Category: Fantasy

Posted on

Madwoman of the Sacred Heart


By Jodorowsky & Moebius, translated by Natacha Ruck & Ken Grobe (Humanoids/Sloth Publishing UK)
ISBN: 978-1-908830-01-2 (Sloth HB 2011), 978-1-59465-046-8 (Humanoids HB 2013),

978-1643379548 (Jodorowsky Library vol. 6, 2023)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Here’s a modern masterpiece of comics creativity, one of the most intriguing and engaging works by two creative legends of sequential narrative. To some people however, this superb piece of thought-provoking fiction might be shocking or blasphemous, so if you hold strong views on sex or religion – particularly Christianity – stop right now, spare yourself some outrage and come back tomorrow.

Born in Tocopilla, Chile in 1929, Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky is a filmmaker, author, playwright, actor, comics writer, world traveller, philosopher and spiritual guru. He is most widely known for films like Fando y Lis, El Topo, The Holy Mountain, Sante Sangre, The Rainbow Thief and the like, as well as a vast comics output, including Anibal 5, (created whilst living in Mexico) Le Lama blanc, Aliot, The Meta-Barons, Borgia and so much more, co-created with some of South America and Europe’s greatest artists. His nigh decade-long collaboration with Möebius on the Tarot-inspired adventure The Incal (1981-1989) completely redefined and reinvented what comics could aspire to and achieve.

Best known for violently surreal avant-garde films, loaded with highly-charged, inspired imagery blending mysticism and “religious provocation” and his spiritually informed fantasy and science fiction comics, Jodorowsky is also fascinated by the inner realms and has devised his own culture of therapeutic healing: Psychomagic, Psychogenealogy and Initiatic massage. He still remains fully engaged and active in all these creative areas today.

Jean Henri Gaston Giraud was born in the suburbs of Paris in 1938 and raised by his grandparents. In 1955 he attended the Institut des Arts Appliqués where he became friends with Jean-Claude Mézières who, at 17, was already selling strips and illustrations to magazines such as Coeurs Valliants, Fripounet et Marisette and Le Journal de Spirou. Giraud apparently spent most of his time drawing cowboy comics and left college after a year. In 1956 he travelled to Mexico, staying with his mother for eight months, before returning to France and a full-time career in comics: mostly westerns such as Frank et Jeremie for Far West and King of the Buffalo, A Giant with the Hurons and others in Coeurs Valliants, all in a style based on French comics legend Joseph “Jijé” Gillain.

Between 1959 and 1960, Giraud spent his National Service in Algeria, where he worked on military service magazine 5/5 Forces Françaises. On returning to civilian life, he became Jijé’s assistant in 1961, working on the master’s long-running (1954-1977) western epic Jerry Spring. A year later, Giraud and Belgian writer Jean-Michel Charlier launched the serial Fort Navajo in Pilote #210, and soon its disreputable, anti-hero lead character Lieutenant Blueberry was one of the most popular European strips of modern times. In 1963-1964, Giraud produced strips for satire periodical Hara-Kiri and – keen to distinguish and separate this material from his serious day job – first coined his pen-name “Möebius”.

He didn’t use it again until 1975 when he joined Bernard Farkas, Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Philippe Druillet – all rabid science fiction fans – as co-founders of a revolution in narrative graphic arts: Les Humanoïdes associés. Their groundbreaking adult fantasy magazine Métal Hurlant utterly enraptured the comics-buying public and Giraud again wanted to utilise a discrete creative persona for the lyrical, experimental, soul-searching material he was crafting: series such as The Airtight Garage, The Incal (with Jodorosky) and mystical, dream-world flights of sheer fantasy contained in Arzach…

To further separate his creative bipolarity, Giraud worked in inks with a brush whilst the futurist Möebius rendered with pens. Both of him passed away on March 10th 2012.

Jodorowsky & Möebius’ second groundbreaking co-creation was originally released as 3 albums from Les Humanoïdes associés – La Folle du Sacree Coeur (1992), Le piège de l’irrationnel (1993) and Le Fou de la Sorbonne (1998) – before the saga was initially collected into one massive, ecstatic and revolutionary volume in 2004. The company’s American arm Humanoids, Inc. translated it into English in 2006, and it’s resurfaced on occasion ever since.

Professor Alan Mangel is a world-renowned aesthete, deep thinker and chief lecturer at the Sorbonne. As such he is the focus of much student attention – particularly female – but none as fervent as that of insular, fanatically, deeply disturbed bible-bashing Christian Elisabeth.

When the educator’s shrewish wife Myra denounces, shames and impoverishes him at the moment of his greatest triumph, the arrogantly cerebral, proudly austere, violently chaste and determinedly sexually-abstinent Mangel loses the awed respect of his once-doting students and disciples. They now shun his once overcrowded classes, mock and even assault him.

Only Elisabeth remains devoted to him, but she has designs both carnal and divine on the aging, flabby, secular, lapsed and born-again Jew. To make matters worse, when she throws herself at him and is repulsed, this awakens the philosopher’s own lustful youthful libido which takes form as a gadfly ghost constantly urging him to indulge in acts of vile debauchery and rampant lust. Eventually the pressure is too great and Mangel agrees to meet Elisabeth at the Church of the Sacred Heart. The journey there is awful: even the universe seems set against him as rude taxi-drivers, a mad old lady tramp and even dogs further humiliate the broken old man.

In the holiest part of the church Elisabeth again attempts to seduce the long sterile and wilfully impotent Alan, explaining that her researches have revealed him to be the biblical Zacharias reborn, destined to impregnate her with a son: the Prophet John who would in turn herald the rebirth of Jesus…

Again the rational scientist baulks at her words but Elisabeth promises a miracle and when Mangel’s horny, ghostly other self “possesses” him the dotard loses control and finally gives the mad girl what she’s been begging for…

Plagued with shame, despondent with remorse, still tormented by his inner letch and so very broke, Mangel resumes lecturing, gradually rebuilding his reputation until one day Elisabeth returns, her nude body declaring her to be forever the property of Alan Zacharias Mangel. She is three months pregnant with the sterile man’s baby and has already recruited a “St. Joseph” who will help them fulfil their sacred mission…

The divinely-dispatched protector, a drug addict and petty criminal previously called Muhammad, already has a line on “The Mary”: she’s his girlfriend Rosaura, currently imprisoned in a secure mental hospital. She’s also in a coma.

Dragged against the will he no longer seems capable of exerting, Mangel experiences his latest ongoing tribulation when St. Joseph breaks The Mary out with the aid of a gun and his distressed guts give way to what will be, for all of the chosen ones, an uncomfortable and prolonged period of stress-related explosive diarrhoea. Against all his rational protests and worries, things just seem to keep falling into place for the pilgrims. Rosura is no longer comatose, and they get away without a single problem… if you don’t count the olfactory punishment the Professor’s rebellious innards are repeatedly inflicting upon them all…

“Mary” is the most ravishing creature he has ever seen, but just as crazy as her friends. When she cavorts naked in a field during a midnight thunderstorm, frantically imploring God to impregnate her with the second Jesus, Mangel’s lustful ghost again overtakes him and he surreptitiously copulates with the wildly-bucking “lascivious loon”. One day later reality hits hard when the lecturer reads of two nurses executed when the comatose daughter of an infamous Columbian drug baron was abducted from a certain institution…

The second chapter opens with the four fugitives hiding out in a lavish seaside house and Mangel – as always – arguing with both his priapic phantom and rationalist conscience. His so impossibly, imperturbably persuasive companions are untroubled: they are simply passing the days until the birth of John the Baptist and imminently impending Second Coming of Christ.

The next crisis is pecuniary as the lavish spending of the trio soon exhausts the Professor’s funds and they are reduced to their last 100 franc note…

Elisabeth is unconcerned and simply places a bet with it. Operating under divine guidance the horse race wins the quartet 3.5 million Francs, but before the reeling rationalist can grasp that, there’s another insane development as The Mary/Rosaura declares herself to be the Androgynous Christ – both male and female – reborn and made manifest to save us all…

She still looks devastatingly all-woman however, and when she kisses the old fool and sends him back to the Church of the Sacred Heart to “obtain” a vial of holy Baptismal oil, he goes despite himself, arguing all the way with his imaginary sex-obsessed younger self. It’s all another humiliating and deranged debacle. The famous house of worship is hosting an ecumenical convention of argumentative theologians of all religions and that self-same crazy woman is still there, claiming to be God and challenging them all. After driving them away she even tries to have sex with the utterly bemused and bewildered fallen philosopher who barely escapes with the stolen oil.

The worst of it all is that, based on recent evidence, Mangel can’t even say with any certainty that the vile-smelling harridan isn’t telling the truth…

Driving back through the fleshpots of the city with his ghost tempting him every inch of the way, the weary savant is dragged back to appalling reality by a newspaper headline declaring that the police have a witness in the murder/abduction of Rosaura Molinares, daughter of the most wanted drug trafficker on Earth. However, when the nigh-unhinged thinker reaches his sanctuary from reason, the true believers already know. They taped the TV news and show him the witness describing a completely different killer: El Perro, chief hitman of Pedro Molinares’ Medellin Cartel…

With the last foundations of precious logic crumbling, Mangel reaches an emotional tipping point and when The Androgynous Christ demands he make love to her, the old fool submits to stress – and his ever-horny spectral alter ego – by surrendering to his lusts. Before long he is in the throes of a bizarre, eye-opening, life-altering four-way love session with all the mad people he has wronged in his head and heart. The epiphanic moment is rather spoiled when the wall explodes and a cadre of mercenaries working for a rival cartel burst in, seeking Rosaura’s dad. They’re followed by the Columbian Secret Service, also hunting the drug lord and quite prepared to kill everybody to find him.

… And they in turn are ambushed by American DEA agents who slaughter everybody in their sights in their desperation to capture Molinares’ daughter and her weirdo friends. The illegally operating Yanks drag their captives to a submarine waiting offshore just as French police hit the beach and El Perro attacks the sub, spectacularly rescuing the quartet and transporting them to safety by helicopter and cargo plane…

The concluding chapter of the blasphemous, ever-escalating cosmic farce opens with all of France astonished by the kidnapping of its most beloved thinker even as, in a Columbian Garden of Eden, a newly-enlightened and happy Mangel and his heavily pregnant Elisabeth prepare for the birth of The Child. The Androgynous Christ too has changed and grown, easily converting the hard-bitten drug gangsters into a holy army of believers in the redeemer Jesusa…

Top dog Pedro Molinares is dying from cancer and his devoted army are fully, fanatically in tune with Jesusa’s plans, especially after an impossible blood miracle seemingly proves their new leader’s earthbound divinity. Equally astounded, Mangel too reaches a spiritual crisis as he accompanies Elisabeth deep into the jungle to give birth.

