Category: Fantasy

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Legacy: The Shadow Rises (volume 1 of 3)


By The Fickling Brothers & Zak Simmonds-Hurn, with additional colours by Lou Ashworth, Alice Leclert & Ellie Wright (DFB/Phoenix)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-198-7 (TPB)

The Phoenix has been the shining saving grace of British kids’ comics since 2012, regaling rabid readers with anthology comics for girls, boys and all points between, offering humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. Although probably best known for its award-winning comedy stylings, the comic has always been pretty strong in its action and mystery yarns too, and this latest offering – by writers “The Fickling Brothers” (Tom & Will) and illustrator Zak Simmonds-Hurn (Dragon Guard, Know Your Monsters) – delivers the first full-on, all-action fantasy tome in a prospective trilogy aimed at the growing market for juniors-based magical adventure.

Flavoured with hints and notes of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings franchises and the glorious classic movie Willow, this cunningly contrived confection takes us to the embattled lands of the Jindari Empire, laying ground rules for a war of conquest by malign forces lurking beyond the Edge of the Great Void and craving control of all that lives free. The cruelly avaricious observer is Obaga, Queen of Shadows and as her minions constantly confirm, “the Shadow rises”…

With ebon emissaries sowing terror and discord, the crisis begins when blithely unaware ruler of Hightown Lord Edar of House Thawn, his sons Tarik and Lorban and faithful warrior mage Kal Jotan are ambushed by marauding dark raiders. Thankfully, before his defeat, Kal sends a magical message to Heaven’s Blade, the fortress-citadel that is home to all arcane knowledge and the current boarding school of Edar’s mystically-gifted daughter Scarlett Thawn.

When her studies are interrupted by tidings that she is now last surviving Thawn and ruler of Hightown, she accepts that she must leave. Her potent but daunting tutor Lord Igon soon despatches Scarlett (and her beastly familiar Rumpus) on the long journey home, and offers sage advice and an ancient scroll that is far from what it seems…

The scholar has long anticipated trouble and knows the world’s governing Council of Flowers is not up to confronting the forces of evil; The Shadow has contingency plans of her own. Most critical of these is having an impostor already in place governing Hightown by the time Scarlett arrives to take up the onerous responsibilities of command…

Thus begins a rousing quest saga as Scarlett treks across a weird, wild world to find bizarre animal allies, face incomprehensible threats and forsake her dreams of magical study for the duties of rulership, and discovers that friends and foes are impossible to distinguish and that “her” problems affect far more than just her subjects…

Also drafted and crafted by Zak and the Fickling lads is a fulsome supplementary section detailing background lore under the aegis and escutcheon of ‘A Compendium of the Creatures, Customs and Culture of Jindar and Other Curious Miscellany by Penadot Shrewd’. These context-compliant complimentary case histories include all you need to know now regarding ‘The Ancients’, ‘The Shadow’, ‘The Council of Flowers’, and all you might want about ‘Magic’ including ‘A Brief Lesson in Magic for Novices’ concentrating on ‘Fire, Ice and Acid Magic’.

If epic adventure and growing pains in the depths of the dark are your taste, this is an epic you’ll want to follow from the first step to the last gasp…
Text  and Illustrations © The Phoenix Comic  2026.

Legacy: The Shadow Rises will be published on May 7th 2026 and is available for pre-order now.

Today in 1912 groundbreaking Dutch comics god Marten Toonder (Tom Puss, Panda, Oliver B. Bumble) was born, followed in 1922 by legendary raconteur Dog Wildey (Tarzan, Outlaw Kid, Jonny Quest, Rio); Howard Cruse (Wendel, Stuck Rubber Baby, Barefootz) in1944; multi-syndicated strip cartoonist Jerry Scott (Zits, Baby Blues) in 1955 and modern comic book mavens Liam Sharp (Deaths Head II, Wonder Woman, Testament) in 1968 and Simon Spurrier (Harry Kipling, X-Men, Ghost Rider) in 1981.

Today in 1912, US political cartoonist Homer Davenport died, with later losses including Wonder Woman co-creator William Moulton Marston in 1947; John Forte (Legion of Super-Heroes, Tales of the Bizarro World) in 1966 and anthological comics horror-meister Jay Disbrow (Captain Electron, Valgar Gunnar of Gyro, Aroc of Zenith) in 2017.

Primal landmark Dutch newspaper strip Bulletje en Boonestaak debuted today in 1922.

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Alone volumes 1 and 2: The Vanishing and The Master of Knives


By Gazzotti & Vehlmann, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBNs: 978-1-849181-96-9 (PB Album/Digital edition vol 1) 978-1-84918-206-5 (PB Album/Digital edition vol 2)

These books include potentially Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic effect.

