Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was published by Gallimard Jeunesse. In the 80th anniversary year since the original book took off, SelfMadeHero celebrate the event with a fabulous, augmented edition to simply wallow in.

As well as fully re-presenting Sfar’s bold interpretation this tome also offers a fully updated translation and includes a ‘Timeline’ for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his creations, and from Ardizzone herself a concluding ‘Translator’s Note – The Reader Perched on Your Shoulder’ to accompany the now-traditional creators’ biographies as closing ‘Authors’ section.

You’ve heard this before and its’s still utterly true, some things you don’t talk about, you just do, and this mesmerising adaptation is the very epitome of that. Here’s all you get from me…

In the African desert an aviator strives to repair his downed plane. The work is hard, his head hurts and he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He always wanted to be an artist, not a flier doomed to die of thirst and loneliness in blistering heat…

Abruptly his prospects change as a strange, golden-haired boy asks him to draw a sheep…

Soon the politely engaging lad is keeping him company as he works: telling of the strange small planet he came from, the oddly toxic relationship that compelled him to leave, and the bizarre individuals he met in his travels through space to Earth. Companionship is welcome, even if the shared tales are dolorous and often painful and distressing to hear, but as the aviator adapts to the fact that he probably won’t make it, he increasingly fears for the mournful child. The Little Prince claims to be preparing to return to his small world and lost inamorata, but only seems to be courting the company of the deadly, poisonous reptiles that abound in the arid wastelands…

In a place most folks don’t visit anymore, there’s a secret list of all the books and stories one needs to read to be considered a human being. This is on it (quite near the top, in fact) and, even as radically re-imagined as it was been here by Sfar, demands your attention and consideration.

So go do that then. Vite! Vite!
© Gallimard Jeunesse, 2008. English translation © Sarah Ardizzone, 2010, 2026. All rights reserved.

Yesterday in 1962 Swedish comics maven Joakim Lindgren was born, but in 1957, we lost Jack Butler Yeats, creator of Chublock Holmes in Comic Cuts (arguably the first comic book serial), Underground Commix mega-star Dave Sheridan in 1982, Italian comics stalwart Nicola Del Principe (Le Justicier Masqué, Tom and Jerry) in 2002 and in 2013 Spanish/Argentine artist, cartoonist, animator and publisher Manuel García Ferré.

Yesterday in 1991, iconoclastic UK all-star comic Toxic began: running until October 24 of that year and introducing many cool characters such as Accident Man, The Bogie Man and Marshal Law.

Today in 1901, foundational Croatian comics artist Andrija Maurovi? (Empress of the Netherworld, Beware the Hand from Senj) was born, as was Mark Trail cartoonist Jack Elrod in 1924, and UK scribbler David Austin (Hom Sap) in 1935. Trail-blazing Wayne Howard (first US creator to be cover-credited for a strip series) was born in 1949, Val Mayerik (Howard the Duck co-creator) one year later, Marc Silvestri in 1958 and Jim Mahfood (Clerks, Grrl Scouts, Spider-Man, The Further Adventures of One Page Filler Man, Carl, The Cat That Makes Peanut Butter Sandwiches) in 1975. In 1983, Gene Ahern’s 60-year run on legendary strip Our Boarding House ended with its cancelation. Two years later Kerry Drake creator Alfred Andriola died, followed in 2007 by writer Leslie Waller, co-creator (with Arnold Drake & Matt Baker) of the “first US Original Graphic Novel” It Rhymes with Lust (St John Press Picture Novel, 1950).

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The Mirror Classic Cartoon Collection


By Peter O’Donnell, Jim Edgar, Barrie Tomlinson, Steve Dowling, John Allard, Frank Bellamy, Martin Asbury, Reg Smythe, Jim Holdaway, Jack Greenall, Jack Clayton, John Gillatt & various, compiled by Mike Higgs (Hawk Books)
ISBN: 978-1-89944-175-4 (Album HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Not so much now but once upon a time, The Daily Mirror was home to a number of great British strip seldom matched and never surpassed. That proud boast began with one of the Empire’s greatest successes Tiger Tim, (who debuted there in 1904) and culminated with the likes of war-winning, morale-boosting naive nymph Jane, not to mention The Perishers, Garth, Andy Capp (who has frankly long outlived his appeal!) and many others.

Two of the above cited feature in this beautiful compilation from Mike Higgs’ Hawk Books which did so much over the years to keep British cartoon history alive. This particular triumph gathers sample selections from the newspaper’s back catalogue in a spiffily luxurious oversized (280 x 180 mm) hardback stuffed with fun, thrills and quality nostalgia.

The illustrious Garth is the first star, featured in an adventure from 1957 by series originator and longest serving creator Steve Dowling (1943-1969) – who was succeeded by his assistant John Allard, then Frank Bellamy and finally Martin Asbury.

