Category: Fantasy

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Daydreams and Nightmares – The Fantastic Visions of Winsor McCay (second edition)


By Winsor McCay & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-569-4 (TPB/Digital editions)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Picture Perfect… 10/10

Winsor McCay was a cartoonist and animator best known for Little Nemo in Slumberland. There was of course, so much more to him and this retrospective touches on the man whilst displaying a glorious abundance of his many graphic marvels.

Born in Spring Lake, Michigan, on 26th September, 1869 (or maybe 1871 in Canada: records differ) Zenas Winsor McCay was a brilliant and hugely successful cartoonist and animator who worked on newspaper illustrations, strips and political panels from 1898 until his untimely death in 1934.

This collection (a remastered release of a 1998 celebration) offers up some sublime examples of his many oeuvres. Following a Foreword by Gary Groth and context-packed biographical preface ‘The Dream Master’ by Richard Marschall, the man himself relates what we need to know in his own words thanks to 1927 essay ‘From Sketchbook to Animation by Winsor McCay’ and a 1926 letter to fellow artisan Clare Briggs (Danny Dreamer, Mr. and Mrs.) ‘On Being a Cartoonist’ before we begin a magical trawl through a magnificent career…

Spanning 1989 to 1903 – when McCay signed with The New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett – ‘Chapter One: Early Magazine Work’ offers political broadsides, early editorial diatribes in pictorial form, social commentary and pure illustration pieces, albeit gradually trending towards his later fascination with fantastic architecture and parlous prognostications of cultural collapse, before ‘Chapter Two: Newspaper Fantasy Illustrations’ focusses on wry speculative futurism – a popular topic of periodical publication back then…

Encompassing 1904-1924, ‘Chapter Three: Midsummer Daydreams and Other Comic Strips’ offers timeless examples of his ceaseless cartoon endeavours including A Pilgrim’s Progress, Poor Jake, Midsummer Daydreams/Daydreams, It Was Only a Dream, The Dreams of a Lobster Fiend, The Faithful Employee, He’s One of Those Telephone Lobster Fiends, And Then – Kerchoo! – He Sneezed!, Everyone Has Met That Well Known Character, Mr. Duck, and Rabid Reveries but sadly omits Jungle Imps, Dull Care, The Man from Montclair, Mr. Bosh, Hungry Henrietta and It’s Nice to be Married…

On October 15th 1905 the most important children’s strip in the world debuted in the Sunday Herald but Little Nemo in Slumberland had precursors and indeed a mature-reader rival. ‘Chapter Four: Dream of the Rarebit Fiend’ explores the many variations and iterations penned (and inked) from 1904 to 1913. Tireless McCay had conjured up visions for adult readers of The Evening Telegram, initially entitled Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. The editor, wishing to distance the feature from other strips, required McCay to use a pen-name, and he complied, signing the strips “Silas”, reputedly after a local garbage cart driver.

Where Nemo was a beautifully clean formal and surreal fantasy of childish imagination, Fiend displayed a creepy, subdued tension resonant with the fears and worries of its adult audience. Black, cruel and often outright sick humour pervades the series combining monstrous destruction and expressionist trauma. Even root causes of otherworldly nightmares were salutary. Each self-contained episode (18 reproduced here) and disturbing sequence of unsettling or terrifying, incredibly realistic images was the result of overindulgence; usually in late night toasted cheese treats!

Every anxiety from surreal terror to social embarrassment was grist for the fantasist’s mill and startling perspectives, bizarre transformations and uncanny scenes – always immaculately rendered – made the strip hugely successful and well-regarded strip in its day.

In 1906, American film pioneer Edwin S. Porter created a landmark 7-minute live action special-effects movie entitled The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend and the Edison company produced a cylinder recording with the same name the following year – played by the Edison Military Band. McCay himself produced four animated shorts in 1916-17: Dream of a Rarebit Fiend; Dreams of The Rarebit Fiend: The Pet, Dreams of The Rarebit Fiend: The Flying House and Dreams of The Rarebit Fiend: Bug Vaudeville, and despite his many other later successes returned to the feature sporadically over the years. Between 1923 – 1925 he revived it as Rarebit Reveries, officially attributing the strip to his son who signed the panels Robert Winsor McCay, Jr.

An artist hugely in-demand then and revered today, from 1903 to 1906 McCay invented many other all-ages cartoon works and ‘Chapter Five: Sunday Excursions’ highlights one of most enduring and inventive with 18 episodes of Little Sammy Sneeze, before the linear lunacy ends with his speculations on the world, its people and impending dystopias in ‘Chapter Six: Sermons on Paper’ with 54 stunning tableaux full-page rendered between 1913-1934, shaped by war and other disasters depicting so very many ways humanity could end and so few where we stop our species’ extinction event…

Although working far more than a century ago McCay still affects all aspects of graphic narrative produced ever since and his visions are more pertinent now than in his own lifetime. A darker side of an absolute master of our art form, this is work you must see and cannot miss.
Daydreams and Nightmares © 2005 Fantagraphics Books.

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Alone in Space – A Collection


By Tillie Walden (Avery Hill Press)
ISBN: 978-1-910395-58-5 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Time of Wonders to Be Reseen… 10/10

Transitions are important. In fact, they are life changing. But so can be looking to where we just came from. In this superb compilation you can see some of how the amazing Tillie Walden got to where she is now.

We usually attribute wisdom and maturity in the creative arts to having lived a bit of life and getting some emotional grit in our wheels and sand in our faces, but – at least in terms of age – that’s not the case for the Texas-raised pictorial raconteur, whose beguiling string of releases include On a Sunbeam, Clementine, Spinning and Are You Listening?

Walden is still a relative newcomer – albeit a prolific one – who has garnered heaps of awards and acclaim. Whether through fiction or autobiographical works (frequently both at once), she can engender feelings of absolute wonder, combined with a fresh incisive view and measured, compelling delivery in terms of both story and character. Her artwork is sheer poetry.

Following an erudite and recapitulating Introduction by Warren Bernard the comics begin with a breakthrough moment. The remarkably adept neophyte auteur began her rise with Ignatz Award-winning debut graphic novel The End of Summer. Compelling and poignant, it is a family drama fantasy, chillingly reminiscent of Nordic literary classicists like Henrik Ibsen, Astrid Lindgren or Tove Jansson, thematically toned like Brian Aldiss’ Helliconia novels whilst visually citing Dave Sim’s Cerebus collections High Society & Church & State.

Most impressive is the fact that The End of Summer was crafted in 2015 as a side-project whilst Walden was finishing her First-Year major assignment at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. There are further treats from that time at the back of this epic collection, which also include this story’s prequel ‘Lars and Nemo’.

Like everything Walden creates, this is a story I hesitate to describe because it’s a beguiling immersive experience that doesn’t need me spoiling it for you. Get it, read it, tell a friend.

What I will say is this: in distant place servants and staff rush to seal a colossal, cathedral-like palace. Winter is coming and the palatial bunker will be closed off for three years…

In that oppressive atmosphere, frail prince Lars and his twin sister Maja become increasingly aware of the tensions and quirks afflicting their large family.

Lars’ failing physicality has made him a quiet, introspective and fatalistic observer, whilst his dependence on Nemo – a gigantic housecat acting as companion and living, loving wheelchair – mark him as a marginalised target for siblings Olle, Per, Nikolaus and Hedda. As time passes and the children seek ways to amuse themselves, increasingly unstable Per seems to find the oppressive isolation and vast scale of the palace as well as the disinterest and suppressed tensions of the adults incomprehensibly claustrophobic.

Before long, the dooms and disasters Lars is obsessed with start to manifest, leading to tragedy and terror…

Beautifully illustrated in monochrome tones, with Brobdingnagian perspectives shaping every panel, this saga of an opulent yet cold House of Secrets, shielding a broken family from the elements but not themselves and each other, is a superb examination of humanity at its best and worst.

Walden followed up on her Ignatz Award-winning debut with this fluffy yet barbed coming-of-age tale. Part Sweet but not Calorific, I Love This Part deliciously pictorializes life-changing happy, introspective, contemplative and aspirational moments between two schoolgirls who have found each other. Shared dreams, idle conversations, disputes and landmark first steps, even fights and break-ups are seen and weathered.

Novelty, timidity, apprehension, societal pressure and even some unnecessary shame come into it, but generally it’s just how young people learn to love and what that that can entail…

Apart from the astoundingly graceful and inviting honesty of the tale, the most engaging factor is the author’s brilliant dismissal of visual reality. These interactions are 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 Little Nemo so fellow afficionados will feel at home even if some might experience the odd sensation of disorientation and trepidation. Like being in love, I suppose…

A City Inside is another seamlessly constructed marriage of imagination and experience to unflinching self-exploration, constructing a perfect blend of autobiography and fantasy into a vehicle both youthfully exuberant and literary timeless.

