Category: Fantasy

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Essential Thor volume 6


By Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, Bill Mantlo, Len Wein, John Buscema, Rich Buckler, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6329-9

Whilst the ever-expanding Marvel Universe had grown ever-more interconnected as it matured through its first decade, with characters literally tripping over each other in New York City, the Asgardian heritage of Thor and the soaring imagination of Jack Kirby had most often drawn the Thunder God away from mortal realms into stunning, unique landscapes and scenarios.

However by the time of this sixth Essential monochrome compendium, the King had been gone – and was in fact readying himself to return to the House of (mostly his) Ideas – for five years and only echoes of his groundbreaking presence remained. John Buscema had visually made the Thunder God his own whilst a succession of scripters struggled to recapture the epic scope of Kirby’s vision and Stan Lee’s off-kilter but comfortingly compelling faux-Shakespearean verbiage…

When these monthly episodes (from Thor #221-247, March 1974 to May 1976) saw print, the Thunder God and his cosmic companions had become a quarrelsome, self-doubting band of fantasy spacemen generally roving the outer limits of the Marvel Universe, only occasionally touching base with Earth and Asgard, but that editorial policy began to change here as more and more adventures began – and ended – in the troubled lands of Midgard…

With scripter Gerry Conway firmly in the driving seat and legendary illustrator John Buscema (aided by inker Mike Esposito) delivering the art, the mythic mayhem opens with ‘Hercules Enraged!’ as the Thor brutally invades Olympus, in search of the Grecian Prince of Power. Asgardian maiden Krista has been abducted and All-Father Odin has seen a vision of her enchained in Hades with the Thunderer’s trusted ally gloating over her beside vile netherlord Pluto…

By the time lordly Zeus has stopped the shattering clash that follows, half of the celestial city is in ruins, but in that breathing space he proves Hercules is innocent of the atrocious act and the abashed comrades turn their attentions to the true culprit…

Inked by Joe Sinnott, Thor #222 finds the earnest comrades in search of Hercules’ insidious impersonator and taking advice from a scary sorceress even as war-god Ares receives an eldritch summons to meet his co-conspirator ‘Before the Gates of Hell!’

Sadly he is intercepted by the heroes before he gets there and receives the sound thrashing he deserves, prior to the enraged companions storming their way into the netherworld itself.

At the moment of their triumph however Pluto snatches up his hostage and vanishes. His trail leads to Earth where one final confrontation results in ‘Hellfire Across the World!’ (Esposito inks) and leaves kidnapped Krista near death…

Issue #224 finds Thor resuming his alter ego of surgeon Don Blake to operate on the Asgardian even as elsewhere in Manhattan a rash scientist accidentally reactivates Odin’s unstoppable battle construct and discovers ‘No One Can Stop… the Destroyer!’

With Krista saved Thor joins the sorely pressed Hercules and although outmatched by the Asgardian killing machine they devise a way to stop its human power source – only to then face ‘The Coming of Firelord!’ (inked by Sinnott).

The tempestuous, short-tempered herald of planet-consuming Galactus has been sent to fetch Thor and will brook no refusals…

Issue #226 finds the voracious space god on Earth, beseeching the Thunder God’s aid in ‘The Battle Beyond!’ (Esposito) against living planet Ego, who has seemingly gone mad and now poses a threat to the entire universe…

“Homaging” Jack Kirby, penciller Rich Buckler joined Conway and Sinnott in #227 as the Thunder God and Hercules – with Firelord in tow – go ‘In Search of… Ego!’ Penetrating deep within the raving planet and defeating incredible biological horrors, the trio reach his malfunctioning brain and relive the incredible origin of the “bioverse” in ‘Ego: Beginning and End!’ before contriving an earth-shaking solution to the wild world’s rampages…

In a final act of unlikely diplomacy the Thunderer then finds a replacement herald and secures Firelord’s freedom from Galactus…

Safely back on Earth a new kind of terror manifests in Thor #229 as ‘Where Darkness Dwells, Dwell I!’ (Conway, Buckler & Chic Stone) sees Hercules uncover an uncanny string of suicides amongst the mortals of Manhattan. After consulting the Storm Lord and his recently returned lover Sif, the Prince of Power is ambushed by a shadowy figure and himself succumbs to dark despondency…

Plucked from psychological catatonia by Iron Man and the recuperating Krista, severely shaken Hercules recovers enough to lead Thor under the city to jointly confront and conquer a horrific lord of fear in #230’s ‘The Sky Above… the Pits Below!’ (Buckler & Sinnott).