Garth is a hulking physical specimen, a virtual human superman with the involuntary ability to travel through time and experience past and future lives. This simple concept lent the strip an unfailing potential for exotic storylines and fantastic exploits. ‘The Captive’ – written by Peter O’Donnell and illustrated by Dowling & Allard – is a later tale with our hero abducted from Earth as the prize of a galactic scavenger hunt instigated by bored hedonistic aliens who don’t realise quite what they’ve gotten themselves involved with…

A second adventure, ‘The Man-hunt’, is the last Frank Bellamy worked on. The astounding Mr. Bellamy died in 1976 whilst drawing this yarn of beautiful alien predators in search of prime genetic stock with which to reinvigorate their tired bloodlines. Written by Jim Edgar, the strip was completed by Asbury who took over with the 17th instalment. A tongue-in-cheek thriller, full of thrills and fantastic action, it never loses its light humorous touch.

Andy Capp is a drunken, skiving, misogynistic, work-shy, wife-beating scoundrel who has somehow become one of the most popular and well-loved strip characters of all time. Created by jobbing cartoonist Reg Smythe to appeal to northern readers during a circulation drive, he first saw the light of day – with long-suffering, perpetually abused-but-forgiving wife Florrie in tow – on August 5th 1957. It is not something that has travelled well, but at least proves even Brits can evolve and grow some taste…

This volume reprints 37 strips from the feature’s 41-year run, which only ended with Smythe’s death in 1998 and if I’m completely honest the sheer inexplicable magic of this “lovable rogue” is as appallingly intoxicating as it always was, defeating political correctness and common decency alike; A true Guilty Pleasure, I guess…

Romeo Brown began in 1954, drawn by Dutch artist Alfred “Maz” Mazure, starring a private detective with an eye for the ladies and a nose for trouble. The feature was a light, comedic adventure series adding some much-appreciated honestly needed glamour to the dour mid-1950s, but it really kicked into high gear when Maz left in 1957 to be replaced by Peter O’Donnell and brilliant Jim Holdaway who would go on to create the fabulous Modesty Blaise together. Old Romeo shut up shop in 1962 and is represented here by a pair of romps from the penultimate year. ‘The Arabian Knight’ and ‘The Admiral’s Grand-daughter’ combine sly, knowing humour, bungling criminality and dazzlingly visuals in a manner any Carry-On fan would die for.

Useless Eustace was a gag-panel (a single-picture joke) running from January 1935 to 1985. Created by Jack Greenall, its star was a bald, nondescript everyman who met travails of life with unflinching enthusiasm but very little sense. Greenall produced the strip until 1974, and other artists continued it until 1985. Selections here are from the war years and the 1960s. Another comedy panel was Calamity Gulch, a particularly British view of the ubiquitous Western which invaded our sensibilities with the rise of television ownership in the 1950s. Created by Jack Clayton, it began its spoofery sharp-shooting on 6th June 1960, and you can see 21 of the best right here, Pardner.

A staple of children’s comics that never really prospered in newspapers was sports adventure. At least not until 1989 when those grown up tykes opened the Daily Mirror to find a football strip entitled Scorer, written by Barrie Tomlinson and drawn by Barry Mitchell, and eventually John Gillatt. Very much an updated, R-rated Roy of the Rovers, the strip stars Dave ‘Scorer’ Storry and his team Tolcaster F.C. in fast, hot, “sexy” tales of the Beautiful Game that owed as much to the sports pages it began on as to the grand cartoon tradition.

‘Cup Cracker’ included here is by Tomlinson & Gillatt from 1994, and shows WAGS (Wives And GirlfriendS, non-sports fans) were never a new phenomenon.

Not many people know this – or indeed, care – but before I review an “old” book (which I arbitrarily define as something more than three years old) I look on the internet. It’s a blessing then to still see this wonderful and utterly British tome is readily available in France, Germany – most of Europe in fact and even in Britain. Surely that’s a testament to the book’s quality and desirability, and if that’s the case maybe Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) or some history-loving print philanthropist should expedite a new edition – or even a few proper comprehensive sequels…
© 1998 Mirror Group Newspapers, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1914 cartoon genius John Stanley (Little Lulu, Thirteen Going on Eighteen, Melvin Monster) was born, with fellow leading lights Bernard Krigstein arriving in 1919, and Mort Drucker in 1929. Steve Dillon (Preacher, Laser Eraser & Pressbutton, The Punisher) and Lew Stringer (Tom Thug, Brickman, Combat Colin, Derek the Troll and his glorious blog Blimey!) both began brightening Britain’s murky shores from today in 1959.

In 1937, UK private eye strip Buck Ryan by Jack Monk & Don Freeman began in the Daily Mirror today, Jean Van Hamme & Grzegorz Rosi?ski’s mega-franchise Thorgal began in Le Journal de Tintin and in 1997 the Daily Mirror published its last Garth strip, ending a run that began in 1943.

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Hell on Earth – A DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel


By Robert Bloch, adapted by Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming with Greg Theakston, Bill Wray, Gaspar Saladino & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 978-0-93028-905-8 (Album TPB)

During the 1980s DC, on a creative roll like many publishers large and small, attempted to free comics narrative from previous constraints of size and format as well as content. To this end, legendary editor Julie Schwartz called upon his old contacts from his youthful days as a Literary Agent to inveigle major names from the book world to have their early Sci-Fi and fantasy classics adapted into a line of Science Fiction Graphic Novels.

One of the most radical interpretations came courtesy of celebrated comedy wise-guys Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming, with inks and colours from Greg Theakston & Bill Wray, not to mention phenomenal lettering and calligraphic effects from Gaspar Saladino.