Opening in a therapy session, the story delves intimately into a woman’s past, from isolated southern days to bold moments of escape – or is that simply drifting away? – in search of peace and a place to settle. We all leave home and then grow up, and here that transition is seen through a tentative alliance with an idealised first love. It fumbles and fails thanks to the dull oppression of the Happy Ever After part that no fairy tale ever warns you about…

Eventually life builds you into the being you are – hence the symbolism of a vast internal metropolis – and life goes on, or back, or away, or just somewhere else. That’s pretty much the point…

Supremely engaging, enticingly disturbing and ultimately utterly uplifting, this shared solo voyage to another county is a visual delight no lover of comics can possibly resist. Apart from the graceful honesty on show, the most engaging factor is the author’s inspired rearrangement of visual reality. These dictate mood and tone in a way a million words can’t, supplying a sense of grace and wistful whimsy to the affair.

You’d have to be bereft of vision and afflicted with a heart of stone to reject these comic masterpieces, but for many even more rewarding is a glimpse at how that narrative acumen developed.

Rounding out this epic tome is a wealth of Comics by Tillie Walden Aged 16-20 Years Old: all accompanied by author’s commentary to foster understanding or highlight points of interest. From 2013, ‘Glare’ details a childhood spat before 2014’s ‘My Name Is…’ acts as an introduction to a new student whilst the same year sees the artist dabble with colour on a visit to ‘Slumberland’…

Scale and compression inform visual experimentation in 2014’s ‘Cramped’, ‘Journal Entry’ and ‘The Graduate’ after which 2015’s growth opens with longer works and a tribute to major influence ‘Ghibli’ followed by evocative breakthroughs ‘Lost Trees’ and ‘Dreaming’. That same year looking back to childhood spawned oppressive fancy ‘Sun in My Eyes’ and graduation piece ‘In the Palm of Your Hand’…

In 2016 rapid fire soliloquy ‘The Weather Woman’ led to aforementioned prequel ‘Lars and Nemo’ (don’t read it first, okay?) and Walden’s first trip to space in ‘Alive’ ending with a reflective slice of visual verity in ‘What it’s Like to be Gay in an All Girls Middle School’.

Rounding out the candid review is course project delight ‘Q & A’ and fantasy moment ‘The Fader’ (2018) segueing into a stunning Gallery section of promotional prints, posters, variant book covers, and bookplates.

Superbly engaging, shockingly nuanced and movingly beautiful, these works are pure comics magic no lover of the artform should miss.
© Tillie Walden 2021. All rights reserved.

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Sabrina the Teenage Witch The Complete Collection volume 1: 1962-1972 (Sabrina’s Spellbook Book 1)


By George Gladir, Frank Doyle, Dick Malmgren, Al Hartley, Dan DeCarlo, Joe Edwards, Rudy Lapick, Vince DeCarlo, Bob White, Bill Kresse, Bill Vigoda, Mario Acquaviva, Jimmy DeCarlo, Chic Stone, Bill Yoshida, Stan Goldberg, Jon D’Agostino, Gus LeMoine, Harry Lucey, Marty Epp, Bob Bolling, Joe Sinnott & various (Archie Comic Publications)
ISBN: 978-1-936975-94-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Created by George Gladir & Dan DeCarlo, Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch premiered in Archie’s Mad House #22 (cover-dated October 1962): a throwaway character in a gag anthology which was simply one more venue for comics’ undisputed kings of kids comedy. She proved popular enough to become a regular in the burgeoning cast surrounding the core stars Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge and Jughead Jones.

By 1969, the high school enchantress had grown popular enough to win her own animated Filmation TV series (just like Archie and Josie and the Pussycats) and graduated to a lead position in Archie’s TV Laugh Out before finally winning her own title in 1971.

That first volume ran 77 issues (from 1971-1983) and, when a hugely successful live action TV series launched in 1996, ed comic book adaptation followed in 1997. That version folded in 1999 after a further 32 issues.

Volume 3 – simply entitled Sabrina – was based on new TV show Sabrina the Animated Series ran for 37 issues (2000- 2002) before a back-to-basics reboot saw the comic revert to Sabrina the Teenage Witch with #38, carefully blending elements of all previous print and TV versions.

A creature of seemingly infinite variation and variety, the mystic maid continued in this vein until 2004 and issue #57 wherein – acting on the global popularity of Japanese comics – the company switched format: transforming series into a manga-style high school comedy-romance in the classic Shoujo manner.

Another recent version abandoned whimsy altogether, depicted Sabrina as a vile and seductive force of evil in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. This no-frills. massively monochrome compilation re-presents all her appearances – even cameos on covers of other Archie titles – from that first decade, starting with an informative and educational Introduction courtesy of Editor-in-Chief Victor Gorelick before unleashing the wonderment in a year-by-year cavalcade of magic, mystery and mirth.

Clearly referencing Kim Novak as seen in Bell, Book and Candle, ‘Presenting Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ (George Gladir, Dan DeCarlo, Rudy Lapick & Vince DeCarlo from Archie’s Mad House #22) showcased a sultry seductress with a wicked edge preying on mortals at the behest of Head Witch Della, all whilst secretly hankering for the plebeian joys of dating…

Leading off the next year’s chapter, the creatives reunited in Archie’s Mad House #24 (February 1963), with ‘Monster Section’ depicting Sabrina bewitching boys the way mortal girls always have, whilst ‘Witch Pitch’ sees the young beguiler ordered to ensorcel the High School hockey team – with mixed results…

AMH #25 (April) focuses on the supernatural clan’s mission to destroy human romance. In ‘Sister Sorceress’ Della orders Sabrina to split up dating couple Hal and Wanda – with catastrophic results – before ‘Jinx Minx’ (#26, June) sees Sabrina go too far with a love potion at a school dance…

Bob White’s Archie’s Mad House #27 cover (August 1963) leads into #28’s ‘Tennis Menace’ (inked by Marty Epp) as Sabrina’s attempts to enrapture a rich lad go infuriatingly awry. AMH #30 (December) offers pin-up ‘Teen-Age Section’ drawn by Joe Edwards, with Sabrina comparing historical ways of charming boys with modern mortal methods…

The 1964 material opens with a love potion pin-up ‘Teen Section’ by Edwards (AMH #31, February) before Gladir & Edwards’ ‘Ronald the Rubber Boy Meets Sabrina the Witch Queen’ finds the magic miss disastrously swapping abilities with an elastic-boned pal.

Issue #36 (October, by Edwards) sees her failing to jinx her friends’ recreational evening in ‘Bowled Over’, after which (AMH #37, December) finds Gladir reunited with Dan & Vince DeCarlo for a spot of ‘Double Trouble’ when gruesome Aunt Hilda tries to fix Sabrina’s appalling human countenance, only to become her unwilling twin…

In 1965 Sabrina’s only appearance was a Harry Lucey-limned ad for Archie’s Mad House Annual, whereas a year later she triumphantly returned with illustrator Bill Kresse handling Gladir’s script for ‘Lulu of a Boo-Boo’ (AMH #45, February 1966). Here the witch-girl’s attempts to join the In-Crowd constantly misfire whilst ‘Beach Party Smarty’ (#48, August) confirms this new trend, as her spells to capture a hunky beau go badly wrong…

For ‘Go-Go Gaga’ (AMH #49, September) Gladir & Kresse pit the bonny bewitcher against a greedy entrepreneur planning to fleece school kids in his over-priced dance hall, whilst #50’s ‘Rival Reversal’ finds her failing to conjure a date before ‘Tragic Magic’ proves even sorcery can’t keep a teen’s room clean…

Art team Bill Vigoda & Mario Acquaviva join Gladir for 1967’s first tale. ‘London Lore’ (AMH #52, February) with Sabrina transporting new boyfriend Donald to the heart of the Swinging Scene (it meant something else back then) but ill-equipping him for debilitating culture-shock, after which ‘School Scamp’ (Gladir + Dan, Jimmy & Vince DeCarlo, from AMH #53, April) again proves magic has no place in human education…

In #55 Gladir, Dan DeCarlo & Lapick prove Sabrina’s wishing to help a doubly dangerous proposition in ‘Speed Deed’, whilst in #58 (December, Chic Stone & Bill Yoshida) the trend for ultra-skinny fashion models leads to a little shapeshifting in ‘Wile Style’…

1968 opens with Gladir, Stone & Yoshida exploring the downside of slot-car racing in ‘Teeny-Weeny Boppers’ (AMH #59, February) after which ‘Past Blast’ (#63, September by Gladir, Stan Goldberg, Jon D’Agostino & Yoshida) sees our mystic maid time-travel in search of Marie Antoinette, Pocahontas and Salem sorceress Hester. The year wraps up with ‘Light Delight’ (Gladir, White, Acquaviva & Yoshida: AMH #65, December) as Sabrina’s aunts Hilda and Zelda try more modern modes of witchy transport…

With Sabrina’s television debut, the end of 1969 saw a sudden leap in her comics appearances to capitalise on the exposure and resulted in a retitling of her home funnybook. Again crafted by Gladir, White, Acquaviva & Yoshida, ‘Glower Power’ comes from Mad House Ma-Ad Jokes #70 (September) with her duelling another teen mage before the cover of Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #1 (December: by Dick Malmgren & D’Agostino) leads into ‘Super Duper Party Pooper’ and the instant materialisation of a new sitcom lifestyle for the jinxing juvenile.

