Category: Fantasy

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Mermaid Saga VIZ Signature Edition volume 1


By Rumiko Takahashi, translated by Rachel Thorn & lettered by Joanna Estep (VIZ Media)
ISBN: 978-1-97471-857-3 (Tankobon TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Rumiko Takahashi is one of the most successful and globally lauded comics creators of all time and indisputably the best-selling woman in the field (as of 2017, over 200 million volumes – and always rising – of her assorted inventions in print) with countless accolades and awards to her name. That makes the recent unavailability of her works in translation – in print or pixels – utterly incomprehensible to me. At least at last that situation is being remedied…

Born in 1957, she enrolled in a manga school whilst at university and began producing Doujinshi (self-published stories) in 1975, under the tutelage of Manga genius Kazuo Koike. She sold her first professional story 3 years later: award-winning science fiction comedy Urusei Yatsura (34 volumes). Her next big series was rom-com Maison Ikkoku (15 volumes) and she continued both series simultaneously until 1987, whilst also producing a vast array of extremely popular short stories and mini-series.

In 1984, she tried something new: an occasional sequence of interlinked gothic-love horror short-stories that would become known as the Mermaid Saga – appearing at uneven intervals over the next decade. Ten years later, Viz Communications began collecting and translating the nine graphic novelettes for the English speaking world, and this volume (from 2020) re-presents and remasters the first three fishy tales in a stunning display of visual virtuosity and macabre menace as part of a paired and glorious Viz Signature Edition.

‘A Mermaid Never Smiles’ (Parts 1 & 2) begins in a remote rural village in modern Japan as beautiful maiden Mana calls out petulantly to her servants. Meanwhile miles away, a derelict young man wanders aimlessly, searching for something. His name is Yuta and there’s something odd about him…

Mana’s attendants are all women and they are waiting for something. When one performs a unique sacrifice the assembled harridans decree Mana is ready at last for her great purpose…

When Yuta stumbles into the village he is swiftly killed by the old ladies… but doesn’t stay dead for long. Escaping from his grave, Yuta confronts the women and rescues far-from-grateful Mana, who has no idea she has been farmed like a veal calf by her “servants” with but one purpose…

On the run, Yuta explains the legend of Mermaids: eating their flesh can, if one is fortunate, impart immortality and invulnerability. More common is a slow transformation into ghastly monsters, called “Lost Souls”. Most likely, though, is a swift, exceedingly painful death from the malignant meat…

Years previously, Yuta had unwittingly consumed mermaid flesh and has spent half a lonely millennium seeking a cure to his lonely un-aging existence. An old wise woman told him the only solution was to find a live mermaid and ask her for a method to end his interminable life. However, he has cause to regret his wish when he discovers that all the old women here are aged and near-decrepit mermaids and that poor Mana has been bred for years as a means by which they can regain lost youth.

Horrified and reluctantly heroic, Yuta knows he must foil the plan at all costs – but it won’t be easy or pretty…

Also divided into Parts 1 & 2, second story ‘The Village of the Fighting Fish’ takes us back centuries to Feudal Japan and two island communities at war. Eking out their harsh existence with occasional piracy, the fisher-folk of Toba are being slowly squeezed by their ruthless rivals on Sakagami Island. Moreover, the Tobans’ headman is dying and his valiant daughter O-Rin is having difficulty filling his sandals and continuing his legacy and leadership…

She thinks nothing of it when a dead body washes up: that’s just a sign of the times, but when the corpse comes back to life, the sinister, manipulative wife of the Sakagami chieftain seeks him out. It appears she, too, is hunting for a mermaid, just like un-killable stranger Yuta…

With a ruthless agenda of her own, Isago stirs the bubbling pot of tension until war is inevitable, just as restless wander Yuta dares to dream that he might risk loving again, but once more the terrible lure of mermaid flesh and supernatural longevity prove to be more curse than blessing and horrifying bloodshed is the inevitable result…

We return to more-or-less contemporary Japan as Mana & Yuta find an isolated village near deep woods and stop their incessant wandering for one night. However, the naive lass is utterly unaware of the modern world and walks into a near fatal accident. Rushed to the local cottage hospital, the severely injured girl mysteriously goes missing, and when Yuta discovers the woodland called the ‘Mermaid Forest’ he fears the worst. His frantic investigations uncover yet another tragic family destroyed by the mermaid mystique which has tainted so many lives…

Kindly old Dr. Shiina has kept a sinister secret for decades and now, through captive undying Mana, hopes to correct an ancient wrong. Sadly, no-one who has tasted mermaid flesh ever exists or even ends happily, and as Yuta hopelessly battles yet more Lost Soul horrors, our undying hero knows that this time will be no different…

In the aftermath he restless wanderers Yuta & Mana move on, only to stumble into another toxic immortality trap as ‘Dream’s End’ leaves them in the middle of a 40-year duel between a colossal monster mutated by tasting sea-siren flesh and an aging hunter maimed by the beast and rabid for revenge. To world-weary Yuta the case seems clear-cut, but when rampaging Big-eyes shows Mana a softer side, the positions of stalker and prey look far less cut and dried…

Closing this tome is two-part drama ‘Mermaid’s Promise’ as the immortal man comes again to Misaki village to find a sprawling growing metropolis. When he was last here he loved – and left – a maid in dire straits: a broken vow that still plagues him. Tragically, his betrayal turns out to be wasted tears as abandoned Nae is still alive… sort of.

As Mana & Yuta roam the bustling city dubbed Crimson Valley, they are targeted by the big boss of the region, a man with many dark secrets – and loyal thugs – who has also changed a great deal since he vied with Yuta for Nae’s hand sixty decades previously. Killing his rival, ancient Eijiro continues his project of excavating the entire surrounding hills and forests, seeking the ashes of a mermaid. They once enabled his “fiancée” to stay Nae fresh, young, vital. Hopefully another dose will stop her being soullessly, murderously psychotic…

These bleak supernatural tales of jealousy, twisted love and dark devotion are brooding and oppressive epics of understated horror, beautifully realised and movingly effective. One of the best mature manga series ever produced, it can – and should – be read by kids too, but please be aware Japanese social conventions regarding casual nudity are not the same as ours and if you don’t want them seeing naked bodies you should read something else.
TAKAHASHI RUMIKO NINGYO SERIES Vol. 1, 2 © 2003 Rumiko TAKAHASHI. All rights reserved.

Today in 1930 Leo Baxendale was born. We did him just recently, so scroll back to October 20th.

In 1948 master of horror and Swamp Thing co-creator Bernie Wrightson joined the world. You can learn all about him through Frankenstein Alive, Alive – The Complete Collection.

And in 1990 the last issue of UK laughter generator Whizzer and Chips – which had begun the fun way back in 1969 – hit the shelves and spinner racks. You can still get a taste of it all (mostly toffees, liniment, perished rubber and sweaty feet) via Whizzer and Chips Annual 1979.

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Chas Addams™ Half-Baked Cookbook: Culinary Cartoons for the Humorously Famished


By Charles Addams (Simon & Schuster)
ISBN: ?978-0-7432-6775-5 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-439-10386-9

This boos includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. It also uses Discriminatory Content included for comedic and satirical effect.

Cartoonist Charles Samuel Addams (1912-1988) was a distant descendant of two American Presidents (John Adams & John Quincy Adams). He compounded that hereditary infamy by perpetually making his real life as extraordinary as his dark, mordantly funny drawings.

Born into a successful family in Westfield, New Jersey, the precocious, prankish, constantly drawing child was educated at the town High School, Colgate University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York City’s Grand Central School of Art, and apparently spent the entire time producing cartoons and illustrations for a raft of institutional publications.

In 1932 he became a designer for True Detective magazine – “retouching photos of corpses” – and soon after started selling drawings to The New Yorker. In 1937, at the peak of popular fascination in cinematic and literary horror stories, he began a ghoulish if not outright macabre sequence of family portraits that ultimately became his signature creation. However, during WWII, he toned down the terror and served with the US Signal Corps Photographic Center, devising animated training films for the military.

Whether Addams artfully manufactured his biography to enhance his value to feature writers or was genuinely a warped and wickedly wacky individual is irrelevant, although it makes for great reading – especially the stuff about his wives – and, as always, the internet is eager to be your informative friend…

What is important is that in all the years he drew and painted those creepily sardonic, gruesome gags and illustrations for The New Yorker, Colliers, TV Guide and so many others, he managed to beguile and enthral his audience with a devilish mind and a soft, gentle approach that made him a household name long before television turned his characters into a hit and generated a juvenile craze for monsters and grotesques that lasts to this day. That eminence was only magnified once the big screen iterations debuted. And now we have streaming fun too. He would have loved the sheer terrifying inescapability of it all…

As he worked on unto death, Addams got even wackier: marrying his third wife in a pet cemetery, spending a fortune collecting weapons and torture devices – “for reference” – and inventing… recipes…

In a legendary career dedicated to being odd, the sudden swerve into crafting and compiling an actual cookbook garnished with macabre cartoon japery is a fabulous affirmation of all the unharnessed unpredictability man stood for, and one which constantly delivers treat after tasty treat…

The compendium commences with introduction ‘Café Styx’ from culinary author Allen S. Weiss, after which a bundle of gags – many starring Addams Family stalwarts – brings us to the secrets of making mouthwatering ‘Mushrooms Fester’. Always be sure when cooking this where you sourced your fungi from – and what you need them to do…

The pattern repeats throughout in chapters divided into ‘Platters’: soundly sinister laughs and gruesomely gustatory giggles peppered with rather tasty recipes. You can see for yourself the quality of the cartooning here so I’ll be brief for a change and simply menu the other olfactory and tongue-tangling taste-bombs included.