Mangel’s journey and ultimate transformation at the hands of rainforest shaman Doña Paz then lead to even more astonishing revelations, changes and shocks that I’m just not prepared to spoil for you…

After years of exile by exclusion the tale was translated for English readers in 2004, and has since been seen many times, such as the sterling UK edition published by Sloth Comics, and most recently in 2023, when it was rereleased under the prestigious Jodorowsky Library imprint (specifically as Book Six: Madwoman of the Sacred Heart • Twisted Tales) paired with “Selected Stories” and mindbending short Twisted Tales…

Controversial, shocking, challenging, fanciful, enchanting and incredibly cruelly funny in an Armando Iannucci manner, this a parable you must read and will always remember.
™ & © Les Humanoïdes associés, SAS, Paris. English version © 2011 Humanoids, Inc., Los Angeles. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Mighty Marvel Masterworks presents Mighty Thor volume 4: When Meet the Immortals


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, with Vince Colletta, Art Simek, Sam Rosen & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5426-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

These stories are timeless and have been gathered many times before, but today I’m once again focussing on format. The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line launched with economy in mind: classic tales of Marvel’s key creators and characters re-presented in chronological publishing order. It’s been a staple since the 1990s, but always in lavish, hardback collectors editions. These editions are cheaper, on lower quality paper and – crucially – smaller, about the dimensions of a paperback book. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for digital editions, that’s no issue at all…

Even more than The Fantastic Four, Sci Fi fantasy title The Mighty Thor was the arena in which Jack Kirby’s boundless fascination with all things Cosmic was honed and refined through his increasingly groundbreaking graphics and captivating concepts. The King’s plethora of power-packed signature pantheons began in a modest little monster mag called Journey into Mystery where – in the summer of 1962 – a tried-&-true comic book concept (feeble mortal transformed into god-like hero) was revived by the rapidly resurgent company who were not yet Marvel Comics: adding a Superman analogue to their growing roster of costumed adventurers.

This cheap & cheerful epochal pocket tome re-presents more pioneering Asgardian exploits from Journey into Mystery Annual #1, JiM #120-125, and The Mighty Thor #126-127: altogether spanning cover-dates September 1965 to April 1966 as the venerable anthology title changed name to further magnify its magnificent wide-screen feature hero, in a blazing blur of innovation and seat-of-the-pants myth-revising and universe-building. It is lettered throughout by unsung superstars Art Simek & Sam Rosen, and an unjustly anonymous band of colourists.

As you already know: Once upon a time, lonely, lamed American doctor Donald Blake took a vacation in Norway and encountered the vanguard of an alien invasion. Trapped in a cave, Blake found a gnarled old walking stick, which when struck against the ground, turned him into the Norse God of Thunder! Within moments he was defending the weak and smiting the wicked. As months swiftly passed, rapacious extraterrestrials, Commie tyrants, costumed crazies and cheap thugs gradually gave way to a vast panoply of fantastic worlds and incredible, mythic menaces. Moreover, from JiM #110, the wild warrior’s Realm of Asgard was a regular feature and mesmerising milieu for our hero’s earlier exploits, heralding an era of cosmic fantasy to run beside young Marvel’s signature superhero sagas.

Every issue carried spectacular back-up sagas Tales of Asgard – Home of the Mighty Norse Gods gifting Kirby space to indulge his fascination with legends. They also allowed both complete vignettes and longer epics – in every sense of the word. Initially adapted myths, these yarns evolved into serial sagas unique to the Marvel universe where Kirby constructed his own cosmos and mythology, underpinning the company’s entire continuity.

Here – with everything attributed to Lee, Kirby & Vince Colletta and after Thor has defeated his malign step-brother Loki and The Destroyer in Vietnam – the Thunder God returns to America, leaving room for a special event and flashback tale too big for the regular periodical.

The blockbusting lead story from Journey into Mystery Annual #1 reveals how in undisclosed ages past the God of Thunder fell across dimensions into the realm of the Greek Gods for a landmark heroic hullabaloo ‘When Titans Clash! Thor vs. Hercules!’ The spectacular clash of theologies was an incredible all-action episode, and is augmented by a stunning double-page pin-up of downtown Asgard – a true example of Kirby magic…

Back in the now, Thor stops at Pittsburgh’s steel mills to repair Mjolnir – cut into pieces by the Destroyer – and ‘With My Hammer in Hand..!’ prepares to denounce Loki’s villainy to Odin. In the process he mislays one of his brother’s magical Norn Stones: a mishap that will cost him dearly later. Meanwhile, beloved Jane Foster has been abducted by a hidden miscreant with mischief in mind but before the Thunderer can act on that he is ambushed by Loki’s contingency plan as the awesome Absorbing Man returns…

In the back, the Tales of Asgard serial ‘The Quest’ further unfolded as hand-picked warriors on Thor’s flying longship endure further hardship in their bold bid to forestall Ragnarok. This month’s Asgardian edda sees their bold but misguided attempt finally start, as they ‘Set Sail!’ against their legendary prophesied foes…

JiM #121 opens mid-melee as the Thunderer’s attack against colossal Crusher Creel intensifies in ‘The Power! The Passion! The Pride!’ before the god’s compassion for human spectators sparks his downfall and defeat. Seemingly doomed Thor’s cliffhanger fate is paused as B-feature ‘Maelstrom!’ sees Asgardian Argonauts epically encounter an uncanny living storm…

In #122’s ‘Where Mortals Fear to Tread!’ triumphant Crusher Creel is prevented from finishing Thor when he is abducted by Loki to attack Asgard and Odin himself: an astounding clash capped by cataclysmic conclusion ‘While a Universe Trembles!’ Meanwhile at the rear, ‘The Grim Specter of Mutiny!’ invoked by seditious young Loki is quashed in time for valiant Balder to save the Argonauts from ‘The Jaws of the Dragon!’ in the ever-escalating Ragnarok Quest.

In modern times, with the latest threat to Asgard ended and Creel and Loki banished, Thor returns to Earth to defeat The Demon: a “witchdoctor” empowered by the magical Norn Stone left behind after the Thunder God’s Vietnamese venture. However, whilst the Storm Lord is away, Hercules is dispatched to Earth on a reconnaissance mission for Zeus. ‘The Grandeur and the Glory!’ opens another extended story-arc/action extravaganza, bouncing the Thunderer from bruising battle to brutal defeat to ascendant triumph…

As seen in Journey into Mystery Annual #1, long ago the God of Thunder inadvertently invaded the realm of the Greek Gods. Now with the Greek godling clearly popular with readers, Hercules properly enters the growing Mavel Universe. After the impending imbroglio with Thor, the Prince of Power would battle the Hulk and eventually join the Avengers but right now he’s still just another enemy for the Thunderer to face…

Issue #125 –‘When Meet the Immortals!’ – was the last Journey into Mystery for decades. With next month’s ‘Whom the Gods Would Destroy!’, the comic became The Mighty Thor and the drama amped up, culminating with ‘The Hammer and the Holocaust!’ In short order Thor crushes the Norn-fuelled Demon, tells Jane his secret identity and is deprived of his powers by Odin. He is then brutally beaten by Hercules, and subsequently seemingly loses Jane to the Prince of Power, yet still manages to save Asgard from unscrupulous traitor Seidring the Merciless who had usurped Odin’s mystic might while the All-Father was distracted with family matters. And in the wings another epic encounter opened as a certain satanic terror set his infernal sights on an unwitting godly prince…

To Be Continued…

The accompanying Tales of Asgard instalments see the Questers home in on the cause of all their woes. ‘Closer Comes the Swarm’ pits them against the Flying Trolls of Thryheim, before ‘The Queen Commands’ sees Loki captured until Thor answers ‘The Summons!’, promptly returning all Argonauts to Asgard to be shown ‘The Meaning of Ragnarok!’

In truth, these mini-eddas were, although still magnificent in visual excitement, becoming rather rambling in plot, so the narrative reset was neither unexpected nor unwelcome…

The episodic exploits then close with the original pencil art to the cover of JiM #123.

These Thor tales show the development not only of one of Marvel’s fundamental continuity concepts but more importantly the creative evolution of the greatest imagination in comics. Set your common sense on pause and simply wallow in the glorious imagery and power of these classic adventures for the true secret of what makes graphic narrative a unique experience.
© 2024 MARVEL.

Posted on

Oh My Goddess! volume 2


By Kosuke Fujishima, original translation by Dana Lewis, Alan Gleason & Toren Smith (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-457-9 (tankōbon TPB) eISBN: 978-1-62115-756-4

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times and cultures.

All over the world, college days offer plenty of opportunities for romance, comedy and comics creativity. Apparently manga always gets there first and explores avenues you never even realised existed….

Fujishima Kosuke was born in Chiba, Japan on July 7th 1964, and, after completing High School, got a job as an editor. His plans to be a draughtsman had foundered after failing to secure a requisite apprenticeship, and he instead joined Puff magazine in that administrative role. Life started looking up after he became assistant to manga artist Tatsuya Egawa (Be Free, Golden Boy, Magical Taluluto). Fujishima graduated to his first solo feature in 1986: writing and illustrating police series You’re Under Arrest until 1992. In 1988, he began a consecutive second series: a fantasy comedy that would reshape his life. Despite other series such as Paradise Residence and Toppu GP over intervening decades, Aa! Megami-sama – alternatively translated as Ah! My Goddess and Oh My Goddess! became his signature work and one that has made him a household name in Japan.

The saga began in the September 1988 issue of Kodansha’s seinen (“teen boys/young males”) periodical Monthly Afternoon and ran until April 2014, generating enough material for 48 tankōbon volumes and a supplementary series whilst spawning anime, special editions, TV series, musical albums, games and all the attendant spin-offs and merchandise mega-popularity brings. In 2020 there were 25 million physical copies of the books in circulation and an unguessable number of digital sales. It has won awards, been translated across the globe in print and on screens and has a confirmed place in comics history…

Oh My Goddess! is a particularly fine example of a peculiarly Japanese genre of storytelling combining fantasy with loss of conformity and maxed out embarrassment. In this case, and as seen in volume 1’s opening chapter ‘The Number You Have Dialled is Incorrect’, when nerdy engineering sophomore Keiichi Morisato dials a wrong number one night, he inadvertently connects to the Goddess Technical Help Line.

When captivatingly beautiful and cosmically powerful minor administrative deity Belldandy materialises in his room offering him one wish, he snidely asks that she never leave him. That rash response traps her on Earth, unable even to move very far beyond his physical proximity. Her powers are mighty, but come with many provisos and restrictions. The most immediate and terrible repercussion manifests quickly as he is ejected from his student residence for having a girl in his room…

In a structured society like Japan there’s plenty of scope for comedy when a powerful and beautiful female seemingly dotes on a barely average male, especially as Keiichi’s new girlfriend seems to all observers unwilling to ever leave his side. Captivating Belldandy’s profligate use of divine powers, utter naivety and tendency to attract chaos and calamity make the bonded pair’s search for a new home a fraught exercise, but after a few foredoomed forays the odd couple settle in a temple gifted them by a Buddhist priest. The proximity quandary is settled by Belldandy using her powers to enrol at his school, the Nekomi Institute of Technology. However, the clearly “European” newcomer can’t help but draw unwelcome attention, particularly from Keiichi’s macho, petrolhead fellow students and creepy lecturer Dr. Ozawa. The lifelong rival of Morisato’s favourite teacher “Doc” Kakuta is suspicious when all his students switch to the classes Belldandy audits and he commences a covert campaign to get rid of her…

College is a series of crucial interconnections and – other than Belldandy – Morisato is inexplicably closest to his colleagues in the Nekomi Institute of Technology Motor Club: a gang of overbearing, exploitative, bullying gearhead maniacs who gleefully spend his money, eat his food and get him into trouble. However, the earthbound divinity/clingy girlfriend’s hardwired role is to aid those in need and whenever she detects a problem she addresses it, dragging her poor partner along for the ride…

More trouble materialises as campus queen Sayoko Mishima realises the lovely new lass threatens her social supremacy and so the predatory Mean Girl sets her destructive sights and wealth on stealing Belldandy’s hapless chump of a “boyfriend”. The goddess is fully aware of the interloper’s mystical bad mojo and takes kind, gentle but firm retaliatory action when necessary. Sadly, Sayoko is determined, inspired and relentless.