Sabrina yearns to be a typical High School girl. She lives in suburban seclusion with Hilda & Zelda and Uncle Ambrose. She has a pet cat – Salem – and is tentatively “seeing” childhood pal Harvey Kinkle. The cute but clueless boy reciprocates the affection, but is far too scared to rock the boat by acting on his own desires.

He has no idea that his old chum is actually a supernatural being…

This opening sally depicts what happens when surly Hilda takes umbrage at the antics of Archie and his pals after they come over for a visit, whilst ‘Great Celestial Sparks’ (pencilled by Gus LeMoine) reveals what lengths witches go to when afflicted with hiccups…

A full-on goggle-box star, Sabrina blossomed in 1970, starting with a little flying practice in ‘Broom Zoom’; boyfriend trouble in ‘Hex Vex’; fortune-telling foolishness in ‘Hard Card’; amulet antics in ‘Witch Pitch’ and kitchen conjurings in ‘Generation Gap’: all by Gladir, LeMoine, D’Agostino & Yoshida from Mad House Ma-Ad Jokes #72 (January). The issue also offered sporting spoofs in ‘Bowl Roll’ (Dan DeCarlo).

The so-busy cover of Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #2 (March 1970) segues into Gladir, Dan D, Lapick & Yoshida’s ‘A Plug for The Band’ with Sabrina briefly joining The Archies’ pop group, whilst LeMoine contributes a brace of half-page gags – ‘Sassy Lassy’ and ‘Food Mood’ – and limns ‘That Ol’ Black Magic’, wherein the winsome witch’s gifts cause misery to all her new friends in Riverdale…

Dan D’s & Lapick’s June cover for Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #3 leads into Malmgren-scripted ‘Double Date’, with hapless Harvey causing chaos at home until Ambrose finds a potential putrid paramour for Aunt Hilda. The creatives then launch an occasional series on stage magic with ‘Sabrina Tricks’ pages, before single-pagers ‘Goodbye Mr. Chips’, ‘The Hand Sandwich’, ‘The Sampler’, ‘Never on Sundae’ and ‘Finger Licken Good’ reveal a growing divide between house-proud Hilda and accident-prone, ever-ravenous Harvey.

Interspersed by three more ‘Sabrina Tricks’ pages, mystic mayhem continues with mini-epic ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ (Malmgren, LeMoine, D’Agostino & Yoshida) as our witch girl disastrously attempts to make Jughead Jones more amenable to Big Ethel’s amorous overtures. The food fiascos resume with LeMoine-limned ‘Good and Bad’, as Sabrina’s every good intention is accidentally twisted to bedevil her human pals.

Taken from Mad House Glads #74 (August 1970), Gladir & LeMoine’s half-page chemistry gag ‘Strange Session’ is oddly balanced by the painterly ‘Blight Sight’ of long-forgotten never-was Bippy the Hippy, before we’re back on track and at the beach for Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #4 (September, by Gladir, Vigoda, Lapick & Yoshida). In ‘To Catch a Thief’ Sabrina again assists Ethel in pinning down elusive, love-shy Jughead, and rounding out the issue are single page pranks ‘Beddy Bye Time’ (DeCarlo & Lapick), another ‘Sabrina Tricks’ lesson and seaside folly ‘In the Bag’ from LeMoine & D’Agostino.

ATVL-O #5 (November) offers up Gladir, Vigoda & Stone’s ‘I’ll Bite’ as Sabrina’s hungry schoolfriends learn the perils of raiding Hilda’s fridge and Gladir, DeCarlo & Lapick’s ‘Hex Vex’ as Della storms in, demanding tardy Sabrina fulfil her monthly quota of bad deeds…

Sabrina is an atypical witch: living in the mundane world and assiduously passing herself off as normal, and 1971 opens with DeCarlo & Lapick’s cover for Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #6 (February) and ‘Match Maker’ by Frank Doyle, Harry Lucey & Epp as Hilda tries getting rid of Harvey by making him irresistible to Betty & Veronica. No way that can go wrong…

‘Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch’ (Gladir, LeMoine, D’Agostino & Yoshida) then uses her powers openly with some kids and learns a trick even ancient crone Hilda cannot fathom. Bolstered by a ‘Sabrina Tricks’, ‘Carry On, Aunt Hilda’ (Malmgren, LeMoine & Lapick) hilariously depicts lucky stars shielding Harvey from the wrath of irascible Aunt Hilda…

Bowing to popular demand, the eldritch ingenue finally starred in her own title from April 1971. Dan D & Lapick’s cover for Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch #1 hinted at much mystic mirth and mayhem which began with ‘Strange Love’ (Doyle, Dan D & Lapick). This revealed a jealous response to seeing Harvey with another girl, supplemented by ‘Sabrina and Salem’s Catty Quiz’ before hippy warlock Sylvester comes out of the woodwork to upset Hilda’s sedate life in ‘Mission Impossible’ (Malmgren, LeMoine & D’Agostino).

Another ‘Sabrina Puzzle’ neatly moves us to Doyle, Dan D & Lapick’s ‘An Uncle’s Monkey’ with Harvey and a pet chimpanzee pushing Hilda to the limits of patience and sanity…

The cover of Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #7 (May) precedes a long yarn by Doyle, Bob Bolling & D’Agostino as ‘Archie’s TV Celebrities’ (the animated Archies, Sabrina and Josie and the Pussycats) star in ‘For the Birds’ with a proposed open-air concert threatened by the protests of a bunch of old ornithology buffs.

Thanks to Malmgren, LeMoine & D’Agostino, our celebrity pals tackle an instrument-stealing saboteur in ‘Sounds Crazy to Me’, before Sabrina cameos on the cover of Jughead #192 (May, by Dan DeCarlo & Lapick) before heading for the cover of her second issue (DeCarlo & Lapick, July). Within those pages Malmgren scripts ‘No Strings Attached’ as The Archies visit their bewitching buddy just as Hilda turns Harvey into an axe-strumming rock god…

‘Witch Way is That’ sees Hilda quickly regret opening her house to Tuned In, Turned On, Dropped Out Cousin Bert, prior to Malmgren, Lucey & Epp showing Archie suffering the jibes and jokes of ‘The Court Jester’ Reggie – until Sabrina adds a little something extra to the Andrews boys’ basketball repertoire..

At this time the world underwent a revival of supernatural interest and Gothic Romance was The Coming Thing. In a bold experiment, Sabrina had a shot at a dramatic turn as Doyle, Bolling, Joe Sinnott & Yoshida crafted ‘Death Waits at Dumesburry’: a relatively straight horror/mystery with Sabrina facing a sinister maniac in a haunted castle she inherits…

Rendered by LeMoine & D’Agostino, the cover of Jughead’s Jokes #24 (July 1971) brings us back to comedy central, as does their cover for Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #8 (August) and Malmgren’s charity bazaar-set tale ‘A Sweet Tooth’, with the winsome witch discovering even her magic cannot make Veronica’s baked goods edible…

Dan DeCarlo’s cover for Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch #3 (September) foreshadows a return to drama but in modern milieu as ‘House Breakers’ (Malmgren, DeCarlo & Lapick) finds Harvey and Sabrina stranded in an old dark mansion with spooks in situ, after which ‘Spellbinder’ (Doyle, Al Hartley) sees Hilda cringe and curse when human catastrophe Big Moose pays Sabrina a visit.

Hartley & D’Agostino fly solo on ‘Auntie Climax’ as irresistibility spells fly and both Archie and Hilda are caught in an amorous crossfire before Malmgren, Bolling & Lapick show our cast’s human side in ‘The Tooth Fairy’ as Archie, Jughead and Sabrina intervene to help a juvenile thief caught in a poverty trap …

A trio of DeCarlo & Lapick covers – Archie’s TV Laugh Out #9 (September), Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals #66 (October) and Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch #4 (October) segue into the teen thaumaturge’s fourth solo issue, where Doyle, Goldberg & D’Agostino set the cauldron bubbling with ‘Hex Marks the Spot’ as Aunts Hilda and Zelda nostalgically opine for their adventurous bad old days but something seems set on thwarting every spell they cast, after which ‘Which Witch is Right?’ (LeMoine pencils) finds obnoxious Reggie Mantle uncovering Sabrina’s sorcerous secrets.

Goldberg & Sinnott illustrate ‘Switch Witch’ as officious Della suspends Sabrina’s powers as a punishment and can’t understand why the girl is delirious instead of heartbroken, whilst Hartley & Sinnott contribute a run of madcap one-pagers from Gladir, Malmgren and Doyle with clue-packed titles such as ‘Out of Sight’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘The Teen Scene‘, ‘So That’s Why’ and ‘Time to Retire’.