The next is utterly self-explanatory ‘Macaroni and Oysters’, ending the first course prior to commencing the ‘Second Platter’ – specifically ‘Black Puddings’ (Yanks call them “blood puddings” and they’re not wrong) and ‘Transparent Pie’ with ‘Boiled Salad of Fiddleheads’ (that’s newly sprouted ferns)…

Pausing for a delicious ‘Intermezzo’ of home-made (for who could sell them?) ‘Dandelion Beer’ and ‘Influenza Punch’ accompanied by ‘Stewed Pigeons’, ‘Potted Woodland Squirrel’ & ‘Fried Locusts’ sagaciously catered to with helpful ‘Hints for the Ill’, we eventually come to what all gastrophiles, gastronomes (and gastrophobes!) have been waiting for: the triumphant ‘Third Platter’ and subsequent ‘Digestifs’…

Here the drawings are in their prime and perfectly piquant whilst consumers are advised on how to tackle ‘Hearts Stuffed for Valentine’s Day’ (with a most special Stuffing mix); ‘Ostrich Eggs’ and ‘Reindeer Rice Curry’. Of course, as with all comedy, acquiescence and acceptance in adversity might mean modern kitchen scullions might need to replace the odd ingredient for all these GENUINE early American recipes collected by Chas and Tee Addams over decades, but what really matters is that gradually older collections of the Addams oeuvre are being unearthed and this one’s truly scrumptious; or perhaps just an acquired taste…

For clarity and pure knowledge this volume closes with a full biography of the auteur and full list of ‘Credits’ for the recipes included.

Should you not be as familiar with his actual cartoons as with the big and small screen legacy Addams unleashed, you really owe it to yourself to see the uncensored brilliance of one of America’s greatest humourists. It’s very appetising and dead funny…

© 2005 by Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. All rights reserved.

Today was a biggie for Comics. In 1764, grand master and originator of mean drawing William Hogarth died. In 1931 Stan’s brother (the one who could write AND Draw) Larry Lieber was born. Among his many unsung triumphs was Rawhide Kid, co creating Iron Man and writing most of the stories in Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor volume 1: The Vengeance of Loki.

In 1941 Belgian Bob De Groot was born. You really should read one of his many light adventure gems such as Clifton volume 5: Jade.

In 1970, two US strips launched today one was Mel Lazarus’ venerable Momma, and the other was by Gary Trudeau. Go see and worship some more with the fabulous Yuge! – 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump.

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Heritage Comics Presents Spellbound: Damian Darke & I Don’t Want To Be a Witch!


By Daniel McGachey & Lauren Knight, Georgia Standen Battle, Brian Lewis,
Du Feu & Francisco Cueto, Alan Hebden & Patrick Wright, Kek W. & Jaume Forns, &Vicente Alcazar, & various (Heritage Comics/DC Thomson & Co.)

ISBN: 978-1-91743641-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

DC Thomson is probably the most influential comics publisher in British history. In the 1930s The Dandy and The Beano revolutionised children’s comedy comics, whilst newspaper strips Oor Wullie and The Broons (both created by writer/Editor R. D. Low and Dudley D. Watkins) have become a genetic marker for Scottishness. The company uniquely portrayed the occasional toff, decent British blokes and working-class heroes who grew from the prose-packed pages of Adventure, Rover, Wizard, Skipper, Hotspur and latterly “strip picture papers” like Victor and Warlord. They also cannily followed wider-world trends and capitalised – as much as any tasteful, all-ages publishing house could – on global interests that filtered down to juvenile consumers.

Their Girls Papers line especially shaped successive generations and, whenever cited, examples still evoke passionate memories. Don’t take my word for it either; just ask your mum or grandmother about Judy, Bunty, Diana, Mandy and the rest…

And that goes double for the spooky sagas in Spellbound…

Kids have always delighted in scary stories but the 1970s horror bubble presented lots of problems for comics publishers. With parents and watch groups always readily on hand to complain or kick up a fuss, how to cater to a genuine demand without incurring another 1950s style comics panic was uppermost in every comic editor’s mind. The answer, obviously is with style, imagination and caution…

Predating Fleetway’s fantasy icon Misty by a couple of years, Spellbound – “the all-new mystery story paper for girls”- launched from DC Thompson’s haunted mansion on September 25th 1976.

Opening in plenty of time for Halloween, it ran for 69 issues before merging in January 1978 with generally-school-&-fashion-themed title Debbie. In its time Spellbound recounted horror-tinged fantasy tales along traditional lines, mixed with school scenarios and, as always, supplemented by text features, activities, and general interest snippets. Its true rewards and achievements rested in the roster of stellar creators associated with its solo strips and serials: artisans including Brian Lewis, Estaban Maroto, Edmond Ripoll, Enrique Badía Romero, Jésus Redondo, Adolfo Usero, Jordi Franch, Norman Lee and others for material including ‘When the Mummy Walks’, ‘The Secret of Silver Star’, ‘Supercats’, ‘The Haunting of Laura Lee’, ‘Peril on Paradise Island’ and more.

DCT is constantly looking for better ways to reach fresh audiences and recently moved into digital publishing of vintage and original new stories in a big way. Backing up their Commando war stories and Starblazer science fiction reprint projects comes this initially digital-only treat: a timely compilation of supernatural sagas is an ideal way to expand their Heritage Comics imprint (expect more reviews in coming months).

This blockbuster tome collects many magnificently understated macabre moments from the periodical, focussing at first on short stories narrated by Master of Mystery Damian Darke before closing with a complete serial from Spellbound #1-15. Throughout, the monochrome lore is littered with those aforementioned prose featurettes and the occasional full colour cover reproduction, and the entire fear fest is festooned with new stuff such as informative

opening letter to the readers ‘Spellbinding Tales…’

Then comes a new introductory spooky strip by Daniel McGachey & Lauren Knight, as wayward teens Gwen & MacKenzie – who really should know better – break into an old abandoned house and discover the world is not what they thought it was…

The cover of #46 (August 6th 1977) leads to our introduction to the Man of Mystery from Spellbound #1, as Damian Darke describes the events of a judicial ‘Spectre from the Flame’ returning to punish evildoers from beyond the grave in a superb chiller limned by Brian Lewis. Next, Jenny & Denise experience a ‘Journey into Fear’ (#19) when they are lost in a storm on the Yorkshire Dales and fetch up at an old edifice that is absolutely not the youth hostel they’re looking for…

That’s augmented with prose potted ghost story ‘Spellbound Special Feature: Poor Little Rich Boy’ from #4, before Lewis strikes again with ‘The Warning’ (#46) wherein hikers Joan & Babs meet a little girl who literally isn’t there (anymore…) whilst from Spellbound #2, “biker chick” Lindsay Gordon inadvertently survives a very close encounter with Cumbrian legend the ‘Ghost Rider’ before ‘Spellbound Special Feature: Get Friendly with Your Phantom’ (#12) textually tells of how to act if one gets too close to the dead-&-not-gone…

Haunted objects ‘The Preston Figurines’ (#36) move heaven and earth to be reunited when sold separately at an antique shop, after which – from #7 – Darke details how a mean miserly usurer gets his just deserts in the ‘Swamp of Evil’: a period piece neatly bookended by text tract ‘Spinning Spectres’ from #13.

Spectral salvation and revelatory redemption come when lost voyager Judy Rose survives a snowstorm thanks to ‘The Cavalier’s Cloak’ (#37) even as in #35 horse lover Kathy King is saved from certain swampy death by ‘The Ghost of Whitefire’ – a modern myth bolstered by prose historical pointers in #17’s ‘Spellbound Special Feature: Milady Greensleeves’…

From Spellbound #21, ‘Mystery at Howlen Hall’ revisits classic gothic literature as a sister searches for a lost sibling at a creaky old manse and only finds madness and worse, whilst Lewis shines in a sentimental scare-fest involving a valiant dead puppy and an ‘Echo on the Wind’ (#4) prior to prose ‘Special Feature: Mr Nobody’ taking a peep at people who aren’t there…

Murder from beyond and a most unquiet landlady garnish a florid tale of perilous ‘Poison Ivy’ (#48), whilst Victorian vignette ‘The House of Palgrave’ (#3 by Lewis) explores a Cornish dwelling that is in no way welcoming to its owner’s new bride, all before auction-going flatmates Sue & Carol get more than they bargained for after buying ‘A Spoonful of Evil…’ (#43). This brings Darke’s delightful diatribes to a halt for the present, allowing a ‘Spellbound Special Feature: The Housemaid’s Revenge’ (#28) and the cover to #8 (November 13th 1976) to usher in a classic serial…

Illustrated by Norman Lee (When the Mummy Walks, The Shop at Shudder Corner, most Spellbound covers) ‘I Don’t Want to Be a Witch!’ is reprinted from Spellbound #1-15, and blends traditional outsider-at-boarding-school comedy drama with a hefty dose of wyrd warfare. However, here, 13-year-old Celia Winters perpetually foils the many schemes of her high witch aunt Armida who strives to make the teenager her vassal and mystic acolyte, but first must get her out of the infernal normal school she loves and away from all her friends at St. Ann’s…

For three action- and imagination-packed months, Celia, best pal Anne and pet Myna bird Merlin duck & dodge & dive, craftily utilising the hidden magic grotto on school grounds (“normal life” huh?) to foil Auntie’s every incredible ploy. Constant chaos and bewildered teachers cannot quell the madness, nor will her feline familiar Lucifer and spiteful tattle-tale mean girl Ruth Narkle hold back as they seek to squash Celia’s every effort to stay nice and normal. Eventually the escalating arcane pot boiler inevitably bubbles over…

‘I Don’t Want to Be a Witch!’ may have ended but is here revived in a creepy continuance by Georgia Standen Battle & Anna Morozova who introduce a fresh new generation to close this tome…

Rounding out the nostalgia chills is a final cover gallery – seven more scary front pages – accompanied by one last yarn: another illustrated prose poser from the first issue suitably entitled ‘Nightmare’…

Short sharp stories of solidly spooky standing superbly rendered make this a horror fan’s delight and a welcome doorway into more inviting times. Why not climb aboard this coachload of chillers and see what used to make our spines shudder and shake?
© DC Thomson & Co., Ltd. 2019.