With chaos following him everywhere, increased angst occurs after Morisato finally finds the nerve to move beyond the painfully platonic life sentence he’s locked into. Of course, books like Going Steady for Dummies get him no closer to even kissing his goddess, and their first stab at an intimate dinner date is a disaster. It’s further compounded when constant financial shortfalls force him to accept his little sister Megumi into his secrets and inner circle. Miss Morisato is a gossip spreader and imaginative tale teller. What family furore she will make of him living with a gorgeous exotic foreigner cannot be imagined. She causes chaos from the start: bearing enough cash to tide them over – but only if Keiichi boards her for a week while she takes some important entrance exams. There’s no way the kid won’t expose Belldandy’s supernatural nature to the world, but what big brother should have fretted over was the actual tests, as Megumi aces her exams and is admitted to Nekomi Tech, right beside him… and his goddess.

This second volume gathers Chapters 10-16 where, having adapted to being inextricably linked to a naïve, beautiful goddess, you’d think life would settle down for our socially inadequate misfit student. However,  things keep getting more complicated for Keiichi. His college society are determined to prove them their dominance: swiping his cash and getting him into trouble. In ‘An Honest Match’ they arbitrarily settle his money woes by signing him up to an art class: one run by scheming Sayoko, who seeks to crush his spirit by making him and Belldandy nude models, exposed to everyone’s judging gaze. The goddess has other ideas…

The impossible romance of that first kiss edges closer to reality on a gentle day out together in ‘This Life is Wonderful’ before manic mundanity returns in ‘Love is the Prize’ as the Nekomi cycle club pressgang Morisato into competing in a dangerous race with rivals of the Ushikubo University Motorcycle Club – with Belldandy as an unofficial prize! – before events precipitate a ‘System Force Down’ on a 4-day Nekomi beach retreat as Belldandy’s powers run amok. Unbeknownst to her, the fault has been divinely manufactured by her wayward, oft-demoted, even more powerful older sister Urd, who uses the crisis to visit Earth and scope out Morisato. Intrigued by what she finds the salacious, sex-obsessed  meddler makes him her pet project, but the scheme backfires and she too ends up stuck in the world of mortals with oh-so-lucky Keiichi in ‘Oh My Older Sister!’

Her bombastic nature erupts to the fore during the Nekomi Campus festival where Urd manipulates events and people to star a war to confirm ‘I’m the Campus Queen’, but she’s met her match in Sayoko, who participates in a cheesy beauty/talent contest and drags poor Belldandy unto the line of fire too. By the time the furore ends it’s the anniversary of Morisato’s careless wish and ‘What Belldandy Wants Most’ finds him – and her – in contemplative mood. Eager as always to advance the relationship he wants to get her a ring, but must first earn enough to buy one. The result is almost constant humiliation and many near-death experiences as he takes a number of jobs to fund the gift, but at least the reward is worth the effort…

To Be Continued…
This mainly monochrome compendium is peppered with brief full colour sections and – as is also traditional – the main story is augmented by mini features. Goddess Side Story ‘Oh My Manga Artist!’ offers 4-panel gag strips ‘The Shield’, ‘The Trap’ and ‘The Paper’, a selection of ‘Letters to the Enchantress’ from the US series’ original comic book incarnation and ‘Editor’s Commentary on Vol. 2’: another expansive collection of factoids detailing significant cultural clues that might bypass most readers.

Decades after it began Oh My Goddess! remains a beguiling, engaging and eminently re-readable confection, at once frothy fun and entrancing drama. Think of it as a Eastern take on Bewitched or I Dream of Genie, especially as the painfully awkward forbidden romance develops: one that both mortal and immortal protagonists are incapable of admitting to. Throw in the required supporting cast of friends, rivals, insaniacs, petrol-heads, weird teachers and interfering entities, and there’s almost too much light-hearted fun to be found in this bright and breezy manga classic.
© 2006 by Kosuke Fujishima. All rights reserved. This English language edition © 2006 Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

Posted on

Conan Epic Collection volume 5: Of Once and Future Kings (1976-1977)


By Roy Thomas & John Buscema, with John Jakes, Len Wein, Skip Kirkland, Ralph Macchio, Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom, Val Mayerik, Vicente Alcázar, Howard Bender, Marshall Rogers, Neal Adams, Tim Conrad & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 1-84576- (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the 1970’s, America’s comic book industry opened up after more than 15 years of calcified publishing practises promulgated by the censorious, self-inflicted Comics Code Authority: a self-imposed oversight organisation created to police product after the industry suffered its very own McCarthy-style 1950s witch-hunt. The first genre revisited during the literary liberation was Horror/Mystery, and from those changes sprang migrated pulp star Conan.

Sword & Sorcery stories had been undergoing a prose revival in the paperback marketplace since the release of softcover editions of Lord of the Rings in 1954 and, in the 1960s, revivals of the fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline, Fritz Lieber and others were making huge inroads into buying patterns across the world. The old masters had also been augmented by many modern writers. Michael Moorcock, Lin Carter and others kick-started their prose careers with contemporary versions of man against mage against monsters. The undisputed overlord of the genre was Robert E. Howard with his 1930s pulp masterpiece Conan of Cimmeria.

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

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

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

However, times changed, sales declined and in 2003 the property moved to another comics publisher. Then in 2019 the brawny brute returned to the aegis of Marvel.

Their first bite of the cherry was retroactively subtitled “the Original Marvel Years” due to the character’s sojourn with Dark Horse Comics and other intellectual rights holders, and this fifth compendium spans cover-dates March 1976 to February 1977. It reprints Conan the Barbarian #60-71, Conan Annual #2-3 plus material from Power Records #31, F.O.O.M. #14 and elsewhere, highlighting a period when the burly brute was very much the darling of the comics crowd, and when artist John Buscema made the hero his very own.

Adaptor Thomas had resolved to follow the character’s narrative timeline as laid out by Howard and successors like L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, expanded and padded out with other adaptions of REH and his contemporaries and – almost as a last resort – all-new adventures. Thus, content was evermore redolent of pulp-oriented episodic action rather than traditional fantasy fiction. As usual, firstly hurtle back in time approximately 12,000 years to a forgotten age of wonders, and follow the now traditional map of ‘The Hyborean Age of Conan’ plus accompanying mandatory establishing quote.

Maybe we’d best pause a moment and say something necessary. Many of the trappings and themes of Sword & Sorcery stories – especially those from the 1970s & 1980s adapting even earlier tales when racism, sexism and the presumed superiority of white males was a given – are not as comfortable – or unchallenged – for modern readers as they were for my generation or its forebears. Many elements here, for all their artistic and narrative excellence, will be hard to swallow for a lot of younger readers.

At least I hope so…

If barely-clad women casually traded as prizes and trophies and brown people waving spears and wearing feathers are a trigger, please don’t read these tales. I’m not making apologies when I say Thomas and his collaborators were actively working to subvert the established paradigm even then, or that these stories are powerful, thrilling and of evolving cultural significance, but, until so very recently, this kind of epic was a diminishing force with dwindling power to supress or denigrate ethnicities and minorities.

Now, with ugly race supremacism, resurgent sexism, and all forms of “othering” on the rise once more, I get the need to call out or shout down things that could warp young or weak minds. Don’t read these if you can’t. They are only comics, but it doesn’t take much to form and fix a bias, does it?

If you’re still with us, the hopefully harmless action nonsense resumes with a riotous romp from CtB #60 introducing ‘Riders of the River-Dragons!’ The Cimmerian wanderer continues as red-handed consort to pirate queen Bêlit, a Shemite orphan raised by a Kushite witch doctor and considered an avatar of his tribe’s death goddess…

Pulp novelette Queen of the Black Coast was originally published in the May 1934 Weird Tales, and obliquely told of Conan’s time as infamous pirate “Amra”: plundering the coasts of Kush (prehistoric Africa) beside his first great love. The brief but tragic tale of bold buccaneer Bêlit was a prose one-off, but Thomas expanded it over years into an epic comics storyline that ran to #100 of the monthly title.

It had all begun in  Conan The Barbarian #58, where Thomas, Buscema & Steve Gan debuted their Queen of the Black Coast! After the fugitive Cimmerian found safe harbour on an outward bound Argossean trading ship. The Northborn outlaw befriended entrepreneurial Captain Tito and settled into the mariner’s life. After visiting many fabulous ports and exotic wild places, Conan’s life changed when the ship encountered the most feared vessel afloat. Only Conan survived the assault of Kushite warriors, but as he prepared to die fighting, their white queen spared his life, and allowed Conan to earn his place by fighting any objectors before settling in as Bêlit’s prize…

As Thomas fleshed out the text tale, eventually Conan learned from shaman/mentor/guardian N’yaga how the warrior woman had remade herself. How a daughter of Asgalun’s king escaped murder by the Stygians who placed her uncle on the suddenly vacant throne, and how she grew up among barbarous tribesmen of the Silver Isles. Trained to best any man and after mastering supernal horrors, she destroyed a jealous chieftain, proving her in the eyes of the tribes an earthly daughter of Death Goddess Derketa: sworn to inflict bloody vengeance on Stygians and all who stand with them. Before long she had trained them as seafaring plunderers building a war chest to retake her throne: her, deadly, merciless devoutly loyal “black Corsairs”…

Conan also realises that he loves Bêlit beyond all else, even if she may not be wholly human…

Here the saga further expands in Thomas, Buscema & Gan’s opening shot where the pirate goddess is captured by crocodile-riding warriors as she visits a vassal coastal tribe, When the dragon riders come again, Conan, his shipmates and the river dwelling Watambis turn the tables on them, forcing captive raiders to lead them to their distant domain and hidden lord: a bestial godlike entity called “Amra”…

Ploughing through foetid forests, the rescue party is hard ‘On the Track of the She-Pirate!’ (#61), but Bêlit has already escaped, only to fall victim to a monstrous Moth creature. Her death is only prevented by the arrival of the brutal ‘Lord of the Lions!’ in #63, who takes a fancy to a woman who is the same colour he is…

In a barbed pastiche of ultimate white god Tarzan, Thomas, Buscema & Gan reveal how a red-haired noble child lost in jungles is reared by lions. On maturity, his physical might and domination of beasts makes him de facto ruler of terrorised local tribes surrounding the ruined lost city he calls home. Sadly, Amra’s fascination with Bêlit drives a previous captive paramour – chief’s daughter Makeda – to jealously retaliate by awakening demonic creatures asleep in the city’s bowels.