Wrapping up the issue is ‘The Storming of Casket Island’ by Doyle, LeMoine & D’Agostino, blending stormy sailing, sinister swindling skulduggery and menacing mystic retribution…

More covers follow: Archie #213 and Archie’s TV Laugh Out #10 (both November by Dan D & Lapick) and Archie’s Christmas Stocking #190 (December, Hartley & D’Agostino), which latter also contributes Hartley & Sinnott’s ‘Card Shark’, with Sabrina joining Archie and the gang to explore the point and purpose of seasonal greetings postings. DeCarlo & Lapick’s cover of Betty and Me #39 brings the momentous year to a close…

The last year covered in this titanic tome is 1972, kicking off with DeCarlo & Lapick’s cover for Archie Annual #23, before their Sabrina’s Christmas Magic #196 cover (January) opens on a winter wonderland of seasonal sentiment. It all starts with ‘Hidden Claus’ (by featured team Hartley & Sinnott) as Sabrina ignores her aunt’s mockery and seeks out the real Father Christmas – just in time to help him with an existential and labour crisis…

‘Sabrina’s Wrap Session’ offers tips on gifting and packaging whilst ‘Hot Dog with Relish’ sees the witch woman zap Jughead’s mooching canine companion and make him a guy any girl could fall for. Doyle, Goldberg & Sinnott concocted ‘The Spell of the Season’, depicting our troubled teen torn between embracing Christmas and wrecking it as any true witch would. Guess which side wins the emotional tug-of-war?

More handicraft secrets are shared in ‘Sabrina’s Instant Christmas Decorations’ before Hartley & Sinnott’s ‘Sabrina Asks… What Does Christmas Mean to You?’ and ‘Sabrina Answers Questions About Christmas’, after which cartoon storytelling resumes with ‘Mission Possible’ as Hilda & Zelda find their own inner Samaritan.

Despite a rather distressing (and misleading) title ‘Popcorn Poopsie’ reveals a way of making tasty decorative snacks whilst ‘Sabrina’s Animal Crackers’ tells a tale of men turned to beasts before a yuletide ‘Sabrina Pin-Up’ and exercise feature ‘Sabrina Keeps in Christmas Trim’ return us to the entertainment section.

An all-Hartley affair, ‘Sabrina’s Witch Wisher’ examines what the vast cast would say if given a single wish, after which Doyle, Goldberg & Sinnott conclude this mammoth meander down memory lane by revealing how an evil warlock was punished by becoming ‘A Tree Named Obadiah’. Now – decked out in lights and tinsel – he’s back and making mischief in Veronica’s house…

An epic, enticing and always enchanting experience, the classic adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch are sheer timeless comics delight that no true fan will ever grow out of – and who says you have to?

© 1962-1972, 2017 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Dungeon Zenith volume 5 Fog and Tears


By Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim & Boulet, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-316-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Somewhere way out there, is a planet called Terra Amata. On this world of rich history and diverse ways of life, there’s a castle in a fantastic land of miracles, quests and adventures. Once upon a time it was also a rather dangerous meeting place dubbed the Dungeon…

As primarily crafted by prolific artisans Joann Sfar (Les Potamoks, Professeur Bell, Les olives noires, The Rabbi’s Cat) and Lewis Trondheim (Little Nothings, Stay, Ralph Azham) in collaboration with associates of a collective of bande dessinée creators (L’Association) – the Donjon saga has generated 59 volumes since debuting in 1998. A cult hit all over the world, it began as spoof and parody of roleplaying fantasy games, but as so often with stories of innate charm and high quality, it grew beyond its intentions…

After a cruelly long hiatus, English translations recently resumed, repackaged in full-colour album-sized paperbacks, forming sub-divisions of a vast, eccentrically raucous, addictively wacky generational franchise which welds starkly adult whimsy to the weird worlds of Sword & Sorcery sagas. These omnibus tomes take a legion of horribly human anthropomorphic stars into territories even wilder than those seen in Dungeon: Early Years, Parade, Zenith and Monstres. Latterly, adjuncts such as Antipodes and Bonus joined the sprawling braided mega-saga set on an alien world very much like ours in all the ways that really matter…

Dungeon reveals Terra Armata in time-separated epochs via periodic glimpses of a fantastic edifice on an unstable world where magic is a natural resource. Anthropomorphic inhabitants of the surreal realm include every kind of talking beast and bug, as well as monsters, demons, smart-a$$es, wizards, politicians and always – in all ways – strong, stroppy women-folk, making sense and taking charge. Whenever you look there’s always something happening and it’s usually quite odd…

Nominal star throughout the eons is a duck with a magic sword enabling – and eventually compelling – him to channel and/or be possessed by deceased heroes and dead monsters. At the time of these tales – long before his ethical downfall and rise to the unassailable rank of Grand Khan of dying, burning Terra Armata – he is simply Herbert of Craftiwich: and as usual he’s in a lot of trouble…

Just so we’re all on the same page: the “Dungeon” referred to is (mostly) an eternal hostelry and meeting place for wandering heroes, villains and extras we readers see over centuries. Adventures are staged as figurative times of day. Prequel series Potron-Minet relates to the dawn of the establishment, Donjon Zénith – the focus of today’s lesson – concentrates on a glorious hey-day, whilst the decline takes up Crépuscule – the twilight years.

Joining master craftsmen Sfar & Trondheim and supplying the art is Gilles Roussel AKA “Boulet”. He was born in the Parisienne sous-préfecture (sub-prefecture) of Meaux on February 1st 1975 and studied at the Graduate School of Decorative arts in Strasbourg, before creating comics like Raghnarok in 2001. Three years later he was one of the first to publish autobiographical webcomics (“Blog BD”) and became a leading light in the burgeoning field: a doyen of Paris’ Festival des blogs BD. Amongst jobs for magazines like Psikopat and Tchô, Boulet’s milestones include La Rubrique Scientifique, science comics series Project Octopus (from 2017), and many key literary collaborations such as Erik le Viking with Terry Jones (2008) and Par bonheur, le lait with Neil Gaiman (2015). In 2006, he took over the art for Donjon Zénith from Trondheim.

As so lavishly translated by NBM, Fog & Tears shares French Donjon Zénith tomes 9 &10: Larmes et brouillard and Formule incantatoire: seeing valiant Herbert in the worst trouble of his life in the eponymous opening instalment. The Dungeon has been captured by magical villain Delacour and all attempts to recapture it have failed. Now Herbert’s allies plan to take it back…

The duck has bigger problems. The dashing lover has just had a son with his beloved: a Kochak warrior princess. Isis is adamant that the infant will undergo all the rituals of her people, and he will accompany her into a frozen hell. He’s keen to accede to her every wish but the devout steppe-dwellers are intensely stubborn and unyielding and the duck is worried about his boy’s chances. Herbert has learned the Opasnyye Rite involves throwing infants into a pit of hungry wolves and seeing what happens…

After travelling deep into the icy region and utterly failing to talk Isis out of it, Herbert steals the baby and makes a run for home with an outraged army of fanatical military marvels on his heels. With Kochak ninjas and – far worse – Isis in close pursuit, the duck rejoins his abandoned allies and smuggles the waif onto the infiltration mission to Delacour’s Dungeon. Elsewhere, Dragonista couple Marvin and Pirzween – and their own newborn – survive a visit from Isis, leaving the outraged mother doubting her faith and the infant’s chances of survival.

In the aftermath, the duck duke and a dedicated band of necromancers slip into the keep, as do an army of outraged Kolchaks. In response, Delacour unleashes a plague of ghosts from profane coffer the Vault of Souls before fleeing. If the chest is not closed, the dead will overrun the world…

As chief necromancer Horus seeks to hold back the dead, Isis and her acolytes reclaim the baby, dragging poor misguided Herbert back north with them so he can witness the ritual that will make his son a Kolchak and the inheritor of the kingdom…

When all the tragedy ends, her father the Ataman realises that now his only chance for a true heir rests with him and recapturing the duck and his apostate daughter can wait…

In second chapter ‘Incantatory Spells’ his abandoned comrades – Marvin and Pirzween – take centre stage as Herbert’s ally Alcibiades recruits them for a convoluted conjurors’ quest to close the mystic chest still spewing ghosts into the world of the living. With only rapidly-weakening Horus holding back the host, Marvin undergoes humiliation multiple agonizing self-inflicted penances and even more humiliation as he chases down a string of components that will allow his magic wielding allies and comrades to stop the undead invasion.

It’s not the succession of weird wizards and constant stupid diversions that get to him though, it’s sneaking about in cowardly disguises – like when the mighty lizard must impersonate an elf – and Pirzween’s constant back-seat warrior-ing that ticks him off. That and her stupid girlish manner around old school flame/utterly unnecessary mystical quest-mate Blaise…

In the end though, even Herbert – and especially Blaise – have to agree that it’s Marvin’s idea and muscle that save the day and end the threat…

To be Continued…

Please be warned: these cartoon tales are a bit more sophisticated than general English or American fare. I know you’re okay with vicariously indulging in extreme and excessive depictions of violence, but if you fear your children, loved ones, livestock or servants might be adversely affected by mild swearing or nipples on birds and lizards, take whatever appropriate action you choose (which I believe is the magic phrase “it’s only a comic, dear”).