Of greater moment is the revelation in Asgard that almighty Odin has gone missing…

John Buscema returned in #231, inked by Dick Giordano to limn ‘A Spectre from the Past!’ wherein Thor learns that his former love Jane Foster is dying. Whilst doting Sif fruitlessly returns to Asgard seeking a cure, the grieving Thunderer is momentarily distracted when Hercules is attacked by anthropoidal throwback and disembodied spirit Armak the First Man who possesses the body of an unwary séance attendee and runs amok in the streets.

Since gaining his liberty Firelord had been aimlessly travelling the globe. Lured by Asgardian magic he becomes wicked Loki’s vassal in ‘Lo, the Raging Battle!’

Heartsick Thor meanwhile will not leave Jane’s hospital bedside, prompting Sif and Hercules to travel to the end of the universe to retrieve the mystic Runestaff of Kamo Tharnn. No sooner do they depart than the ensorcelled Firelord attacks and whilst incensed, impatient Thor knocks sense back into him, his evil half-brother leads an Asgardian army in a sneak attack on America…

With ‘Midgard Aflame’ (Buscema & Stone) Thor leads the human resistance and learns for the first time that his father is missing. Odin’s faithful vizier reveals that the All-Father has divested himself of his memory and chosen to reside somewhere on Earth as a hapless mortal…

With the humans preparing to unleash their atomic arsenal against the Asgardians, the invasion suddenly ends with a savage duel between Thor and Loki in ‘O, Bitter Victory!’ (Buscema & Sinnott) after which the Thunderer returns to Jane’s side, unaware that he is being stalked by a merciless old enemy. At the same time Sif and Hercules have clashed with he ‘Who Lurks Beyond the Labyrinth!’ and secured a remedy for Thor’s mortal beloved…

Thor #236 opens as the Storm God revels in furious combat with the Absorbing Man. Unknown to the blockbusting battlers, at that very moment Sif is expressing her own love for her wayward prince by using the Runestaff to fix Jane in ‘One Life to Give!’

…And somewhere in California an imposing old man called Orrin ponders his strangely selective amnesia and wonders how he can possibly possess such incredible strength…

With battle concluded Thor hastens back to Jane and finds her completely cured. His joy is short-lived however as he realises that Sif is gone, seemingly forever…

Issue #237 finds reunited lovers Don Blake and Jane Foster cautiously getting reacquainted and pondering Sif’s incredible sacrifice when a horde of Asgardian Trolls led by ‘Ulik Unchained’ calamitously attack New York. Before long they have made off with the recently restored Jane under cover of the blockbusting melee that ensues…

Gerry Conway concludes his run with Thor #238 as the Thunder God capitulates to his hostage-taking foe and is taken below the worlds of Earth and Asgard on the ‘Night of the Troll!’

Ulik wants to overthrow his king Gierrodur and is confident his hold over mighty Thor will accomplish the act for him, but he is utterly unprepared for the new martial spirit which possesses his formerly frail mortal hostage Jane…

…And in California old man Orrin decides to use his power to help the poor, quickly arousing the ire of the local authorities…

Writer/Editor Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema join Sinnott in Thor #239 as the Thunder God brutally ends his association with the trolls even as in California Orrin’s rabble-rousing civil unrest is cut short when a colossal pyramid containing Egyptian gods erupts from the ground in ‘Time-Quake!’

