Category: Fantasy

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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.

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The Epic of Gilgamesh


Translated by Kent H. Dixon & illustrated by Kevin H. Dixon (Seven Stories Press)
ISBN: 978-1-60980-793-1 (TPB): 978-1-60980-794-8 (eBook)

The infinite realm of comics is the most expansive medium we have for extolling heroic deeds, combining a facility for depicting all aspects of character with an unlimited budget for special effects; all whilst communicating instantaneous visceral understanding and appreciation to and on the part of the audience.

Such was not always the case: once upon a time all we had was words, originally spoken or chanted but eventually translated into permanent marks on durable surfaces.

As of this writing, The Epic of Gilgamesh is still the oldest known work of human literature. A truly timeless heroic saga, its earliest incarnation is actually five Sumerian poems lauding the accomplishments of Bilgamesh, King of Uruk, dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur. That’s approximately 2100 BCE as you, I and most modern Mesopotamians would reckon it.

As is so often the case, some smart wordsmith long ago appropriated the texts and reconditioned the snippets into something grander, with the saga surviving into our era via a series (still incomplete) of Babylonian tablets. The material is open to frequent interpretation and has been translated into many languages since first discovered.

What source material we have comes from tablets of cuneiform logographs discovered back in 1853 by Hormuzd Rassam amidst the remains of the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh (near modern Mosul in Iraq). In the early 1870s western historian George Smith published his first translation and, after more hands-on study and research, a full and final version in his 1880 book The Chaldean Account of Genesis. The first direct Arabic translation – by Iraqi Taha Baqir – only appeared in 1960. Many modern scholars have had a bash, with 2003’s 2-volume critical work by Andrew George being generally accounted as the most definitive thus far.

I, however, am no scholar (or gentleman, by all accounts) and the graphic novel on point today has my vote for perhaps the most honest and genuine treatment yet. It’s certainly the least pompous with the most laughs…

Gilgamesh is the prototype and template of all modern hero-myths, with a demigod king, alternatively beloved and despised, stricken and emboldened by his own greatness triumphing over all odds and odd monsters, but ultimately brought low by his own humanity.

It’s also a story with creation myth motifs (man brought forth from clay; god-touched, animal-saving survivors of great floods; resurrection from the dead) that reoccur over and over again in later religions. Has anyone told Dwayne Johnson about this book yet?

This version is replete with earthy humour, casual smut and everyday venality. It feels like – despite the mystical trappings – the characters at its heart are all too human. This is most cool, as artefacts dating back to 2600 BCE were recently uncovered that indicate the actual existence of some of the actors in this particular passion play…

What also lends this superb monochrome marvel much of its compelling veracity and beguiling attraction is a somewhat unique collaboration. Kent H. Dixon is an award-winning poet, screenwriter, novelist and educator who spends his days teaching and translating literary works from Japanese hibakusha to classics by Rilke and Mallarmé.

Kent Dixon is a social activist, underground radio show host and the award-winning cartoonist who created …And Then There Was Rock and subversive milestone Mickey Death in the Winds of Impotence. He might be the only aging rebel in the world happy to work with his dad…

Their slowly-unfolding, decade-long collaboration on The Epic of Gilgamesh caught the attention of top bloke Russ Kick (You Are Being Lied To and Everything You Know is Wrong; and data archive thememoryhole2.org) who quickly made it – and them – a key part of the superb Graphic Canon series.

So, what do you get here that other translations don’t offer? Following Kick’s scene-setting, context-establishing Introduction, Kent Senior’s Translator’s Note relates how the literary wizard retranslated the original tablets – including only just unearthed Tablet 5 – and offers a few hints regarding narrative direction whilst Kevin Dixon’s Artist’s Note spills a few secrets on producing a classic everybody “knows” as an out of sequence part-work…

As for the story: an arrogant hero-king wanders the Earth and realms of gods and monsters. He’s pretty vile to women and beats up whom he pleases until the gods create a perfect enemy who ends up becoming his truest (if not only) friend. When he dies the Hero defies the universe and challenges Hell to get him back. You’ve heard it all before but you’ve never seen it quite like this…

Bold and brash, raw and raucous, this inviting interpretation also manages to maintain a graceful poetic rhythm and deftly incorporate the philosophy and instructions-for-living that permeate and underscore the original without missing a beat. A magnificent tale with a big heart and supremely engaging, this funny, scary, action-packed pictorial fable is a brilliant achievement and I for one am hungry for more. Spenser’s Faerie Queene or Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West anyone?
© 2018 by Kent H. Dixon and Kevin H. Dixon. All rights reserved.

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Angel Catbird volumes 1


By Margaret Atwood, Johnnie Christmas & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-50670-063-2 (HB/Digital)

Margaret Atwood is a multi-award-winning novelist with a string of laudable, famous books (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Blind Assassin) to her name and a couple of dark secrets. As disclosed in her Introduction to this fun-packed fantasy romp, she loves cats and comics and has done so all her life. Thus Angel Catbird: a trilogy of original, digest-sized, full-colour hardbacks relating the outrageous and fantastical adventures of races of wondrous creatures who have lived unknown amongst us from time immemorial… and how an accidental crossbreed newcomer shakes up all their worlds…

Scripted and co-designed by Atwood, the lively saga is illustrated by Johnnie Christmas (Swim Team, Tartarus, Crema), with colours from Tamra Bonvillain (Wayward, Rat Queens) and lettered by Nate Piekos of Blambot® and begins as genetic engineer and neophyte private sector worker Strig Feleedus rushes to finish a crucial “super-splicer” formula for his creepy boss.

Muroid Inc.’s owner Dr. Muroid has a thing for rats and is extremely eager for Strig to complete his assignment. His perpetual harassment even extends to covert surveillance through mechanically augmented rat spies…

Upon learning Feleedus has made a midnight hour breakthrough, the deranged doctor pesters the exhausted wage-slave into bringing the results straight in, provoking a horrible accident involving Strig, pet cat Ding, a passing owl, a speeding automobile and the spilled gene-splicing agent prototype…

When Strig comes to, he has been transformed into a bizarre human/cat/bird hybrid who can fly and voraciously gobble down rats, but that’s only the beginning…

Despite eventually regaining his original form, Strig is suddenly made aware of a whole new world he never imagined possible. His senses – especially smell – have become greatly heightened. Co-worker Cate Leone, for example, becomes far more interesting when his nose comes into play. Most intriguing is the fact that somehow Feleedus can understand what birds and alley-cats are saying…

Before long, Strig is submerged in an astonishing new existence: one where animals live exotic alternative lives as half-humans and one to which he has been admitted only through the auspices of his accidental exposure to the super-splicer compound.

Tragically, when he discovers just why Muroid wanted the serum in the first place, it sparks a deadly and explosive interspecies war with the “Angel Catbird” and his shapeshifting animal allies on one side and mad Muroid’s mutant rat hordes on the other.

To Be Continued…

This turbulent tome is high on catnip-coated comedic action-adventure and includes a wealth of attention-grabbing extras such as a large art gallery by illustrative stars David Mack, Fábio Moon, Tyler Crook, Matt Kindt, Jen Bartel, Troy Nixey, David Ruben and Charlie Pachter; a fascinating and extensive annotated Sketchbook section from both Christmas and Atwood, plus a detailed and informative rundown on how Bonvillain turns line-art into extraordinarily complex colour pages.

This book has an ulterior motive and secret life too. Pages are copiously footnoted with facts and advice on how to protect felines and avians from harm: originating from the charity catsandbirds.ca, and the tale you enjoy is designed to promote their message of simultaneously keeping cats safe and saving bird lives. Why not look them up and make a donation?

Playful and sly with slickly hidden, razor-sharp edges, this a fable of frolicsome fantasy all mixed up with Fights ‘n’ Tights fun that will delight animal lovers and old-fashioned superhero fans.
Angel Catbird ™ & © 2016 Margaret Atwood. All rights reserved.