The rest of us will just carry on without you…

Surreal, earthy, brilliantly outlandish, sharply poignant, wittily hilarious and powerfully tragic, this is a subtly addictive read delivered via vibrant, wildly eccentric cartooning that is an absolute marvel of exuberant, graphic style. Despite being definitely not for younger readers, Dungeon Zenith is the kind of near-the-knuckle, illicit and smart epic older kids and adults will adore. And for the fullest comprehension – and even more insane fun – I strongly recommend acquiring all attendant incarnations too.
© Editions Delcourt 2022, 2023-2005. (Donjon Zénith tomes 9 &10 by Boulet, Joann Sfar Lewis Trondheim). © 2023 NBM for the English translation.

Dungeon: Zenith Vol. 5 – Fog & Tears will be released on October 17th 2023 and is available for pre-order now. For more information and other great reads please go to http://www.nbmpub.com/.

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Solomon Kane volume 1: The Castle of the Devil


By Scott Allie, Mario Guevara, Dave Stewart & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-282-6 (TPB)

Although Marvel have resumed control of Robert E. Howard’s star turns, they haven’t yet re-issued all the prior efforts of the previous licensee yet. That’s a shame as this particular tome has Halloween written all over it. Until they do, why not scour shoppes and online sites for a copy. The exercise will probably do you good and who knows what else you might find?

Following on from their revitalisation – if not actual creation – of the comic book Sword and Sorcery genre in the early 1970s (with their magnificent adaptation of pulp superstar Conan the Barbarian), Marvel Comics quite naturally looked for more of the same. They found ample material in Robert Ervin Howard’s other warrior heroes such as King Kull, Bran Mac Morn and dour Puritan Avenger Solomon Kane.

The fantasy genre had undergone a global prose revival in the paperback marketplace since the release of soft-cover editions of Lord of the Rings (first published in 1954), and the 1960s resurgence of two-fisted action extravaganzas by such pioneer writers as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline and Fritz Lieber. This led to a generation of modern writers like Michael Moorcock and Lin Carter kick-starting their careers with contemporary interpretations of man, monster and mage. Without doubt, though, nobody did it better than the tragic Texan whose other red-handed stalwarts and tough guys such as El Borak, Steve Costigan, Dark Agnes and Red Sonya of Rogatino excelled in a host of associated genres and like milieus.

Solomon Kane debuted in the August 1928 issue of Weird Tales in a gripping tale of vengeance entitled “Red Shadows”. He made seven more appearances before vanishing in 1932 as his creator concentrated on far more successful Conan. Three further tales, some epic poems and a few unfinished ideas and passages remained unpublished until 1968, when renewed interest in the author’s work prompted publishers to disinter and complete the yarns.

Apart from two noteworthy 4-colour exceptions, during the 1970s and 1980s, Marvel was content to leave Solomon Kane to monochrome adaptations of canonical Howard stories (in Dracula Lives, Savage Sword of Conan, Monsters Unleashed and other older-reader magazines), but with his transfer to the Dark Horse stable the Holy Terror flourished in broader, lavishly-hued interpretations of the unfinished snippets left when the prolific Howard took his life in 1936.

Beginning in 2008 and released as a succession of miniseries, these nearly-new adventures offer modern fans a far darker, more moody glimpse at the driven, doom-laden wanderer.

Kane is a disenfranchised English soldier of fortune in the 17th century on a self-appointed mission to roam the Earth doing God’s Work: punishing the wicked and destroying devils and monsters. With no seeming plan, the devout Puritan lets fate guide his footsteps ever towards trouble…

Expanded upon and scripted by Scott Allie from tantalisingly unfinished fragment The Castle of the Devil, this initial volume collects a 5-issue story-arc from September 2008-February 2009 and also includes a short piece which originally featured online in the digital MySpace Dark Horse Presents site in June 2008.

The drama opens as the surly pilgrim bloodily encounters bandits and an horrific wolf-beast in Germany’s Black Forest, losing his horse in the attack. Proceeding on foot he finds a boy hanging from a gibbet and cuts the near-dead body down. Soon after, he meets mercenary John Silent, another Englishman in search of fortune…

From his new companion, Kane learns local lord, Baron von Staler, has an evil reputation and will not be happy to have his affairs meddled with. The puritan doesn’t care: he wants harsh words with the kind of man who would execute children…

Despite genuine misgivings, the insufferably jolly Silent insists on accompanying his clearly suicidal countryman. Soon the pair are admitted to a bleak and terrifying Schloss built on the remains of an old abbey…

Von Staler is not the mad tyrant they had been warned of. The gracious, pious old warrior with devoted servants and a beautiful young Moorish wife welcomes them in, offering the hospitality of his hearth and charming them with his easy manner. The lord is appalled by the tale of the hanged boy, denying any knowledge of the atrocity and swears to bring the culprits to justice.

Over supper he and his bride Mahasti explain that their ill-repute is unjustly earned. The simple peasants have unfairly conflated him with the manse’s previous accursed inhabitants: a chapter of monks who murdered their own Prior two centuries past.

Vater Stuttman had been a holy man until he sold himself to Satan. His desperate brethren had been forced to entomb and starve him to contain his evil. With the church determinedly ignoring their plight, the chapter faded from the sight of Man and eventually Staler’s family had purchased the lands, building their ancestral seat upon the ruins.

The peasants however, still called it “the Church of the Devil”…

Gratified to find a man as devoted to God as himself, Kane relaxes for the first time in months, thankful to spend a night in a warm bed with people as devout as he. The truth begins to out at ‘The Dead of Night’ as Silent goes prowling within the castle and kills one of the Baron’s retainers, even as Kane’s rest is disturbed by shameless Mahasti offering herself to him…

Spurning her advances, the furious puritan leaves the citadel to wander the forest, and again encounters the colossal wolf thing. Back in his bed Silent, nursing a deep wound, dreams of beleaguered old monks and their apostate Prior…

In ‘Offerings’ the truth slowly begins to dawn on the melancholy wanderer after discourse with the strangely ill-tempered Silent. Something is badly amiss in the household, but when Kane and the Baron ride out that morning, all suspicions are stayed by the discovery of another gibbet and another boy. This one, however, is nothing but ragged scraps for the crows that festoon his corpse, and Kane’s rage is dwarfed by the ghastly uncomprehending shock and disbelief of the Baron…

The servants are not so flustered and something about their muted conversations with the master sits poorly with the morose Englishman. In the castle, Mahasti finds Silent a far more amenable prospect, happy to listen to the secrets she wants to share…

‘Sound Reasons and Evil Dictates’ offer more insights into the incredible truth about von Staler, as Kane takes his countryman into his full confidence before Silent and Mahasti ride out into the wild woods, meeting a ghost who reveals the terrifying truth about Vater Stuttman and the appalling thing the monks uncovered two hundred years past…

The demonic cadaver whispered unknowable secrets to one of that long-gone congregation and has continued for all the days and years since. Now the man who was Father Albrecht is ready to welcome it and its appalling kin back to full, ravening life in these benighted grounds…

Von Staler and Kane are arguing and, as accusations become blows, the secret of ‘The Wolf’ is at last revealed, even as faithful retainers capture Mahasti and Silent, leaving them on the gibbets as fodder for a quartet of horrors returning for their fleshly tribute in ‘His Angels of the Four Winds’. Savagely battling his way free of the castle, Kane is only in time to save one of the monsters’ victims, but more than ready to avenge centuries of slaughter and blasphemy in ‘The Chapel of the Devil’: grimly cleansing the tainted lands in the ‘Epilogue: Wanderers on the Face of the Earth’…

The art is beguiling, emphatically evocative with Mario Guevara’s pencils astonishingly augmented by a painted palette courtesy of colourist Dave Stewart, and the book is packed with artistic extras and behind-the-scenes bonuses. These include a gallery of covers and variants and ‘The Art of Solomon Kane’ with sketches and designs by the penciller, architectural shaper Guy Davis and illustrators John Cassaday, Stewart, Laura Martin & Joe Kubert. The tome terminates with that aforementioned digital vignette wherein Kane applies his own savage wisdom of Solomon to a troubled village of ghost-bedevilled souls in ‘The Nightcomers’…

Powerful, engaging and satisfactorily spooky, this fantasy fear-fest will delight both fans of the original canon and lovers of darkly dreaming, ghost-busting thrillers.
© 2009 Solomon Kane Inc. (SKI). Solomon Kane and all related characters, names and logos are ™ © and ® SKI.

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Bunny vs Monkey book 8: The Impossible Pig!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-300-4 (Digest HB)

Bunny vs Monkey has been the hairy backbone of The Phoenix since the very first issue back in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal arch-enemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands.