Revered horror fantasist Robert Bloch developed out of the Lovecraftian tradition of the early pulps to become a household name for books such as Psycho and I Am Legend, which replaced unspeakable elder gods with just-as-nasty yet smaller-scaled devils like Jack the Ripper or that strange guy in the next apartment. In 1943 he scripted a blackly ironic tale of three ordinary people, researcher Professor Phillips Keith, his assistant Lily Ross and the reporter/pulp horror writer they hire to document their great experiment.

The tense interplay of this claustrophobic chiller is effectively captured by illustrator Giffen in his multi-panelled homage/distillation of José Muñoz’s stark art style as the experiment proceeds and the parapsychologists proceed to bring the Devil to Earth and trap him in a glass cage. Of course, as the lives of the trio spiral down into a miasma of darkness, guilt and regret, we have to ask: “Is he really trapped?”

Although a wordy, moody text, the interpreters have crafted a visual analogue that is just as tense and stifling as the original (which, if Satan is on your side, you might find in even rarer compilation Hell on Earth: the Lost Bloch volume two), so if you like daring art and classic spookiness you should track down this album. And while you’re at it why not grab the prose piece as well and see how it works sans graphic narrative?
© 1942 Weird Tales. Text and illustrations © 1985 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1927 George Storm’s venerable adventure strip Bobby Thatcher began, as did our entire hobby in a way, since in 1970 Minicon (precursor to Comic Con International) opened in San Diego’s U.S. Grant Hotel.

In 1929 Zagor cocreator Gallieno Ferri was born, just like Al Williamson in 1931, Mark Waid in 1962 and Jeff Lemire in 1976. In 1959 we lost jobbing artist Edwin Balmer of Speed Spaulding fame.

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Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage – A Greek Myth


By Justine & Ron Fontes, Steve Kurth & Barbara Schulz (Graphic Universe)
ISBN: 978-1-58013-318-0 (HB), 978-0-82256-570-3 9 (TPB/Digital edition)

Look! Out the window!! The sun! Flowers!

The heroic tales and legends of older cultures have, for centuries formed an integral part of children’s educational development – and a good thing too. These days though, those magnificently inspiring and memorably visual yarns are as likely to be disseminated in graphic novel form as through the illustrated prose books which had such a formative influence on my early days.

Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage was released in 2007, one self-contained tome in a larger series which also retold in comics other Hellenic myths such as the Labours of Hercules, or Jason’s journey with the Argonauts as well as other cultures’ founding fables like Isis & Osiris or King Arthur.

Packaged as full-colour, 48 page, card-cover booklets they – hopefully – introduced a wealth of kids to the magical riches of human imagination. They also read very well as comics in their own right.

All religious stories are devised to explain away contemporary unsolved questions and unknowable mysteries. The liturgical lesson retold here was one people’s attempt to rationalise the progress of the seasons and the man-made miracle of agriculture, opening in the paradisiacal golden age of ‘A Winterless World’ where, thanks to the joyful bounty of the goddess Demeter, plants bloomed all year long and the Earth was bathed in perpetual warmth. The harvest goddess’ greatest joy was her glorious daughter Persephone, offspring of one of Zeus’ constant infidelities with any deity, supernatural creature or mortal he took a fancy to…

The supreme god ruled over the skies and Earth whilst his brothers Poseidon and Hades controlled the oceans and underworld respectively. However, when the dolorous, lonely Lord of the Dead saw Persephone he wanted her for his wife, and callous, unthinking Zeus told him to just steal her and take her down to ‘The Dark Domain’ he ruled…

Despite her plight, Demeter’s daughter found a great deal that was admirable about Hades and his vast kingdom of judgement, punishment and reward. However, knowing how perilous her fate was, Persephone refused to eat anything that her embarrassed abductor offered, knowing that to do so would bind her to him forever. In the bright lands above, Demeter frantically searched for her child. Discovering how Persephone had been taken, the Harvest Goddess pleaded with Zeus who refused to intervene, prompting her to abandon the pantheon’s home on Mount Olympus. She wandered the Earth as ‘A Worried Mother’ and in the guise of a broken old woman became the nurse to Prince Demophoon of Eleusis, infant son of King Celeus.

Months passed whilst Demeter neglected the world’s lush abundance, defiantly ignoring the desperate pleas of man and god alike. Plants withered and starvation gripped the Earth, and on Olympus the crisis at last forced Zeus to act. He despatched messenger god Hermes to the underworld to negotiate with Hades and a compromise was reached. ‘The Seeds of Change’ saw a now reluctant Persephone leave the abductor she had come to care for. In all that time she had eaten nothing but as they parted she swallowed a few pomegranate seeds from a fruit Hades offered as final gesture…

Even whilst back in the clean air above, this caused great consternation as their consumption gave Hades a legitimate claim to Persephone. Moreover, she had come to love him but as her mother refused to be separated from her, her marriage to Hades would have doomed mankind to starvation. ‘The Pomegranate Problem’ was only solved by Rhea, mother of all gods, who suggested that the lovers should marry but that Persephone must spend two thirds of each year with her mother who would then cause the world’s plants to germinate, blossom, grow and ripen. After that the daughter would spend four months with her husband in the underworld, with Earth consequently becoming temporarily cold, dark and bleakly barren.