Today in 1922 Maurice Dodd was born. We love him for one of the world’s greatest comedy strips. So will you if you scope out The Perishers Spectacolour.

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Glacial Period


By Nicolas de Crécy, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM ComicsLit/Louvre: Musée du Louvre Éditions)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-855-0 (Album HB/Digital edition) 978-1-56163-483-5 (TPB)

I’m feeling waggishly topical today. Mayhap I might be getting better…

In 2005 one of the greatest museums in the world began an intriguing ongoing project with the upstart art form of comics; inviting some of the world’s most accomplished masters of graphic narrative to create new works in response to the centuries of acquired treasures residing within the grand repository of arts, history and culture.

The tales are produced in close collaboration with the forward-looking (if not security-conscious) authorities of the Louvre, and always push the envelope of what can be accomplished by master craftsman inspired by their creative antecedents and forebears. These are no thinly-concealed catalogues of exhibition contents gift-wrapped in cartoon terms to gull potential visitors off their couches and into a stuffy edifice of public culture, but vibrant and challenging comics events calculated to make you think again about what creativity and history mean…

The first of those stellar tomes, originally released as Période glaciaire, is a deluxe, lavish, oversized (286 x 222mm) hardback edition by NBM – well worth nicking but perhaps best purchased – granting readers that rarest of things… a second bite of the cherry.

Born in Lyon in September 1966 into a large family of artistic overachievers, Nicolas de Crécy was, in 1987, part of the first graduating class of students from de l’école de Bande dessinée des Beaux-Arts d’Angoulême.

After working for Studios Disney at Montreuil, he published first album Foligatto in 1991. Since then he has produced more than thirty albums; both one-off books such as Journal d’un fantôme, Escales, Plaisir de myope and La Nuit du grand méchant loup and series/serials such as Léon la came, Monsieur Fruit and Salvatore.

He is justly considered a wünderkind of French comics and his unique take on the role of the Louvre was – typically – boldly off-kilter, ingeniously amusing and fantastically sardonic…

Thousands of years from now Earth is a frozen dustheap. Scrabbling through its barren remains one day comes a turbulent group of scientists and archaeologists. The humans are a tendentious bunch, constantly bickering and pontificating on what the civilisation they are obsessed with understanding was actually like. Most have their own theories and perhaps only look now for finds to validate their views. Far more open and philosophical are the tubby talking dogs who act as frontrunners; their hyper-keen noses sniffing out areas where potential finds are buried. Especially sensitive – in every meaning of the term – is Hulk.

The rotund canine rogue can feel the tension in the party and when he sleeps (as often as possible) he has strange dreams and visions of beautiful old things. When he and official expedition leader Juliette are briefly separated from the group by a storm, the ensuing calm reveals an ancient structure freshly uncovered. Soon the humans are all over the “temple” and making grand plans. Nevertheless, the irascible mutt knows this find is mere dross and rubbish…

Another angry discussion results in top historian Paul being left behind to research/catalogue the temple whilst the others press on to uncover the fabled lost metropolis buried somewhere in this desolate region…

Hulk isn’t fooled. He sees that imperious alpha male Gregor has designs on Juliette and is slowly isolating her from the others. After she ignores the canny canine’s warnings, Hulk wanders off into the cold night and next morning impatient Gregor convinces the party to go on without him. Alone and no longer distracted, Hulk’s incredible faculties detect a faint scent and he begins to dig down.

Before long he has broken into a stone vault filled with fascinating artefacts and, as ever following his nose, the mighty mutt discovers a mesmerising maze of corridors, revealing incredible facts about the lost civilisation. Under the cold light skies above, Juliette & Gregor clash over who is truly in charge and poor studious Joseph intervenes, suffering for his chivalry. Further interpersonal violence is only prevented when the treacherously unstable landscape shifts and from the icy crust an ancient structure begins to inexorably rise…

Hysterically elated, Gregor drags stunned archaeologists into the fabled metropolis and all are astounded by the images and artefacts they find. Soon, they’re frantically hypothesising, guessing and just plain spit-balling as they plunge deeper and deeper into a still shaky, shifting edifice. Entranced and intoxicated by the panoply of pictures and statues, the humans’ imaginations are running amok.

And, from outside, Esteban calls out to them: he has spotted another glistening building forcing its way out of the snows…

The treasure trove seems unending: a final repository of ancient magnificence that leads them ever inward as the monumental mausoleum inexorably pushes upwards into dying sunlight.

Elsewhere, deep below them, Hulk is making his own explorations and encounters something uncanny and bizarre. Before long he’s conversing with the oldest statues and objets d’art in the vaults of history. The relics know the Louvre is in tectonic death throes and need his help to save all the wonderful “living” treasures that have waited here for patient millennia…

Sharing with him the true stories, mistakes and triumphs of the past races of man, dog and anxious, animated exhibits unite in a desperate attempt to save their quintessentially timeless splendours from final obliteration…

Accompanied by a formidable and informative List of Works which feature most prominently in this captivating yarn, Glacial Period is a bemusing, wide-eyed, light-hearted epic as well as an utterly engrossing, darkly charming graphic discussion on the nature and value of art and our eternal ever-changing relationship with it. It is also an entrancing, witty literal shaggy dog story in comics form that reads superbly even if you wouldn’t be caught dead in a museum, French or otherwise.

Why not give it a go and see if your cool attitude thaws after all?
© 2005 Futuropolis/Musée du Louvre Éditions. English Edition © 2006 NBM.

Today in 1920 Archie Comics artist Bob Montanna was born, and in 1958 Earth reeled from the first appearance of the Smurfs as walk-on in a Johan and Peewit strip by Peyo in Le Journal de Spirou. We covered all that in The Smurfs Anthology volume 1.

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Steve Ditko Archives volume 2: Unexplored Worlds


By Steve Ditko, Joe Gill & various, edited by Blake Bell (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-289-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Immaculate Yarn-Spinning… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. It also has Discriminatory Content included for comedic and satirical effect.

Once upon a time the anthological title of short stand-alone stories was the sole staple of the comicbook profession, where the plan was to deliver as much variety as possible to the reader. Sadly, that particular vehicle of expression seems all but lost to us today…

Despite his death Steve Ditko remains one of our industry’s greatest talents and one of America’s least lauded. His fervent desire to just get on with his job and to tell stories the best way he can – whilst the noblest of aspirations – had always been a minor consideration or even stumbling block for the commercial interests which for so long controlled all comics production and still exert an overwhelming influence upon the mainstream bulk of comic book output. Before his time at Marvel, young Ditko perfected his craft creating short sharp yarns for a variety of companies and it’s an undeniable joy today to be able to look at this work from such an innocent time when he was just breaking into the industry: tirelessly honing his craft with genre tales for whichever publisher would have him, utterly free from the interference of intrusive editors.

A superb full-colour series of hardback collections reprinted those early efforts (all of them here are from 1956-1957) with material produced after the draconian, self-inflicted Comics Code Authority sanitised the industry following Senate Hearings and a public witch-hunt.

Most are wonderfully baroque bizarre supernatural or science fantasy stories, but there are also examples of Westerns, Crime and Humour: cunningly presented in the order he completed and sold them rather than the more logical but far-less-revealing chronological release dates. Moreover, they’re all helpfully annotated with a purchase number to indicate approximately when they were actually drawn – even the brace of tales done for Stan Lee’s pre-Marvel Atlas company.

Sadly, there’s no indication of how many (if any) were actually written by the moody master…

This second sublime selection reprints more heaping helpings of his increasingly impressive works: most courtesy of the surprisingly liberal (at least in its trust of its employees’ creative instincts) sweat-shop publisher Charlton Comics.

And whilst we’re being technically accurate, it’s also important to reiterate that those cited publication dates have very little to do with when Ditko crafted them: as Charlton paid so little, the cheap, anthologically astute outfit had no problem in buying material it could leave on a shelf for months – occasionally years! – until the right moment arrived to print. The work is assembled and runs here in the order Ditko submitted it, rather than when it reached our grubby sweaty paws…

Following an historically informative Introduction and passionate advocacy by Blake Bell, concentrating on Ditko’s near-death experience in 1954 (when the artist contracted tuberculosis) and subsequent recovery, the evocatively eccentric excursions open with a monochrome meander into the realms of satire with the faux fable – now we’d call it a mockumentary – ‘Starlight Starbright’ as first seen in From Here to Insanity (volume 3 #1 April 1956) before “normal” service resumes with financial fable ‘They’ll Be Some Changes Made’ (scripted by Carl Wessler from Atlas’ Journey Into Mystery #33, April 1956).

Here a petty-minded pauper builds a time machine to steal the fortune his ancestors squandered, after which a crook seeking to exploit a mystic pool finds himself the victim of fate’s justice in ‘Those Who Vanish’ (Journey Into Mystery #38, September 1956) again scripted by Wessler.

Almost – if not all – the Charlton material was scripted by astoundingly prolific Joe Gill at this time, and records are spotty at best, so let’s assume his collaboration on all the material here begins with ‘The Man Who Could Never Be Killed’ (Strange Suspense Stories #31, published in February 1957). This yarn of a circus performer with an incredible ethereal secret segues into ‘Adrift in Space’ (Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #8 June 1958) as a veteran starship captain pushes his weary crew over the edge, whereas ‘The King of Planetoid X’ from the previous MoUW (February) details a crisis of conscience for a benevolent and ultimately wise potentate…

The cover of Strange Suspense Stories #31 (February 1957) leads into ‘The Gloomy One’ as a misery-loving alien intruder is destroyed by simple human joy, before the cover to Out of This World #5 (September 1957) heralds that issue’s ‘The Man Who Stepped Out of a Cloud’ and an alien whose abduction plans only seem sinister in intent. MoUW #5 (October 1957) tells the story of a young ‘Stowaway’ who finds fulfilment aboard a harshly-run space ship after which Out of This World #3’s cover (March 1957) ushers us to an apparent alien paradise for weary star-men in ‘What Happened?’