Thor knows nothing on the latest upheaval. He has taken off for distant Asgard, uncovering a mysterious force draining his people of their power and vitality. Warned by duplicitous seer Mimir the anguished godling rushes back to Earth and clashes with the puissant Horus ‘When the Gods Make War!’ (Thomas, Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson). The depleted Egyptian pantheon have desperate need of an All-Father and have conditioned Odin/Orrin to believe that he is their long-lost patron Atum-Re…

Jane is already waiting in California when Thor arrives and she is present when the elder deity devastatingly assaults his astounded son. Happily her cool head prevails and soon the warring deities are talking. An uneasy alliance forms and the truth comes out. Horus, Isis and Osiris are in a final battle with vile Death God Seth and need the power of a supreme over-god to assure a victory for the forces of Life…

The cosmic conflict concludes in #241 as ‘The Death-Ship Sails the Stars!’ (Mantlo, John Buscema & Sinnott) with the ghastly Seth and his demonic servants repulsed and Jane again playing a major role: even shaking Odin out of his mind-wiped state…

A semblance of creative stability resumed with #242 as writer Len Wein joined John Buscema & Sinnott, beginning their tenure with epic time travel tale ‘When the Servitor Commands!’ The colossal all-conquering construct had scooped up Thor, Jane and visiting Asgardians Fandral the Dashing, Voluminous Volstagg and Hogun the Grim at the behest of malevolent chrononaut and old enemy Zarrko…

The Tomorrow Man is claiming to be on the side of the angels this time: looking for heroes to help stop a trio of entropic entities travelling back from the end of time and destroying all life as they go. Although suspicious, the assemble crusaders agree to help stop ‘Turmoil in the Time Stream!’ caused by the diabolical Time-Twisters…

Constant clashes with vagrant monsters and warriors plucked from their own eras barely slows the heroes but neither do they hinder the widdershins progress of the Armageddon entities in ‘This is the Way the World Ends!’ However by the time the voyagers discover ‘The Temple at the End of Time!’ which spawned the Time-Twisters and end the crisis before it began, Zarrko has already reverted to type and tried to betray them… much to his own regret…

This bombastic battle book then concludes with a 2-part rematch between Thunder God and Flaming Fury as #246 reveals ‘The Fury of Firelord!’, following the unworldly alien’s meeting with a lovely witch working for Latin American rebel and would-be tin pot dictator El Lobo.

However, whilst Thor heads south to stop a civil war in Asgard, his boon companion Balder comes to a staggering conclusion: Odin may be back in body but his spirit is still ailing. In fact the All-Father might well be completely insane…

When Thor also succumbs to sinister gypsy enchantments and ‘The Flame and the Hammer!’ unite to crush the feeble democracy of Costa Verde, once again vibrant valiant Jane is there save the day…

To Be Continued…

The tales gathered here may lack the sheer punch and verve of the early years but fans of ferocious Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy will find this tome still stuffed with intrigue and action, magnificently rendered by artists who, whilst not possessing Kirby’s vaulting visionary passion, were every inch his equal in craft and dedication, making this a definite and decidedly economical must-read for all fans of the character and the genre.

©1974, 1975, 1976, 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Papyrus volume 6: The Amulet of the Great Pyramid


By Lucien De Geiter, coloured by B. Swysen & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-240-9

Papyrus is the astoundingly addictive magnum opus of Belgian cartoonist Lucien de Gieter. Launched in 1974 on the pages of legendary weekly Spirou, it has run to more than 35 albums and spawned a wealth of merchandise, a TV cartoon series and video games.

Born in 1932, the author studied at Saint-Luc Art Institute in Brussels before going into industrial design and interior decorating. In 1961 he made the jump into sequential narrative, first via ‘mini-récits’ (half-sized, fold-in booklet inserts) for Spirou, starring his jovial cowboy ‘Pony’, and later by writing for art-star regulars such as Kiko, Jem, Eddy Ryssack and Francis.