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The Jack Kirby Omnibus volume 2 – starring The Super Powers


By Jack Kirby, with Mike Royer, D. Bruce Berry, Wally Wood, Pablo Marcos, Adrian Gonzalez, Greg Theakston, Alex Toth, Vince Colletta, Joe Simon, Denny O’Neil, Martin Pasko, Steve Sherman, Michael Fleisher, Joey Cavalieri, Paul & Alan Kupperberg, Bob Rozakis & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3833-9 (HB)

Famed for larger-than-life characters and gigantic, cosmic imaginings, Jack Kirby was an astute, imaginative, spiritual man who lived through poverty, gangsterism, the Depression, Post-War optimism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures. He was open-minded and utterly wedded to the making of comics stories on every imaginable subject. He always believed that sequential narrative was worthy of being published as real books beside mankind’s other literary art forms.

History has proved him right, and showed us just how ahead of the times he always was.

There’s a magnificent abundance of Kirby commemorative collections around these days (though still not all of it, so I remain a partially disgruntled dedicated fan). This particular magnificent hardback compendium re-presents most of the miscellaneous oddments of the “King’s DC Canon”; or at least those the company still retains rights for. The licenses on stuff like his run on pulp adaptation Justice Inc. (and indeed Marvel’s 2001: A Space Odyssey comic) will not be forthcoming any time soon…

Some of the material here is also available in 2019’s absolutely monster DC Universe Bronze Age Omnibus by Jack Kirby, but since it isn’t available digitally either (yet), you’d best have strong wrists and a sturdy desk at hand for that one.

Happily, this less massive tome from 2013 is less of a strain physically or financially. It opens with pages of hyper-kinetic Kirby pencil pages and a moving ‘Introduction by John Morrow’ before hurtling straight into moody mystery with a range of twice told tales.

On returning from WWII, Kirby reconnected with long-term creative partner Joe Simon. National Comics/DC was no longer a welcoming place for the reunited dream team supreme and by 1947 they had formed their own studio. Subsequently enjoying a long and productive relationship with Harvey Comics (Stuntman, Boy’s Ranch, Captain 3-D, Lancelot Strong, The Shield, The Fly, Three Rocketeers and more) the duo generated a stunning variety of genre features for Crestwood/Pines supplied by their “Essankay”/ “Mainline” studio shop.

Triumphs included Justice Traps the Guilty, Fighting American, Bullseye, Police Trap, Foxhole, Headline Comics and especially Young Romance amongst many more: a veritable mountain of mature, challenging strip material in a variety of popular genres.

One was mystery and horror, and amongst the dynamic duo’s Prize Comics concoctions was noir-informed, psychologically-underpinned supernatural anthology Black Magic – and latterly, short-lived yet fascinating companion title Strange World of Your Dreams.

These comics anthologies eschewed traditional gory, heavy-handed morality plays and simplistic cautionary tales for deeper, stranger fare, and – until the EC comics line hit their peak – were far and away the best mystery titles on the market.

When the King quit Marvel for DC in 1970, his new bosses accepted suggestions for a supernatural-themed mature-reading magazine. Spirit World was a superb but poorly received and largely undistributed monochrome magazine. Issue #1 – and only – appeared in the summer of 1971, but editorial cowardice and backsliding scuppered the project before it could get going.

Material from a second, unpublished issue eventually appeared in colour comic books Weird Mystery Tales and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion, but with his ideas misunderstood, ignored or side-lined by the company, Kirby reverted to more traditional fare. Never truly defeated though, he cannily blended his belief in the marketability of the supernatural with flamboyant superheroics to create another unique and lasting mainstay for the DC universe. The Demon only ran a couple of years but was a concept later talents would make a pivotal figure of the company’s continuity.

Jack’s collaborations with fellow industry pioneer Joe Simon always produced dynamite concepts, unforgettable characters, astounding stories and huge sales, no matter what genre avenues they pursued, blazing trails for so many others to follow and always reshaping the very nature of American comics with their innovations and sheer quality.

As with all their endeavours, Simon & Kirby offered stories shaped by their own sensibilities. Identifying a “mature market” gap in the line of magazines they autonomously packaged for publishers Crestwood and Prize, they realised the sales potential of high-quality spooky material. Thus superb, eerily seminal Black Magic debuted with an October/November 1950 cover-date; supplemented in 1952 by boldly obscure psychological drama anthology The Strange World of Your Dreams. This title was inspired by studio-mate Mort Meskin’s vivid and punishing night terrors: dealing with fantastic situations and – too frequently for comfort – unable or unwilling to provide pat conclusions or happy endings. There was no cosmic justice or calming explanations available to avid readers. Sometimes The Unknown just blew up in your face and you survived – or didn’t. No one escaped whole or unchanged…

Thus, this colossal compendium of cult cartoon capers commences with DC’s revival of Black Magic as a cheap, modified and toned down reprint title.

The second #1 launched with an October/November 1973 cover-date, offering crudely re-mastered versions of some astounding classics. Benefitting from far better reproduction technology here is ‘Maniac!’ (originating in Black Magic #32 September/October 1973): an artistic tour de force and a tale much “homaged” by others in later years, detailing how and why a loving brother stops villagers taking his simple-minded sibling away. This is followed by ‘The Head of the Family!’ (BM #30 May/June 1954, by Kirby & Bruno Premiani) exposing the appalling secret shame of a most inbred clan…

DC’s premier outing ended with a disturbing tale first seen in Black Magic #29 (March-April 1954). Specifically cited in 1954’s anti-comic book Senate Hearings, ‘The Greatest Horror of them All!’ told a tragic tale of a freak hiding amongst lesser freaks…

Cover-dated December 1973/January 1974, DC’s second shot opened with ‘Fool’s Paradise!’ (BM #26, September/October 1953) as a petty thug stumbles into a Mephistophelean deal and reveals how ‘The Cat People’ (#27 November/December 1953) mesmerised and forever marked an unwary tourist in rural Spain before ‘Birth After Death’ (#20 January 1953) retold the true tale of how Sir Walter Scott’s mother survived premature burial, and ‘Those Who Are About to Die!’ (#23 April 1953) sketched out how a painter could predict imminent doom…

‘Nasty Little Man!’ (#18 November 1952) fronted DC’s third foray and gets my vote for creepiest horror art job of all time. Here three hobos discover to their everlasting regret why you shouldn’t pick on short old men with Irish accents. ‘The Angel of Death!’ (#15 August 1952) then details an horrific medical mystery far darker than mere mystic menace…

In the 1950s, as their efforts grew in popularity, S & K were stretched thin. Utilising a staff of assistants and crafting fewer stories themselves meant they could keep all their deadlines.

The ‘Cover art for Black Magic #4, June/July 1974’ swiftly segues into ‘Last Second of Life!’(Black Magic volume 1 #1, October-November 1950 and their only narrative contribution to that particular DC issue) wherein a rich man, obsessed over what the dying see at their final breath, soon regrets the unsavoury lengths he went to in finding out…

There were two in the next issue. ‘Strange Old Bird!’(courtesy of Black Magic #25 June/July 1953) is a gently eerie thriller of a little old lady who gets the gift of renewed life from her tatty and extremely flammable feathered old friend and ‘Up There!’ from the landmark 13th issue (June 1952) – the saga of a beguiling siren stalking the upper stratosphere and scaring the bejabbers out of a cool test pilot…

DC issue #6 reprises ‘The Girl Who Walked on Water!’ (BM #11 April 1952), exposing the immense but fragile power of self-belief whilst the ‘Cover art for Black Magic #7, December 1974/January 1975’ (originally #17 October 1952) provides a chilling report on satanic vestment ‘The Cloak!’ (BM #2 December 1950/January 1951) and ‘Freak!’ (also from #17) shares a country doctor’s deepest shame…

DC’s #8 revisited The Strange World of Your Dreams, beginning with “typical insecurity nightmare” ‘The Girl in the Grave!’ (#2, September/October 1952). The Meskin-inspired anthology of oneiric apparitions eschewed cheap shocks, mindless gore and goofy pun-inspired twist-ending yarns in favour of dark, oppressive suspense, soaked in psychological unease and tension over teasing…

Following up with ‘Send Us Your Dreams’ from the same source (requesting readers’ ideas for spokes-parapsychologist Richard Temple to analyse), DC’s vintage fear-fest concludes with # 9 (April/May 1975) and ‘The Woman in the Tower!’ as originally seen in SWoYD #3, (November/December 1952) detailing the symbolism of oppressive illness…

When his Fourth World Saga stalled, Kirby continued creating new material with Kamandi – his only long-running DC success – and explored WWII in The Losers whilst creating the radical, scarily prophetic, utterly magnificent Omac: One Man Army Corps, but still could not achieve the all-important sales the company demanded. Eventually he was lured back to Marvel and new challenges like Black Panther, Captain America, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Devil Dinosaur, Machine Man and especially The Eternals.