Next up is a tale from one of Charlton’s earliest star characters. The title came from a radio show that Charlton licensed the rights to, with the lead/host/narrator acting more as voyeur than active participant. The Mysterious Traveler spoke directly to camera, asking readers for opinion and judgement as he shared a selection of funny, sad, scary and miraculous human-interest yarns, all tinged with a hint of the weird or supernatural. Whenever rendered by Ditko, whose storytelling mastery, page design and full, lavish brushwork were just beginning to come into its mature full range, the contents of Tales of the Mysterious Traveler were always exotic and esoteric and utterly beguiling.

From issue #2 (February 1957), ‘What Wilbur Saw’ reveals the reward bestowed on a poverty-stricken country bumpkin who witnessed a modern-day miracle, after which Out of This World #3 covers a cautionary tale of atomic mutation in ‘The Supermen’ before the eerie cover to OoTW #4 (June 1957) signals a chilling encounter for two stranded sailors who briefly board the ‘Flying Dutchman’ whilst SSS #32’s cover (May 1957) dabbles in magic art when a collector is victimised by a thief who foolishly stumbles into ‘A World of His Own’.

From the same issue comes a salutary parable concerning a rich practical joker who goes too far before succumbing to ‘The Last Laugh’, after which ‘Mystery Planet’ (SSS #36, March 1958) offers a dash of interplanetary derring-do as valiant agent Bryan Bodine and comely associate Nedra confound intergalactic pirates piloting a planet-eating weapon against Earth!

A similarly bold defender liberates ‘The Conquered Earth’ from alien subjugation (OoTW #4, June 1957) whilst in ‘Assignment Treason’ (Outer Space #18. August 1958) the clean-cut hero goes undercover to save Earth from the predatory Master of Space as OoTW #8 (May 1958) and ‘The Secret of Capt. X’ reveals the inimical alien tyrant threatening humanity is not what he seems…

The cover to Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #3 (April 1957) makes way for three fantastic thrillers, beginning with ‘The Strange Guests of Tsaurus’ as an alien paradise proves to be anything but, then ‘A World Where I Was King’ sees a clumsy janitor catapulted into a wondrous realm to win a kingdom he doesn’t want. Diverting slightly, Fightin’ Army #20 (May 1957) provides a comedic interlude as a civil war soldier finds himself constantly indebted to ‘Gavin’s Stupid Mule’ before ‘A Forgotten World’ wraps up MoUW #3’s contributions with a scary tale of invasion from the Earth’s core. ‘The Cheapest Steak in Nome’ turns out to be defrosted from something that died millions of years ago in a light-hearted yarn from MoUW #7 (February 1958)…

The cover to MoUW #4 (July 1957) precedes more icy antediluvian preservations found in the ‘Valley in the Mist’ whilst the one for Strange Suspense Stories #33 (August 1957) leads into a bizarre corporate outreach project as the ‘Director of the Board’ attempts to go where no other exploitative capitalist has gone before. Next, it’s back to MoUW #3 for a brush with the mythological in ‘They Didn’t Believe Him’ after which ‘Forever and Ever’ (SSS #33) reveals an unforeseen downside to immortality and Out of This World #3 sees a stranger share ‘My Secret’ with ordinary folk despite – or because of – a scurrilous blackmailer…

‘A Dreamer’s World’ from Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #5 (October 1957) follows the chilling cover thereof as a test pilot hits his aerial limit and discovers a whole new existence, whilst Unusual Tales #7 (May 1957) traces the tragic path of ‘The Man Who Could See Tomorrow’ before the cover of Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #4 (August 1957) opens a mini-feast of voyeur’s voyages beginning with that issue’s ‘The Desert’: a saga of polar privation and survival.

TotMT #3 (May 1957) shows the appropriate cover and a ‘Secret Mission’ for a spy parachuted into Prague, whilst #4 offers ‘Escape’ for an unemployed pilot dragged into a gun-running scam in a south American lost world; ‘Test of a Man’ sees a cruel animal trainer receive his just deserts and ‘Operation Blacksnake’ grittily exposes American venality in the ever-expanding Arabian oil trade. Returning to Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #5, ‘The Mirage’ torments an escaped convict who thinks he’s escaped his fate, whilst Texas Rangers in Action #8 (July 1957) sees a ruthless rancher crushed by the weight of his own wicked actions as ‘The Only One’, after which stunning covers to Unusual Tales #6 and 7 (February and May 1957) lead into our final vignette – ‘The Man Who Painted on Air’: exposing and thwarting a unique talent to preserve humanity and make a few bucks on the side…

This sturdily capacious volume has episodes that terrify, amaze, amuse and enthral: utter delights of fantasy fiction with lean, plots and stripped-down dialogue that let the art set the tone, push the emotions and tell the tale, from times when a story could end sadly as well as happily and only wonderment was on the agenda, hidden or otherwise.

These stories display the sharp wit and contained comedic energy which made so many Spider-Man/J. Jonah Jameson confrontations an unforgettable treat half a decade later, and this is another cracking collection not only superb in its own right but as a telling tribute to the genius of one of the art-form’s greatest stylists. This is something every serious comics fan would happily kill or die or be lost in time for…
Unexplored Worlds: The Steve Ditko Archive Vol. 2. This edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books. Introduction © 2010 Blake Bell. All rights reserved.

Today in 1914, Jerry Siegel was born. Don’t make me have to finish this heads-up…

In 1937 Huey, Dewey & Louie Duck debuted. Ditto.

In 1959 The last issue of UK icon Comet was published and a decade later across the Pond Sidney Smith’s The Gumps ended. It had begun in 1917 as you’d know if read Sidney Smith’s The Gumps.

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Bunny vs Monkey Book 11: Intergalactic Monkey Business!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras, Paul Duffield & Armin Roshdi (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-327-1 (Digest HB) 978-1-78845-387-5 (Waterstones Exclusive Team Bunny Edition) 978-1-78845-388-2 (Waterstones Exclusive Team Monkey Edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Because… Just Because… 10/10

Bunny vs Monkey has been the inspirationally bonkers breakout star of The Phoenix since the first issue in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal archenemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia, masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully gusto – but increasingly with cerebral cosmic crescendo in mind – by cartoonist/comics artist/novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember, Find Chaffy), these trendsetting, mind-bending yarns have been wisely retooled as best-selling graphic albums available in remastered, double-length digest softcover and hardback editions such as this one. All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in after a disastrous British space shot. OR DID IT?

Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite every effort of genteel, contemplative, reasonably sensible forest resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and good breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this moment remains a rude, troublemaking, chaos-creating, noise-loving lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” and/or being a robot, with or without the aid of evil supergenius Skunky or tagalong useless “henches” Metal Steve and Action Beaver…

Daily wonders and catastrophes were exacerbated by a broad band of unconventional Crinkle creatures, none more so than monochrome mad scientist Skunky, whose intellect and cavalier attitude to life presents as a propensity for building dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons. He is, at his core, a dangerously inquisitive thinker and tinkerer…

Here – with artistic fiddling about from design deputy Sammy Borras – the war of nerves and mega-ordnances resumes as if nothing cosmic or multiverse-changing had ever happened or any hint of a restart after a cosmic culmination. See, that’s what happens if you let books pile up and don’t read them immediately! Go check out Bunny vs Monkey: The Great Big Glitch! and then come back and we’ll talk some more…

Okay then, new day, new start, same old mega mecha meta nonsense as ‘Clouding Over’ sees a suspiciously low-lying cirrus formation starts dumping rain and then increasing more noisome and noxious substances on the woodsfolk in what appear to be targeted strikes. Could there possibly be some kind of intelligence behind the atmospheric attacks?

With propriety and good taste in full retreat, the sensorial assaults resume in ‘Guts n’ Butts!’ as Monkey and Skunky debate the appalling assets and proposed “improvements” to the weaponised flatulence engine dubbed Bungamungus with no consideration of those in its path prior to the simian unleashing his own worst nightmare. The giant ‘MonkeyBot 5000’ is supposed to make life hell for his fluffy white foe, but it appears Bunny can find plenty of uses for a mechanised personal organiser that can bench press trucks, topple buildings, file and colour co-ordinate…

Reality trembles all over again when Monkey’s ‘Mum and Dad’ pop by for a visit and nice bit of tea, but nature’s innocents Weenie and Pig Piggerton are too busy having adventures with ‘Frogs!’ and their mystical king to really notice, whereas ‘Lucky… The Unluckiest Red Panda in the World!!’ stumbles into unbridled chaos (as always) when Skunky & Monkey decide to go through the forgotten inventions bin…

Worried about declining productivity, the sinister science sinner uses his 3D printer to unleash a horde of ‘Fun-Size Skunkies’ who are anything but, before Bunny learns where all the wreckage, rubbish and remains go when the latest catastrophe has finished unfolding. Sadly, there are good reasons nobody wants to see ‘Binbag Sam’ carry out his nasty but necessary job…

Always seeking peace and serene contemplation, mysterious Le Fox has found a wilderness to dig in, but when Monkey comes by and discovers gold in ‘Them Thar Hills’ that’s another dead dream, and only a prelude to planet-shaking events when Skunky’s new signal array test coincides with Monkey’s latest eating challenge. ‘Message in a Butthole’ reveals how – after, inevitably – a monumental foofie erupts across the universe, the consequences will be appalling but not at all unexpected…