Fabien Vehlmann was born in 1972 yet his prodigious canon of work (from 1998 to the present) has earned him the soubriquet of “the Goscinny of the 21st Century”. He entered the world in Mont-de-Marsan and grew up in Savoie, growing up to study business management before taking a job with a theatre group. In 1996, after entering a writing contest in Le Journal de Spirou, he caught the comics bug. Two years later with illustrative collaborator Denis Bodart he published a mordantly quirky, sophisticated portmanteau period crime comedy entitled Green Manor. From there on his triumphs grew to include – amongst many others – Célestin Speculoos for Circus, Nicotine Goudron for L’Écho des Savanes, The Marquis of Anaon and major-league property Spirou and Fantasio…

Bruno Gazzotti is Belgian, born in 1970 and was a student of Institut Saint Luc in Liège. Another artist addicted to comics from his earliest years, he started being paid to draw them in 1988, after being hired by Le Journal de Spirou editor Patrick Pinchart on the strength of his portfolio alone. Before long he was illustrating Le Petit Spirou with Tome & Janry. In 1989, he and Tome created New York Cop Soda, which kept Gazzotti busy until 2005, when he resigned to co-create award-winning feature Seuls…

Alone volume 1: The Vanishing

Released in January 2006, Seuls – La disparition is a superb example of a kids’ thriller suitable for all ages: evoking the eerie atmosphere of TV series Lost, with notes of modern phenomenon Stranger Things and the most disturbing elements of Philip Wylie’s novel The Disappearance and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

Translated as The Vanishing, the first chapter show glimpses of an ordinary bustling town, with simple folk going about their business. Our swift peeping settles on a cross section of kids: Ivan, an imaginative child of wealth who wants for nothing but never sees his dad anymore and Leila, a born engineer, inventor and tinkerer. Her poor but honest dad always has time to play and favourably critique her latest gadget…

Camille is studious and over-focussed on exams and achievement and Terry is pretty much still a baby. He certainly acts like one, trying to stay up late, binge watching TV and throwing tantrums if he doesn’t get his way. Sadly, not all the children in town have such typical lives. Dodzi has just been taken into the social care system. His early life has made him tough and resilient but won’t stop other young inmates handing him a beating on this ominous, odd-feeling portentous night…

Morning dawns overcast and forbidding. The city is quiet. Roaming empty streets, Dodzi calls out to anyone who can hear and is met – actually run over – by Leila and Terry on her bike. They are all pretty scared and have seen nobody else at all…

No one else is around. All the adults are gone, and every kid they know. The internet is down, television and radio only roar out static. Above, fearsome ponderous storm clouds gather. Within minutes fear turns to panic and violence before, eventually, Dodzi brutally enforces calm and leads them away, only to stumble into Camille being attacked by a dog. As the tough guy tries to fight it off, the rabid beast senses something in the shadows of an alley and bolts away…

As the youngsters wander, someone watches the shocked, scared waifs, and after they joyously blow off steam in a fountain, they meet final lost boy Ivan. He invites them back to his mansion at the edge of town where they find food while being subjected to his theories on what’s happened… everything from a shared dream to an extinction event to the possibility that they’re dead and in hell…

Needing more information, Dodzi and Leila try to drive one of many cars on the estate while the smaller kids sort out a proper meal. Neither task goes well. The cooking is a disaster while the near-lethal reconnaissance only reveals more empty streets, wrecked shop fronts and wild animals roaming the avenues and alleys. While the motoring minors seek to evade two rhinos, Terry and Camille are nearly eaten by a white tiger that’s got through the estate gates! When Dodzi and Leila return – and following a burst of viciously released tensions – the kids modify and weaponize a 4-by-4 and head back into town. Ivan’s dad owns the tallest building in the city: somewhere stuffed with crucial resources and a place easily fortified and defended…

As the first day alone ends, the kids are bloated with vending machine snacks and playing in the vast office block’s upper reaches, but de facto leader Dodzi is still uneasy. When Leila reports tiny Terry is missing, the notional “man-in-charge” heads out to search, finding to his horror where all those animals came from: a scene of destruction that distracts Dodzi enough that a hidden stalker almost takes him. Naturally, the others have completely ignored his orders and followed, so it isn’t Dodzi who dies…

Thus begins a spooky, powerful and often shocking tale of mystery and imagination with bereft children facing increasingly daunting physical hazards and an escalating series of events which can have no logical or rational explanation…