Before that though, he unleashed new concepts and even filled in on established titles. As previously moaned about, however, his 3-issue run on Justice Inc. – adapting 1930s’ licensed pulp star The Avenger – is not included here, but at least his frankly astounding all-action dalliance with martial arts heroics is…

Inked by D. Bruce Berry and debuting in all-new try-out title 1st Issue Special #1 (April 1975), ‘Atlas the Great!’ harked back to the dawn of human civilisation and followed the blockbusting trail of mankind’s first super-powered champion in a blazing Sword & Sorcery yarn.

1st Issue Special #5 (August 1975, Berry) highlighted the passing of a torch as a devout evil-crusher working for an ancient justice-cult retired and tipped his nephew – Public Defender Mark Shaw – to become the latest super-powered ‘Manhunter’, after which a rare but welcome digression into comedy manifested as ‘The Dingbats of Danger Street (1st Issue Special #6, September 1975). With Mike Royer inking, Kirby unleashed a bizarre and hilarious revival of his Kid Gang genre, starring four multi-racial street urchins united for survival and to battle surreal super threats…

Kirby – and Berry – limned the third issue of troubled martial arts series Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter (August/September 1975). Scripted by Denny O’Neil, the savage shocker pits the lone warrior against an army of assassins in ‘Claws of the Dragon!’…

‘Fangs of the Kobra!’ comes from Kobra #1, released with a February/March 1976 cover-date. The tale is strange in both execution and delivery, with Kirby’s original updating of Dumas’ tale The Corsican Brothers reworked by Martin Pasko, Steve Sherman and artists Pablo Marcos & Berry.

It introduces brothers separated at birth. Jason Burr grew up a normal American kid whilst his twin – stolen by an Indian death cult – was reared as Kobra, the most dangerous man alive. Sadly for the super-criminal, young adult Jason is recruited by the authorities because of a psychic connection to the snake lord: a link allowing them to track each other and also feel and experience any harm or hurt the other experiences…

When Simon & Kirby came to National/DC in 1942 one of their earliest projects was revitalising the moribund Sandman strip in Adventure Comics. Their unique blend of atmosphere and dynamism made it one of the most memorable, moody and action-packed series of the period (as you can see by reading their companion volume The Sandman by Simon & Kirby).

The band was brought back together for The Sandman #1 (cover-dated Winter 1974): a one-shot project which kept the name but created a whole new mythology. Scripted by Simon and inked by Royer, ‘General Electric’ revealed how the realm of dreams was policed by a scarlet-&-gold super-crusader dedicated to preventing nightmares escaping into the physical world. With unwilling assistants Glob and Brute, the Sandman also battled real world villains exploiting the unconscious Great Unknown. The heady mix was completed by frail orphan Jed, whose active sleeping imagination seemed to draw trouble to him.

The proposed one-off was a minor hit at a tenuous time in comics publishing, and DC kept it going, even though the originators were not interested. Kirby & Royer did produce the ‘Cover art Sandman #2, April/May 1975’ and ‘Cover art Sandman #3, June/July 1975’ before the King returned to the series with #4.

‘Panic in the Dream Stream’ – August/September 1975 – was scripted by Michael Fleisher, and revealed how a sleepless alien race attempted to conquer Earth through Jed’s fervent dreams: a traumatic channel that also allowed them to invade Sandman’s Dream Realm. The next issue (October/November 1975) heralded an ‘Invasion of the Frog Men!’ into an idyllic parallel dimension whilst the next reunited a classic art team. Wally Wood inked Jack for Fleisher’s ‘The Plot to Destroy Washington D.C.!’. Here mind-bending cyborg Doctor Spider subverted and enslaved Glob and Brute in his eccentric ambition to take over America…

Although Sandman #6 (December 1975/January 1976) was the last published issue, another tale was already completed. It finally appeared in reprint digest Best of DC #22 (March 1982). ‘The Seal Men’s War on Santa Claus’ with Fleisher scripting and Royer handling the brushwork was a sinister seasonal romp with Jed’s wicked foster-family abusing him in classic Scrooge style before the Weaver of Dreams summons him to help save Christmas from bellicose well-armed aquatic mammals…

During the 1980s costumed heroes stopped being an exclusively print cash cow. Many toy companies licensed Fights ‘n’ Tights titans and reaped the benefits of ready-made comic book spin-offs. DC’s most recognizable characters morphed into a top-selling action figure line and were inevitably hived off into a brisk and breezy, fight-frenzied miniseries.

Super Powers launched in July 1984 as a 5-issue miniseries with Kirby covers and his signature characters prominently represented. Jack also plotted the stellar saga with scripter Joey Cavalieri providing dialogue, and Adrian Gonzales & Pablo Marcos illustrating a heady cosmic quest comprising numerous inconclusive battles between agents of Good and Evil.

In ‘Power Beyond Price!’, ultimate nemesis Darkseid despatches four Emissaries of Doom to destroy Earth’s superheroes. Sponsoring Lex Luthor, The Penguin, Brainiac and The Joker the monsters jointly target Superman, Batman & Robin, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Hawkman…

The combat escalates in #2’s ‘Clash Against Chaos’ with the Man of Steel and Scarlet Speedster tackling Luthor, whilst Aquaman and Green Lantern pummel the Penguin as Dark Knight and Winged Wonder confront a cosmically-enhanced Harlequin of Hate…

With Alan Kupperberg inking, an inconclusive outcome leads to a regrouping of evil and an attack by Brainiac on Paradise Island. With the ‘Amazons at War’ the Justice League rally until Superman is devolved into a brutal beast who attacks his former allies. All-out battle ensues in ‘Earth’s Last Stand’, before Kirby stepped up to write and illustrate the fateful finale: cosmos-shaking conclusion ‘Spaceship Earth – We’re All on It!’  (November 1984, with Greg Theakston suppling inks)…

A bombastic Super Powers Promotional Poster leads into a nostalgic reunion as DC Comics Presents #84 (August 1985) reunited Jack with his first “Fantastic Four”. ‘Give Me Power… Give Me Your World!’ – written by Bob Rozakis, Kirby & Theakston (with additional art by the legendary Alex Toth) – pits Superman and the Challengers of The Unknown against mind-bending Kryptonian villain Zo-Mar, after which the ‘Cover art for Super DC Giant S-25, July/ August 1971’ (inked by Vince Colletta) segues into the Super Powers miniseries, spanning September 1985 to February 1986.

Scripted by Paul Kupperberg the Kirby/Theakston saga ‘Seeds of Doom!’ recounts how deadly Darkseid despatches techno-organic bombs to destroy Earth, requiring practically every DC hero to unite to end the threat.