In a fabulous tribute to Chuck Jones cartoons ‘Monkey vs Ai’ sees the annoying ape test a bunch of inventions that should work “in theory”, before going back to stinky basics with a cheese cannon. Sadly, the anticipated Cheesepocalyse is derailed by ‘The Turning of the Pig’ as pacifistic Piggerton reaches a limit and shows the monkey miscreant just what it all feels like…

‘Buzzing Off’ finds Skunky testing ways to end the really annoying fly suit he built for his partner in chaos and then hiding along with everyone else in ‘Who’s Afraid of the Monkey’ when the simian simpleton gets really, really hungry. Eventually sated, the little sod resumes pranks and pestiferations with a giant robot in ‘Close Encounters of the Bird Kind’. Remember that olfactory beacon blasted across infinity? This is the moment something answers that unique call…

Suddenly, in ‘You Looking at Me?’ Crinkle Woods are alive with alien weirdoes, but it’s just Skunky messing about with quantum physics and nothing to do with Monkey, because he’s currently hurtling to the other side of the Universe, testing to destruction the super-high-tech toilets of the extraterrestrials who abducted him…

He can’t be blamed for the astonishing void discovered by Pig and Weenie prompting the chilling question ‘What Lies Inside… the Hole?!’ or sensible but naïve robot Metal E.V.E.’s attempts to balance out Lucky’s cosmic misfortunes in ‘What Luck Befalls’ or even Metal Steve’s crisis of confidence and inexplicable desire to ‘Destroy’ because Monkey is currently spreading his brand of chaos while ‘Hitching a Ride’ on the ship of judgemental civilisation eradicating superior being Grand Master Nexus…

Meanwhile on Earth, Skunky discovers the missing co-miscreant has left his life unfulfilled and dissatisfied and switches to a copy to serve his unsuspected emotional needs. ‘Little Monkey’ is wild, bitey, uncommunicative, un-potty-trainable and disgusting… such an improvement on the original! Enjoying his fresh start the evil inventor unleashes ‘A Clever Endeavour’ in the compulsive form of a malign puzzle box that baffles and bamboozles everyone – except the mini monkey who might just be the smartest thing in the woods now…

Pig’s penchant for peculiar pets sees the adoption of Blue-bummed Bimblebug ‘Parpy’  but the critter’s 24-hour lifespan brings near-instant woe, This leads to the advent of colossal hermit savant Capybara 5000 whose answers to all the ‘Big Questions’ are surprisingly violent. That search for truths culminates in sage advice ‘Run!’ before calm returns with Pig exploring wild water rafting and Le Fox confronting increasingly sinister Little Monkey in ‘The Happiness of the Kitsune’…

In another beleaguered solar system Monkey is slowly wearing down Nexus and his minions, before accidentally warping them all back to Earth to enjoy a spontaneous battle of ‘Rather Big Lasers’ with Skunky. When that eradicates the mastermind’s secret underground lair all Skunky can think of is ‘Revenge’. With Little Monkey in tow the genius goes ‘On the Hunt’ in a unique battleship, pursuing ‘Space Wars’ even as his hirsute former best-buddy seizes control of the Nexus craft and drives it into ‘A Hella Interstellar Yeller’…

Marooned on a muddy morass world, Monkey establishes his dream of a dictatorship. Sadly, ‘Chutneyopia’ is right next to the equally barren planet Skunky crashed on and war is declared as the newcomer demands an apology that just won’t be forthcoming…

Moreover, when Skunky took off after Monkey, most of Crinkle Wood went with him and as Bunny ruminates on ‘The Intergalactic Adventures of Weenie and Cinnamon Bun Pig!’ plans are underway to terraform the barren planetoid into ‘A New Home’ unfortunately undertaken by ‘Even More Skunkies’…

With the enemy busy converting Chutneyopia into his other, better dream of Monkeyopia, ‘A New Plan’ is needed, but the still active Grand Master finally concedes that its superior mentality and firepower are no match for the annoying Earth ape. With its minions in revolt and resolved to blow up Earth, there nothing left for Monkey to worry about ‘Apart from the Bomb’ that’s going to end his grotty mucky dream world…

What better time for a reconciliation with Skunky?

Back on Earth, other Crinkle Wood critters have briefly enjoyed their time of growth and limelight in ‘Not Bunny vs Monkey’ but the likes of Stan Stoat and Randolph Raccoon are helpless when the minions start blasting. As Monkeyopia becomes a vast spaceship, Skunky begins his ‘Race to Save the World’ with his secret weapon Little Monkey but the outcome is never certain and our heroes all decide they’re ‘Best Off Out of It’, leaving a monumental deus ex machina to sort everything out…

Wrapping up these sidereal shenanigans and cosmic bum gags are related activities offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and you to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by Jamie Smart & Armin Roshdi detailing ‘How to draw King Frog!’, ‘A Bungamungous!’, ‘Capybara 5000!’ and ‘An Alien!’ before closing with an extensive plug for the aforementioned Phoenix Comics Club website complete with instant access via a QR code, plus previews of other treats and wonders available in The Phoenix to wind down from all that cosmic furore…

Another book for your kids to explain to you, the zany zenith of absurdist adventure, Bunny vs Monkey is weird wit, brilliant invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning all crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Is that you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.

Today in 1926 Joe Sinnott was born. His inking made Fantastic Four impeccable and unmissable, but if you fancy seeing his pencilling mastery you should see Mighty Thor Omnibus volume 1.

Back in 1954 UK preschool comic milestone Playhour began its 1700+ issue run.

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Melusine volume 5: Tales of the Full Moon


By Clarke & Gilson, coloured by Cerise; translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)

ISBN: 978-1-84918-212-6 (album TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Historically, whenever we used to feel out of sorts we’d consult the wise women to pull our fat out of the fire. Thus as we’re still sick and I’m out of pre-completed reviews here’s a sample of that and me being too clever for my own good.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings…

Witches – especially cute, sassy and/or teenaged ones – have a surprisingly long pedigree in all branches of fiction, and one of the most seductively engaging first appeared in venerable Belgian comic Le Journal de Spirou way back in 1992.

Mélusine is actually a sprightly (119 years old) neophyte sorceress diligently studying to perfect her craft at Witches’ School. To make ends meet she spends her off-duty moments working as au pair/general dogsbody to a shockingly disreputable family of haunts & horrors inhabiting and/or infesting a vast, monster-packed, ghost-afflicted chateau during some chronologically adrift, anachronistically awry time in the Middle-ish Ages…

Episodes of the much-loved feature are presented in every format from one-page gag strips to full-length comedy tales; each and all riffing wickedly on supernatural themes and detailing Melusine’s rather fraught existence. Our magical maid’s life is filled with daily indignities: skivvying, studying, catering to the appalling and outrageous domestic demands of the master and mistress of the castle and – far too occasionally – schmoozing with a large and ever-increasing circle of exceedingly peculiar family and friends.

The strip was devised by writer Françoise Gilson (Rebecca, Cactus Club, Garage Isidore) and cartoon humourist Frédéric Seron – AKA Clarke – whose numerous features for all-ages LJdS and acerbic adult humour Fluide Glacial include Rebecca, Les Cambrioleurs, Durant les Travaux, l’Exposition Continué… and Le Miracle de la Vie. Under the pseudonym Valda, Seron also created Les Babysitters and as “Bluttwurst” Les Enqu?tes de l’Inspecteur Archibaldo Massicotti, Mister President and P.38 et Bas Nylo.

A former fashion illustrator and nephew of comics veteran Pierre Seron, Clarke is one of those insufferable guys who just draws non-stop and is unremittingly funny. He also doubles up as a creator of historical & genre pieces like Cosa Nostra, Les Histoires de France, Luna Almaden and Nocturnes. He was obviously cursed by some sorceress and can no longer enjoy the surcease of sleep…

Collected Mélusine editions began appearing annually or better from 1995 onwards, with the 27th published in 2019. Thus far thanks to Cinebook, five of those have shape-shifted into English translations, but there have been ads for a sixth…

Continentally released in October 2002, Contes de la pleine lune was the 10th groovy grimoire of mystic mirth and is again most welcoming: primarily comprised of single or 2-page gags starring the enticing enchantress and delightfully eschewing continuity for the sake of new readers’ instant approbation. When brittle, moody, over-stressed Melusine isn’t being bullied for her inept cleaning skills by the matriarchal ghost-duchess who runs the castle; ducking cat-eating monster Winston; dodging frisky vampire The Count or avoiding unwelcome and often hostile attentions of horny peasants and over-zealous witch-hunting priests, the wily witchlette can usually be found practising spells or consoling/coaching inept, un-improvable and lethally unskilled classmate Cancrelune.

Unlike Mel, this sorry sorceress-in-training is a real basket case: her transformation spells go appallingly awry; she can’t remember incantations and her broomstick-riding makes her a menace to herself, any unfortunate observers… and even the terrain and buildings around her.

As the translated title suggests, Tales of the Full Moon dwells on demolishing fairy fables and bedevilling bedtime stories but also gives proper introduction to Mel’s best friend Krapella: a rowdy, roistering, mischievous and disruptive classmate who is the very image of what boys want in a “bad” witch…

This tantalising tome is filled with narrative nostrums featuring the traditional melange of slick sight gags and pun-ishing pranks highlighting how our legerdemainic lass finds a little heart’s ease by picturing how one day she’ll have her very own Prince Charming. Sadly, every dream ends – usually because there’s something sticky that needs cleaning up – but Melusine absolutely draws the line when Cancrelune (and even her own sweetness-&-light Fairy cousin Melisande!) start hijacking her daydreams…

This fusillade of fanciful forays concludes with eponymously titled, extended episode Tales of the Full Moon wherein Melusine is ordered to read a bedtime story to the Count’s cousin’s son: obnoxiously rambunctious junior vampire Globule, who insists on twisting her lovely lines about princesses and princes into something warped and Gothic… and even that’s before Cancrelune starts chipping in with her own weird, wild suggestions and interjections…

Wacky, wry, sly, infinitely inventive and uproariously funny, this arty arcana of arcane antics is a terrific taste of Continental comics wonderment: a beguiling delight for all lovers of the cartoonist’s art. Read well before bedtime – or you’ll be up laughing all night…
Original edition © Dupuis, 2002 by Clarke & Gilson. All rights reserved. English translation 2014 © Cinebook Ltd.