By the time Conan arrives to duel his rival and physical equal, the entire region is imperilled as the dead hunt the living and ‘Death Among the Ruins!’ leads to Amra’s defeat and the Cimmerian being hailed as a new Lord of Lions…

Deadlines were always a scourge at this time and #64 pauses the serial to reprint a colorised, toned down tale from mature readers magazine Savage Tales #5 (July 1974). Crafted by Thomas from a John Jakes plot, ‘The Secret of Skull River’ is illustrated Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom, detailing the Cimmerian’s mercenary’s battle against monster-making alchemists Anaximander and Sophos, prior to CtB #65’s ‘Fiends of the Feathered Serpent!’ (inked by the Tribe) returning to the shipboard romance in a canny adaptation of Howard’s The Thunder Rider. Here the Corsairs are driven by a Stygian fleet into uncharted waters, encountering the accursed remains of legendary black slave liberator Ahmaan the Merciless and the sorcerer who finally killed him. Tezcatlipoca is still there, trying to steal the dead man’s magic axe – which has already chosen Conan/Amra as its next host – when Ahmaan comes back to settle unfinished business, with the entire atoll paying the price of that clash…

Still inked by The Tribe, ‘Daggers and Death-Gods!’ brings the corsairs back to Argossean port city Messantia as Bêlit seeks to barter her plunder for Shemite currency to fund her counter-revolution. When shady fence Publio offers a big payout for a special job robbing a temple , it results in a mesmerising priest pitting the lovers against each other after seemingly awakening guardian death deities Derketa and Dagon, The pitiless duel is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Conan’s old sparring partner Red Sonja…

Although based on Robert E. Howard’s Russian war-woman Red Sonya of Rogatine (from 16th century-set thriller The Shadow of the Vulture with a smidgen of Dark Agnes de Chastillon thrown into the mix) the comic book Red Sonja is very much Thomas’ brainchild. She debuted in Conan the Barbarian #23 (in November 1973) and became an unattainable gadfly/lure for the Cimmerian before gaining her own series and creative stable. Thomas returned as scripter to set up a tumultuous extended team-up with Conan and Bêlit that began with CtB #67’s ‘Talons of the Man-Tiger!’ as the Pirate Queen suspiciously eyes her man’s “one that got away” – and who is also after the loot Pulbio wants so badly…

Sonja was commissioned by Karanthes, High Priest of the Ibis God, to secure a page torn from mystic grimoire the Iron-Bound Book of Skelos in demon-haunted Stygia. She’s barely aware of an unending war between ancient deities, or that old colleague and rival Conan of Cimmeria is similarly seeking the arcane artefact. Ignoring his offer to work together, the women set off singly after the artefact, and Conan meets old apprentice Tara of Hanumar, who begs him to rescue her husband Yusef from a castle dungeon guarded by were-panther. By the time he finds Bêlit, Sonja has ridden off with the prize and the lovers give chase…

Prose recap of Marvel Feature #7 ‘The Battle of the Barbarians!’ summarises the other side of the story – and for her exploits see The Adventures of Red Sonja vol. 1. Sonja clashes repeatedly with her rivals and defeats many beasts and terrors, believing she has the upper hand, but there’s more at stake than any doughty warrior might imagine as the players reconvene with Karanthes.

Attacked by a demon bat who steals the page, Sonja, Amra and Bêlit give chase until they discover a strange city in the wastelands. Pencilled & inked by Buscema, CtB #68’s ‘Of Once and Future Kings!’ sees the sorcery of a sinister mastermind bring King Kull and his armies out of the past to conquer Conan’s era in a spectacular crossover conclusion that sets the scene for future forays of the fantastic before the love story takes centre stage once more with ‘The Demon Out of the Deep!’ as Thomas, Val Mayerik & the Tribe adapt REH’s historical horror classic Out of the Deep with the Cimmerian sharing an exploit of his teen years when as a captive of the enemy Vanir tribe he witnessed a sea devil decimate a fishing village before killing the thing with own brawny arms, neatly segueing into a two-part thriller from Conan the Barbarian #70 & 71, freely adapted from Howard’s The Marchers of Valhalla and inked by returning embellisher Ernie Chan.

In ‘The City in the Storm!’ a mighty storm drives the pirates far from recognisable shores and the corsairs’ iron discipline begins the fracture as they reach a welcoming island adorned with a fabulous walled metropolis of gold. With N’Yaga injured the crew head for shore and find glorious women serving a population of near-bestial sub-men. After an inconclusive battle, serving maid Aluna and her priestly master Akkheba negotiate a deal for the corsairs to defend the city – Kelka – from rival Barachan pirates, but there’s double dealing in the contract and soon the Kushites and their queen are captives awaiting sacrifice…

However as Conan discovers in ‘The Secret of Ashtoreth!’, the immortal captive the Kelkans worship and abuse in equal measure is no patron but vengeful victim who only needs a little aid to end their treacherous depredations forever…

The volume pauses Belit’s romance here to conclude with a selection of out-chronology oddments, beginning with 1976’s Conan the Barbarian Annual  #2. Opening with graphic reprise ‘Conan the Cimmerian’ by Thomas, Buscema & Yong Montano, the main event is a much abridged adaptation of ‘The Phoenix on the Sword’ by Thomas, Vicente Alcázar & Yong Montano, as aging King Conan faces sedition, rebellion and usurpation as he rules mighty empire Aquilonia. The thriller is backed up by The Hyborian Page text feature detailing the convoluted path of Howard’s original tale.

One year later, Conan the Barbarian Annual 3 reprinted some of Savage Sword of Conan #3 (December 1974) in a colourised, bowdlerised family friendly form, preceded by framing sequence ‘Conan the Barbarian and King Kull!’. Thomas, Buscema & Pablo Marcos placed General Conan of Khoraja ‘At the Mountain of the Moon-God’ and ‘Where Dark Death Soars’ to foil a scheme to replace the new King Khossus with a puppet of King Strabonus of Koth…

With covers by Gil Kane, John Romita, Rich Buckler, Vince Colletta, Mike Esposito, Dan Adkins, Marcos, Chan, Buscema, Adams & Crusty Bunkers, the regular comics fare is augmented by rare treats, beginning with a genuine rarity. Power Records #31: Conan the Barbarian was part of line of vinyl records packaged with comic adventures. Other titles included Batman, Planet of the Apes and many more, but here – scripted by Len Wein & J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Buscema, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano and friends – ‘The Crawler in the Mists!’ offers an old fashioned monster & misjudgement parable as Conan faces the uncanny and comes away far wiser…

House fan mag F.O.O.M. #14 (June 1976) was an all barbarian special and from it liberally-illustrated features ‘The Barbarian and the Bullpen!’, ‘Thomas Speaks!’, ‘Robert E. Howard: The Man Who Created Conan!’, ‘Conan Checklist’, ‘A Marvel Artistic Double-Treat’ and ‘Marvel Writer/Artist Scorecard’ reveal all things Hyborian. Then Conan ‘Marvel Value Stamp’, assorted house ads and pages from Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar (April 1976 by Gil Kane & Tony Isabella) reflect the comics popularity, and a Power Comics Conan promo and sleeve art by Adams leads to incisive article ‘The (Almost) Forgotten Tales of Conan’ by Fred Blosser from SSoC #40, a Romita pencil sketch and original art by Buscema & Gan, many pages of layouts, Tim Conrad pin-up and artwork from 1976’s Marvel Comics Index #2, painted by Conrad.

Stirring, evocative, cathartic and thrilling for all their modern faults and failings, these yarns are deeply satisfying on a primal level, and this is one of the best volumes in a superb series starring a paragon and icon of adventure heroes. This is classic pulp/comic action in all its unashamed exuberance: an honestly guilty pleasure for old time fans and newbies of all persuasion. What more does any red-blooded, action-starved fan need to know?
Conan the Barbarian Published Monthly by MARVEL WORLDWIDE Inc, a subsidiary of MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT, LLC. © 2022 Conan Properties International, LLC (“CPI”).

Posted on

i love this part



By Tillie Walden (Avery Hill)
ISBN: 978-1-91039-532-5(HB) 978-1-91039-517-2 (TPB)

It’s time to remind readers of another imminently impending St. Valentines’ Day. I’m stifling my usual curmudgeonly attitudes for a while and re-recommending a book that’s solidly on the side of being in love, but not so disingenuous as to assure you that it’s all hearts and flowers…

Sweet but never cloying or calorific, i love this part deliciously pictorializes the happy, introspective, contemplative and aspirational moments of two schoolgirls who have found each other. Shared dreams, idle conversations, disputes and landmark first steps, even fights and break-ups are seen, weathered and sorted. Novelty, timidity, apprehension, societal pressure and even some unnecessary shame come into it, but generally this is just how young people learn to love and what that inevitably entails. Somehow the trappings shift all the time but clearly nothing really changes…

Apart from the astoundingly graceful and inviting honesty of the tale, the most engaging factor is author Tillie Walden’s brilliantly cavalier dismissal of visual reality. These interactions are all backdropped by wild changes in dimension and perspective, abrupt shifts in location and landscape and shots of empty spaces all adding a sense of distance and whimsy to very familiar proceedings.

Walden is a great admirer of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo so fellow afficionados will feel at home even if neophytes might experience the odd sensation of disorientation and trepidation. Like being in love, I suppose…

Gloriously celebrating not just the relationships but also in the sheer joy of drawing what you feel, Walden is still a relative newcomer – albeit a prolific and immensely gifted one – who has garnered heaps of acclaim and awards. Whether through her fiction or autobiographical works (frequently combined in the same stories), she always engenders a feeling of absolute wonder, combined with a fresh incisive view and measured, compelling delivery in terms of both story and character. Her artwork is a sheer delight.

Before globally turning heads with such unforgettable, deeply personal tales as On a Sunbeam, A City Inside, Spinning, Mini Meditations on Creativity, and Are You Listening? she followed up on her Ignatz Award-winning debut graphic novel The End of Summer with this fluffy yet barbed coming-of-age tale, and has latterly expanded her oeuvre with gems including Alone in Space, My Parents Won’t Stop Talking and the Clementine series (three books and counting…). In 2023 she became Vermont’s youngest ever Cartoon Laureate, and will hold the post until 2026.

i love this part is charming, moving, sad, funny and lovely. You’d have to be bereft of vision and afflicted with a heart of stone to reject this comic masterpiece; available in hardback, softcover and digital formats: a romantic treat no one should miss.
© Tillie Walden 2016. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Mandrake the Magician: Fred Fredericks Dailies volume 1: The Return of Evil – The Cobra


By Lee Falk & Fred Fredericks (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-691-9 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

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

Regarded by many as comics’ first superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip on 11th June 1934 – although creator Lee Falk had sold the strip almost a decade previously. Initially drawing it too, Falk replaced himself as soon as feasible, allowing the early wonderment to materialise through the effective understatement of sublime draughtsman Phil Davis. An instant hit, Mandrake was soon supplemented by a full-colour Sunday companion page from February 3rd 1935. Happy other Birthday, dapper tuxedo dude…

Whilst a 19-year old college student Falk had sold the strip to King Features Syndicate years earlier, but asked the monolithic company to let him finish his studies before dedicating himself to it full time. Schooling done, the 23-year-old born raconteur settled into his life’s work, entertaining millions with astounding tales. Falk also created the first costumed superhero – moodily magnificent generational manhunter The Phantom – whilst spawning an entire comic book subgenre with his first inspiration. Most Golden Age publishers boasted at least one (but usually many) nattily attired wizards in their gaudily-garbed pantheons: all roaming the world(s) making miracles and crushing injustice with varying degrees of stage legerdemain or actual sorcery. Characters such as Mr. Mystic, Ibis the Invincible, Sargon the Sorcerer, and an assortment of  “…the Magician” ’s like Zatara, Zanzibar, Kardak proliferated ad infinitum: all borrowing heavily and shamelessly from the uncanny exploits of the elegant, enigmatic man of mystery gracing the world’s newspapers and magazines.