With squads of Super Powers travelling to England, Rome, New York, Easter Island and Arizona the danger is magnified ‘When Past and Present Meet!’ as the seeds warp time and send Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter back to days of King Arthur…

Issue #3 (November 1985) finds Red Tornado, Hawkman and Green Arrow plunged back 75 million years in ‘Time Upon Time Upon Time!’ even as Doctor Fate, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman are trapped in 1087 AD, battling stony-faced giant aliens on Easter Island.

Superman and Firestorm discover ‘There’s No Place Like Rome!’as they battle Darkseid’s agent Steppenwolf in the first century whilst Batman, Robin and Flash visit a future where Earth is the new Apokolips for #5’s ‘Once Upon Tomorrow’, before Earth’s scattered champions converge on Luna to spectacularly squash the schemes-within-schemes of ‘Darkseid of the Moon!’ …

Rounding out the astounding cavalcade of wonders is a selection of Kirby-crafted Profiles pages from Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe 1985-1987: specifically, Ben Boxer, the Boy Commandos, Challengers of the Unknown, Crazy Quilt, Etrigan the Demon, Kamandi, The Newsboy Legion, Sandman (the Dream Stream version from 1974), Sandy, the Golden Boy and Witchboy Klarion.

Kirby was and remains unique and uncompromising. His words and pictures comprise an unparalleled, hearts-and-minds grabbing delight no comics lover can possibly resist. If you’re not a fan or simply not prepared to see for yourself what all the fuss has been about then no words of mine will change your mind.

That doesn’t alter the fact that his life’s work from 1937 to his death in 1994 shaped the entire American comics scene – and indeed the entire comics planet – affecting the lives of billions of readers and thousands of creators in all areas of artistic endeavour for generations and is still winning new fans and apostles every day, from the young and naive to the most cerebral of intellectuals. His work is instantly accessible, irresistibly visceral, deceptively deep and simultaneously mythic and human.

He is the King and will never be supplanted.
© 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Ducoboo volume 2: In the Corner!


By Godi & Zidrou, coloured by Véronique Grobet & translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-26-7 (Album PB/Digital edition)

School stories and strips of every tone about juvenile fools, devils and rebels are a lynchpin of modern western entertainment and an even larger staple of Japanese comics – where the scenario has spawned its own wild and vibrant subgenres. However, would Dennis the Menace (ours and theirs), Komi Can’t Communicate, Winker Watson, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Power Pack, Cédric or any of the rest be improved or just different if they were created by former teachers rather than ex-kids or current parents?

It’s no surprise the form is evergreen: schooling (and tragically, sometimes, a lack of it) takes up a huge amount of children’s attention no matter how impoverished or privileged they are, and their fictions will naturally address their issues and interests. It’s fascinating to see just how much school stories revolve around humour, but always with huge helpings of drama, terror, romance and an occasional dash of action…

One of the most popular European strips employing those eternal but basic themes and methodology began in the last fraction of the 20th century, courtesy of scripter Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) and illustrator Godi.

Drousie is Belgian, born in 1962 and for six years a school teacher prior to changing careers in 1990 to write comics like those he probably used to confiscate in class. Other mainstream successes in a range of genres include Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, African Trilogy, Shi, Léonardo, a superb revival of Ric Hochet, and many more. However, his most celebrated and beloved stories are the Les Beaux Étés sequence (digitally available in English as Glorious Summers) and 2010’s Lydie, both illustrated by Spanish artist Jordi Lafebre.

Zidrou began his comics career with what he knew best: stories about and for kids, including Crannibales, Tamara, Margot et Oscar Pluche and, most significantly, a feature about a (and please forgive the charged term) school dunce: L’Elève Ducobu…

Godi is a Belgian National Treasure, born Bernard Godisiabois in Etterbeek in December 1951. After studying Plastic Arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels he became an assistant to comics legend Eddy Paape in 1970, working on the strip Tommy Banco for Le Journal de Tintin whilst freelancing as an illustrator for numerous comics and magazines. He became a Tintin regular three years later, primarily limning C. Blareau’s Comte Lombardi, but also working on gag strip Red Rétro by Vicq, with whom he also produced Cap’tain Anblus McManus and Le Triangle des Bermudes for Le Journal de Spirou in the early 1980s. He also soloed on Diogène Terrier (1981-1983) for Casterman.

Godi then moved into advertising cartoons and television, cocreating with Nic Broca the animated TV series Ovide. He only returned to comics in 1991, collaborating with newcomer Zidrou on L’Elève Ducobu for magazine Tremplin. The strip launched in September 1992 before transferring to Le Journal de Mickey, and collected albums began in 1997 – 27 so far in French and Dutch, with separate editions for Turkish and Indonesian readers.

When not immortalising modern school days for future generations, Godi latterly diversified, co-creating (1995 with Zidrou) comedy feature Suivez le Guide and game page Démon du Jeu with scripter Janssens.

The series has spawned a live action movie franchise and a dozen pocket books plus all the usual attendant merchandise paraphernalia. English-speakers’ introduction to the series (5 volumes thus far) came courtesy of Cinebook with 2006’s initial release King of the Dunces which was in fact the 5th European collection L’élève Ducobu – Le roi des cancres.

The unbeatable format is loads of short – most often single page – gag strips just like you’d see in The Beano, featuring a revolving cast who are all well established by this point, but also fairly one-dimensional and easy to get a handle on.

Our star is a well-meaning, good natured but terminally lazy young oaf who doesn’t get on with school. He’s sharp, inventive, imaginative, inquisitive, personable and just not academical at all. We might today put him on a spectrum or diagnose a disorder like ADHD, but at heart he’s just not interested and can always find better – or at least more interesting – things to do…

Dad is a civil servant and Mum left home when Ducoboo was a baby, but then there’s a lot of that about. Leonie Gratin – from whom he constantly copies answers to the interminable tests – only has a mum. As this collection shows the seniors do not get on when it comes to matters of child-rearing, and Madame Gratin believes that stupidity is hereditary and passed on through the male line…

Ducoboo and his class colleagues attend Saint Potache School and are mostly taught and tested by ferocious, impatient, mushroom-mad Mr Latouche. He’s something of humourless martinet, and thanks to him, Ducoboo has spent so much time in the corner with a dunce cap on his head that he’s struck up a friendship with the biology skeleton. He (she? they) answers to Neness and is always ready with a theory or suggestion for fun and frolics…

As L’élève Ducobu – Au Coin! this volume was first released in 1998: the second riotous compilation which begins with the start of a new term and traces a year in the life of all concerned. On view are always relevant riffs on being late and missing class; roll calls and registers; times tales and dictation woes; imaginative ways for Ducoboo to copy answers; writing lines and ways to hack the system; the ultimate futility of bad boys actually working and still being called a cheat and always, always cheating, copying and guessing answers…

Escape – either physically or via various dreams and daydreams – is mixed with actual and frequently surreal human interactions like Leonie bringing ferocious hound Growler to class to guard her test answers or even entombing herself in a concrete blockhouse during exams to keep the arch copier at bay in weekly single instalments. These are counterpoised by extended sequences.

One such is inspired by the boy’s greatest wish come true: contracting an illness that keeps him at home and bedbound. The fool has developed Acute Duncitis, but his sweet relief is short lived as Latouche and gloating Leonie delight in bringing work and punishment assignments home for him to not do…

Christmas comes and goes as do the first snowfalls before another extended run of gags focussing on the class and its weedy teacher enduring mass swimming lessons, where – amidst the usual hijinks and low comedy – a little romance is forestalled by our idiot getting between Latouche and burly, buxom lifeguard Miss Katherina…

Just like your educational memories, days and daftness rapidly pass and as the holidays unleash the youngsters the teachers confront the prospect of weeks of idleness with typical stoic ingenuity…

Wry, witty and whimsical whilst deftly recycling constant and adored childhood themes, Ducuboo is an up-tempo, upbeat addition to the genre every parent or pupil can appreciate and enjoy. If your kids aren’t back from school quite yet, why not anticipate keeping them occupied when that happens with In the Corner! and thank your lucky stars that there are kids far more demanding than yours…?
© Les Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard) 1998 by Godi & Zidrou. English translation © 2007 Cinebook Ltd.