Concocted with gleefully gentle mania by cartoonist, comics artist and novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember), his trendsetting, mind-bending yarns have been wisely retooled as graphic albums available in remastered, double-length digest 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 the wake of a disastrous British space shot. Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite all efforts from reasonable, sensible, genteel, contemplative 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 day remains a rude, noise-loving, chaos-creating, troublemaking lout…

Problems are exacerbated by other unconventional Crinkle creatures, particularly the skunk called Skunky who has a mad scientist’s intellect and attitude to life plus a propensity for building extremely dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons…

Here – with artistic assistance from design deputy Sammy Borras – the war of nerves and mega-ordnances resumes even though everybody thought all the battles had ended. They even seemingly forgot the ever-encroaching Hyoomanz…

Divided into seasonal outbursts, this magnificent hardback archive of insanity opens in the traditional manner: starting slowly with a sudden realisation. Probably by using his fingers, Monkey has worked out that Bunny’s side has more good guys (Ai, Pig Piggerton, Weenie, Metal E.V.E. and Le Fox) than his own bad ones! Wisely rejecting Skunky’s offer to make more evildoers, the sinisterly stupid simian seeks to steal some of Bunny’s buddies: making insidious individual approaches in ‘A Big Hole’.

One immediate success goes unnoticed as those worthy stalwarts debate ways to get hapless Pig out of a giant pit before finding the ‘Tunnels’ the sweet simpleton used to get there in the first place…

First contact and a really strange day for all – including a wholly new kind of Crinkle critter – occurs in ‘Jerb-eing Unreasonable’, before Monkey commits carnage in a psychic bodysuit that can literally ‘Imagine That’: opening the doors to another Spring. At this time a certain white rabbit is pilfering carrots from an angry Hyooman, only to be saved by Monkey in the colossal exo-skeletal ‘Spade-O-Matic’, officially opening hostilities between bipeds and beasts…

Meanwhile and maybe later, Bunny experiences ‘Mossy Mayhem’ when Skunky’s latest experiment escapes, even as Metal E.V.E ponders astral reality and rashly asks her friend to explain ‘Pig Science’…

As monkey demands 25% more evil from his crew, he’s distracted by Metal Steve’s latest faux pas – a doomed relationship with ‘Wipey’ – and ‘Sun 2.0’ renders repercussions of Skunky upgrading the source of all light and warmth. Action Beaver is then subject to a ‘Body Swap’ after Monkey covets his apparent immunity to pain and harm. It doesn’t end well…

Once the Great Woodland Bake-off inevitably culminates in ‘Cakes and Bruises’ Monkey use a superstrength serum unwisely. As his bones mend he has a Damascus moment: deducing that being a ‘Good Monkey’ might be less harmful. He gives nobility a go… but it too doesn’t end well…

A fresh face materialises when Pig meets ‘The Visitor’ and inadvertently saves Lucky the Red Panda from atomic discorporation. Sadly, the effect is only temporary and when their memories merge, Lucky is stuck in residence in this dimension with our plucky porcine adrift in the molecular stream of the cosmos…

Trapped on Earth, the stranger tries desperately to convince all and sundry she is ‘Actually Pig’, often assisted by typical distractions like marauding sprout-farting monster ‘Gruntulak!’ and a no-holds-barred campaign to elect ‘President Monkey’.

Skunky starts disassembling woodland residents: harvesting DNA to make endless duplicates in ‘All A-Clone’ but even Skunky’s science can’t handle Lucky…

As Summer starts, mad science wins again. Skunky sets a trap to prove Lucky is ‘Not Pig’ and even finds what happened to the lost one, after which Monkey manages to murder cloud-gazing in ‘Weather or Not’ and Weenie gets a shocking letter in ‘Blackmail’…

With the truth about to out, ‘Pocket Pig’ sees the gentle woodland folk form a torch-waving mob to establish their real friend’s fate, only to find Skunky has already found a way to exploit the situation. However, when he constructs a device to reach the outer realms, Monkey makes a shambles of the ‘Portal Recall’…

When the awful anthropoid gets a mail-order giant robotic Chicken of Darkness, he never anticipated some assembly required and the woods are saved by ‘A Loose Nobble’, allowing good manners and better natures to resurface. Thus, the animals all contribute to ‘Lucky’s Home’: especially Monkey with his goop gun and crushing space-sphere of doom…

Elsewhere, as Metal Steve and Metal E.V.E hold a private contest to decide the best automaton in ‘Who Will Win the War of the Robots’, Skunky’s clumsiness triggers a crop of carnivorous blooms in ‘Chomp!’ Then, as Monkey’s alter ego “Captain Explosives” accidentally uncovers a crop of chronal crystals in ‘Time and Again’ Skunky makes his greatest breakthrough: a remote control for existence with a ‘Freeze Frame’ able to warp and rewind reality…

With everything on pause, ‘The Second Pigging’ heralds the return of a lost friend whose voyage to the cosmos has resulted in Complete Spiritual Enlightenment and manifestation as a Non-Corporeal Vision. Sadly, when nobody cheers, the ultimate Pig pops off in a dudgeon, leaving Lucky to save the day and restore time in ‘Hairy Nearly’: a major turning point that upsets many participants…

In what passes for a return to normality, Monkey is possessed by the ghost of a chicken and triggers an invasion of ‘Zombies!’ just as Autumn begins with Skunky and Monkey unleashing a giant robot that is ‘Turtle-y Ridiculous’…

Former good guy Fantastic Le Fox is also possessed and offers ‘A Warning’ of failure and worse that Monkey immediately reacts badly too, even as transcendent Pig returns to make contact with and elevate ‘Prophet Beaver’. Of course, nobody listens…

Meanwhile, Monkey has been messing with elemental forces and turned the woods into an ‘Expressionistic’ nightmare, before losing patience and challenging Bunny to a duel of ‘Brain Power’. After winning by cheating, the ape learns a painful lesson that is only the beginning of his woes as ‘Double Bunny’ sees a doppelganger emerge who will change the status quo in appalling ways…

Lost and distraught Bunny undertakes a mission for Skunky into the bowels of the earth in search of ‘Long-Lost Flopsy’. Guess how that ends…

The drama intensifies as ‘The Impossible Pig’ returns to reality only to discover that being ‘Disappointingly Mortal’ would be better than life as a power battery for Skunky, and that’s when ‘Lucky’s Fortune’ turns the tide…

Bunny has not been right since meeting the other rabbit and with Metal E.V.E.’s aid ‘The Search is On’ for a boon companion. Only briefly interrupted by realty running wild, the search resumes in ‘Better Luck Next Time!’ and Le Fox’s niece arrives for some rowdy ‘Fennec Fun!’ She’s on the run and another relation isn’t far behind her…

Solitude has bitten our hero hard and nothing Monkey can do will distract ‘A Lonely Bunny’ in his morose meanderings, so the little meany challenges Impossible Pig instead, and learns real suffering in ‘Butt Then…’

When Winter arrives, Lucky sees snow for the first time, enduring cheeky hostiles chucking chilly snowballs until the wonder-pig volunteers as ‘Protector’ and is soon tricked by Skunky who wants to depower the self-promoting saviour ‘At All Costs’…

Now resolved to return to the Molecular Stream, Impossible Pig takes advice from unknowable factor Le Fox, but stumbles into a wild Christmas Party on his way to the fabulous Lake of Eternity. He also meets Lucky who wants to leave this reality just as much, but as they argue over who should take the one-way ride a dear friend and desolate hero is already ‘Jumping the Queue’…

To Be Continued…

The agonised anxiety-addled animal anarchy might have ended for now, but there’s a few more secrets to share, thanks to detailed instructions on ‘How to Draw Lucky’ as well as a handy preview of other treats and wonders available in The Phoenix to wind down from all that angsty furore…

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. This is the kind of comic book parents beg kids to read to them. Shouldn’t that be you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2023. All rights reserved.

Bunny vs Monkey book 8: The Impossible Pig! will be published on September 28th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

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The Michael Moorcock Library Elric volume 4: The Weird of the White Wolf


Adapted by Roy Thomas, Michael T. Gilbert, George Freeman, P. Craig Russell, Tom Orzechowski & various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-290-4 (HB/Digital edition)

As we’re all waving swords about, here’s another splendidly fantastikal romp everyone should have in their personal casque of delights and wonders…

A milestone of the Sword & Sorcery genre Elric is the last ruler of a pre-human civilisation. Domain of a race of cruel, arrogant sorcerers, Melniboné ruled the world in primordial times before its debased lords embraced boredom and decadence. Trapped in gradual decline after millennia of dominance, the end came through its final king. An albino, Elric is physically weak and of a brooding, philosophical temperament. He cared for nothing save his beautiful cousin Cymoril, whom he killed whilst battling her loathsome usurping brother Prince Yrrkoon. After Elric destroyed his own love and race he wandered the world a broken, dissolute wreck…

When some prose tales – The Dreaming City, While the Gods Laugh and The Singing Citadel – were compiled with framing tale The Dream of Earl Aubec into a single novel Elric: Weird of the White Wolf, the tragic revelations were devoured by fans devoted to the epic of inescapable doom, and translation into comics was as inevitable. Ultimately, the epic adaptations alighted in these carefully curated chronicles courtesy of Titan Comics, in both physical and digital formats.

Following a warmly informative Introduction by pioneering comics writer and publisher Mike Friedrich, and creator biographies, the saga resumes.