Speaking of Dark Nights, today in 1915 Bob Kane was born. Whatever happened to him?
Today in 1906 Golden Age comics scripter Joe Samachson was born. He’s all over this blog so just initiate a little search dialogue action to know more.

And in 1938 the inimitable E.C. “Elzie” Segar died. We last worshipped at his salty feet with Popeye: The E.C. Segar Popeye Sundays volume 4: Swea’Pea and Eugene the Jeep (February 1936 – October 1938); so should you as soon as possible.

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Chas Addams Happily Ever After: A Collection of Cartoons to Chill the Heart of You


By Charles Addams (Simon & Schuster)
ISBN: 978-1-43910-356-2 (PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. It also has Discriminatory Content included for comedic and satirical effect.

Cartoonist Charles Samuel Addams (1912-1988) was a distant descendant of two American Presidents (John Adams & John Quincy Adams). He compounded that hereditary infamy by perpetually making his real life as extraordinary as his dark, mordantly funny drawings.

Born into a successful family in Westfield, New Jersey, the precocious, prankish, constantly drawing child was educated at the town High School, Colgate University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York City’s Grand Central School of Art, and apparently spent the entire time producing cartoons and illustrations for a raft of institutional publications.

In 1932 he became a designer for True Detective magazine – “retouching photos of corpses” – and soon after started selling drawings to The New Yorker. In 1937, at the peak of popular fascination in cinematic and literary horror stories, he began a ghoulish if not outright macabre sequence of family portraits that ultimately became his signature creation. However, during WWII, he toned down the terror and served with the US Signal Corps Photographic Center, devising animated training films for the military.

Whether Addams artfully manufactured his biography to enhance his value to feature writers or was genuinely a warped and wickedly wacky individual is irrelevant, although it makes for great reading – especially the stuff about his wives – and, as always, the internet is eager to be your informative friend…

What is important is that in all the years he drew and painted those creepily sardonic, gruesome gags and illustrations for The New Yorker, Colliers, TV Guide and so many others, he beguiled and enthralled his audience with a devilish mind and a soft, gentle approach that made him a household name long before television turned his characters into a hit. This was a substantial part of what generated the craze for monsters and grotesques that lasts to this day. That eminence was only magnified once the big screen iterations debuted. And now we have streaming fun too. He would have loved the sheer terrifying inescapability of it all…

As he worked on unto death, Addams got even wackier: marrying his third wife in a pet cemetery, spending an absolute fortune collecting weapons and torture devices – “for reference don’cha know” – and inventing… recipes…

There will be more on that last one another time but what really matters is that older collections of his oeuvre are finally being unearthed. This one – compiled from Addams’s personal archive, with many previously unpublished gems, explores the widest gamut of emotion, from ecstatic love to disappointed affection to murderous obsession. It’s a creepy corker demonstrating that love really does hurt…

Chas Addams Happily Ever After: A Collection of Cartoons to Chill the Heart of You opens in full scholar mode with ‘Chas Addams’ a photo-essay appreciation by H. Kevin Miserocchi, backed up by an explanation of the work of the ‘Tee and Charles Addams Foundation’ – remembering of course that the Tee here is his truly kindred spirit third wife Marilyn Matthews Miller-Addams (1926–2002).

Then the cartoon carnival commences with early works as ‘In the Beginning’ sets the cultural scene with crime, terror, murder and the ever-lurking supernatural before the remainder of the perilous pictorium offers insights into what used to be called “the war of the sexes”. This socially sensitive selection judiciously deals even handedly with ‘His Side’ and ‘Her Side’ before going on to test ‘His Resolve’ and ‘Her Resolve’…

The matter is naturally settled in revelatory style with ‘The Final Score’…

For clarity and pure knowledge this hilariously judgemental tome closes with a full list of ‘Dates of First Publication’ and the happy confirmation that a goodly proportion of the gags are new/unpublished until this time.

Should you not be as familiar with his actual cartoons as with the big and small screen legacy Addams unleashed, you really owe it to yourself to see the uncensored brilliance of one of America’s greatest humourists. It’s dead funny…
© 2006 by Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. All rights reserved.

Today in 1897 English writer & cartoonist Charles Henry Ross died. He’s one of the chaps accused of inventing comics with his disreputable rogue Ally Sloper. The closest we’ve got yet to exposing that rapscallion was in Great British Comics.

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DC Finest Blue Beetle – Blue Beetle Challenges The Red Knight


By Joe Gill, Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Benjamin Smith, Bill Fraccio, Tony Tallarico, Dick Giordano, Steve Ditko, Dan Reed & Bob McLeod, Albert Val, Bill Black & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-248-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

This absorbing yet inarguably eccentric DC Finest compilation offers some of the rarest material ever aquired by the company and probably owes its existence solely to the screen success of the ever-changing titular star. I honestly never expected to see such seminal material in a modern collection and I hope the dated nature of the material finds an appreciative audience and rewards DC for their boldness… 

Sadly as ever, it’s not yet available digitally, but we live in hope…

The Blue Beetle premiered in Mystery Men Comics #1, released by Fox Comics and cover-dated August 1939. The pulp-inspired star was created by Charles Nicholas and possibly initially scripted by Will Eisner. “Charles Nicholas” was a shared pseudonym used by Chuck Cuidera (Blackhawk), Jack Kirby (everything) and Charles Wojtkowski (Blonde Phantom, Young Allies, Nyoka, Iron Corporal) with the last one generally attributed with actually inventing our remarkably resilient Azure Adventurer.

A mystery man in every sense of the term, the Cobalt Crimecrusher was inexplicably popular from the start: translating his comics venues into merchandise, a radio show and even a newspaper comic strip. Constantly acquired and traded by numerous publishers, BB survived the extinction of most of them: blithely undergoing many revisions to his origins and powers. By the mid-1950s he had ended up at Charlton Comics, appearing sporadically in a few long-inventoried tales before seemingly fading away. However, that was only until the early 1960s superhero resurgence when Joe Gill, Bill Fraccio, Tony Tallarico and, latterly, neophyte scripter/devoted Golden Age acolyte Roy Thomas revised and revived the character. It led to a unique 10-issue run spanning June 1964 to March 1966 (technically, two separate 5-issue runs), but you’ll see that it wasn’t quite that simple…

Pulling together many disparate strands from previous incarnations, former cop and valiant troubleshooter Dan Garrett was reshaped into an archaeologist gifted with a mysterious, magical ancient Egyptian scarab. This trinket would transform him into a lightning-throwing, super-sensed flying superman whenever he touched the scarab and uttered trigger phrase “Khaji Dha!”

After another brief sojourn in comic book limbo, Garrett resurfaced when Steve Ditko took on the concept, tweaking it to construct a fresh retooled hero for the gadget-conscious, superhero-savvy society perfect to continually confront a crimeridden culture.

Ditko accepted and acknowledged but sagely set aside all that prior history to utterly recreate a hero he could understand. Ted Kord is an earnest and proudly decent young scientist with a secret tragedy in his past, which Ditko and scripter Gary Friedrich sagely forbore revealing in deference to intrigue and action. The result was a taut, captivating noir thriller that opened the neopgyte’s azure casebook – which we’ll get to in the fullness of time…

Here, though, we open with the venerable veteran bursting back onto newstands courtesy of Gill, Fraccio, & Tallarico.

Cover-dated June 1964 the revival began in Blue Beetle (vol. 1, #1) with the disinterrment of ‘The Giant Mummy Who Was Not Dead’ as prominent visitor Dr. Dan Garrett and comely local egyptologist Professor Luri Hoshid fall foul of a rapidly changing political crisis whilst excavating an ancient site. The tomb of Kha-Ef-Re holds untold discoveries but resident strongman-with-despotic-aspirations – and a private nuclear arsenal – General Amenhotep may well end their dig out of sheer spite. Threatened but perservering, the duo unearth vile Kha-Ef-Re’s remains and a fantastic blue scarab that seemingly acts as a means of imprisoning his mummy.