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Bunny vs Monkey: Machine Mayhem!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-297-7 (TPB)

Bunny vs. Monkey has been a staple of The Phoenix since the very first issue 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; Flember), these trendsetting, mind-bending yarns have been wisely retooled as graphic albums available in remastered, double-length digest editions such as this one. Now brilliantly beach-ready comes a handy pocket paperback edition to consult when the surf’s all unsanitary and there’s sand or sandwiches in the Gameboy…

The tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little anthropoid plopped down after a disastrous British space shot. Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab specimen Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of his strange new world, despite all efforts from reasonable, sensible, contemplative resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and genteel good breeding, the laid-back lepine just could not contain the incorrigible idiot ape, who was – and still is – a rude, noise-loving, chaos-creating troublemaker…

Problems are exacerbated by other unconventional Crinkle creatures, particularly a skunk called Skunky who has a mad scientist’s attitude to life and a gift for building robots and super-weapons…

With artistic assistance from design deputy Sammy Borras, the saga resumes with the war of nerves and mega-ordnances apparently over. The unruly assortment of critters cluttering up the bucolic paradise had finally picked sides and the battles at last ended. They even seemingly forgot the ever-encroaching Hyoomanz…

Following a double-page pin-up of the ever-expanding cast, this archive of anarchic insanity opens in the traditional manner: divided into seasonal outbursts, and starting with a querulous teaser tale as Spring begins in ‘D.I.Whyyyy?’

As the animals gather to help Bunny repair his much-abused house, universal innocents Pig Piggerton and Weenie squirrel – more keen than skilled – realise that cheese is not a suitable substitute for wallpaper paste, plaster or cement…

Despite the subsequent collapse, times are good and very peaceful since the awful ape went away and Ai (an Aye-aye) acts quickly to keep it that way when Bunny feels nostalgic for the old days. Sadly, somebody’s listening and brings in a ‘Makeshift Monkey!’ – until the real deal returns in ‘The Little Monkey Who Cried…’

Before long Skunky is back too and everyone’s fleeing for their lives from deadly underground tentacles, but life quickly slips into its old pattern… until obsolescence rears its ugly head and cyborg gator Metal Steve is pronounced ‘Out of Warranty’: left to wither on Skunky’s scrapheap…

Back and still bad, Monkey briefly inflicts himself on Bunny and wrecks the joint again in ‘The Housemate’ after which our mercurial monochrome megamind constructs a replacement for the gone gator: triggering ‘Robot Rampage’ when infinitely superior mechanoid Metal E.V.E. lay down her own law…

Falling foul of another near-lethal prank the silly simian is scientifically resurrected and evolved in ‘Curse of the Monkey’ only to trip on his own incompetence and barely escape a fishy final fate in ‘Toilet Run!’

A close call with humans in ‘Bunny vs Monkey Jellybeans!’ precedes piratical pretenders Weenie and Pig’s ‘A Dangerous Voyage’, before Monkey endures his own Journey into the Unknown. As “The Most Brilliant Animal in the Woods” Skunky convinces his erstwhile ally to shrink down and explore the inner cerebellum of brain-battered, bewildered ex-stuntman Action Beaver for ‘The Lost Memory’ of a misplaced ultimate weapon, which is what probably inspires him to make his own, after entering a competition and prematurely unleashing his ‘Winning Entry’…

Metal E.V.E. is forming her own plans but they have to wait a bit as she’s ‘Keepin’ Busy’ with some domestic chores in Skunky’s lab, but it’s not long until Summer begins and the woods are imperilled by subterranean invasion from new menace ‘Roland T. Mole’…

Hijinks in parallel dimensions herald the arrival of doomsayer ‘Skunky?’ as the forgotten stuntman stumbles with catastrophic consequences into his ancestral homeland in ‘Beaverville’. Monkey meanwhile creates unexpected carnage but precious little terror with super-cute kaiju ‘Rofl Axolotl’ before being painfully reminded how dangerous the woods can be in ‘So Beautiful’…

After a brief and deceptive flirtation with ‘The Dark Arts’, the hairy halfwit returns to science by creating little golden minions, but his ‘Gloobs’ prove too smart for servitude, so instead embraces high fashion in ‘C’est Chic!’ Utterly uncaring, Weenie and Pig go about their business until a ‘A New Friend’ almost breaks up the partnership. The swiftly-developing relationship of ‘Weenie and Winnie’ seems set to end the good old days, but another robotic invasion sets the world to rights in ‘Just Checking’…

A reality-altering beast threatens in ‘Wishful Thinking’ and the entire woods go all French just as aliens invade in ‘L’Honk Honk’ before Monkey & Skunky explore artisanal dining in ‘Eat Up!’, with appalling consequences for their customers, after which Ai and Monkey discover uncanny ‘Night Lights’ in the deep dark woods…

The season concludes with Metal E.V.E. getting ahead by installing crucial ‘Upgrades’ and inadvertently making contact with an unsuspected predecessor just as Autumn opens with ‘Bumblesnatch’ and pig & squirrel enjoying super-powers-inducing chewing gum whilst Crinkle Woods is catapulted into a different kind of chaos when broached by pet pooch ‘Fluffy’…

When ‘The Summoning’ invokes some pretty indifferent forest gods, Skunky lodges with over-accommodating Bunny, who is soon sucked into unwanted adventure ‘Down Below’ and unearths E.V.E.’s brave new world. Hopeless old ally Metal Steve then runs amok with nano-bots and spawns unlikely armageddon beast ‘Pig-Kira!’

Once that menace vanishes into vapour, the mostly organic animals unite to formulate ‘Some Kind of Plan’ for fighting E.V.E. – all except ‘Nurse Monkey’ who’s keen to explore other lifestyles – before reenlisting in ‘Roll Up! Roll Up!’ with a barmy spinning machine. It has no chance of easing their plight but will probably end their lives before she does…

The crusade pauses for Weenie’s birthday and the hunt for ‘The Best Present in the World’, but restarts again when E.V.E. crashes the party with ‘Something to Say’ about the “rise of the machines” and end of all flesh…

Skunky’s response is yet another monster, but giant mecha-hedgehog ‘Thunderball!’ is easily overcome, and as so-distractable Monkey goes wild among the fallen leaves in ‘Leaf it Alone’, the machine rise begins in ‘Nahhhhh!’…

Sadly, Metal E.V.E. makes a big mistake then, spilling Monkey’s drink and kicking the conflict to an unprecedented new level…

Pausing for Weenie, Pig, Ai and Bunny to share some ‘Scary Stories’ around a nighttime campfire, the constant crisis enters a new phase when the ghost of local legend Fantastic Le Fox manifests, even as our ape oaf is transformed into E.V.E.’s ‘Metal Monkey’…

Le Fox is ‘An Old Friend’ resolved to help the animals survive and his strategic advice is welcome, but the turning point comes in ‘Clash of the Robots’ as Metal Monkey and Steve duel, even as their mecha-mistress takes full charge, unleashing DNA-altering microbots that put the fleshy freedom fighters to flight in ‘Uh-Oh-Nano!’

Winter sets in and hostilities suddenly cease as all concerned succumb to the temptation of chucking ‘Snowballs’ and the end gets nigher in a wave of robotic attacks triggered by ‘Metal Mania’. Yet again, everything pauses as Christmas provides a moment to unwrap ‘Presents’ but – drenched in seasonal spirit – ‘An Unlikely Hero’ dares to bring the message of the moment right to the robot queen. The act unwittingly changes the course of history in the woods, leaving only some ‘Tidying Up’ to restore everything to what passes for normal…

The animal anarchy might have ended for now, but there’s more secrets to share thanks to detailed instructions on ‘How to Draw Metal Steve’ and ‘How to Draw Metal E.V.E.’ 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 parents beg kids to read to them. Shouldn’t that be you?
Text and illustrations © Jamie Smart 2022. All rights reserved.