This stellar graphic adaptation gathers not only the novel but also many of the disparate previous adaptations (partially or in full) to form a logical chronological sequence, based on a 5-issue miniseries and collection which originally saw the light of day from the much-missed innovators First Comics in 1990.

Death and drama manifests in ‘The Dream of Earl Aubec’ – by Roy Thomas, Michael T. Gilbert & George Freeman (spectacularly supported by letterer Ken Bruzenak) – as the greatest warrior champion of his world fights to the very edge of reality, seeking more glory and searching for approval from his queen Eloarde of Klant. Where solid ground meets raw unformed Chaos-stuff, he finds a castle and is seduced by inexplicable, incredible creature Myshella, the Dark Lady. She gleefully shows him visions of the future in the raw material of unformed reality, and particularly the travails of a tragic Emperor, as yet unborn: Elric.

The first vision is an abridged and modified version of Thomas and P. Craig Russell’s ‘The Dreaming City’, taken from the 1982 Marvel Graphic Novel. It’s followed by the pair’s superb adaptation of ‘While the Gods Laugh’ which first appeared in fantasy anthology magazine Epic Illustrated (#14) in 1984.

There and then, the “white wolf” searched for the Dead God’s Book: a magical grimoire that promised to answer any wish or desire. In the quest Elric picked up the first of many disposable paramours in Shaarilla of the Dancing Mist: a woman with an agenda of her own. Most importantly. Elric met his as his truest friend and aide, human wanderer Moonglum.

Interspersed with the unfolding drama of Aubec and Myshella, the collection moves into an all-new interpretation of ‘The Singing Citadel’. Thomas & Gilbert co-adapted the tale for hugely underrated George Freeman to illustrate and colour.

When Elric and Moonglum take ship they are attacked by the magical pirates of Pan Tang, before being drawn into the dire schemes of Queen Yishana. She needs a better magician than her own lover Theleb K’aarna to investigate an incursion of murderous, melodic chaos into her kingdom…

After convincing the newcomers to join her, their search turns up a macabre, manic invader who turns out to be the Balo, malevolent Jester of the Lords of Chaos, intent on establishing his own domain and playpen beyond the interference of his fun-averse superiors…

This is a phenomenal tale of heroism and insanity, and art and colour here fully capture the drama and madness of the original. Gilbert & Freeman are every bit the imaginative, illustrative equals of the magnificent Russell and this book is inarguably one of the most impressive graphic fantasies ever produced.

Michael Moorcock’s irresistible blend of brooding Faustian tragedy and all-out action is never better displayed than in his stories of Elric, and Thomas’ adaptations were another high watermark in the annals of illustrated fantasy. Every home and castle should have one…

Another groundbreaking landmark of fantasy fiction and must-read-item, this resplendently flamboyant tale is a deliciously elegant, sinisterly beautiful masterpiece of the genre, blending blistering action and breathtaking adventure with the deep, darkly melancholic tone of a cynical, nihilistic, Cold-War mentality and the era that spawned the original stories.
Adapted from the works of Michael Moorcock related to the character of Elric of Melniboné © 2016, Michael & Linda Moorcock. All characters, the distinctive likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are TM & © Michael Moorcock and Multiverse Inc. Elric: The Weird of the White Wolf is © 1990 First Publishing, Inc. and Star*Reach Productions. Adapted from the original stories by Michael Moorcock, © 1967, 1970, 1977. All rights reserved.

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The Complete Dickie Dare


By Milton Caniff (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 0-93019-322-9 (HB)  978-0-93019-321-8 (PB)

Despite being one of the greatest and most influential cartoonists in world history, Milton Caniff wasn’t an overnight sensation. He worked long and hard before he achieved stellar status in the comic strip firmament, before Terry and the Pirates brought him fame, and Steve Canyon secured his fortune.

The strip which brought him to the attention of legendary Press Baron “Captain” Joseph Patterson – in many ways co-creator of Terry – was an unassuming daily fantasy feature about a little boy who was hungry for adventure…

Caniff was working for The Associated Press as a jobbing cartoonist when a gap opened in their strips department. AP was an organisation that devised and syndicated features for the thousands of regional and small-town newspapers which couldn’t afford to produce cartoons, puzzles, recipes and other fillers that ran between the local headlines and regional sports.

Over a weekend, Caniff came up with Dickie, a studious lad who would read a book and then fantasize himself into the story, taking faithful little dog Wags with him. The editors went for it and Dickie Dare premiered on July 31st, 1933.

Caniff wrote and drew the feature for less than 18 months before moving on, although his excellent but unappreciated replacement Coulton Waugh steered the series until its conclusion two decades later.

The first day-dream was with Robin Hood, followed by a frantic, action-packed visit with Robinson Crusoe and Friday, battling hordes of howling savages and scurvy pirates. Rugged combat gave way to fantastic mystery when the tyke perused Aladdin, resulting in a lavish and exotic trip to a very fabled Far East. This segment closed near Christmas, and when his father read Dickie the story of the Nativity, Caniff began his long personal tradition of creating seasonally topical strips.

A visit to Bethlehem ended on Christmas morning, and one of Dickie’s Christmas presents then triggers his next excursion, when he starts reading of General George Armstrong Custer…

King Arthur next, followed by Captain Kidd the Pirate, but by then Caniff was chafing under the self-imposed limitations of his creation. He believed the strip had become formulaic and there was no real tension or drama in mere dreams. In a creative masterstroke, he revised the strip’s parameters, and by so doing produced the prototype for a masterpiece.

On May 11th, 1934, Dickie met a new uncle: globe-trotting author and two-fisted man-of-action Dan Flynn, and one week later the pair embarked on a Round-the-World trip. Caniff had moved swiftly, crafting a template that would become Terry and the Pirates.

The wide-eyed, nervy All-American Kid with adult pal ultra-capable adventurer, whilst a subject of much controversy and even ill-advised and outright scurrilous modern disparagement, was a literary archetype since before Treasure Island. Adapting that relationship to comic strips was commercially sound: a decision that hit a peak of popularity with the horde of sidekicks/partners who followed in the wake of Robin the Boy Wonder six years later.

No sooner have Dickie & Dan taken ship for Africa than the drama begins, when the restless kid uncovers a hidden cargo of smuggled guns. Aided by feisty Debutante Kim Sheridan and sailor Algy Sparrow, our heroes foil the scheme, but not before Dickie is captured by Kuvo, the Arab chieftain awaiting those weapons.

Pursued by French authorities, Kuvo retreats to a desert fortress where Kim, disguised as a slave-girl, rescues the lad, only to be caught herself. The full-tilt action peaks to a splendid conclusion before the boys, with Algy in tow as their butler, head for Tunis only to stumble across a plot to use a World War I U-Boat for ocean-going piracy…

This long adventure (beginning September 13th) is a thoroughly gripping yarn encompassing much of the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as the boys escape pirates and aid the Navy in hunting them down. There’s buckets of action and an astonishing amount of tension, but the tale ends a tad abruptly when Caniff, lured away by Patterson, simply drops the feature and Coulton Waugh takes over the storyline from the next Monday (3rd December).

With no break in the tale Waugh rapidly (in 14 episodes) wraps up the saga. He even has Dickie home by Christmas.

From the New Year the strip would chart new waters with Waugh at the helm, aided (and briefly replaced whilst he wrote his seminal book on Comics and also when he was producing the strip Hank for the New York magazine PM) by assistant and spouse Odin Burvik.

Dickie Dare eventually ended its run in October 1957 with the now adult adventurer beginning a new career as a US Navy Cadet.

Although usually dismissed as a mere stage on the road to his later mastery – and certainly long before Caniff and sometime studio partner Noel Sickles made their chiaroscurist breakthroughs in line-art that revolutionised the form – these early tales delighted and enthralled readers. Full of easy whimsy and charm, the strip evolved into a rip-roaring, all-ages thriller, full of wit and derring-do, in many ways an American answer to Hergé’s Tintin.

They deserve to be appreciated on their own merits and are long overdue for reappraisal in new collections.

At least this edition is still readily available but Dickie Dare is long overdue for rediscovery by the mass-market – and streaming services! – so while we’re at it, let’s see some of the work that the criminally under-valued Waugh originated too.
Artwork originally © 1933-1934 The Associated Press. Other contents this edition © Richard Marschall All rights reserved.

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Hellraisers


By Robert Sellers & JAKe (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-906838-36-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

Here’s a quandary for you. Why are we blessed with and so obsessed by the capacity for self-destruction? Answers on a beermat to…

Robert Sellers used to be a stand-up comedian – so he has his own perspective – before settling as an author and film journalist with prose biographies including Sting, Tom Cruise, Sean Connery and the Monty Python phenomenon to his name. He’s also contributed to periodicals and magazines like The Independent, Total Film, Empire, SFX and Cinema Retro. And he’s also been seen on TV quite a bit.