On touching the gem, Garrett experiences an astounding vision as another ancient Egyptian – “The Great Pharoah” – reveals the scarab is a portal to fantastic power to be used in the service of good…

Transformed, Garrett immediately gets a chance to test it as a nuclear strike by Amenhotep’s forces awakens the mummy which grows to fantastic size and rampages across the nation. Thankfully the powers and abilities of The Blue Beetle are sufficient to defeat and re-entomb the monster and deal with the military maniac who thought to exploit him…

Relentlessly formulaic but somehow ly kitsch and bizarrely appealing, the stage was set for a succession of the same as BB #2’s ‘Hot War in the Arctic’ finds Garrett and sexy accomplice du jour Captain Elaine Norr (USAF) investigating peril in the far north. Here they clash with Red Chinese forces building secret airbases as well as cavemen, lost Goths, extinct big beasts and even dinosaurs from the sanctuary of a lost land… until more hastily applied atomics trigger a disaster…

Alien invasion was the theme of the third adventure as supersonic transport and possibly even the space program were threatened by a man who talked to lightning. ‘Mr. Thunderbolt and the Superstar’ led to a sustained war of nerves and powers narrowly won for humanity before a traditional supervillain arrived in the bright green form of ‘The Praying Mantis-Man’. Aided by Mexican entymologist firecracker Juanita Rivera, Garrett and his alter ego barely survive the efforts of self-mutating chlorophyl addict Hunter Mann to replace humanity with giant bugs. The macabre yarn is supplemented by a pinup of the Cobalt Crusader by Pat Masulli, before #5 finds Gill, Fracchio & Tallarico disclosing how and why ‘Blue Beetle Challenges the Red Knight’

This eerie yarn sees Garrett come to the aid of his friend Lewis Coll after the astrophysicist returns from a space mission strangely altered. Now obsessive and cruel, Coll shuns his fiancee Regina White and transforms himself into a invulnerable crimson armoured tyrant seeking to destroy all aircraft. So tough is his opposition that Blue Beetle must seek aid from the The Great Pharoah himself to end the threat…

The series went on a brief hiatus and returned with a new numbering system as, cover-dated July 1965, Blue Beetle #50 pitted the hero against ‘The Scorpion’ as villainous Mister Crabb sought to control the oil industry with thugs and giant robots, whilst in # 51 deranged incel Dr. Jeremiah Clugg sought to offset his self-perceived physical flaws and failings with women by placing his personality and mentality inside a super-srobot dubbed ‘Mentor the Magnificent’. Unable to reason, the Beetle had to quell his increasing instability with force…

Gill & Tallarico handled #52 as ‘Magno, the Man Who Shakes the World’ finds disgraced anthropologist Louis Forte targeting Garrett for revenge that escalates into shattering the entire planet as tectonic terrorist Magno-Man, after which Praying Mantis-Man returns to bedevil humanity in ‘The People Theives’, with the mantid maniac snatching humans as lab fodder until the Azure Avenger steps in and stomps him…

The last hurrah of the old guard saw aspiring junior Roy Thomas script for Fracchio & Tallarico a deft return to Egypt in final foray (Blue Beetle #54 February/March 1966) as Garrett and Luri Hoshid reunite after her latest find is co-opted by a rival who knows its true power. Sadly even Professor Philipps is unaware of the full force and malign sentience of ‘The Eye of Horus’ Soon the ancient device is enslaving and transforming humans in its quest for dominance, but the Great Pharoah has a plan to aid his new agent defeat it. All the hero has to do is visit the gods in the Land of the Dead and return with a certain weapon…

Despite it being the height of superhero madness in popular culture, Blue Beetle folded then and was left fallow until the end of the year. As stated above, he returned much changed in the back of Captain Atom (#83 November 1966) with Charlton Comics’ biggest gun in the process of his own refit and renewal again courtesy of Ditko.

The remodelling of the Atomic Ace left room for expansion and experimentation so Ditko plunged right in, introducing an acrobatic, technologically armed swashbuckler taking care of business without any extraneous exposition or explanation… and using one of the oldest names in the business.

Here ‘The New Blue Beetle’ displays his modus operandi by stopping a vicious crime-spree by the Killer Koke Gang. The untitled yarn has all classic elements of a Ditko masterpiece: outlandish, intense fight scenes, compact, claustrophobic yet dynamic layouts, innovative gimmickry and a clear-cut battle between Right and Wrong. It’s one of the very best introductory stories of a new hero anywhere in comics – and it’s only 7 pages long…

With a definite feeling of no safety or status quo, next instalment ‘Wanted for Murder’ – scripted by Mike Friedrich with full art from Ditko – pits the new kid against a mysterious Masked Marauder who has invaded ghis own home. However, the real kicker is a bombshell revelation that Homicide Detective Fisher, investigating the disappearance of Garrett, suspects a possible connection to Kord…

Next in the imaginatively entitled ‘Blue Beetle Fights a Submarine’ the vigour and vitality of the hero is again undeniable as a mid-air hijack is foiled before a spy sub and giant killer octopus are given short shrift by the indomitable rookie crusader. Then CA #86 sees the return of ‘The Masked Marauder’ as the cobalt crimebuster confronts a ruthless scientist/industrial spy he’s convinced he has battled before…

This is all preamble to the main event as – cover-dated June 1967 – Blue Beetle (volume 2) #1 launched.with lead tale ‘Blue Beetle Bugs the Squids’; an all-Ditko masterpiece (even scripting it as “D.C. Glanzman”) with the hero in astounding action against a deadly gang of bandits. ‘Blue Beetle… Bugs the Squids’ is crammed with the eccentric vitality that made Amazing Spider-Man such a monster hit, with justice-dispensing joie de vivre balanced by the moody, claustrophobic introduction of Ditko’s most challenging mainstream superhero creation. Sadly, you’ll need a different book to meet this version of The Question…

Another all-Ditko affair, Blue Beetle #2 shows the master at his peak. ‘The End is a Beginning!’ at last reveals the origin of the hero as well as the fate of Dan Garrett, and even advances Kord’s relationship with his long-suffering ever-pining assistant Tracey. #3 is another superbly satisfying read, as the troubled warrior routs malevolent, picturesque thugs ‘The Madmen’ in a sharp parable about paranoia and misperception.

Blue Beetle #4 is visually the best of the bunch as Kord follows a somehow-returned Garrett to an Asian backwater in pursuit of lost treasure and a death cult. ‘The Men of the Mask’ is pure strip poetry and bombastic action, cunningly counterbalanced by final outing ‘Blue Beetle Faces the Destroyer of Heroes’ (Blue Beetle #5). It remains a decidedly quirky tale featuring a notional team-up of the azure avenger and The Question wherein a frustrated artist defaces heroic and uplifting paintings and statues. Ditko’s committed if reactionary views of youth culture, which so worried Stan Lee, are fully on view in this charged, absorbing tale…

The Ditko Beetle was sublime but short-lived: an early casualty when the Sixties Superhero boom reversed and horror again ruled the newsstands, Charlton’s “Action Hero” experiment was gone by the close of 1968, preceding a long line of costumed champions into limbo and clearing the decks for a horror renaissance.

Time passed and reading tastes changed again. After the cosmos-consuming Crisis on Infinite Earths re-sculpted DC’s universes in 1986, a host of stars and even second stringers got floor-up rebuilds to fit them for a tougher, uncompromising, straight-shooting, no-nonsense New American readership of the Reagan era. In the intervening years, DC had pursued an old policy: gobbling up the characters and properties of defunct publishers. A handful of Charlton buy-outs had already appeared in Crisis, and now Captain Atom, The Question and two separate Blue Beetles seamlessly slotted into the new DCU, ahead of the rest of the lost contingent…

Before that moment though, there was a final flurry of the old guard.

This collection ends with the rare one-off Charlton Bullseye #1 (June 1981), released as Charlton was finally winding down its business. Written by Bejamin Smith and illustrated by Dan Reed, Albert Val & Bill Black ‘The Enigma’ sees Blue Beetle and The Question officially meet for the first time as someone they just don’t know targets them both for vengeance and assassination. He doesn’t succeed this time but does get away and threaten to return…

With covers by Fraccio, Frank McLaughlin, Vince Colletta, Masulli, Dick Giordano, Tallarico, Ditko, Rocke Mastroserio, Reed & Bob McLeod this a book that is both sublime and ridiculous, but one any lover of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction just must have.
© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1981, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1913 utterly unique UK cartoonist and raconteur Bill Tidy was born. We last bowed before T’ Mastuh with our coverage of The Fosdyke Saga volume 1. In 1949 Jim Starlin entered this world, and you can check out the bajillions he’s created since by using our search box. Ditto for Matt Wagner, who is so much more than just Grendel, Mage, Batman and Sandman Mystery Theatre. He joined us right about…. NOW! back in 1961.

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Showcase Presents Dial H for Hero


By Dave Wood, Jim Mooney, George Roussos, Frank Springer, Sal Trapani, Jack Sparling & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2648-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the mid-Sixties the entire world went crazy for costumed crusaders and every comic book publisher (and some who weren’t) frantically sought new ways to repackage an extremely exciting yet intrinsically limited concept. Perhaps its ultimate expression – for Americans at least as UK comics were always skewing the curves – came with the creation of a teen-aged everyman champion who battled crime and disaster in his little town with the aid of a fantastic wonder-tool…

This slim monochrome paperback compendium collects the entire eclectic run from House of Mystery (#156, January 1966 to #173, March-April 1968), after which the title vanished for a few months, only to re-emerge as DC’s first new anthological supernatural mystery title and next big publishing sensation…

Created by Dave Wood & Jim Mooney, Dial H For Hero detailed the incredible adventures of lonely boy genius Robby Reed who lived with his grandfather in idyllic Littleville: a genial small town where nothing ever happened…

Born in Arlington, Massachusetts on September 5th 1926, Dave Silva worked prodigiously in comics as Dave Wood, as did his brothers Bob Wood and Dick Wood. Their father was a doctor who blotted his copybook so badly that the family had their surname legally changed sometime after 1932.

Dave’s brothers got into making comics early – founding a studio shop with Charles (Airboy, Crime Does Not Pay, The Little Wise Guys) Biro – and Dave joined them before his war service as an army reporter in 1944. He returned and blossomed into a go-to writer in many genres. His prolific output really began in the post-superhero days of AUS comic books and includes such seminal classics – often with artistic legends Jack Kirby and Wally (no-relation) Wood) – as Challengers of the Unknown and seminal Space Race newspaper strip Sky Masters. A skilled jobbing writer, Wood frequently and closely collaborated with brother Dick. They bounced around the industry, scripting mystery, war, science fiction and he-man adventure yarns. Amongst his/their vast credits are stints on Danger Trail, Our Army at War, most Superman family titles, Batman, Detective Comics, World’s Finest Comics, Green Arrow, Rex the Wonder Dog, Tomahawk, Blackhawk, Martian Manhunter and so many more. As well as Dial H For Hero Dave Wood created bizarre sleeper hit Animal Man and the esoteric but fondly regarded Ultra, the Multi-Alien. He was Bob Kane’s ghost writer and co-created eccentric villains Mister Zero/Mr Freeze, Doctor Double X and the Terrible Trio/The Fox, the Shark and the Vulture. He died far, far too young on July 7th 1974

The majority of the illustration was left to capable, unflappable, slick James Noel Mooney. He started his comics career in 1940, aged 21, working for the Eisner & Eiger production shop, and at Fiction House on The Moth, Camilla, Suicide Smith and other B-features. By the end of that year he was a mainstay of Timely Comic’s vast funny animal/animated cartoon tie-in department.