Satisfied with the solution but plagued by guilt, Demeter eventually returned to Eleusis where the baby Demophoon had grown to manhood. Here she taught her human charge the secrets of cultivation and plant improvement and the prince travelled the Earth, sharing his divinely-bestowed knowledge of agriculture to a grateful and eager humanity…

Engrossing, dynamic, pretty and blessed with a light touch despite its toxic message of male ownership and inescapable dominance (it’s history, you can’t ignore or cover up but must adapt and redefine terms and context!) this splendid introduction to mythology is designed for kids with a reading age of nine or above – that’s Year 4, I think – and also contains a full glossary; Further Reading and an index as well as fact-features on Creating Demeter & Persephone and biographies of the creators.
© 2007 Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1902, Ozzie artist, caricaturist, cartoonist Alex Gurney (Bluey and Curly) was born, as was master scribe Bob Haney in 1926 and Spanish cartoonist Francisco Ibáñez Talavera (Mortadelo y Filemón/Morty & Phil). In 1954, Dan Adkins came along, with Bob Budiansky joining the party in 1958 and Sailor Moon creator Noaka Takeuchi in 1967.

In 2002 we lost Canadian underground star Rand Holmes, and writer of The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide/King Features Editor Jay Kennedy in 2007. In 2012 died strip legend Fran Matera whose Steve Roper and… ran from November 23rd 1936 to December 26th 2004.
In 1958 today Ken Reid’s astounding Jonah set sail in The Beano for the first time.

I have no idle comics thoughts for Monday so just read a book instead. However…

Tomorrow in 1892 Swedish children’s periodical Kamratposten launched. Italian western star Gino D’Antonio (Storia del West) was born in 1927 as was Kate Worley in 1958, Todd McFarlane in 1961, Harold Sakushi (Gorillaman, Stopper Busujima, Beck) in 1969 and Paolo Rivera (Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Valiant) in 1981. In 2017 Underground Commix superstar Mervyn “Skip” Williamson (Bijou Funnies, Snappy Sammy Smoot) died.

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All the places in between (Wellness and Green Living)


By John Cei Douglas (Liminal 11)
ISBN: 978-1-912634-23-1 (PB)

These days we’re all locked up in our own heads as much as in our homes or inescapably foredoomed lives, constantly in search of solutions to ease anxiety, however we can. Here then – in timely fashion and most serendipitously – is a sublime gem in the conceptual mould of Tove Jansson, laced with oblique yet helpful ruminations on healing mindfulness and enjoyed as a voyage of genuine inner discovery.

Not only is the message calming and helpful – and delivered in beguiling imagery guaranteed to restore your weary disposition – but it also guarantees a solidly entertaining mystery journey helping to moderate your hunger for physical travel and fresh experience.

Crafted in dreamy, silent passages, All the places in between follows a pensive girl by a barren seashore as she fretfully, nervously but determinedly passes from ‘All the places we’ve been’ to ‘All the places we’re going’…

On the way she meets her exact opposite and is cast ‘adrift’: occupying ‘the lighthouse’ before finding civilisation drowned and devastated. Time drags ‘between’ before isolation draws her to ‘the city’ where she finds ‘a companion’ to care for.

Eventually that temporary relationship sunders, ‘buried’ in the wreckage of the world and dwarfed by insurmountable chasms prior to a ‘tsunami’ that brings resolution of sorts as ‘the lighthouse returns’, prompting a revelatory resolution in ‘space’…

Filled with delightful human moments, and not a book to summarise, but definitely one to look at and wonder over and over again, John Cei Douglas’ oneiric ramble is a calming and enticing trip we can all benefit and draw comfort from.
© 2020 John Cei Douglas. All rights reserved.

Today in 1913, Mickey Mouse Sunday strip illustrator Manuel Gonzales was born, as was British strip maestro Harry Bishop (Gun Law, Bonanza, Tarzan) in 1922. Anticipating an end to war and no need to boost morale anymore(!!) Milton Caniff’s armed services strip Male Call ended today in 1946…
Max Allen Collins (Road to Perdition, Ms. Tree, Batman, Dick Tracy) was born in 1948, and Matthew Dow Smith (Astronauts in Trouble, Doctor Who) in 1950, with Dan Mishkin (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, Blue Devil) turning up in 1953 and Claudio Castellini Nathan Never) arriving in 1966.
Today in 1983 Hergé left us, as did Italian Disney superstar Giovan Battista Carpi in 1999.

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Bluebeard – A Feminist Fairy Tale


By Metaphrog (Papercutz)
ISBN: 978-1-5458-0412-4 (HB/Digital edition)

The power of fairy tales lies in their ability to reach every generation and impart timeless truths, usually at an age when we’re just starting to grasp how big and wide and scary the world is…

Franco-Scots couple Sandra Marrs & John Chalmers began crafting amazing, beguiling comics in 1995 with their superb series Strange Weather Lately. Garnering much praise and many awards, the duo continued elevating the status and quality of the medium through their graphic novel series starring Louis and via creative collaborations both within and outside the industry as well as through lectures around the world.