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Last of the Dragons


By Carl Potts, Denny O’Neil, Terry Austin, Marie Severin & various (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-80357-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

The creative renaissance in comics during the 1980s resulted in some utterly wonderful stand-alone sagas which shone briefly and brightly – within what was still a largely niche industry – before passing from view as the business and art form battled spiralling costs, declining readerships and the perverse and pervasive attitude in the wider world that comic books were a ghetto and the natural province of mutants, morons and farm animals (I’m paraphrasing).

Unlike today, way back then the majority of grown-ups considered superheroes adolescent power fantasies or idle wish-fulfilment for the uneducated or disenfranchised, so an entertainment industry perceived as largely made up of men in tights hitting each other got very little notice in the wider world of popular fiction.

That all changed with the rise of comics’ Direct Sales Market. With its carefully targeted approach to selling, specialist vendors in dedicated emporia had leeway to allow frustrated creators to cut loose and experiment with other genres – and even formats.

All the innovation back then led inexorably to today’s high-end, thoroughly respectable graphic novel market which – with suitable and fitting circularity – is now gathering and re-circulating many breakthrough tales from those times, and not as poorly distributed serials but in satisfyingly complete stand-alone proper books.

Marvel was the unassailable front-runner in purveying pamphlet fiction back then, outselling all rivals and monopolising the lucrative licensed properties market (like Star Wars and Indiana Jones) which had once been the preserve of the Whitman/Dell/Gold Key colossus. This boosted a zeitgeist which proved that for open-minded readers, superheroes were not the only fruit…

As the Direct Sales market hit an early peak, Marvel unleashed its own rights-friendly creator-owned fantasy periodical in response to overwhelming success amongst older readers of Heavy Metal magazine. Lush, slick and lavish, HM had even brought a new, music-&- literature based audience to graphic narratives…

That response was Epic Illustrated: an anthological magazine offering stunning art and an anything-goes attitude – unhindered by the censorious Comics Code Authority – which saw everything from adaptations of Moorcock’s Elric and Harlan Ellison novellas to ‘The Last Galactus Story’, the debuts of comic book stars-in-the-making like Vanth Dreadstar and Cholly and Flytrap, plus numerous close-ended sagas which would become forerunners of today’s graphic novel industry.

These serialised yarns of finite duration included Rick Veitch’s Abraxas and the Earthman, Claremont & Bolton’s Marada the She-Wolf and a fabulously enchanting East-meets-West period fantasy entitled Last of the Dragons…

The fable was conceived by then-newcomer Carl Potts, who plotted and pencilled a globe-trotting drama for Denny O’Neil to script, before inker Terry Austin and colourist Marie Severin finished the art for Jim Novak to inscribe with a flourish of typographical verve.

The stylish opus ran intermittently in Epic Illustrated #15 through #20 (October 1982 to the end of 1983) and was collected in 1988 as a Marvel Graphic Novel under the Epic Comics aegis in the expansively extravagant, oversized European Album format: a square, high-gloss package which delivered so much more bang-per-buck than a standard comic.

Thankfully Dover retained those generous visual proportions for their glorious 2016 edition which begins with ‘The Sundering’: opening in grudgingly-changing feudal Japan of the late 19th century where aged master swordsman Masanobu peacefully meditates in the wilderness…

His Zen-like calm and solemn contemplation are callously shattered by a callow, arrogantly aggressive warrior who rudely attacks a beautiful dragon basking nearby in the sun. These magnificent reptiles are gentle, noble creatures, but the foolish samurai is hungry for glory and soon takes his bloody trophy…

After the arrogant victor has left, Masonobu meets Ho-Kan, a priestly caretaker of Dragons. The youth is overcome with horror and misery at such brutal sacrilege, but worse is to come. When the tearful cleric heads back to his temple home, he stumbles upon a corrupt faction of his brother monks covertly conditioning young forest Wyrms; shockingly brutalising them to deny their true natures and kill on (human) command…

‘The Vision’ sees traumatised Ho-Kan returned to the temple too late: ambitious, reactionary monk Shonin has returned from a journey to the outer world gripped by an appalling revelation. He has divined that the quiescent Dragons must be used to preserve Japan from outside influence – especially the insidious changes threatened by the encroaching white man’s world. In fact he has already been training the creatures to be his shock-troops…

When the elders object, Shonin’s zealots slaughter all the protesting monks before embarking for the barbarous wilds of America where they will breed and train an army of killer lizards in the lap of and under the very noses of the enemy. Ho-Kan is one of precious few of the pious to escape the butchery and vows to stop the madness somehow…

A meditative vision shows him Takashi: a half-breed boy whose Christian sailor father abandoned him. The juvenile outcast was eventually adopted by the Iga ninja clan and became a great fighter. Somehow he holds the key to defeating Shonin…

‘The Departure’ sees Ho-Kan hire the Iga to stop the corrupted monks but, when he tries to enlist Masanobu, Shonin’s acolytes capture him. Under torture all is revealed, and the debauched clerics trick the sword-master into fighting the ninjas for them. After despatching all but Takashi, the monks “invite” Masanobu to join them in the West. The elderly swordsman has no idea the saurian beasts he guards are hopelessly degraded monsters now.

‘The Arrival’ sees the monks and their hidden cargo sailing for California, unaware that an enigmatic “half-breed” has enlisted on a ship closely following. Sole surviving Iga ninja Takashi is bound in his duty and hungry for vengeance. He will not be denied…

When the priests disembark on a remote bay on the American coast their plan to slaughter the sailors and Masanobu goes badly awry after a baby dragon escapes. In the ensuing melee the aged warrior realises the true state of play and flees into the forests.

The First Nation tribes of the Californian forests are helpless before the martial arts and war-dragons of Shonin, until – in ‘The Meeting’ – they meet vengeful Takashi hot on the dragon-lords’ trail. After proving his prowess in combat by defeating the indigenous fighters, he joins with the braves, stalking the monks until they encounter Masanobu who is also determined to end this dishonourable travesty once and for all…

All of which results in a tumultuous and breathtakingly spectacular climax in ‘The Decision’ as the disparate factions collide, clashing one last time to forever decide the fate of a nation, the nature of a species and the future of heroes…

Rounding out this superb resurrection is a splendid and informative treasure trove of extra features comprising creator biographies, sample script pages, art breakdowns layouts, pencilled pages, promo art and portfolio illustrations and an effulgent, fondly reminiscent, informative Afterword from Potts – then embroiled in the laborious process of transferring Last of the Dragons from page to screen…

In its small way, this sublimely engaging pioneering prototype martial arts fantasy did much to popularise and normalise the Japanese cultural idiom at a time of great tumult and transition in the comics business but more important than that, it still reads superbly well today.

This is a magically compelling tale for fantasy fans and mature readers: an utterly delightful cross-genre romp to entice newcomers and comics neophytes whilst simultaneously beguiling dedicated connoisseurs and aficionados renewing an old acquaintance.
© 1982, 1988, 2015 Carl Potts. All rights reserved.

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Kurt Cobain & Mozart Are Both Dead – A Leonard & Larry Collection


By Tim Barela (Palliard Press)
ISBN: 978-1-88456-804-6 (Album PB)

We live in an era where Pride events are world-wide and commonplace: where acceptance of LGBTQIA+ citizens is a given… at least in all the civilised countries where dog-whistle politicians, populist “hard men” totalitarian dictators (I’m laughing at a private dirty joke right now) and sundry organised religions are kept in their generally law-abiding places by their hunger for profitable acceptance and desperation to stay tax-exempt, scandal-free, rich and powerful.