In the Antipodes, Mandrake was a suave stalwart regular of Australian Women’s Weekly and became a cherished icon of adventure in the UK, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and across Scandinavia: a major star of page and screen, pervading every aspect of global consciousness.

Over the years he has been a star of radio, movie chapter-serials, a theatrical play, television and animation (as part of the cartoon series Defenders of the Earth). With that has come the usual merchandising bonanza of games, toys (including magic trick kits), books, comics and more…

Falk helmed Mandrake and The Phantom until his death in 1999 (even on his deathbed, he was laying out one last story), but also found some few quiet moments to become a renowned playwright, theatre producer and impresario, as well as an inveterate world-traveller. After drawing those the first few strips Falk united with sublimely polished cartoonist Phil Davis (March 4th 1906 -16th December 1964). His sleekly understated renditions took the daily strip, especially the expansive Sunday page to unparalleled heights of sophistication. Davis’ steadfast, assured realism was the perfect tool to render the Magician’s mounting catalogue of spectacular miracles. He rendered and realised Falk’s words until his death by heart attack…

Harold “Fred” Fredericks, Jr. (August 9th 1929 – March 10th 2015) took over – with strips starting in June 1965 – he was also handpicked by Falk who admired his work as both writer and/or illustrator on teen strip Rebel and family comic books such as Nancy, Boris Karloff, The Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Mister Ed, O.G. Whiz presents Tubby, Mighty Mouse, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and Bullwinkle.

In later years tireless taleteller Fredericks became an inking mainstay at Marvel & DC on titles including New Titans, Catwoman, Robin, Punisher War Journal, Nth Man, Daredevil, Quasar, G.I. Joe and Defenders of the Earth.

Preceded by Roger Langridge’s essay ‘Fred Fredericks – An Appreciation’ and John Preddle’s appraisal ‘Mandrake: The Fred Fredericks Era’, the official changing of the artistic guard comes with a cheeky contemporary mystery…

However, firstly…

Mandrake was educated at the fabled College of Magic in Tibet, thereafter becoming a suave globetrotting troubleshooter, accompanied by his faithful African friend Lothar and eventually enchanting companion (and in 1997, bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne. They co-operatively solve crimes, fight evil and find trouble and mystery apparently everywhere. Although the African Prince was a component from the start, Narda turned up fashionably late (in 1934) as victim/secret weapon in early escapade ‘The Hawk’ (see Mandrake the Magician: Dailies vol. 1 – The Cobra ): a distrait socialite forced to use her every wile to seduce and destroy the magician and Lothar. Thwarting each attack, Mandrake went after the monstrous stalker blackmailing Narda’s brother Prince Sigrid/Segrid and extorting her, decisively lowering the boom and liberating the embattled aristocrats. Bear all that in mind: it’s going to come in handy later…

Falk and Fredericks started as they meant to go on with ‘Odd Fellow’ (running from May 3rd to August 14th 1965) wherein a puckish little chap ruins a day of quiet contemplation for Narda before going on to peddle incredible inventions to greedy industrialists. By the time Mandrake gets involved, a lethal looking pursuer is hard on their heels and the mounting chaos is explained by the deduction that the jolly leprechaun is actually Roger the Rogue: a conman from the future with a deadly secret agenda but no idea who he’s messing with…

Following an interlude that introduces Mandrake’s palatial super citadel Xanadu, it’s back to basics for the next epic as the Princess goes to college to improve her mind and inadvertently uncovers and exposes a criminal gang embedded in world culture for hundreds of years. With echoes on modern conspiracy thriller 100 Bullets, ‘The Sign of 8’ (August 16th 1965 to February 6th 1966) arise from managed obscurity to discredit, hunt and destroy Narda with increasingly baroque and deadly assaults before falling to the counterattack of the Magician…

Growing contemporary fascination in the supernatural is addressed an capitalised upon in ‘The Witches’ (February 7th – May 28th) as criminal hypnotist Count Diablo and his all-women gang terrorise young heiress “Really” Riley , only to learn to their lasting regret what a master mesmerist can do to punish the wicked…

Another headline fuelled thriller, ‘The UFO’ May 30th – September 17th) sets the trio on the trail of aliens robbing banks with heat rays and escaping in flying saucers. Of course, it’s not long before Mandrake makes the connection between these uncanny events and missing military ordnance hot off the drawing board and takes steps to stop the plunderers from the stars…

In an era of super spies and covert cabals it wasn’t long before our heroes were back on ‘The Trail of the 8’ (September 19th 1966 – January 14th 1967) as Mandrake discovers evidence that the ancient order is still active. Teaming with good-guy agency Inter-Intel, the hunt makes Mandrake a target for repeated assassination attempts but ultimately leads to the organisation’s explosive demise. And yet the magician remains unconvinced…

This titanic tome terminates with a long-anticipated revival as ‘The Return of Evil – The Cobra’ (January 16th to June 3rd 1967) reveals how King Segrid of Cockaigne needs the help of his sister and her boyfriend after a sinister presence buys up tracts of the country and populace: using wealth, influence, chicanery, publicity stunts, blackmail and sheer dominating physical presence to rule the nation from behind the oval office throne. Thankfully, Mandrake and Lothar know just how to deal with the villain once he’s exposed as fatally flawed old foe The Cobra, and foil the fiend’s scheme to steal the nation from its legally-appointed ruler…

Supplemented here by a ‘Fred Fredericks – Biography’ before closing with ‘The Fred Fredericks Mandrake the Magician Complete Daily Checklist 1965-2013’, this thrilling tome offers exotic locales, thrilling action, fantastic fantasy, space age shocks, sinister spycraft, crafty criminality and spooky chills in equal measure. As always, the strip abounds with fantastic imagery from whenever “Mandrake gestures hypnotically” and drips with wry dialogue and bold action. Paramount taleteller Falk instinctively knew from the start that the secret of success was strong and – crucially – recurring villains and uncanny situations to test and challenge his heroes, making Mandrake the Magician an unmissable treat for every daily strip addict. These stories have lost none of their impact and only need you reading them to concoct a perfect cure for 21st century blues.
Mandrake the Magician © 2017 King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. All other material © 2017 the respective authors or owners.

Posted on

Popeye: The E.C. Segar Popeye Sundays volume 4: Swea’Pea and Eugene the Jeep (February 1936 – October 1938)


By Elzie Crisler Segar, with Charles H. “Doc” Winner, Tom, Sims Kayla E. & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 979-8-8750-0001-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There is more than one Popeye. If your first thought when you hear the name is the cheerful, indomitable swabby in full Naval whites always biffing a hulking great beardy-bloke and mainlining tinned spinach, that’s okay. The Fleischer Studios and Famous Films animated features have a vivid brilliance and spontaneous energy of their own (even later, watered-down anodyne TV versions have some merit) and they are indeed all based on the grizzled, crusty, foul-mouthed, bulletproof, golden-hearted old swab who shambled his way into a fully cast and firmly established newspaper strip and would not leave. But they are really only the tip of an incredible iceberg of satire, slapstick, virtue, vice and mind-boggling adventure.

Popeye first washed ashore on January 17th 1929: a casual extra in the Thimble Theatre comic feature. That unassuming newspaper strip had launched on 19th December 1919: one of many funnies parodying and burlesquing the era’s silent movie serials. Its more successful forebears included C.W. Kahles’ Hairbreadth Harry and Ed Wheelan’s Midget Movies/ Minute Movies… which Thimble Theatre replaced in William Randolph Hearst’s papers.

All these strips employed a repertory company of characters playing out generic adventures based on those expressive cinema antics. Thimble Theatre’s cast included Nana & Cole Oyl; their gawky, excessively excitable daughter Olive; diminutive-but-pushy son Castor and Olive’s sappy, would-be beau Horace Hamgravy. The feature ticked along nicely for a decade, competent, unassuming and always entertaining, with Castor and Ham Gravy (as he became) stumbling and tumbling through get-rich-quick schemes, frenzied, fear-free adventures and gag situations until September 10th 1928, when explorer uncle Lubry Kent Oyl gave Castor a spoil from his latest exploration of Africa.

It was the most fabulous of all birds – a hand-reared Whiffle Hen – and was the start of something truly groundbreaking…

Whiffle Hens are troublesome, incredibly rare and possessed of fantastic powers, but after months of inspired hokum and slapstick shenanigans, Castor was inclined to keep Bernice – for that was the hen’s name – as a series of increasingly peculiar circumstances brought him into contention with ruthless Mr. Fadewell, world’s greatest gambler and king of gaming resort ‘Dice Island’. Bernice clearly affected and inspired writer/artist E.C. Segar, because his strip increasingly became a playground of frantic, compelling action and comedy during this period. When Castor and Ham discovered everybody wanted the Whiffle Hen because she could bestow infallible good luck, they sailed for Dice Island to win every penny from its lavish casinos. Big sister Olive wanted to come along, but the boys planned to leave her behind once their vessel was ready to sail. It was 16th January 1929…

The next day, in the 108th episode of that extended saga, a bluff, brusquely irascible, ignorant, itinerant and exceeding ugly one-eyed old sailor was hired by the pathetic pair to man the boat they had rented, and the world met one of the most iconic and memorable characters ever conceived. By sheer surly willpower, Popeye won readers’ hearts and minds, his no-nonsense, rough grumbling simplicity and dubious appeal enchanting the public until, by tale’s end, the walk-on had taken up residency. He would quickly make Thimble Theatre his own. The Sailor Man affably steamed onto the full-colour Sunday pages forming the meat of this curated collection.

This paperback prize is the closing quartile of four books designed for swanky slipcases, comprehensively re-presenting Segar’s entire Sunday canon. Spiffy as that sounds, the wondrous stories are also available in digital editions if you want to think of ecology or mitigate the age and frailty of your spinach-deprived “muskles”…

Son of a handyman, Elzie Crisler Segar was born in Chester, Illinois on 8th December 1894. His early life was filled with solid, earnest blue-collar jobs that typified his generation of cartoonists. Young Segar worked as a decorator/house-painter, played drums to accompany vaudeville acts at the local theatre and when the town got a movie house played for the silent films. This allowed him to absorb staging, timing and narrative tricks from close observation of the screen, and these became his greatest assets as a cartoonist. Whilst working as a film projectionist, he decided to draw for his living, and tell his own stories. He was 18 years old.