In 2015 they began updating classic fairy tales. Papercutz published The Red Shoes and Other Tales and followed up in 2017 with The Little Mermaid. Their next effort then took a jaundiced modern look at one of fiction’s earliest misogynist serial killers in Bluebeard – A Feminist Fairy Tale…

Written by Chalmers and painted by Marrs in eerily enchanting, luxuriously vivid hues, the story is told from the point of view of young Eve, in the summer she turns eighteen. A child of a large but poor family, she lives in a bucolic hamlet dominated by a large castle on a high peak. This is the home of wealthy mystery man Bluebeard – a gentleman of frightful repute who engenders many unpleasant stories among the village gossips…

Eve has loved Tom for as long as she’s known him. They played in the dangerous woods and even saved and reared a fallen dove chick together. When her grandmother died, only Tom and older sister Anne could comfort her, even though her parents and brothers did their best…

The village was never really enough to support the population and hunger was common, but nothing like the time when constant rains destroyed both crops and wild foods. That’s when a liveried servant arrived with an invitation. The entire family was to enjoy the benefits of Bluebeard’s castle for a week.

It was glorious, but over far too soon, and while they were enjoying lavish hospitality father endured a discrete and unwelcome conference with the lord and was given a stark choice. In return for supplies to sustain them all, the Count required the hand in marriage of one of his daughters. Either Eve or Anne, it mattered not to him…

A quirk of chance and the denial of choice ends Eve’s dreams of life with Tom, but she fulfils her familial duty. However, her new husband is everything his reputation portends and her fate seems grim and certain, until she defies his commands and begins to chart her own course…

Charming and chilling by turns, this modern interpretation celebrates the classic tale whilst offering a more assertive, competent role for the leading ladies and will delight readers of all ages who need to know that change is possible and control is worth the effort.
© 2020 Metaphrog.

Today in 1903, Little Annie Rooney’s Darrell Craig McClure was born, as was Filipino artist Jess Jodloman in 1929 and all-star cartoonist Arnold Roth (The New Yorker, Poor Arnold’s Almanac) in 1929.

Criminologist raconteur Rick Geary first made the scene in 1946 but we lost commix star Dori Seda in 1988. In 1960 the Elongated Man debuted (in a very long-legged walk-on in Flash #112) and one year later Jack Kirby’s Sky Masters strip ended.

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Lost at Sea


By Brian Lee O’Malley (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-0-932664-16-4 (PB); 978-1-62010-113-1 (10th Anniversary Edition HB)

You’ve no doubt heard that appallingly clichéd phrase “it’s about the journey”?

Well, sometimes it actually is.

This moody, enticingly sensitive and charming not-coming-of-age road-trip argosy is by Bryan Lee O’Malley, whose Scott Pilgrim tales of an adorable boy-idol idle slacker seemed to encapsulate the tone and tenor of the last-but-one generation to have invented sex and music and growing up confused…

Lost at Sea is a lovely languid and lyrical look at a self-confessed outsider, couched in terms of a quasi-mystical mystery and rendered in an utterly captivating, boldly simple style simultaneously redolent of childhood misgivings and anticipatory tales of horror and imagination.

High School senior Raleigh is a passenger in a car slowly meandering its way back to Vancouver from California. She doesn’t really know Stephanie or the boys Dave & Ian. She only met them because dippy Stephanie never deletes any numbers from her phone and pocket-dialled her by coincidental accident, just moments after Raleigh missed her train home. She had been enduring an unfortunate visit with her dad and his latest woman near San Francisco. As the Canadian kids had a car and were heading back north, somehow, although a social misfit and practical stranger, Raleigh ended up travelling homeward with them…

Even though they all go to the same school – Sturton Academy – these kids are not really like her. They weren’t hot-housed or sent to “gifted” classes… and they still have their souls…

Raleigh lives with her mum and really misses her best friend, who she hasn’t seen in four years, six months and 24 days. Raleigh also has a secret internet boyfriend in California (the real reason for visiting Dad and his new lady) and is very confused and lonely after travelling to meet darling Stillman.

Raleigh lost her soul in Ninth Grade when her mother sold it to Satan in return for being successful, but the girl can’t quite remember why it was put into a cat. Ever since then, cats seem to crop up everywhere she goes, even following her, and she can’t tell if she’s crazy or imagining it all.

Naturally, Raleigh is violently allergic to cats…

However, when she finally loosens up and tells Stephanie her satanic secret, the boisterous wild child admits to seeing them too and suggests they should catch them and see if they can be made to cough up that stolen soul. Dave & Ian are game too…

Expressionistic, impressionistic, existential, self-absorbed, vastly compassionate, deeply introspective and phenomenally evocative of that monstrous ball of confusion that is the End of Adolescence, Lost at Sea is a graphic marvel which seems, from my admittedly far-distant perspective, the perfect description of that so-human rite of passage we all endured and mostly survived.

There was a 10th Anniversary edition, but as far as I can tell no digital edition (yet) but that’s still plenty to be going on with, right? Buy it for your teenagers, read it to rekindle your own memories and cherish it because it’s wonderful.