To Be Continued…

Alone volume 2: The Master of Knives

Debut volume The Vanishing showed an ordinary bustling town rendered an empty mausoleum overnight, with a small cross-section of kids left to survive or die. When it happened, the mystified minors wandered a terrifyingly quiet, suddenly unfamiliar environment until finding each other and the relief of “bad kid” Dodzi who reluctantly took responsibility for their staying alive. Adults were gone, all outside contact severed and wild beasts stalked them so Dodzi brutally enforced calm and lead them away to find a succession of temporary – albeit palatial – refuges to regroup and think. Encounters with escaped circus animals resulted in the little band settling in the towering Majestic Hotel to await whatever came next…

Originally released as Seuls: Le Maître des couteaux in 2007, The Master of Knives opens with Dodzi scouting the vacant metropolis and helping Leila consolidate supplies for a long stay in the lap of luxury. His nervousness remains high as close calls with the liberated beasts in the streets come continually, but the younger children seem to be adapting well. It certainly helps that they are hoarding every toy and treat they find in abandoned shops and houses. Ivan has a plan to occupy him too: systematically calling every telephone number in the phone book. No luck yet, though…

Things start to go south swiftly after he finds his father’s pistol and tempts Leila into a spot of rooftop target practice. When Dodzi furiously confiscates the lethal plaything, he has no idea that he has now become the preferred prey of a mystery stalker. As this masked pursuer enacts a chilling campaign of terror, stressed-out Dodzi agonisingly learns that he is not the only obsession of the terrifying, nebulous cloaked figure draped in blades and daggers…

While the others obliviously fritter away the day, pressure-laden Dodzi is remorselessly hunted over rooftops by the manic killer. When he briefly eludes the hunter, the Master simply doubles back to menace the children in the hotel. Ultimately a shocking confrontation ensues, with the tables turned… but only at the cost of Dodzi’s closely withheld shameful secrets being exposed to all…

In the painful aftermath, the days of innocence are discarded and the orphan family prepares to hit the open road to see if other cities have been emptied too…

To Be Continued…

This spooky, powerful, frequently shocking tale of mystery and imagination sees bereft children facing increasingly daunting physical hazards and an escalating series of events which apparently have no logical or rational explanation. Tension and terror inexorably amplifies with every instalment – just like the real world at the moment.

Alone – running to 12 translated volumes thus far of a projected 14 – was one of the biggest critical and commercial comics hits of the last decade (more than 2 million copies sold!). Seuls even made it to the big screen in 2017, so if you love eerie enigmas and powerful tale-telling, you’ll soon be buying this, you’ll buy these and successive releases to know why…
© Dupuis 2006 and 2007 by Gazzotti & Vehlmann. All rights reserved. English translation © 2014 Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1912, Terry and the Pirates crafter George Wunder (officially in charge from December 30, 1946 to 1973) was born, followed in 1930 by filmmaker and occasional Superman comics scripter Richard Donner. That same year cartoonist/children’s book illustrator Howie (Eek & Meek) Schneider arrived. In Canada in 1957, small press maven John McLeod (Dishman, Space Kid) joined the party, as did superhero/cover star J.G. Jones in 1962.

This date in 1981 we lost the great Howard Purcell (Sargon the Sorcerer, Green Lantern, Gay Ghost, Mister District Attorney, Enchantress, Sea Devils, Nick Fury, Black Knight, DC mystery and Sci Fi anthologies) and in 2004 comics author and scripter Nat Gertler initiated the first 24-hour comics day.

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Romo the WolfBoy by ILYA


By ILYA (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-44-7 (HB)

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

ILYA is a multi-award winning comic book writer and artist whose work has been published by Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Kodansha and independent companies all over the world. Previous prose and/or pictorial accomplishments include the Manga Drawing Kit; Time Warp: The Future’s Now …and it’s a Riot; BIC; The End of the Century Club sequence; Room for Love; The Clay Dreaming and modern drama Skidmarks. Commercial clients comprise the BBC, Royal Academy of Arts, newspapers The Times, Guardian, East End Life and legendary stripzine Deadline. ILYA has worked with Eddie Campbell on Deadface and Bacchus, edits the Mammoth Book of Best New Manga series, and like all comics creators has a secret identity, sometimes answering to the soubriquet Ed Hillyer…

This latest venture combines his obvious love of British mythologies, whimsies and historical micro-cultures, all cunningly interwoven with cheeky comics lore from across the world. A genre-mixing mystery saga of the strange and (potentially) paranormal, the potent pastiche debut yarn introduces a brace of old-fashioned odd fellows evolving into emergent crime-solving associates…