Like so many of that “can-do” era, Segar studied art via mail order: in this case W.L. Evans’ cartooning correspondence course out of Cleveland, Ohio – from where Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster would launch Superman upon the world. Segar gravitated to Chicago and was “discovered” by Richard F. Outcault (The Yellow Kid, Buster Brown), arguably the inventor of newspaper comics. Outcault introduced Segar around at the prestigious Chicago Herald and soon – although still wet behind the ears – Segar’s first strip – Charley Chaplin’s Comedy Capers – debuted on March 12th 1916. Two years later, Elzie married Myrtle Johnson and moved to Hearst’s Chicago Evening American to create Looping the Loop. Managing Editor William Curley saw a big future for Segar and promptly packed the newlyweds off to the Manhattan headquarters of the mighty King Features Syndicate. Within a year Elzie was turning Thimble Theatre for The New York Journal. In 1924, Segar created a second daily strip. The 5:15 was a surreal domestic comedy featuring weedy commuter/would-be inventor John Sappo and his formidable, indomitable wife Myrtle…

A born storyteller, Segar had from the start an advantage even his beloved cinema couldn’t match. His brilliant ear for dialogue and accent shone out from admittedly rather average melodrama adventure plots, adding lustre to stories and gags he always felt he hadn’t drawn well enough. After a decade or so – and just as cinema caught up with the introduction of “talkies” – he finally discovered a character whose unique sound and individual vocalisations blended with a fantastic, enthralling nature to create a literal superstar…

Incoherent, ignorant, plug-ugly and stingingly sarcastic, Popeye shambled on stage midway through ‘Dice Island’ and once his very minor bit part played out, simply refused to leave. Within a year he was a regular. As circulation skyrocketed, he became the star. In the less than 10 years Segar worked with his iconic matelot (from January 1929 until the artist’s untimely death on 13th October 1938), the auteur built an incredible metaworld of fabulous lands and lost locales, where unique characters undertook fantastic voyages, spawned or overcame astounding scenarios and experienced big, unforgettable thrills as well as the small human dramas we’re all subject to. They also threw punches at the drop of a hat…

This was a serial saga simultaneously extraordinary and mundane, which could be hilarious or terrifying at the same time. For every trip to the rip-roaring Wild West, idyllic atoll or fabulous lost kingdom, there was a sordid brawl between squabbling neighbours, spats between friends or disagreements between sweethearts – any and all usually settled with mightily-swung fists and a sarcastic aside.

Popeye was the first Superman of comics and its ultimate working-class hero, but he was not a comfortable one to idolise. A brutish lout who thought with his fists, lacking respect for authority, he was uneducated, short-tempered and – whenever “hot termaters” batted their eyelashes (or thereabouts) at him – painfully fickle. He was also a worrisome gambling troublemaker who wasn’t welcome in polite society… and wouldn’t want to be. However, the mighty marine marvel might be raw and rough-hewn, but he was always fair and practical, with an innate, unshakable sense of what’s right and what’s not: a joker who wants kids to be themselves – but not necessarily “good” – and a guy who took no guff from anybody. Of course, as his popularity grew, he somewhat mellowed. Always ready to defend the weak and with absolutely no pretensions or aspirations to rise above his fellows, he was and will always be “the best of us”… but the shocking sense of unpredictability, danger and anarchy he initially provided was sorely missed by 1936 – so Segar brought it back again…

This concluding compilation of Segar’s Sunday comics masterpiece spans February 23rd 1936 to October 2nd 1938, with the classic pages and vintage views preceded by another sublimely whimsical cartoon deconstruction, demystification and appreciation. ‘“Gift from Uncle Ben” – An Introduction by Kayla E’ finds creative director/designer/artist Kayla E. (Precious Rubbish, Now: The New Comics Anthology) anticipating and celebrating the legacy of the strip in a captivating “silent” cartoon yarn starring the cast and highlighting the incredible Jeep…

Throughout, the weekend wonderment accentuates arcane antics of the star attraction, but increasingly the support cast provide comedy gold via potential straight man Popeye’s interactions with Wimpy, Olive Oyl, our eponymous co-stars and all the rest of Segar’s cast of thousands (of idiots). The humorous antics – in sequences of one-off gags alternating with occasional extended sagas – see the Sailor Man fighting for every iota of attention whilst mournful mooching co-star Wimpy becomes increasingly more ingenious – not to say surreal – in his quest for free meals.

An engaging Micawber-like coward, cad and conman, the insatiable J. Wellington Wimpy debuted on May 3rd 1931 as an unnamed and decidedly partisan referee in one of Popeye’s frequent boxing matches. The scurrilous but polite oaf obviously struck a chord and Segar gradually made him a fixture. Always hungry, keen to take bribes and a cunning coiner of immortal catchphrases like “I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” and “Let’s you and him fight” – he was the perfect foil for a simple action hero and increasingly stole the entire show; just like anything else unless it was firmly nailed down…

When not beating the stuffing out of his opponents or kissing pretty girls, Popeye pursued his flighty, vacillating and irresolute Olive with exceptional verve, if little success, but his life was always made more complicated whenever the unflappable, so-corruptible and adorably contemptible Wimpy made an appearance. He was even an occasional rival suitor, joining returning foils such as long-suffering local charmer Curly as convenient competitors for Olive’s dubious and flighty affections…

Infinitely varying riffs on Olive’s peculiar romantic notions or Wimpy’s attempts to cadge food or money for food were irresistible to the adoring readership, but Segar wisely peppered the Sundays with longer episodic tales, and the weirdest cast in comics then or since. Foils like diner owner Rough House, Alice the Goon and ever-irascible Mr. George W. Geezil perpetually vied for attention with baroque figures like subhuman pal Toar, King Blozo of Spinachovia and the vile Sea Hag, but so many semi-regulars simply defy description.

Eugene the Jeep debuted on March 20th 1936 in the daily strip: a fantastic 4th dimensional beast with incredible powers used by Olive and Wimpy to get very rich, very quickly. They soon lost it all betting on the wrong guy in another of Segar’s classic and hilarious set-piece boxing matches between Popeye and yet another barely-human pugilist. The tales come from an astonishingly fertile period for the strip’s long history. On August 4th, Eugene was instrumental in kicking off another groundbreaking and memorable sequence as the entire ensemble cast took off on a haunted ship to find Popeye’s absentee dad. That memorably riotous tale introduced ancient, antisocial reprobate Poopdeck Pappy and his diminutive hairy sidekick Pooky Jones. The elder mariner was a rough, hard-bitten, grumpy brute quite prepared and even happy to cheat, steal or smack a woman around if she stepped out of line and a visual warning of what might be Popeye’s eventual fate. Once the old goat was firmly established, Segar set Popeye & Olive the Herculean task of civilizing him; a task ongoing to this day…

The full-colour Sunday pages in this volume span February 23rd 1936 to October 13th 1938, opening with uniquely sentimental monster Alice the Goon resurfacing, permanently switching allegiance and becoming nanny to rambunctious tyke Swee’Pea after saving the “infink” from abduction by the sinister oceanic witch. Alice was a regular by the end of April. Her assimilation was part of a series of stand-alone gags revealing Popeye’s violent courtship of Olive and tactics for deterring rivals, counterpointing a stream of pugilistic bouts and reinforcing the gastronomic war of wills between Wimpy and Rough House, with Geezil’s hatred of the moocher also strongly represented week by week.

August 9th saw the Jeep make his spectacular Sunday debut, with a few demonstrations of the fanciful beast’s incredible powers to make money and cause chaos leading to infinitely varying riffs on Olive’s peculiar romantic notions or Wimpy’s attempts to cadge food or money (for food). These incidents were irresistible to the adoring readership, but Segar wisely peppered the Sundays with longer episodic tales, such as the saga of ‘The Terrible Kid Mustard’ (December 27th 1936 – February 28th 1937) and pitting the “sprize-fighting” Sea Salt against another boxer who was as ferociously fuelled by the incredible nourishing power of Spinach… an epic war of nerves that culminated in a ring bout adjudicated by Wimpy and remembered forever…

Another extended endeavour starred the smallest addition to the cast and co-star of this volume. Rambunctious tyke Swee’Pea was never an angel, and when he began stealing jam and framing Eugene (March 7th through 28th) the search for a culprit proved he was also precociously smart too. The impossible task of civilising Poopdeck Pappy also covered many months – with no appreciable or lasting effect – incorporating an outrageous sequence wherein the dastardly dotard becomes scandalously, catastrophically entangled in Popeye’s mechanical automatic diaper-changing machine…

On June 27th Wimpy found the closest thing to true love after meeting Olive’s friend Waneeta: a meek, retiring soul whose father owned 50,000 cows. His ardent pursuit filled many pages over following months, as did the latest scheme of his arch-nemesis Geezil, who bought a cafe/diner with the sole intention of poisoning the constantly cadging conman. Although starring the same characters, Sunday and Daily strips ran separate storylines, offering Segar opportunities to utilise the same good idea in different ways. On September 19th 1937 he began a sequence wherein Swee’Pea’s mother comes back, seeking custody of the boy she had given away. The resultant tug-of-love tale ran to December 5th, displaying genuine warmth and angst amidst the wealth of hilarious stunts by both parties to convince the feisty nipper to pick his preferred parent…

On January 16th 1938, Popeye was approached by scientists who had stumbled upon an incipient Martian invasion. The evil extraterrestrials planned to pit their pet monster against a typical Earthman before committing to the assault, so the wily boffins believed grizzly old pug Popeye was our world’s best bet…

Readers had no idea that the feature’s glory days were ending. Segar’s advancing illness was affecting his output and between December 1937 and August 1938 many pages ran unsigned and were ghosted by Charles H. “Doc” Winner and Tom Sims. When Segar resumed drawing, the gags were funnier than ever (especially a short sequence where Pappy shaves his beard and dyes his hair to impersonate Popeye and woo Olive!), but tragically the long lead-in time necessary to create Sundays only left him time to finish 15 more pages.

The last signed Segar strip was published on October 2nd 1938. He died eleven days later from leukaemia and liver disease.

Popeye and the bizarre, surreally quotidian cast that welcomed and grew up around him are timeless icons of global culture who have grown far beyond their newspaper strip origins. Nevertheless, in one very true sense, with this marvellous yet painfully tragic final volume, the most creative period in the saga of the one true and only Sailor Man closes. His last strips were often augmented or even fully ghosted, but the intent is generally untrammelled, leaving an unparalleled testament to Segar’s incontestable timeless, manic brilliance for us all to enjoy over and over again.

Popeye is four years shy of his centenary and deserves that status as global icon. How many comics characters are still enjoying new adventures 96 years after their first? These volumes are a perfect way to celebrate the genius and mastery of E.C. Segar and his brilliantly flawed superman. These are tales you’ll treasure all of your life and superb books you must not miss. There is more than one Popeye. Most of them are pretty good and some are truly excellent. Don’t you think it’s about time you sampled the original and very best?
Popeye volume 4: Swea’Pea and Eugene the Jeep is copyright © 2024 King Features Syndicate, Inc./™Hearst Holdings, Inc. This edition © 2024 Fantagraphics Books Inc. Segar comic strips provided by Bill Blackbeard and his San Francisco Academy of Comic Art. “Gift from Uncle Ben” © 2024 Kayla E. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Buster Book 1974


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

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on

The Dandy Book 1978


By Eric Roberts, Bill Holroyd, Hugh Morren, Jimmy Hughes, George Martin, Jack Prout, Charles Grigg, Ron Spencer, Ken H. Harrison, & many & various (DC Thomson & Co, Ltd.)