™ & © 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008 Bryan Lee O’Malley. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1948, Doug Moench (Batman, Moon Knight, Planet of The Apes, Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu) was born and we lost the amazing, under-adored Don Heck (Iron Man, Avengers, Batgirl, everybody) in 1995. Reading-wise, 1913 saw the launch of Gus Mager’s Hawkshaw the Detective in 1913, Marge’s Little Lulu in 1935 and Britain’s Lion weekly in 1952. It was also the last episode of Makoto Yukimura’s Planetes in 2004.

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Nuts


By Gahan Wilson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-454-2 (HB/Digital edition

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Born on February 18th 1930 and dying November 21st 2019, Gahan Allen Wilson was an illustrator, cartoonist, essayist and author who always had his eyes and heart set on the future. According to Gary Groth, the artist/author grew up reading comic strips as much as fantasy fiction.

It always showed.

The mordantly macabre, acerbically wry and surreal draughtsman tickled funnybones and twanged nerves with his darkly dry graphic confections from the 1960s onwards; contributing superb spoofs, sparklingly horrific and satirically suspenseful drawings and strips and panels as a celebrated regular contributor in such major magazines as Playboy, Collier’s, The New Yorker and others. He also wrote cutting edge science fiction for Again Dangerous Visions, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Twilight Zone Magazine and Realms of Fantasy as well as contributing criticism, book and film reviews for them all.

In an extremely broad and long career he wore dozens of creative hats, even embracing the modern digital universe by creating – with Byron Preiss – his own supernatural computer game Gahan Wilson’s the Ultimate Haunted House.

When National Lampoon first began its devastatingly satirical (geez, do modern folk even recognize satire anymore?) all-out attack on the American Dream, Wilson was invited to contribute a regular strip to their comics section. His sublimely semi-autobiographical, darkly hilarious paean to lost childhood ran from 1972 and until 1981 and was collected as Nuts, another superb compilation from this publisher that you should own and share. Few people – me included – knew that during that period he also, apparently more for fun and relaxation than profit, produced his own syndicated Sunday strip feature. For two years – beginning on March 3rd 1974 – Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics appeared in a small cross-section of newspapers from Boston to Los Angeles and, as with all his work, it bucked a trend.

At a time when most cartoonists were seeking a daily continuity strip, building a readership and eking jokes out with sensible parsimony, Wilson let himself go hog-wild, generating a half-dozen or so single-shot gags every Sabbath, blending his signature weird, wild monsters, uncanny aliens and unsavoury scenes with straight family humour, animal crackers, topical themes and cynically socio-politically astute observations.

Looking at them here it’s clear to me that his intent was to have fun and make himself laugh as much or even more than his readership: capturing those moments when an idea or notion gave him pause to giggle whilst going about his day job…

I’m not going to waste time describing individual cartoons: there are just too many and despite being a fascinating snapshot of ancient life, they’re almost all still outrageously funny in the way and manner that Gary Larson’s Far Side was a scant six years later.

I will say that even whilst generating a storm of humorous, apparently unconnected one-offs, consummate professional Wilson couldn’t restrain himself and eventually the jokes achieved an underlying shape and tone with recurring motifs (clocks, beasts, wallpaper, etc), and features-within-the-feature such as The Creep and Future Funnies…

Here, generally a single-page complete graphic epigram “star” a grotty little chubby homunculus dubbed The Kid. This fabulous monochrome (and occasionally colour) collection gathers that complete serial for collectors and potential addicts in a perfect package that readers will dip into over and over again.

Taking his lead from popular sickly-sweet strips about or starring little children and the brilliant but definitely not jejune Peanuts (which was populated, to all intents and purposes, with teeny-weeny neurotic middle-aged midgets), Wilson sought to do the exact opposite and attempt to access the fear, frustration, confusion and unalloyed joy of being a young, impressionable, powerless, curious and demanding…

… and magnificently succeeded.

Dense, claustrophobic, intense and trenchantly funny, these self-contained strips range from satire to slapstick to agonising irony, linking up over the years to form a fascinating catalogue of growing older in the USA: a fearfully faithful alternate view of childhood and most importantly, of how we adults choose to recall and process those distant days…

Each strip begins with the question “Remember how…?” or “One of the…” or some equally folksy enquiry before unveiling bafflement, bewilderment, night-terrors or a deeply-scarring embarrassment which haunts us till doomsday, all wrapped in a comradely band-of-brothers, shared-coping-mechanism whimsy that is both moving and quintessentially nostalgic.

Topics include the unremitting horror of germs; sudden death; being ill; inappropriate movies; forced visits; grandparents; things adults do that they don’t want you to see; unexplained noises; the butcher’s shop; accidents and rusty nails; things in closets; doctors and needles; dying pets; Santa Claus; seasonal disappointments; summer camp; sleep; bodily functions; school and lessons (two completely different things); fungus; bikes and toys; haircuts; comic books; deaths of relatives; hot weather; candy; overhearing things you shouldn’t; stranger danger; hobby-kits and glue; daydreaming; babies and so many other incomprehensible daily pitfalls on the treacherous path to maturity…

Peppered also with full page, hilariously annotated diagrams of such places of enduring childhood fascination as ‘The Alley’, ‘The Kit for Camp Tall Lone Tree’, ‘Mr. Schultz’s Cigar Store’, ‘The Movie Theater Seat’, ‘Table Set Up For Making Models’, ‘The Doctor’s Waiting Room’, ‘The Closet’, ‘The Sick Bed’ and ‘The Private Drawer’, this glorious procession also covers occasions of heartbreaking poignancy and those stunning, blue moon moments of serendipity and triumph when everything is oh-so-briefly perfect…

Complete with a 3-D strip and ‘Nuts to You’ – a comprehensive appreciation and history by Gary Groth – this funny, sad, chilling and sublimely true picture-passport to growing up is unmissable cartoon gold.
© Fantagraphics Books. All Nuts strips © 2011 Gahan Wilson. All rights reserved.