There’s still too many places where it’s not so good to be Gay but at least Queer themes and scenes are no longer universally illegal and can be ubiquitously seen in entertainment media of all types and age ranges and even on the streets of most cities. For all the injustices and oppressions, we’ve still come a long, long way and it’s and simply No Big Deal anymore. Let’s affirm that victory and all work harder to keep it that way…

Such was not always the case and, to be honest, the other team (with religions proudly egging them on and backing them up) are fighting hard and dirty to reclaim all the intolerant high ground they’ve lost thus far.

Incredibly, all that change and counteraction has happened within the span of living memory (mine, in this case). For English-language comics, the shift from simple illicit pornography to homosexual inclusion in all drama, comedy, adventure and other genres started as late as the 1970s and matured in the 1980s – despite resistance from most western governments – thanks to the efforts of editors like Robert Triptow and Andy Mangels and cartoonists like Howard Cruse, Vaughn Bod?, Gerard P. Donelan, Roberta Gregory, Touko Valio Laaksonen/“Tom of Finland” and Tim Barela.

A native of Los Angeles, Barela was born in 1954, and became a fundamentalist Christian in High School. He loved motorbikes and had dreams of becoming a cartoonist. He was also a gay kid struggling to come to terms with what was still judged illegal, wilfully mind-altering psychosis and perversion – if not actual genetic deviancy – and an appalling sin by his theological peers and close family…

In 1976, Barela began an untitled comic strip about working in a bike shop for Cycle News. Some characters then reappeared in later efforts Just Puttin (Biker, 1977-1978); Short Strokes (Cycle World, 1977-1979); Hard Tale (Choppers, 1978-1979) plus The Adventures of Rickie Racer, and cooking strip (!) The Puttin Gourmet… America’s Favorite Low-Life Epicurean in Biker Lifestyle and FTW News.

In 1980, the cartoonist unsuccessfully pitched a domestic (or “family”) strip called Ozone to LGBT news periodical The Advocate. Among its proposed quotidian cast were literal and metaphorical straight man Rodger and openly gay Leonard Goldman… who had a “roommate” named Larry Evans…

Gay Comix was an irregularly published anthology, edited at that time by Underground star Robert Triptow (Strip AIDs U.S.A.; Class Photo). He advised Barela to ditch the restrictive newspaper strip format in favour of longer complete episodes, and printed the first of these in Gay Comix #5 in 1984. The remodelled new feature was a huge success, included in many successive issues and became the solo star of Gay Comix Special #1 in 1992.

Leonard & Larry also showed up in prestigious benefit comic Strip AIDs U.S.A. before triumphantly relocating to The Advocate in 1988, and – from 1990 – to its rival publication Frontiers. The lads even moved into live drama in 1994: adapted by Theatre Rhinoceros of San Francisco as part of stage show Out of the Inkwell.

In the 1990s their episodic exploits were gathered in a quartet of wonderfully oversized (220 x 280 mm) monochrome albums which gained a modicum of international stardom and glittering prizes. This compendium was the second compiled by Palliard Press between 1993 and 2003, following Domesticity Isn’t Pretty and paving the way for Excerpts from the Ring Cycle in Royal Albert Hall and How Real Men Do It.

Triptow provides sly and witty Foreword ‘Discovering the World of Leonard & Larry’ before a copious, detailed and lengthy Introduction reintroduces the huge byzantinely interwoven cast in tasty bite-sized Gordian knots (sorry, the classical and literary allusions peppering the comics are eerily infectious…).

‘The Cast of Characters – So Far’ re-briefs us on star couple Leonard Goldman and Larry Evans, ‘Larry’s Relatives’, ‘Leonard Relatives’, ‘The In-Laws’ and ‘Friends and Acquaintances’ which prominently features the dream manifestations – or is it the actual ghosts? – of composers Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his bitter frenemy Johannes Brahms…

This family saga is primarily a comedic comedy of manners, played out against social prejudices and grudging popular gradual acceptances, but it also has shocking moments of drama and tension and whole bunches of heartwarming sentiment set in and around West Hollywood.

The extensive and extended Leonard & Larry clan comprise the former’s formidable unaccepting mother Esther – who still ambushes him with blind dates and nice Jewish girls – and the latter’s ex-wife Sharon and their sons Richard and David.

Teenaged Richard recently knocked up and wed equally school-aged Debbie, and promptly made Leonard & Larry unwilling grandparents years (decades even!) before they were ready. The oldsters adore baby Lauren – who is two when this book starts – but will soon relive all that aging trauma when Debbie announces the kid will soon be an older sister…

Maternal grandparents Phil and Barbra Dunbarton are ultra conservative and stridently Christian, and spend a lot of time fretting over Debbie and Lauren’s souls and social standing. They’re particularly concerned over role models and what horrors she’s being exposed to whenever the gay grandpas babysit…

David Evans is as Queer as his dad, and works in Larry’s leather/fetish boutique store on Melrose Avenue. That iconic venue provides plenty of quick, easy laughs and even some edgy moments thanks to local developer/predatory expansionist Lillian Lynch who wants the store at any cost. It’s also the starting point for the many other couples in Leonard & Larry’s eccentric orbit.

Their friends and clients enjoy even larger roles this time around whilst cunningly presenting other perspectives on LA life and the ever-evolving scene. Flamboyant former aerospace engineer Frank Freeman lives with acclaimed concert pianist Bob Mendez and has an obsessive yen for uniforms, which comes in handy when Bob is targeted by a sex-crazed celebrity stalker. It’s no use at all though, when she kidnaps them at gunpoint and demands Bob satisfies her every desire…

Larry’s other employee is Jim Buchanan, whose alarming dating history suddenly picks up when he meets a genuine cowboy at one of L & L’s parties. Merle Oberon is a newly “out” Texan trucker who adds romance and stability to Jim’s lonely life. Sadly, that’s only until Merle is discovered by Hollywood and pressured by agents, manager and co-star to go right back “in” again if he really wants to be a movie megastar…

Jim, by the way, is the original and main focus of the overly-critical dead composers’ puckish visits…

Among the highlights this time are the cast’s participation on the “March on Washington” in April 1993 in support of Gay Rights, Larry’s jury duty and the introduction of a draconian Judge who is also a major purchaser of the Melrose’ stores most imaginative BDSM under-apparel, jury service, and Jim and Merle’s fraught but fun foray to Texas to get the blessing of the cowboy’s fundamentalist parents…

The opposing sides/families in the “lifestyle vs sin” debate meet often and outrageously and there’s even a couple of ceremonies (this is long before same sex weddings were legal) to confirm that the heart wants what the heart wants.

Terrifyingly there’s also a second episode of “queer-bashing” (David being the first in the previous volume) that results in Larry’s death.

Thankfully his trip to heaven is pleasant and his prompt return to the mortal coil proves “God Loves Gays” and provides sublimely satisfying satirical laughs whilst scoring major points… When he revives it’s to meet his new – and so very, very ugly – grandson… and thus life goes on…

As well as featuring a multi-generational cast, Leonard & Larry is a strip that progresses in real time, with characters all aging and developing accordingly. The strips are not and never have been about sex – except in that the subject is a constant generator of hilarious jokes and outrageously embarrassing situations. Deftly skewering hypocrisy and rebuking ignorance with dry wit and great drawing, episodes cover various couples’ home and work lives, constant parties, physical deterioration, social gaffes, rows, family revelations, holidays and even events like earthquakes and fanciful prognostications. Tchaikovsky and Brahms are also regular visitants and serve to keep the proceedings wry, sarcastic and surreal…

Leonard & Larry is a traditionally domestic marital sitcom/soap opera with Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz – or more aptly, Dick Van Dyke & Mary Tyler Moore – replaced by a hulking bearded “bear” with biker, cowboy and leather fetishes and a stylishly moustachioed, no-nonsense fashion photographer. Taken in total, it’s a love story about growing old together, but not gracefully or with any dignity…

Populated by adorable, appetising fully fleshed out characters, Leonard & Larry is about finding and then being yourself: an irresistible slice of gentle whimsy to nourish the spirit and beguile the jaded.