ISBN: 978-0-85116-043-6 (HB) ASIN ? : ?B004WY70VW

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For generations of British (and – Tharg help us! – former colonial) fans, Christmas means The Beano Book, The Broons, Oor Wullie and making every December 25th magical. There used to be many more DC Thomson titles, but the years have gradually winnowed them away. Thankfully, time means nothing here, so this year I’m concentrating on another Thomson Christmas cracker that made me the man wot I am. As usual my knowledge of the creators involved is woefully inadequate but I’m going to hazard a few guesses anyway, in the hope that someone with better knowledge will correct me whenever I err.

The Dandy comic predated The Beano by eight months, utterly revolutionising the way children’s publications looked and – most importantly – how they were read. Over decades it produced a bevy of household names that delighted millions, with end of year celebrations being bumper bonanzas of the weekly stars in magnificent hardback annuals.

Premiering on December 4th December 1937, The Dandy broke the mould of its hidebound British predecessors by utilising word balloons and captions rather than narrative blocks of text under sequential picture frames. A colossal success, it was followed on July 30th 1938 by The Beano. Together they revolutionised children’s publications. Dandy was the third longest running comic in the world (behind Italy’s Il Giornalino – launched in 1924 – and Detective Comics in March 1937). Over decades the “terrible twins” spawned countless cartoon stars of unforgettable and beloved household names who delighted generations of avid and devoted readers…

The Christmas Annuals were traditionally produced in the wonderful “half-colour” British publishers used to keep costs down whilst bringing a little spark into our drab and gloomy young lives. The process involved printing sections with only two (of potentially 4) plates, such as blue/Cyan and red/Magenta as seen in this majority of this tome. The versatility and palette range provided was astounding. Even now the technique screams “Holidays” to me and my contemporaries, and this volume uses the technique to stunning effect.

As you can see, the fun-filled action begins on the covers and continues on the reverse, with front-&-back covers occupied by superstar Korky the Cat (Charlie Grigg) setting the tone with a sequence of splendid seasonal sight gags that begins with a suitably destructive Desperate Dan frontispiece spread – which concludes on the inner back pages at the end, all limned by Grigg.

Framed in blue and red, Korky’s playing foosball on the Introduction pages as D.C. Thomson confirm again how adept they were at combining anarchic, clownish comedy with solid fantasy/adventure tales. Peter’s Pocket Grandpa (Ron Spencer) sees the pint-sized pensioner creating chaos after using a roller skate and unwilling mutt as his chariot after which Jimmy Hughes’ feuding fools The Jocks and the Geordies renew their small nationalistic war in a duel of soap box carts.

In a quick switch to blue & black and all the tones between, cowboy superman Desperate Dan’s Christmas morning is spent trying to free his nephew Danny and niece Katey’s football from arboreal bondage. It should have been quick work but they told him it was a lost cat not mislaid toy and he applied due caution if not reason…

The daftness drifts into sublimely entertaining drama as Black Bob the Dandy Wonder Dog – presumably by veteran Jack Prout – sees shepherd Andrew Glenn and his canine companion solve the mystery of a persistent – and violent – hole excavator over four thrilling chapters prior to Korky renewing his decades-old conflict with gamekeepers and fishing wardens before Bill Holroyd switches us to blue and red while detailing how alien schoolboy Jack Silver – still visiting Earth from fantastic planet Marsuvia – joins human pal Curley Perkins in battling an apelike giant thieving bazzoon employed by supervillain Captain Zapp.

From there we revert to the cheeky comfort of simpler times as Dirty Dick – by the incredibly engaging Eric Roberts (no, not the actor) – finds our perennially besmudged and befouled boy profiting from turning a tip into a sports ground whilst George Martin’s mighty pooch/sheriff Desperate Dawg benefits from a brief diet and Holroyd’s young DIY enthusiast disastrously modify grandad’ pipe in The Tricks of Screwy Driver…

Back in blue, it all goes typically wrong in Bully Beef and Chips (Hughes) when the bullied boy builds a yeti before the second Black Bob instalment carries us away into the big bad dirty city before The Smasher enters the picture. A brawny lad hewn from the same mould as Dennis the Menace, in the first of his vignettes (drawn by Hugh Morren or perhaps David Gudgeon?) he attempts to score boxing match tickets go awfully awry, just as Desperate Dan resurfaces in a bad odour over poor quality eggs and Martin’s Izzy Skint – He Always Is! finds the youthful entrepreneur failing spectacularly to secure an archery kit of his own…

Korky the Cat clashes with old enemies the house mice whilst the snack-deprived students of Martin’s arch nosh-stealer Greedy Pigg (ever-attempting to confiscate and scoff his pupils’ treats) score a singular triumph.

Prolific Eric Roberts always played a huge part in making these annuals work and next up his signature star – schoolboy grifter Winker Watson – scores for the Third Form lads of Greytowers School not only a forbidden trampoline but also an illicit pet dog, despite the worst efforts of form master Mr. Creep. As usual Winker’s a cunning scheme – worthy of Mission Impossible or Leverage – makes the teacher the butt of a joke and star of the show but does so with spectacular slapstick panache…

Desperate Dawg goes camping and spars with assorted wildlife in advance of the third Black Bob chapter (where the wonder dog is captured by crooks) before Holroyd – or perhaps Steve Bright – conjures up confusion and excitement for schoolboy Charley Brand and robotic pal Brassneck when the pals mistakenly bring home an escaped convict rather than the visiting uncle they had never met…

Another spate between The Jocks and the Geordies at a camping site leads to civic minded good Samaritan Desperate Dan turning vigilante to capture gunslinging bank bandits after which Ken H. Harrison’s Rah-Rah Randall plays hooky in stolen boots and Peter’s Pocket Grandpa discovers the disadvantage of his height when beekeeping…

In a non-existent (if not wholly imagined on my part) homage to the rise of Punk, there’s a concatenation if not concentration of violent young offenders next as The Smasher indulges in indoor/domestic mountain climbing and Bully Beef and Chips clash over water, whilst scuff supreme Dirty Dick goes dousing – for trash – before Black Bob part 4 brings the mystery to a solid conclusion.

Desperate Dawg effectively but accidentally captures renegades and The Tricks of Screwy Driver bring poachers to justice even as Greedy Pigg settles his own nefarious hash, although an incensed teacher intervenes in the final mismatched battle between Bully Beef and Chips, before The Smasher’s attempts to share his violent skillset leads to injury all around…

One last Korky yarn, involving cannon and football training, bring us to an ad for more Dandy delights to close this year’s treasury of wonders (via that aforementioned Desperate Dan frontispiece… back-ispiece? spread). Stuffed with glorious gag-pages and bursting with classic all ages’ adventure, this remains a tremendously fun read and even in the absence of the legendary creators such as Dudley Watkins, Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid, there’s still so much merriment on offer I can’t believe this book is over 45 years old. If ever anything needs to be reissued as commemorative collections it’s D.C. Thomson annuals such as this one.

The only thing better would be curated archive reissues and digital editions…
© D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd, 1977.

Posted on

Namor, the Sub-Mariner Epic Collection volume 4: Titans Three (1970-1972)


By Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Allyn Brodsky, Sal Buscema, Gene Colan, Ross Andru, George Tuska, Marie Severin, Frank Springer, Mike Esposito, Jim Mooney, Bernie Wrightson, John Severin, Sam Grainger, Tom Palmer, Dick Ayers & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5539-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Salty Stalwart Superhero Action… 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In his most primal incarnation (other origins are available but may differ due to timeslips, circumstance and screen dimensions) Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the proud, noble but exceedingly bellicose offspring of the union of a water-breathing Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer. That doomed romance resulted in a hybrid being of immense strength and extreme resistance to physical harm, able to fly and thrive above and below the waves. Over decades, a wealth of creators have played with the fishy tale and today’s Namor is often hailed as Marvel’s First Mutant. What remains unchallenged is that he was created by young, talented Bill Everett, for abortive cinema premium Motion Picture Weekly Funnies: #1 (October 1939) so – technically – Namor predates Marvel, Atlas & Timely Comics.

The Marine Miracleman first caught the public’s avid attention as part of an elementally appealing fire vs. water headlining team-up in the October 1939 Marvel Comics #1 (which renamed itself Marvel Mystery Comics from #2 onwards. The amphibian antihero shared honours and top billing with The Human Torch, having debuted (albeit in a truncated, monochrome version) in the aforementioned promotional booklet which had been designed to be handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year. The late-starter antihero rapidly emerged as one of the industry’s biggest draws, and won his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941). His appeal was baffling but solid and he was one of the last super-characters to vanish at the end of the first heroic age.

In 1954, when Atlas (as the company then was) briefly revived its “Big Three” – the Torch and Captain America being the other two – Everett returned for an extended run of superbly dark, mordantly timely fantasy fables. However, even his input wasn’t sufficient to keep the title afloat and eventually Sub-Mariner sank again. Seven years later as Stan Lee & Jack Kirby were reinventing superheroes with landmark title Fantastic Four, they revived the awesome, all-but-forgotten aquanaut as a troubled, semi-amnesiac antihero. Decidedly more bombastic, regal and grandiose, this returnee despised humanity: embittered by the loss of his subsea kingdom – seemingly destroyed by atomic testing. His rightful revenge was infinitely complicated after he became utterly besotted with the FF’s Susan Storm.

Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe for a few years, squabbling with other star turns such as The Hulk, Avengers, X-Men and Daredevil before securing his own series as one half of Tales to Astonish, and duly graduating in 1968 to his own solo title. This fourth subsea selection collects Namor, the Sub-Mariner #28-49, Daredevil #77 and material from Ka-Zar #1 covering August 1970 to May 1972, and sees the sea lord as a recently self-appointed guardian of the safety and ecology of all Earth’s oceans. As we open the Prince of Atlantis furtively returns to the surface world, to recover from wounds earned in service of ungrateful humanity in the company of human Diane Arliss. Wandering Manhattan streets Namor is incensed by the actions of an unrepentant industrial polluter and joins teen protestors fighting developer Sam Westman’s thugs and mega machines in ‘Youthquake!’ before we pause for a little diversion…

Beginning as a Tarzan tribute act relocated to a lost world in a sub-polar realm of swamp-men and dinosaurs, Ka-Zar eventually evolved into one of Marvel’s more complex and mercurial characters. Wealthy heir to one of Britain’s oldest noble families, his best friend is Zabu the “sabretooth tiger”, his wife is feisty environmental-crusader Shanna the She-Devil and his brother is a homicidal super-scientific bandit. Kevin Reginald, Lord Plunder is perpetually torn between the clean life-or-death simplicity of the jungle and the bewildering constant compromises of modern civilisation. The primordial paragon even outranks Namor in terms of longevity, having begun as a prose pulp star, boasting three issues of his own magazine between October 1936 and June 1937. They were authored by Bob Byrd – pseudonym for publisher Martin Goodman or one of a fleet of writers on his staff – and he was latterly shoehorned into a speculative new-fangled comic book venture Marvel Comics #1. There he roamed alongside another pulp mag graduate: The Angel, plus Masked Raider, the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner…

When Ka-Zar reappeared all rowdy and renovated in 1965’s X-Men #10, it was clear the Sovereign of the Savage Land was destined for bigger things. However, for years all he got was guest shots as misunderstood foe du jour for Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Spider-Man, and the Hulk. In 1969, he took his shot with a solo saga in Marvel Super-Heroes and later that year – after Roy Thomas & Neal Adams used him so effectively in their X-Men run (i#62-63) – was awarded a giant-sized solo title reprinting previous appearances. The title also incongruously offered all-new stories of Hercules and the second, mutant X-Man Angel. That same month, Ka-Zar’s first regular series began in Astonishing Tales. That aforementioned Hercules back up from Ka-Zar #1 (August 1970 by Allyn Brodsky, Frank Springer & Dick Ayers) is reprinted here as prelude to Namor’s next exploits…

‘In his Footsteps… The Huntsman of Zeus!’ sees the Prince of Power on the run from an Olympian agent despatched by the King of the Gods. Following another bitter dispute with his sire, Hercules returns to Earth leaving Ares to foment trouble and prompt Zeus to set his terror-inducing Huntsman on the godling’s trail. After fruitlessly seeking sanctuary with the Avengers, Hercules sees his mortal friends brutally beaten and flees once again…

The panicked rush takes him to Sub-Mariner #29 and the distant Mediterranean where the Huntsman ensorcells Namor and pits him against the fugitive. Although Hercules soon breaks the hypnotic spell, ‘Fear is the Hunter!’ readily revealing why the pursuer is so dreaded as he sends mythical terrors Scylla, Charybdis and Polyphemus against the outcast heroes and pitiful mortals of the region, until a valiant breakthrough ends the threat and forces a paternal reconciliation…

Another guest star treat materialises in #30 as ‘Calling Captain Marvel!’ finds Namor again reduced to a mesmerised puppet: attacking the Kree warrior and human host Rick Jones. This time the condition is due to the amphibian’s falling in battle against toxic terrorist Mr. Markham currently trying to blackmail Earth by threatening to poison the seas with his molecular polluter. Once Mar-Vell batters Namor back to his right mind, they make quick work of the maniac in a concerted twin assault…

Fallout from his recent actions have unsettled Namor’s old friend Triton, and the Inhuman goes looking for the prince in #31, just as apparent Atlantean attacks on surface shipping mounts. Meeting equally concerned human Walt Newell (who operates as undersea Avenger Stingray) they finally find – and fight – Sub-Mariner, only to learn the crisis has been manufactured by his old enemy who is now ‘Attuma Triumphant!’ The barbarian’s plans include destroying human civilisation, but he still has time to pit his captives against each other in a gladiatorial battle to the death; which of course is Attuma’s undoing…

Jim Mooney comes aboard as inker with #32 as a new and deadly enemy debuts in ‘Call Her Llyra… Call Her Legend!’ when fresh human atomic tests prompt Namor to voyage to the Pacific and renew political alliance with the undersea state of Lemuria. However, on arrival he finds noble ruler Karthon replaced by a sinister seductress who lusts for war and harbours a tragic Jekyll & Hyde secret. By the time the prince reaches Atlantis again the Sunken City is being ravaged by seaquakes and old political enemy Byrrah is seizing control from Namor’s deputies and devoted partner Lady Dorma. ‘Come the Cataclysm’ sees him first accuse surface-worlders before locating and defeating the true culprits – an alliance of Byrrah with failed usurper Warlord Krang and malign human mastermind Dr. Dorcas. In the throes of triumph, Namor announces his imminent marriage to Dorma…

Antihero super-nonteam The Defenders officially begin with Sub-Mariner #34-35 (cover-dated February & March 1971). As previously stated, the Prince of Atlantis had become an early and ardent activist and advocate of the ecology movement, and here takes radical steps to save Earth by fractiously recruiting The Hulk and Silver Surfer to help him destroy an American Nuclear Weather-Control station. In ‘Titans Three!’ and concluding chapter ‘Confrontation!’ (Thomas, Sal B & Jim Mooney) the always-misunderstood outcasts unite to battle a despotic dictator’s legions, the US Army, UN defence forces and Avengers to prevent the malfunctioning station vaporising half the planet…

Inked by Berni Wrightson, Sub-Mariner #36 heralds a huge sea change in Namor’s fortunes that begins with time-honoured holy preparations for a happy event as ‘What Gods Have Joined Together!’ Elsewhere, arcane enemy Llyra is resurrected and seeks to steal the throne by abducting and replacing the bride-to-be, whilst Namor is distracted by an invasion of Attuma’s hordes. Ross Andru & Esposito take over illustration with #37 as an era ends and tragedy triumphs, leading to a catastrophic battle on ‘The Way to Dusty Death!’ Betrayed by one of his closest friends and ultimately unable to save his beloved, the heartbroken prince thinks long and hard before abdicating in #38 ‘Namor Agonistes!’ (inked by John Severin): reprising his origins and life choices before choosing to henceforth pursue the human half of his hybrid heritage as a surface dweller…

Despite his abdicating the throne and pursuing the human half of his hybrid heritage as a surface dweller, Namor’s tragic tribulations instantly intensify in Sub-Mariner #39 as seasoned scripter Roy Thomas bows out with ‘…And Here I’ll Stand!’ Illustrated by Andru & Mooney, it sees the former royal arrive in New York City and move onto abandoned, desolate Prison Island. Intrusion is taken for invasion by curmudgeonly human authorities who mobilise the military to drive him out. A tense stand-off soon escalates and a typically bombastic response all round reduces Sub-Mariner’s sanctuary to shards and rubble.

In the aftermath, human friends Diane Arliss and Walt Newell bring the twice-exiled Prince staggering news. Meanwhile in Manhattan – and depicted in Daredevil #77 – Gerry Conway, Gene Colan & Tom Palmer embroil Namor in a 3-way clash after a strange vehicle materialises in Central Park. Irresistibly summoned by telepathic force, Namor arrives just in time for the Sightless Swashbuckler to jump to a wrong conclusion and attack… Then a late-arriving third hero butts in…

Guest stars abound in ‘…And So Enters the Amazing Spider-Man!’ and when the uncanny alien artefact explodes, a mysterious woman ominously invites DD, the webspinner and Namor to participate in a fantastic battle in a far-flung, dimensionally-adrift lost world. Exhausted by the traditional misunderstanding and subsequent fight, Daredevil begs off and goes home, leaving the wallcrawler to join now-nomadic Namor on a fantastic voyage and bizarre adventure that concludes in the Atlantean’s own comic…

Sub-Mariner #40 sees Conway, Colan & Sam Grainger detail how Spider-Man and Namor are compelled ‘…Under the Name of Ritual…’ to save The People of the Black Sea from murderous usurper Turalla. The telepathic subspecies has undisclosed links to Atlantis and a claim on Namor’s honour: demanding he fight on their behalf since their true king has been missing for decades. In distant Boston, angry, reclusive elder Stephan Tuval is psionically aware of what’s transpiring and – just when arachnid and amphibian are about to fall in the brutal duel – strikes with all the terrifying power of his mind…

Returned to Manhattan, the heroes part, and Sub-Mariner #41 reveals Namor following up revelations shared by Diane and Walt. Illustrated by George Tuska & Grainger, ‘Whom the Sky Would Destroy!’ sees the sea lord struck down over rural New York state by mutants artificially created by deranged scientist Aunt Serr. Her son Rock is terrifying, but the real threat is meek, gentle, deceptive Lucile, and before long Namor has fallen to the demonic clan. Considered raw material, the former prince barely escapes destruction in #42’s ‘…And a House Whose Name…is Death!’ as Conway, Tuska & Mooney briskly build to larger epic featuring Tuval. If you’re completist, this issue offers a brief Mr. Kline interlude, as Conway continued an early experiment in close-linked crossover continuity. Issue #42 contributes to the convoluted storyline involving a mystery mastermind from the future, twisting human lives and events. For the full story you should see contemporaneous Iron Man and Daredevil collections: you won’t be any the wiser, but at least you’ll have a complete set…

For one month, Marvel experimented with double-sized comic books (whereas DC’s switch to 52-page issues lasted nearly a year: August 1971 to June 1972 cover-dates). November’s Sub-Mariner #43 held an immense, 3-chapter blockbuster beginning with ‘Mindquake!’ as Namor reaches Boston, still searching for his father Leonard McKenzie, whom he believed had been killed by Atlanteans in the 1920s. Instead, he finds Tuval driven mad by his re-emerging psychic abilities and now a danger to all. Crafted throughout by Conway, Colan & Esposito, the tale of the aged tele-potent reveals how he has built a cult around himself ‘…And the Power of the Mind!’, before his increasingly belligerent acts trigger ‘The Changeling War!’ and cause his downfall…

Cruelly unaware how near he is to his dad, Sub-Mariner is distracted by the return of Llyra and new consort Tiger Shark in #44’s ‘Namor Betrayed!’ Illustrated by magnificent Marie Severin & Mooney, the story reviews the antihero’s love-hate relationship with Human Torch Johnny Storm, just in time for the sultry shapeshifter to orchestrate a heated clash with the teen hero. The blistering battle concludes in #45 with McKenzie’s abduction, as ‘…And Fire Stalks the Skies!’ sees Namor surrender himself to save his sire…

Conway, Colan & Esposito pile on the trauma in #46 in ‘And Always Men Will Cry: Even the Noble Die!’ with the son’s quest ending in death and disaster, despite the best – if badly mismanaged – interventions and intentions of the Torch and Stingray. Doubly orphaned and traumatised, Namor loses his memory again, and is easily gulled by ultimate manipulator Victor Von Doom in #47’s ‘Doomsmasque!’: duly deployed as cannon fodder in the Demon

Doctor’s duel with M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M. to control a reality-warping Cosmic Cube.

The war is dirty and many-sided, with a frontal assault in #48’s ‘Twilight of the Hunted!’ leaving Namor to a pyrrhic triumph in concluding chapter ‘The Dream Stone!’ (Frank Giacoia inks) before retrenching in confusion to ponder his obscured future…

To Be Continued…

Sunken treasures salvaged here include Buscema’s cover to all-reprint Sub-Mariner Annual #1 (January 1971, reprising the underwater portions of Tales to Astonish #70-75); Bill Everett’s similar job on Sub-Mariner Annual #2 plus an Everett pinup of the Golden Age iteration, house ads, glorious Marie Severin cover sketches and a vast gallery of original art by Sal B, Tuska, Gil Kane & Giacoia; Andru & Mooney.

Many early Marvel Comics are more exuberant than qualitative, but this volume, especially from an art-lover’s point of view, is a wonderful exception: historical treasures with narrative bite that fans will delight in forever. Moreover, as the Prince of Atlantis is now a bona fide big screen sensation, now might be the time to get wise and impress your friends with a sunken treasure…
© 2024 MARVEL.