Today in 1917, Golden Age writer/editor Ruth Roche was born, followed by forgotten genius Joe Maneely in 1926, Gahan Wilson in 1930, Johnny Hart in 1931 and both comic book artist Doug Mahnke and cartoonist Mark Bodé in 1963.

We lost Belgian megastar and Marcinelle School founder Willy Maltaite (“Will”) in 2000 and lifelong multi-style achiever Bob Oksner in 2007.

Comics wise, UK standby Radio Fun (published since 1938) folded today in 1961 and Power Comic Fantastic launched today in 1967.

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Toby and the Pixies volume 4 How to Be Cool!


By James Turner & Andreas Schuster, with Emily Kimball & Leanne Daphne (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-788453-77-6 (TPB)

Way back in January 2012, Oxford-based David Fickling Books made a rather radical move by launching a traditional anthology comics weekly aimed at under-12s. It revelled in reviving the good old days of picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and content.

To this day each issue features humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. The Phoenix has successfully established itself as a potent source of children’s entertainment because, like Beano and Dandy, it is equally at home to boys and girls, and HAS mastered the magical trick of mixing amazingly action-packed adventure series with hilarious humour strip serials such as this one. Most of the strips have also become graphic collections; just like this one…

Crafted by James Turner (Star Cat, Super Animal Adventure Squad, Mameshiba, The Unfeasible Adventures of Beaver and Steve) and Canadian cartoonist/designer/animator Andreas Schuster (KLARA AND ANTON in PRIMAX Magazine), Toby and the Pixies began in January 2020 as I Hate Pixies and, once out of the compost bag of creative wonders, just wouldn’t stop. Those first forays were remastered and released as Toby and the Pixies: Worst King Ever! and follow-up fester forays Best Frenemies & Pixie Pandemonium!, charting the course of a nerdy boy at a nice school… until it all goes wrong…

Unappreciated, anxious 12-year-old Toby Cauldwell was resigned to and content with his meagre, second-rate friends, dedicated personal bullies, negative charisma levels and functional classroom invisibility at Suburbiton High School, but began rapidly shedding his appallingly uncool reputation the day after his electric-toaster-obsessed Dad ordered him to sort out their unruly, out-of-control back garden…

That’s when Toby discovered that wild, jungle-like urban wilderness was – unbeknownst to any mortal – the camouflaging screen for a fabulous fey realm. The ethereal, moist and rather mucky enclave had endured unseen in the green shambles of the Cauldwell backyard for countless ages. Now, thanks to an inept and inadvertent act of emancipation triggered by Toby kicking an unfortunately placed plaster garden gnome, the status quo forever altered. A tool of fate, the reluctant lad was instantly elevated to the position of supreme overlord, by dint of accidently yet totally obliterating the sitting tyrant. It was only for a hidden kingdom of magical morons, but they were really happy to be shot of their previous mad, mean, magical master…

As interpreted by the former King’s advisors – Royal Druid Mouldwarp, wise(ish) Lore Keeper/Potion Master Gatherwool and Toadflax (she eats stuff) – deliberately or otherwise, despatching King Thornpickle made Toby new absolute monarch. Pixie law also stated said ruler could do anything they wanted… a prospect so laden with responsibility that it made Toby weep with terror…

Just coming to terms with MAGIC actually existing, and that the ever-present freaky, anarchic imps can do it whilst still being absolute idiots and morons was awful enough, without also still having to survive school’s normal horrors. Thankfully, as the little odds and sods increasingly impinged and impacted on Toby’s life, education and prospects, they also turned school upside on a daily basis, and Toby’s fellow outcast Mo soon discovered the shocking secret of their existence. And he thought it was BRILLIANT!

In the short term it actually made things worse but now, apart from constant teasing and perpetual whining pleas to visit the magic kingdom, there is a fellow human King Toby can moan at. Two, actually, as snarky bully Steph also soon discovered the secret and has since proved to not be quite as awful as she might be…

That’s good because knowledge is a dangerous, trouble-causing thing, particularly as the Pixies are now everywhere and Toby’s succession triggered many problems: especially when magic-slime wielding Princess Sugarsnap – daughter of Thornpickle and rightful heir to a job Toby really, really doesn’t want – started a war to take back the throne Toby absolutely doesn’t want…

This fourth folio of foolishly foetid foofaraw opens with a fresh chance to get reacquainted with musty regulars Toby, Mo, Steph, Sugarsnap, Toadflax, Gatherwool & Mouldwarp in a comprehensive triple page intro. Then it’s back to school and off the deep end (or is it?) in ‘Chapter 1: T Train’ as Toby – under the Advisors’ suggestions and fed up with his old nickname (“Trousers”) – decides to reboot his image. Sadly, using magic to remove everyone’s memories of old Toby to make room for supercool “T-Train” is a complete disaster… as usual.