In 1946, he migrated to National/DC to ghost Batman for Bob Kane & Dick Sprang. He stayed until 1968, a regular on a host of key features including Superman, Superboy, Legion of Super-Heroes, World’s Finest Comics and Tommy Tomorrow, as well as many genre short stories for the company’s assorted anthology titles like Tales of the Unexpected and House of Mystery. He famously drew Supergirl from her series debut in Action Comics #253 to #373. He returned to Marvel in the late 1960s, delivering stellar runs on Spider-Man, Marvel Team-up, Omega the Unknown, Man-Thing, Ghost Rider and a host of other features including early adults-only feature Pussycat as both penciller and inker. Prior to that move he was illustrating Dial H For Hero; the only original DC feature he co-created.

Big things were clearly expected of the new feature, which was parachuted in as lead and cover feature, demoting the venerable Martian Manhunter J’onn J’onzz to a back-up role at the rear of each issue. Cover dated January 1966 (and on sale from November 18th 1965) House of Mystery #156 kicked off the strange adventures with an untitled tale that opens in an attack on the local chemical works by super-scientific criminal organisation Thunderbolt. This occurs just as young Robby and his pals are playing in the hills above the site. As they flee, the plucky kid is caught in a landslide and falls into an ancient cave where lies hidden an obviously alien artefact… that looks like an outlandish rotary telephone dial. If these words mean nothing to you, feel free to investigate on-line…

After finding his way out of the cavern Robby becomes obsessed with the device and spends all his time attempting to translate the arcane hieroglyphs on it. Eventually he determines that they are instructions to dial the dial symbols which roughly translate to “H”, “E”, “R” and “O”…

Ever curious, Robby complies and is suddenly transformed into a colossal super-powered Giantboy, just in time to save a crashing airliner and quash another Thunderbolt raid. On returning home, he simply reverses the dialling process and goes to bed…

These were and still are perfect wish-fulfilment stories: uncluttered, uncomplicated yarns concealing no grand messages or themes: just straight entertainment expertly undertaken by experienced and gifted craftsmen who knew how to reach their young-at-heart audiences. After all, what right minded child wouldn’t rush out and DO GOOD if they got superpowers?

Thus, no-one is surprised at the ease with which Robby adapts to his new situation. When Thunderbolt strikes again next morning Robby grabs his dial but is startled to become a different hero – high-energy being The Cometeer. Streaking to the rescue Robby is overcome by the raider’s super weapon and forced dial back into being a boy again. Undeterred, he later tries again and as The Mole finally tracks the villains to their base and crushes them. The leader escapes, however, to become the series’ only returning villain…

Mr. Thunder was back in the next issue as Robby became The Human, Bullet, bestial energy-being Super-Charge and eerie alien Radar-Sonar Man to combat ‘The Marauders from Thunderbolt Island’ after which criminal scientist Daffy Dagan steals the H-Dial after defeating the boy’s next temporary alter ego Quake-Master. Dagan becomes a horrifying multi-powered monster when he learns to ‘Dial… V… For Villain’ but after the defeated hero takes back the artefact, Robby redials into techno-warrior The Squid and belatedly saves the day. Clearly the Mystery in House of… was related to where the Dial came from, what its unknown parameters were and especially who or what Robby would transform into next…

HoM #159 pitted The Human Starfish, Hypno-Man and super-powered toddler Mighty Moppet (wielding weaponised baby bottles) in single combats with a shape-shifting bandit gang dubbed ‘The Clay-Creep Clan’ whilst ‘The Wizard of Light’ played with the format by introducing a potential love-interest for Robby in his best friend’s cousin Suzy. It also saw the return of Giant-Boy, introduction of sugar-based sentinel of justice King Candy and the lad’s only transformation into an already established hero – Golden Age legend Plastic Man.

Cynical me suspects the move was a tester to see if the Pliable Paladin – who had been an inert resource since the company had bought out original publisher Quality Comics in 1956 – was ripe for a relaunch in the new, superhero-hungry environment.

DC’s Plastic Man #1 was released five months later…

House of Mystery #161 featured awesome ancient Egyptian menace ‘The Mummy with Six Heads’ who proved too much for Robby as Magneto (same powers but so very not a certain Marvel villain) and Hornet-Man, but not intangible avenger Shadow-Man who eventually triumphed, whilst in the next issue ‘The Monster-Maker of Littleville’ is proved by Mr. Echo and Future-Man to be less mad scientist than greedy entrepreneur. Then, ‘Baron Bug and his Insect Army’ almost ends Robby’s clandestine career when the boy turns into two heroes at once. However, even though celestial twins Castor and Pollux are overmatched, animated slinky-toy King Coil proves sufficient to stamp out the Baron’s giant mini-beasts. Human wave Zip Tide, living star Super Nova and Robby the Super-Robot are then increasingly hard-pressed to stop the rampages of ‘Dr. Cyclops – the Villain with the Doomsday Stare’, but eventually overcome the outrageous odds – and oddness…

Things got decidedly peculiar in #165 when a clearly malfunctioning H-Dial called up ‘The Freak Super-Heroes’ – Whoozis, Whatsis and Howzis – to battle Dr. Rigoro Mortis and his artificial thug Super-Hood in a bizarrely captivating romp with what looks like some unacknowledged inking assistance from veteran brush-meister George Roussos (who popped in a couple more times until Mooney’s departure).

Suzy became a fixture and moved into the house next door with ‘The King of the Curses!’ He found his schemes to plunder the city thwarted by The Yankee-Doodle Kid and Chief Mighty Arrow, a war-bonneted “Indian brave” on a winged horse, before in HoM #167, ‘The Fantastic Rainbow Raider’ easily defeated Balloon Boy and Muscle Man but had no defence against returning Radar-Sonar Man. Next ‘The Marauding Moon Man’ easily overmatched Robby as The Hoopster, but had no defence when another glitch turned old incarnations The Mole and Cometeer into a single heroic composite imaginatively christened Mole-Cometeer. The biggest shock of all came when ‘The Terrible Toymaster’ defeats Robby – AKA Velocity Kid – and Suzy cajoles the fallen hero into dialling her into the scintillating Gem Girl to finish the mission.

Of course, as it was the 1960s, plucky Suzy didn’t quite manage on her own, but after Robby transforms into psionically potent Astro, Man of Space they soon closed the case – and toybox – for good. This one was all Mooney and so was the next, which turned out to be the artist’s last hurrah with the Kid of a Thousand Capes. ‘Thunderbolt’s Secret Weapon’ saw the crooks cartel seek to steal a supercomputer, only to be stopped dead by Baron Buzz-Saw, Don Juan (and his magic sword!) and the imposing Sphinx-Man. With House of Mystery #171 a radical new look emerged, as well as a darker tone. The writing was clearly on the wall for exuberant, angst-free adventurers…

‘The Micro-Monsters!’ was illustrated by Frank Springer and saw Robby dial up King Viking – Super Norseman, Go-Go (a fab hipster who utilised the incredible powers of popular disco dances… and how long have I waited to type that line?) and multi-powered Whirl-I-Gig to defeat bio-terrorist Doc Morhar and his belligerent invaders from a sub-atomic dimension. Springer also drew ‘The Monsters from the H-Dial’, wherein the again on-the-fritz gear simultaneously turns Reed’s friend Jim into assorted ravening horrors every time Robby dials up. Luckily the unnamed animated Pendulum, Chief Mighty Arrow and the Human Solar Mirror our hero successively turns into prove just enough to stop the beasts until the canny boy can apply his trusty screwdriver to the incredible artefact once again.

In those distant days series ended abruptly, without fanfare and often in the middle of something… and such was the fate of Robby Reed. HoM #173, by Wood & Sal Trapani, saw the lad solve a mystery in ‘The Revolt of the H-Dial’, wherein the process reshapes him into water-breathing Gill-Man and a literal Icicle Man: beings not only unsuitable for life on Earth but also compelled to commit crimes. Happily by the time Robby dials into Strata Man he’s deduced what outside force is affecting his dangerously double-edged device…

And that was that. The series was gone, the market was again abandoning Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy and on the immediate horizon lay a host of war, western, barbarian and horror comics…

Exciting, fun, inspirational, imaginatively engaging and silly in equal amounts (heck, even I couldn’t resist a jibe or too and I genuinely revere these daft, nostalgia-soaked gems), Dial H For Hero has been re-imagined many times since these innocent odysseys first ran, but never with the clear-cut, unsophisticated, welcoming charm displayed here.

This was Ben-10 (remember him?) for your granddad’s generation and perhaps your kid’s delectation: and only if they’re at just that certain age. Certainly you’re too grown up to enjoy these glorious classics. Surely you couldn’t be that lucky; could you?
© 1966, 1967, 1968, 2010 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

Today in 1950 comics iconoclast and creative pioneer Howard Chaykin was born. You should track down American Flagg! and his interpretation of The Shadow but don’t miss Ironwolf: Fires of the Revolution. One year later international comics legend Enki Bilal did likewise, before going on to create masterpieces such as Century’s End: The Black Order Brigade & The Hunting Party.