He later joined Peyo’s studio as inker on ‘Les Schtroumpfs’ (The Smurfs) and took over the long-running newspaper strip ‘Poussy’ and launched mermaid fantasy ‘Tôôôt et Puit’ when Pony was promoted to Spirou‘s full-sized pages. Deep-sixing the Smurfs, he then expanded his horizons by joining a select band contributing material to both Tintin and Le Journal de Mickey.

From 1972-1974 he worked with cartooning legend Berck on ‘Mischa’ for Germany’s Primo whilst perfecting his newest project: a historical fantasy which would soon occupy his full attention and delight millions of fervent fans for the following four decades.

The annals of Papyrus encompass a huge range of themes and milieux, mixing Boy’s Own adventure with historical fiction, fantastic action and interventionist mythology. The Egyptian epics gradually evolved from standard “Bigfoot” cartoon style and content to a more realistic, dramatic and authentic iteration. Each tale also deftly incorporated the latest historical theories and discoveries into the beguiling yarns.

Papyrus was a fearlessly forthright young fisherman favoured by the gods who rose against all odds to become an infallible hero and friend to Pharaohs. As a youngster the plucky Fellah was singled out and given a magic sword courtesy of the daughter of crocodile-headed Sobek before winning similar boons and blessings from many of the Twin Land’s potent pantheon.

The youthful champion’s first accomplishment was to free supreme deity Horus from imprisonment in the Black Pyramid of Ombos, restoring peace to the Double Kingdom, but it was as nothing compared to current duty: safguarding Pharaoh’s wilful, high-handed and insanely danger-seeking daughter Theti-Cheri – a dynamic princess with an astounding knack for finding trouble …

The Amulet of the Great Pyramid is the sixth Cinebook translation (21st album of the series, originally released in 1998 as Le Talisman de la grande pyramide); an enthralling rollercoaster romp through living mythology and a spooky trial for the plucky chosen one which begins when Papyrus is dragged from the palace – and a rare reward from Theti-Cheri for saving her life and soul again – by phenomenally intelligent donkey Khamelot.

The savvy beast of burden belongs to court jester Puin and whenever it comes running in such a manner it means that the funny little man has found trouble…

An eventful trip to the Giza plateau with its royal necropolis and great pyramids of Kheops, Khefren and Mykerinus results in the daring lad finding not only his diminutive friend but also a desiccated and extremely active mummy unearthed by tomb-robbers.

Puin has been hearing ghastly screams emanating from the pyramids and convinces the boy-hero to stay and listen for them too, but he never expected his bold friend to go looking for what made them…

The sinister sounds lead deep into the nobles’ grave fields, but as they proceed the searchers stumble upon another acquaintance. The unconscious man is one of the three Pepi brothers charged with keeping the recently-restored Sphinx free of desert sands …

Leaving the comatose victim in Puin’s care, Papyrus presses on. Before very long though the eerie events prove too much and the panicked Professional Fool bolts.

His pell-mell rush carries him down a passage far under the Kheops pyramid where he is confronted with the spirit of Seneb the Dwarf, magician and priest of that august and long-deceased pharaoh…

The garrulous ghost is in need of a favour and urges his terrified “guest” to carry his jewelled heart scarab to Papyrus who will know what to do with it…

Scrabbling out of the ancient passageway, Puin is eventually rescued by his donkey and impetuous Theti-Cheri – who has again refused to be left out of the action and secretly followed her bodyguard into peril.

Papyrus meanwhile has plunged deeper into the necropolis and been attacked by a pack of spectral jackals. Even his magic sword is no help and the malign mobbing only ends when Anubis himself calls a halt to it. The God of the Dead is angered by the sudden increase in grave-robbing and has taken two of the caretaking Pepi brothers, thinking them to be desecrators.

Unfortunately, rather than admit a mistake, the jackal-headed judge demands Papyrus retrieve Kheops’ heart amulet in return for their liberty. Anubis needs it to weigh the king’s soul before he can remove all the wandering spirits of the region to a place where the living can no longer disturb them…

And thus begins an astonishing race against time as the young champion has to scour the Great Pyramid from top to bottom (magnificently detailed and scrupulously explained in some of the best action illustration the author has ever produced); defeating deadly traps, defying spectral sabotage and godly interventions and solving the riddles of the dead to accomplish his mission.