‘Chapter 2: Pet Project’ sees the rickety ruler granted extra responsibility – looking after the class goldfish – before disaster immediately strikes when it dies. No appreciable use (as usual!) the pixies take away the wrong message from Toby’s humiliating tragedy and over-explore the fascinating human notion of “pets” by concentrating on “can anybody be one…?”

Pixies are willing, compliant slaves to their King, so only chaos can result from Steph finally making overburdened Mouldwarp understand the concepts of consent and refusal in ‘Chapter 3: The More You “No”’. Rebellion can be an ugly thing to witness…

Social horror blends with the squishy icky kind in ‘Chapter 4: Spot On’ when Toby allows his advisors to “treat” the unsightly blemish on his forehead. Soon, the unsightly pimple is not only bigger than his original head, but far smarter and more erudite, too. Of course, it cannot last…

The young king hates grooming and his much-deferred barber appointments finally come home to roost in ‘Chapter 5: Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow’, paying dank, dandruffy dividends after the Advisors’ first suggestion (hungry goat) is superseded by manic tonsorial magic and grows well beyond anyone’s control. Sadly, that catastrophe is rapidly eclipsed in ‘Chapter 6: Penguin Peril’ when an impending appearance on TV show “That’s Sciency” becomes just the latest way his Advisors cannot help. Here an ecology project involving papier mache penguins and global climate crises suddenly becomes a disaster of cosmic proportions when the pixies soup it up. Now, only devious Princess Sugarsnap seems able to assist… and only for a most outrageous price…

In ‘Chapter 7: Lore Unto Themselves’ a dose of school library cleaning results in the fetid fey folk experiencing sugar-stoked culture shock after seeing in something called “a book” what proper Pixies are…

After realising the King is constantly being saved by his loyal Champion Mo, Sugarsnap bounces back with her most wicked plan yet in ‘Chapter 8: Getting the Hump’. To succeed, all she has to do is break up their friendship, and what better way than by exploiting their shared passion for video games? And THAT is best accomplished by entering the game itself via magic, yes? Well, no, actually…

Writing is hard even if you have great ideas like scholastic King Toby, but if you let your Advisors remove the Self Doubt Critter in your head via a Magical Brain Beret, all manner of plots, schemes and characters are able to unstoppably manifest. Thus, in ‘Chapter 9: Critical Thinking’ as Toby generates a torrent of unwanted essay pages, his freedom of thought increasingly and dangerously impacts on his actions. The solution is to put the SDC back in the king’s head, but it’s perfectly happy squatting in Mouldwarp’s bonce and not keen on being evicted, so it’s a happy thing that when it goes on a rampage Toby has few ideas…

When Toadflax discovers advertising and psychology it soon spawns sheer anarchic trouble in ‘Chapter 10: Choco Crisis’ as the Advisors’ addiction to sugar leads them to magically manifest idols and monsters only a hasty human ad campaign can counter…

Echoes of that encounter reverberate as Christmas rolls around again and ‘Chapter 11: Advent Adventure’ finds Mo, Steph and Toby confronting the Pixies’ newfound love of doors that open onto presents and the ultimate terror that leads to…

The storytelling terminates with one more trial as Sugarsnap returns with her ultimate gambit: suing Toby for the Kingdom of Pixies. However, nobody can win when the law is such an ass that it allows Gatherwool to be judge and book-eating Toadflax and Mouldwarp to be defence counsel. As chaos mounts in ‘Chapter 12: Court Out’, Toby has never been more happy to have Stepha and Mo acting as his behind the scenes advocates…

Ordinary school interactions can be a nightmare, but with the reading done for now, keen types can learn useful stuff from pages of related activities grouped under the banner of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and you to a selection of items from the compact online course detailing all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by Andreas Schuster.

Here that includes ‘Let’s Draw a Pixie! Castle’; ‘Pixie Magic!’; ‘Character class: Ducks!’; ‘Duckification!’ and ‘By the Power of Art, COMBINE!’ backed up by an extensive peek at other Fickling books and treats plus a plug for the Phoenix Comics Club website complete with instant access via a QR code.

Toby and the Pixies is a fabulous fabrication of festery fun and nonsense no lover of laughs and lunacy should deprive themselves and which all kids will gleefully consume. What are we all waiting for?
Text and illustrations © The Phoenix Comic 2026. All rights reserved.

Toby and the Pixies: volume 4: How to Be Cool! is published on 12th February 2026 and available for preorder now.

Today in 1898 the previous Frank Miller (who produced aviation strip Barney Baxter in the Air) was born, as was eternal letterer Irv Watanabe in 1919. In 1957 Leonard Starr’s Mary Perkins on Stage opened, but strips lost to us on this day include DC’s The World’s Greatest Superheroes in 1985 and Secret Agent X-9 in 1996.

Crucially and painfully, in 1987 Diabolik co-creator Angela Giussani died, as did the uniquely irreplaceable Steve Gerber in 2008.