The unfolding imbroglio is delivered primarily in welcoming pencil hues and traditional block-text & image format with the occasional modern graphic narrative tweak, all premiering a fresh pantheon of eclectic wonders, as we peep into the closeted lives of a troupe of travelling entertainers in Victorian England. Revelations are seen through the learning experiences and rapid advancement of a secretive neophyte recently enrolled as a stage hand, and the bizarrely enigmatic living attraction who befriends and adopts the secretive newcomer…

Romo the Wolfboy (…in Strange Case of Cackle and Hide) heaps tragedy upon mystery as tight-lipped “Francis X” – who ran away to the circus for reasons of their own – develops transformative friendships (and some foe-making) after being accepted into the closed family circuit of Blimey O’Riley’s Travelling Circus. The serried hierarchical ranks of outsiders have their own ways, cherished observances and even unique language – and also hard-held misconceptions and prejudices – but Francis is smiled upon by Ringmaster O’Riley himself. It’s an attraction and fascination shared by the weird, non-verbal freak attraction who is said to have been raised by wild animals…

As Francis and Romo spar and bond, they come to grips with this odd enclosed world in miniature that encompasses love and hate, fear and acceptance and all the broad panoply of human life in between. However, everything takes an unpleasant and even uncanny turn after the big top is set up in the next village. Here, despite the gob-smacked anticipation of the locals, sabotage, unwarranted assaults and ultimately murder-attempts start chipping away at the wandering clan’s solidarity, Soon a monstrous uncannily giggling villain is recognised if not actually identified, and Romo and Francis X are catapulted into the role of guardians and problem-solvers. The hunt for the obsessed village elite determined to destroy them all… or at least banish the players from the region… is hard, baffling work, and most disturbingly, many incidents defy logic or reason while somehow connecting past sins to future threats. …And what role do the chickens play in all this?

Bracketed by context-creating preludes ‘The Carny Code’ and ‘Introducing…’ the hilarious, uproarious and outrageous events are balanced by further extras at the end. Enhancing enjoyment with education and elucidation we ‘Roll up Roll up’ to explain historical carny argot “Ciazarn” – readily deployed through the tale to enhance the experience – in a fascinating briefing that seamlessly segues into teasing tweaks of meta-reality moments as the author offers a list of devious ‘Easter Eggs’ buried within the sawdust saga before ending the entertainment with extracts from his ‘Romo the WolfBoy Production Blog’ …

Wry, anachronistically bold, and breezily beguiling, Romo the WolfBoy began as online episodes on ILYA’s Substack, playing out over a year, Thus this unmissable day out delight and jolly jaunt concludes with an acknowledgement of the Kickstarter contributors who helped its transition to the thick comforting pages here with big thank you ‘Made Possible by Public Funds’…

All the fun of the fair plus every additional chill and thrill you could possibly stand besides, the wonderment here is but a teaser of more and greater marvels to come, so read this now and writhe in anticipation for forthcoming encore Romo the WolfBoy and Francis X (Investigators of the Paranormal) in The Fall and Rise of Springheeled Tom…
© & ™ Ed Hillyer / ILYA. All rights reserved.

Today in 1924, Roy Crane’s epic, trailblazing strip Wash Tubbs began a run that would carry the little wonder all the way to 1988 and spawn tough guy prototype Captain Easy. In 1950 Eagle launched, bringing thrills glamour and Dan Dare to the benighted comics-deprived children of Britain.

Prior to all that, in 1920 Golden Age Great Sheldon Moldoff (Hawkman, Black Pirate, Kid Eternity, Batman, Gangbusters) was born, followed in 1949 by Dave Gibbons (Dan Dare, Rogue Trooper, Watchmen, Give Me Liberty, The Originals); Chuck Dixon (Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Punisher) and Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) in 1954; Daniel Clowes (Eightball, Ghost World, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron) in 1961 and Korean manhwa star Hyung Min-woo (Priest) in 1974.

On this date in 1957 we lost British veteran cartoonist and poster-maker Will Owen (Lux, Bovril, The Bisto Kids) and New Zealand satirist John (Varoomshka) Kent in 2003.