However even after more than satisfying the demands of Anubis, there’s still the murderously mundane menace of the grave-robbers holding Theti-Cheri hostage to deal with before the canny champion can rest easy…

Epic, chilling, funny, fast-paced and utterly engaging, this is another amazing adventure to thrill and enthral lovers of wonder from nine to ninety-nine, again proving Papyrus to be a sublime addition to the family-friendly pantheon of Euro Stars who wed heroism and humour with wit and charm.

Any avid reader who has worn out those Tintin and Asterix albums would be wise beyond their years to add these classic chronicles to their cartoon chronicle bookshelves.
© Dupuis, 1998 by De Gieter. All rights reserved. English translation © 2015 Cinebook Ltd.

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Mercy: Shake the World


By J.M. DeMatteis & Paul Johnson (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-79905-6

Dover’s superb line of lost and rescued comics classics continues with a still-fresh and immensely innovative spiritual odyssey first seen in 1993, now resurrected in a softcover collection packed with fascinating extras and bonus material.

Originally conceived as one of a tranche of titles developed by Editor Art Young for the Disney Company’s ambitious but ultimately stillborn Touchmark adult comics imprint (the others being Sebastian O, Enigma and Shadows Fall) in the early 1990s, Mercy was first released as a 64-page one-shot comicbook in the initial wave of DC’s Vertigo line in 1993.

Thematically at odds with the dark, uncompromising and nihilistic fare of titles such as Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Doom Patrol and even the groundbreaking, bleakly lyrical Sandman, the astounding near-life experiences of Joshua Rose came and went relatively unremarked then, but at last gets a fair chance to shine here.

Preceded by an absorbing reunion between creators as transcribed in ‘About Mercy: Shake the World – a Conversation Between Writer J.M. DeMatteis and Artist Paul Johnson’, the phantasmagorical journey of revelation unfolds through a cascade of stunning painted visuals that begin in a coldly antiseptic hospital room…

Middle-aged and long-bled of all inner joy, Joshua Rose was almost glad when the stroke put him into a coma.

Jaded, world-weary, bitterly disappointed to his core, he has no illusions about life’s wonders or humanity’s merits. He lies inert in his exorbitantly expensive private clinical cell, impaled on and afflicted with dozens of tubes and needles and machines.

Seemingly dead to the world, he is in fact acutely aware of not just his own physical surroundings but also every inconceivable nook and cranny of universal time and space.

Spurning his wife and his world, Rose’s morose and twisted psyche roams infinity despising everything he sees in it, especially the miraculous mute woman glowing blue, constantly flashing across his consciousness and dragging him to uncountable encounters with people in all their pathetic, pitiful privation, sordid weakness, tawdry injustice and innate inescapable misery.

He derisively calls her “Mercy” but as she silently lures him ever onwards to scenes of family discord in London, an agonising personal trial in a primeval South American rainforest and a death-haunted, woe-infested apartment in Brooklyn, Joshua observes her tireless confrontations with monsters and worse and, somewhere deep inside, begins at last to change…

Crafted in true collaborative fashion by DeMatteis and Johnson, the deeply evocative and astonishingly expressionistic voyage of discovery is deconstructed in a number of extra features beginning with intriguing ‘Excerpts from the Outline’ exploring the writer’s initial plot concepts before being expanded with forensic intensity through illustrator Johnson’s beguiling monochrome ‘Page Layouts’.

Then, augmented by page after page of lavish and lovely full colour ‘Production Art’, character sketches and design roughs; accompanied by the artist’s thoughts on his process in ‘About the Art’, the entire delicious and eccentric delight is finally summed up in original editor Art Young’s laudatory ‘Afterword’, putting to bed one of the most intoxicating and passionate paeans to humble humanity ever crafted in comics form.