In 2009 he published a magnificent history of theatrical excellence and brilliant excess in his Life and Inebriated Times of Burton, Harris, O’Toole and Reed. Two years later, he revisited and reformatted the material in collaboration with prestigious illustrator, designer and animator JAKe (How to Speak Wookiee, cartoon series Geekboy, Mighty Book of Boosh, The Prodigy’s Fat of the Land and so much more, both singly and with the studio Detonator which he co-founded). The artist keeps himself to himself and lets his superb artistry do all the talking.

Self-adapted from his prose history of the iconic barnstorming British film and theatre legends Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed and Peter O’Toole, Sellers transformed Hellraisers into a pictorial feast of “why did he do THAT?!” These tales of lurid limelight reveal the unique and incredible lives of a quartet of new wave, working class thespian heroes; each more famed for boozing and brawling than for acting. The result is a masterful parable and celebration of the vital, vibrant creative force of rebellion.

The histories are diligently interpreted with savage, witty style – and with a heaping helping of barely-suppressed admiration – in ferociously addictive and expressive monochrome cartoon and caricature novelettes by the enigmatic JAKe.

Working on the principle that a Hellraiser is “a person who causes trouble by violent, drunken or outrageous behaviour” and cloaked in the guise of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the salutary fables open as another drunken reprobate is thrown out of another pub. It’s Christmas Eve at the Rose & Crown of Broken Dreams and Martin should be home with his wife and son.

After again disgracing himself, and still shaking with DT’s and unexpunged rage, the pathetic drunk staggers back to his loving but scared family, only to pass out. He is awoken by his hellraising father who drank and smoked himself to death seven years previously.

Told that he has one last chance to save himself, Martin is warned that he will be visited by four spirits (no, sadly not that sort) who will regale him with the stories of their lives and fates and failures and triumphs…

What follows is a beguiling journey of bitter self-discovery as Burton, Harris, Reed and O’Toole (still alive at that juncture, but part of the visitation of “spooky buggers” as it’s just a matter of time, my dear boy…) recount their own soused-and-sodden histories, experiences and considerations in an attempt to turn around the piddling lightweight. They’re certainly not that repentant, however, and even proud of the excesses and sheer exuberant manly mythology they’ve made of their lives…

Managing the masterful magic trick of perfectly capturing the sheer charismatic force and personality of these giants of their craft and willing (or helpless?) accomplices in their own downfalls, this superb saga even ends on an upbeat note. However, that’s only after cataloguing the incredible achievements, starry careers, broken relationships, impossibly impressive and frequently hilarious exploits of debauchery, intoxication and affray perpetrated singly and in unison by the departed, unquiet sozzled soul…

Jam-packed with legendary exploits and barroom legends of four astoundingly gifted men who couldn’t stop breaking rules and hearts (especially their own), and blessed/cursed with infinitely unquenchable thirsts for the hard stuff and the aforementioned appetites for self-destruction, this intoxicating, so very tasty tome venerates the myths these unforgettable icons promulgated and built around themselves, but never descends into pious recrimination or laudatory gratification.

It’s just how they were…

Sellers has the gift of forensic language, perfectly channelling the voices and idiom of each star even as JAKe perfectly blends shocking historical reportage with evocative surreal metafiction in this wonderful example of the power of sequential narrative.

Clever, witty and unmissable; isn’t it time you took a little nip to fortify yourself?
© 2010 Robert Sellers and JAKe. All rights reserved.

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Evil Emperor Penguin: The World Will Be Mine!


By Laura Ellen Anderson, with Kate Brown (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-299-1 (Digest PB)

A lifetime ago in 2012 Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched an “old school” weekly comics anthology aimed at girls and boys between 6 and 12. It revelled in reviving the grand old days of British picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in its style and content. This comprised comic strips, humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles, educational material and activity pages in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy.

In the years since, the periodical has gone from strength to strength, its pantheon of superbly engaging strips generating lines of superbly engaging graphic novel compilations, the latest of which is this riotous romp starring a gloriously malign and inept arch-wizard of scientific wickedness who delights readers with a profound sense of mischief and unbridled imagination…

Conceived and created by illustrator and author Laura Ellen Anderson (Kittens, Snow Babies, My Brother is a Superhero, Amelia Fang!, Rainbow Grey, I Don’t Want…), these are the revived, remastered and extended exploits of Evil Emperor Penguin!

The bad bird lives in a colossal fortress beneath the Antarctic, working ceaselessly towards total world domination, assisted by his stylish and erudite many-tentacled administrative lackey Number 8 and cutely fuzzy, passionately loyal Eugene. The latter is an endlessly inventive little abominable snowman clone. EEP had whipped up a batch of 250, but none of the others are quite like Eugene…

The penguin potentate appointed the hairy, bizarrely inspired tyke Top Minion, but somehow never managed to instil him with the requisite degree of evilness. Still, he is a dab-hand with spaghetti hoops, so it’s not a total loss.

Following an crucially informative  pin-up of ‘the Gang’ and some recurring rivals and foes with an info-packed double-page map of the Evil Underground Headquarters (disclosing all you’ll need to know) another assortment of vile vignettes begins with ‘Quantum EEP’ as a mishap with time travelling commodes send the penguin and his tentacular deputy back in time to meet their younger hippie selves – and make them evil if they want to get home and conquer the world. If only their earlier selves weren’t so seductively content…

Back in the present, Eugene and his substandard substitute assistant Neill are trying to fix the glitch but it’s tricky with chunks of reality fading away as you reach for them.

Ultimately, the wrong real is put right and EEP resumes his plans, leading to exploiting a radical new power source in ‘Pomme de Terror’ – which then evolves into a marauding horror made even worse by arch World Domination rival Evil Cat popping in for a spot of smug mockery…

Eugene’s secret passion for footwear inspires the Bad Bird’s next plan for global enslavement in ‘Shoe-Gene’ and results in the good servant being captured by the moustachioed, top-hatted, perfidious puss whose ‘Big Fat Doom-Button’ seems certain to eradicate the top minion’s benevolent guardian jolly unicorn Keith and all his wondrous kin.

Even an unprecedented team-up of EEP and the horned horsey isn’t enough to quell the crisis and it needs the last-minute intervention of valiant narwhal Norman and his finny chums to end the cat’s plans, but at least the rescue has laid the groundwork for a future romance…

Fully restored and ready for more evil, ‘Marshminion Surprise’ sees EEP attempting to turn humanity into gooey taste treats, but instead transforming Eugene after Evil Cat interferes again. No sooner is abnormality restored than reality television inspires even greater horror when the penguin produces hyper-judgemental talent show ‘The Yay Factor’ before Eugene’s love of a Farmer’s Market leads to EEP’s invention of brain-shrinking fruit in ‘An Epple a Day’. Naturally, nothing goes right and Antarctica soon is imperilled by a giant hairy head…

‘A Penguin’s Christmas Carol’ sees the villain forced to examine his own past present and future in the traditional spoofish yet moving manner before a new year welcomes fresh terror as EEP unleashes carnivorous wheelie-bins in ‘Time to Take Out the Trash’, prior to the debut of the politest murderous minion ever as ‘Flegburt’ introduces himself and Evil Cat’s scheme to destroy the penguin’s beloved Invention Room of Evil. Of course, even good manners can’t compensate for Eugene’s unique charm…

A critical postal cock up triggers ‘The Great Chase’ across the icy continent – consequently disrupting Keith and Norman’s first date – before the status quo between potential world tyrants is restored and EEP attempts to subjugate elected world leaders with genetically modified ‘Flower Power’.

The threat level then drops as the penguin suffers a dearth of inspiration in ‘Evil Block’ and takes out his frustrations on everybody until he builds a relaxation machine and really goes off the deep end. Drenched in chaos and worse, EEP must join with Evil Cat and unknown rival Evil Rat enduing countless terrors and discovering the awful truth about pigeons…

With Flegburt having turned turncoat and now minioning for the Evil Penguin, ‘Plan Poover’ finds young unicorn Colin doing his work experience placement with Number 8, thanks to a recommendation from his uncle Keith. It soon looks like he’ll never get that precious Sparkle Scouts Career Badge after designing the Super Epic Human Rainbow Vacuum…

More upset occurs after the unwary penguin plugs in the ‘Evil Printer’ and reality starts rebelling, even as the discovery of ‘Flegburt’s True Calling’ triggers fashion, shopping and a major career change after which brainwash chemical ‘Shampoogene’ is unleashed. It’s meant to clean humanity’s heads… and brains!… but there’s a little unwelcome side effect…

Eugene’s love of blowing bubbles sparks ‘The Unpoppable Plan’ and almost ends everyone until Keith and Norman intercede, before – with “bubblegeddon” averted – master and servants settle back for ‘A Christmas to Remember’ when the bird decides to steal Santa’s job and position…

Rocket-paced, hilariously inventive, wickedly arch and utterly determined to be silly at all costs, this tome of terror also has educational merit as it offers lessons on ‘How to Draw EEP’.

Evil Emperor Penguin: The World Will Be Mine! is a captivating cascade of smart, witty funny adventure, which will delight readers of all ages.
Text and illustrations © Laura Ellen Anderson 2023. All rights reserved.

Evil Emperor Penguin The World Will Be Mine! will be released (but not for good behaviour) on September 7th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.