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The Avengers in the Veracity Trap


By Chip Kidd & Michae Cho & various (Abrams Comic Arts/MARVEL Arts)
ISBN: 978-1-4197-7067-8 (HB) eISBN: 979-8-88707-137-4

Jacob Kurtzberg (AKA Jack Curtiss, Curt Davis, Lance Kirby, Ted Grey, Charles Nicholas, Fred Sande, Teddy, “The King” and others) did lots of stuff but most significantly inspired millions if not billions of people by drawing his ideas. This book is one of the most engaging examples of how that process has become self-sustaining…

After a period of meteoric expansion, in 1963 the blossoming Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the key DC concept that had cemented the legitimacy of the Silver Age of American comics. The notion of putting a bunch of all-star eggs in one basket had made the Justice League of America an instant winner and subsequently inspired the moribund Atlas outfit – primarily Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko – to conceive “super-characters” of their own. The initial result, in 1961, was The Fantastic Four…

After 18 rollercoaster months, the fledgling House of Ideas had generated a small but popular stable of costumed leading men (but still only 2 sidekick women!), allowing Lee & Kirby to at last assemble a select handful of them into an cross-branding squad, moulded into a force for justice and soaring sales.

Seldom has it ever been done with such style and sheer exuberance. Cover dated September 1963, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion package which also included Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men: all glorying in the full, unfettered  force of imagination unleashed. Each change-packed revolutionary issue by Kirby, Lee and their confederates stirred a pot filled with hyperdynamic characters and layers of compelling world-building.

For the Avengers it had all started in Asgard, where immortal trickster Loki was imprisoned, hungry for vengeance on his noble half-brother Thor. Malevolently observing Earth, the vile divinity had espied the monstrous, misunderstood Hulk and mystically engineered a situation whereby the man-brute seemingly went wild, all with the intention of having the Thunder God fight the monster. When Hulk’s teen sidekick Rick Jones called the FF for help, devious Loki had scrambled and diverted the transmission and awaited the carnage that must follow.

Sadly for the schemer, Iron Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp also caught the redirected SOS. As heroes converged to search for the Jade Giant, they realised something was amiss, leading led their first assembled assault on Loki. It was the beginning of a legend and over the next seven issues (plus guest shots in other titles!) it sparked heroes coming and going, and villains without peer setting new standards for wickedness…

That primordial period of Kirby-limned luminal ideas and escalating inspirational influences is a mini halcyon era: one potently, evocatively addressed and revered in this very special project from two iconic modern award-winners and devout comics lovers. With their “Veracity Trap” designer/author/historian Chip Kidd (Batman: Death by Design, Jack Cole and Plastic Man, The Cheese Monkeys) and designer/author/illustrator Michael Cho (Papercut, Shoplifter, hundreds of DC and Marvel covers) cheerfully knock down all the fourth walls and puckishly inject themselves into the medium and their message to deliver a compelling pastiche of all that too-brief Kirby-spawned early Avengers wonderment.

Suitably packed with stirring tribute moments from eye-bending wonder-machines to stellar landscapes, and packed to the scaly oversized gills with charmingly monstrous “Kirby-Kritters” aiding and abetting the heroes and villains, this rocket-paced epic sees a team that never quite was – Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, The Wasp, Captain America and The Hulk – unite to battle Loki once more, only to be booby-trapped and portentously propelled beyond their home universe into a Greater (albeit still Four-Colour) Reality where godlike cartoonists and pen-pushers casually dictate their fates… until the malevolently malign God of Mischief usurps their elevated position and endangers all layers of existence!

Co-produced by Marvel and Abrams ComicArts, The Avengers in the Veracity Trap is a gleefully witty homage sampling and extrapolating upon all those beloved graphic and narrative landmarks and milestones of early Marvel – even incorporating pages of ‘Mighty Mavel Pin-ups!’ – and sending waves of crushing nostalgia through those of us who were there and curious neophytes alike…

Although this hark-back to halcyon days is literally all about the visual verve, fanboys like me can also be assured that continuity and characterisation are also faithful extrapolations – albeit with the painful Sixties gender stereotyping given a thorough going over – of what has gone before, augmenting a spectacular paean of praise and wishful thinking to those gone but never forgotten glory days…
© 2025 MARVEL.

A date for firebrands and iconoclasts, today in 1925 conspiracy-theorist/ judgemental Christian fundamentalist comics creator Jack Chick was born, as was award-winning French satirist and bane of conservatism Jean-Marc Reiser (Hara-Kiri, Charlie Hebdo) in 1941. Less controversially we also welcomed Argentine comics artist Ricardo Villagran (Tarzan, Evangeline) in 1938, and in 1987 said farewell to mighty Joe Colquhoun (Paddy Payne; Roy of the Rovers; Saber, King of the Jungle; Football Family Robinson; Soldier Sharp, the Rat of the Rifles; Kid Chameleon, Adam Eterno; Charley’s War et al). In 2005 Italo-Argentine art ace Juan Zanotto (War Man, Henga, Bárbara, Falka) died too.

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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.