Mercy was different then and it’s still different now: an ideal confection for comics connoisseurs who remain forever bright at heart…

© 2015 Dover Publications, Inc. Introduction © 2015 J.M. DeMatteis and Paul Johnson. Art & text © 2015 J.M. DeMatteis and Paul Johnson. Afterword © 2015 Art Young. All rights reserved.

Mercy: Shake the World will be in stores from June 17th 2015 and is available for pre-order now. Check out www.doverpublications.com, your internet retailer or comic shop of choice.

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Usagi Yojimbo: Senso


By Stan Sakai (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-709-6

One of the very best and most adaptable survivors of the 1980s black-&-white comicbook explosion/implosion is a truly bizarre and wonderful synthesis of historical Japanese samurai fiction and anthropomorphic animal adventure, as well as a perfect example of the versatility and strengths of a creator-owned character.

Usagi Yojimbo (which translates as “rabbit bodyguard”) first appeared as a background character in multi-talented creator Stan Sakai’s peripatetic comedy feature The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy, which debuted in furry ‘n’ fuzzy folk anthology Albedo Anthropomorphics #1 (1984) subsequently appearing there on his own terms as well as in Critters, Amazing Heroes, Furrlough and the Munden’s Bar back-up in Grimjack.

Sakai was born in 1953 in Kyoto, Japan before the family emigrated to Hawaii in 1955. He attended University of Hawaii, graduating with a BA in Fine Arts, and pursued further studies at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design after moving to California.

His first comics work was as a letterer, most famously for the incredible Groo the Wanderer, before his nimble pens and brushes found a way to express a love of Japanese history and legend. Also shaped by his hearty interest in the filmic works of Akira Kurosawa and his peers, Sakai turned a proposed story about a human hero into one of the most enticing and impressive – and astoundingly authentic – sagas of all time.

The deliciously rambling and expansive period fantasy series is set in a world of sentient animals whilst specifically referencing the Edo Period of Feudal Japan (how did we cloth-eared Westerners ever get “Japan” from “Nihon” anyway?) and is drenched in classic cultural icons as varied as Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi and even Godzilla to enrich the ongoing exploits of Miyamoto Usagi, a Ronin (masterless, wandering Samurai) whose fate is to be drawn constantly into a plethora of incredible situations.

And yes, he’s a rabbit – a brave, sentimental, gentle, honourable, conscientious and heroic bunny who cannot turn down any request for help…

The long-eared nomad has changed publishers a few times but has been in continuous publication since 1987 – with nearly 40 graphic novel collections and compilations to date – with guest-shots in sundry other series such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its TV incarnation – he even almost made it into his own small-screen show but there’s still time yet and fashions can revive as quickly as they die out …

Sakai and his creation have won numerous awards both within the comics community and amongst the greater reading public and his bombastic bunny has branched out into high-end collectibles, art prints, computer games and RPGs, a spin-off sci fi comics serial and lots of toys. In November 2014 the Rabbit Ronin premiered in a stage show here in London…

Celebrating his 30th anniversary our hero recently appeared in a staggering out-of-continuity cosmic clash first seen in the 6-issue miniseries Usagi Yojimbo: Senso (August 2014-January 2015) now gathered into a sturdy monochrome hardback edition.

Senso means War! – it says so on the back of the book – and this epic Armageddon tale opens fifteen years from the rabbit’s current timeframe with all the regular characters in play for the final battle between usurping over-villain Lord Hikiji and the forces of the Shogun led by Lord Noriyuki of the Geishu Clan.

Preceded by comedic cartoon Introduction ‘Usagi and Stan’ and a selection of cover sketches for the compilation volume, the action opens as the Shogun’s forces, led by recently aligned and fully restored Samurai Usagi, clash with the Dark Lord’s armies.

Also drawn into the cataclysmic battle and employed in key positions are valiant bodyguard Lady Tomoe, former bounty hunter General Gennosuke and even the rabbit’s (unsuspected and unacknowledged) son Jotaro.

Even though the battle seems to be going against them the noble young lord is appalled when chief scientist Takenoko-Sensei offers his new prototype weapon – an armoured, steam-powered, self-propelled moving fortress called Kameyama (“Turtle Mountain”).