If you feel like taking a Walk on the Mild Side now this tome is still at large through internet vendors. So why don’t you?
Kurt Cobain & Mozart Are Both Dead © 1993 Palliard Press. All artwork and strips © 1996 Tim Barela. Introduction © 1996 Robert Triptow. All rights reserved.

After decades of waiting, the entire ensemble is available again courtesy of Rattling Good Yarns Press. Sublimely hefty hardback uber-compilation Finally! The Complete Leonard & Larry Collection was released in 2021, reprinting the entire saga – including rare as hens’ teats last book How Real Men Do It (978-1955826051). It’s a little smaller in page dimensions (216 x280mm) and far harder to lift, but it’s Out there if you want it…

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Hãsib & the Queen of Serpents – A Thousand and One Nights Tale


By David B (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-162-8 (HB/Digital edition)

David B. is a founder member of the groundbreaking strip artists conclave L’Association and has won numerous awards including the Alph’Art for comics excellence and European Cartoonist of the Year.

Born Pierre- Françoise “David” Beauchard on February 9th 1959, he began his comics career in 1985 after studying advertising at Paris’ Duperré School of Applied Arts. His seamless blending of Primitivism, visual metaphor, high and low cultural icons – as seen in such landmarks as Babel, Epileptic and Best of Enemies: A History of US and Middle East Relations – utterly reinvigorated and rejuvenated the visual aspect of European sequential art.

This offering from NBM – available as an oversized (312 x 235 mm) full-colour hardback and digitally – takes us into primal storytelling country to examine the very nature of the process by referencing one of the most potent and primal story sources in human history.

One Thousand and One Nights (or more commonly The Arabian Nights) is an anonymous aggregation of folk stories from many cultures of the Middle Eastern Fertile Crescent. Its root material traces back to Arabic, Greek, Jewish, Persian, Turkish, South Asian, and West, Central and North African folklore. It was/they were first translated into English in 1706 as The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment, and has fired western and European imaginations ever since. The one constant throughout every iteration is the framing sequence wherein wily bride and imminent murder victim Scheherazade tells her new husband and supreme ruler Shahryar a story to postpone her own execution.

In this stunning graphic tour de force, rendered in vivid colours and sublimely reminiscent of oriental shadow-theatre puppet shows, that tenuous relationship sets the scene. If you’re old enough to remember – or wise enough to have discovered since – Oliver Postgate & Peter Firmin’s Noggin the Nog, think of that in full HD (with the imagination turned up to 11!).

Here and now – on the 422nd night – the captivating captive Scheherazade begins the tale of a sage named Daniel: a man who had not yet sired a son…

He roamed the world and lost almost everything before his wife finally fell pregnant. Due to the will of God, Daniel died before the birth but not before delivering a potent prophecy. His boy would be called Hasib Karim al-Din. Educated and adventurous, he would eventually inherit all that Daniel cherished: long pent away in a mysterious chest…

Hasib grew up to be an apprentice but – lazy and lacking ambition – fell in with a band of unscrupulous woodcutters. One day, after finding a golden hoard of honey in a deep cavern, the lumberjacks abandoned their comrade, leaving him to the tender mercies of a scorpion who lured him into the clutches of the fabulous and terrifying Serpent Queen.

Deep under the earth, Hasib feared for his life and soul but, in exchange for his own sorry life-story, the Queen began telling him a tale of a king of far-off Banu Isra’il…

That saga leads into another and another and yet another (teeming with battles and journeys and princes and wanderers and monsters and wonderful creatures) and we are carried along on a sea of fable and incidence: an interwoven series of nested stories each concealing the next, like layers on an onion and every one peeled back to expose a new hero or fool.

This seemingly endless progression has a point and purpose, however, and just when the whimsical tension can be stretched no tighter, the tale-telling tide turns and each episode miraculously resolves! Thus we move small steps closer to Hasib and his long-deferred inheritance…

Or so says Scheherazade as she weaves her own spellbinding yarn…

Bold, vivid and graphically mesmerising, this enthralling progression of history, myth and imagination is a wry and loving examination of the act of telling stories.
© 2015-2016 Gallimard Jeunesse. © 2018 NBM for the English translation.

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Beowulf – First Comics Graphic Novel #1


By Jerry Bingham, with Ken Bruzenak (First Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-915419-00-5 (Album PB)

The mid-1980s were a great time for comics creators. It was as if an entire new industry had opened up with the proliferation of the Direct Sales market and dedicated specialist retail outlets; new companies were experimenting with format and content, and punters had a bit of spare cash to play with. Moreover, much of the “kid’s stuff” stigma had finally abated and the US was catching up to the rest of the world in acknowledging that sequential narrative might just be an actual art-form…

Many new companies began competing for the attention and cash of punters who had grown accustomed – or resigned – to getting their four-colour kicks from DC, Marvel Archie and/or Harvey Comics. European and Japanese styled material had been creeping in but by 1983 a host of young companies such as WaRP Graphics, Pacific, Eclipse, Capital, Now, Comico, Dark Horse, First and many others had established themselves and were making impressive inroads.

New talent, established stars and fresh ideas all found a thriving forum to try something a little different both in terms of content and format. Chicago based First Comics was an early frontrunner, with Frank Brunner’s Warp, Mike Grell’s Starslayer and Jon Sable, Freelance and Howard Chaykin’s landmark American Flagg!, as well as an impressive line of titles targeting a more sophisticated audience.

In 1984 they followed Marvel and DC’s lead with a line of impressive, European-styled over-sized graphic albums featuring new and out-of-the-ordinary comics sagas (see Time Beavers, Mazinger and two volumes of Time2 to see just how bold, broad and innovative the material could be). The premier release was a stunning – subsequently award-winning (1985 Kirby Award for Best Graphic Album) – fantasy epic by Jerry Bingham.

Beowulf is a thrilling, compulsive and intensely visceral visualisation of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem committed to parchment sometime between the 8th and 11th century AD, and recently the subject of numerous screen iterations and re-interpretations.

Need a plot summary? Long ago in the far North, noble King Hrothgar built a mighty mead-hall for heroes, thereby incurring the malignant enmity of the monster Grendel. This beast ruthlessly and relentlessly raided the citadel, slaughtering many noble warriors every night. After a dozen years of horror, a valiant band of heroes led by Beowulf, Prince of the Geats, came to their aid, seeking glory and fame through battle…

The clash of Beowulf and Grendel is spectacularly handled as is the succeeding exploit wherein the stalking horror’s demonic mother comes seeking revenge and drags the warrior prince to her hideous lair beneath an icy lake, but the most effective and moving chapter is the very human-scaled Twilight of the Gods as, after 50 years ruling his Geatish kingdom, worn and elderly Beowulf goes to his final glorious battle, dying heroically whilst destroying a ravening firedrake which threatens to eradicate his people: the only proper end for a Northman Hero…

Bingham’s raw, fiercely realistic art-style perfectly captures the implacable sense of doom and by employing Prince Valiant’s text block-&-picture format he endows the tale with a grandeur frequently as mythic as Hal Foster’s strip masterpiece, whilst leaving the art gloriously free of distracting word-balloons.

Letterer/calligrapher Ken Bruzenak’s particular facility perfectly enhances the artistic mood by carefully integrating captions filled with Bingham’s free-verse transliterations of the original 3182-lines-long poem into a classic interpretation of the epic. This is a wonderful and worthy piece of work that will delight any fan of the medium. Let’s bring it back pretty please?

And for a perfect all-ages prose telling of the timeless tale I also heartily recommend Rosemary Sutcliff’s magnificent Beowulf: Dragonslayer: first released in 1961 and captivatingly illustrated by Charles Keeping. It is still readily available and one of the books that changed my life.
© 1984 First Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.