Preferring defeat to the shame of utilising an atrocity weapon, the indomitable legion of heroes fight on with renewed desperation, but everything changes in an instant when the sky is suddenly rent by a fiery scream and a colossal metal shell crashes onto the field.

In the silent aftermath the shocked remnants of two shattered armies drag themselves from the blood and dust to discover a third force has entered the fray: ghastly beings like giant octopi, killing with heat and light and riding immense three-legged walking machines…

It takes ninja leader Chizu to discover that the rubbery horrors can be killed and their diabolical machines destroyed, but her consequent and so-noble death will not be the last…

Tense, oppressively ominous and downright scary in places, this fabulous reworking of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds is an astounding and compelling variation on the hallowed theme which offers one tantalising “maybe” after another as three decades of beloved characters assemble to face the end of a world and triumph in a most incredible manner, and at the most horrific of prices…

Amongst the bonus features in this titanic tome are all six wraparound covers from the miniseries and a Process section offering comparisons, deleted and reworked pages and scenes plus fascinating developmental notes and sketches from the story.

The multi-faceted legendary Lepus’ nigh-universal irresistible appeal encompasses every aspect and genre of adventure comics and this moving “End of Days” epic will delight devotees and certainly make converts of the most hardened hater of “funny animal” stories.

Text and illustrations © 2015 Stan Sakai. All rights reserved.

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The Kurdles


By Robert Goodin (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-832-8

The power of strip and picture books is that they can jump right through your eyes, bombarding but bypassing your brain and lodging straight into your heart. If you don’t believe me just read Sock Monkey: Into the Deep Woods, A Wish For Wings That Work, Usagi Yojimbo, The Moomins and the Great Flood, Bone, Copper, The Squickerwonkers, Pogo or The Velveteen Rabbit.

In fact, read them anyway.

Now you can add to that list this splendidly eerie, all-ages cartoon tale from illustrator and animator Rob Goodin (Duckman, The Wild Thornberries, American Dad!) which combines – in the best tradition of the genre – crippling loneliness, astounding wonder and the finding of a new family, all delivered in a gloriously illustrated, magnificently oversized (305 x 222 mm) full-colour hardback tome that will take your breath away.

When little Ellie starts acting up again, poor Sally Bear gets flung out the car window on a cold, rainy night and left in the wilds to rot.

The trenchant little toy is made of far sterner stuff, however, and picking herself up, gamely wanders the terrifying great outdoors, narrowly avoiding doom and destruction from assorted beasts and natural hazards.

Battered and bedraggled, Sally eventually finds her way deep into a swamp where a bizarre conurbation exists. More accurately, one of the denizens of Kurdleton finds her, dragging the bear back to a band of little weirdoes who extend jolly hands of friendship the damaged bear is too proud and standoffish to accept with any grace at all…

Claiming all she needs are directions back to the road, Sally is nevertheless soon embroiled in the jovial strangers’ ongoing crisis: their magnificent dwelling has contracted a strange malady and is growing hair and eyes…

Soon a case of Casa Pilosa – an infamous “Disease of the American Home” – is diagnosed. The house is coming alive…

That’s all the plot you get, and you’ll thank me for that when you read for yourselves this fabulously moving, suspensefully thrilling and wryly funny fractured fable of outcasts banding together into a potently different modern family.

Bold, beguiling and beautiful, The Kurdles is the kind of book you will remember forever.
The Kurdles © 2015 Robert Goodin. This edition © 2015 Fantagraphics Books, Inc.

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Troy Trailblazer and the Horde Queen


By Robert Deas (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-910200-46-9

In January 2012 Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched a traditional anthology comics weekly aimed at girls and boys between 6 and 12 which revelled in reviving the good old days of British picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and content.

Each issue offers humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. In the years since its premiere, The Phoenix has gone from strength to strength, winning praise from the Great and the Good, child literacy experts and the only people who really count – the totally engaged kids and parents who read it…

The magazine inevitably led to a line of superbly engaging graphic novel compilations, the latest of which is a rollicking space opera romp that will delight readers with a profound sense of fun and unchecked imaginations.

From that fabulous first year and created by Robert Deas (November, Manga Shakespeare: Macbeth, Pride & Prejudice, Medikidz) comes impetuous stellar sentinel Troy Trailblazer – who originally appeared in The Phoenix #10, 18 and 27-32 – in a riotous complete adventure which mixes light-hearted sidereal shenanigans with just a touch of dark and dreadful doom…

Thanks to the double-page pin-up ‘Meet Team Troy’ you’ll quickly become familiar with the valiant lad, his advanced tactical droid Blip, animalistic alien associate Barrus and super-cool former bounty hunter Jess Jetrider.

Moreover the schematics for ‘The Pathfinder’ will provide all you need to know about the freelance heroes’ astounding starship, so there’s no need to pause before racing into ‘Chapter 1: Mistakes of the Past’ which finds the questing quartet bombastically retrieving the Infinity Jewel with a maximum of collateral damage from the Royal Palace on planet Thagus…

Congratulating themselves on a job well done the astral adventurers celebrate by setting course for the sunny beaches on Solus, but before too long battle-hardened Jessica is roused from hyper-sleep by a disturbing dream and acknowledges a distress call from ice-world Siberas…

On awakening, the baffled lads are far from happy to be wading across glaciers in beachwear and when the arctic conditions wreck the Pathfinder’s engines they lose all sense of proportion. It’s quickly regained, however, when a gigantic snow-beast starts chasing them and hurt feelings turn to pure terror when a clutch of horrific bug-like parasites easily bring the shaggy carnivore down…

Pushing on rapidly through the snows the cosmic champions soon find the mining colony which issued the distress call, only to discover the workers possessed by more of the creepy bugs. Most disturbing is the fact that Jess is seemingly hearing voices and acting weirdly distracted…

Things come to a grisly head when they recover a holo-message from security chief Alan Ripley which describes how deep excavations disinterred a monstrous hive-creature from an entombed starship. His warning is cut off mid-sentence and almost instantly our heroes are running for their lives from the bug-wearing, mind-locked miners who tirelessly hunt their would-be rescuers…

Somewhere amidst all the chaos Jess gets separated from her companions and, apparently answering a mental siren call, wanders off into the deepest part of the pit…

There’s a brief tension-break for ‘Blip’s Autopsy Report’ – wherein the robotic science wizard dissects and provides dissertation on the diabolical parasites – before the shocking suspense resumes with the Pathfinder crew following Jess but ultimately failing to stop her being taken over by the Horde Queen and becoming the malevolent monster’s perfect weapon of complete conquest…

After a frantic panic and race to escape the story resumes fifteen years later in ‘Chapter 2: The Fate of the Future’…

Over that dark period the Horde Queen’s spawn have erupted into space and devastated planet after planet. On Troy’s homeworld of Nova 2, the older, wiser and battle-weary Trailblazer is now leader of the hard-pressed Horde Resistance, fighting a losing battle against the ghastly melding of his best friend and the parasite-mother.

The determined freedom-fighters have lost every battle but thanks to brilliant Blip have devised a last chance solution which might win the war. Unfortunately, just as they activate the cobbled-together time-machine and head back to Siberas to stop Jess ever falling under the Queen’s spell, the triumphant horror bursts in and follows Troy and Barrus back to the beginning…

What happens next is both astoundingly heroic and bitterly tragic and reveals what happy endings actually cost.

Fast-paced, fun and not afraid to be really scary when it counts, this is a superb interstellar saga, excitingly told in a broadly manga manner which will delight space freaks and thrill seekers of all ages.

Text and illustrations © Robert Deas 2015. All rights reserved.

Troy Trailblazer and the Horde Queen will be released on June 4th 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

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Dungeon: Twilight – the Complete Set (Dragon Cemetery, Armageddon and The New Centurions)


By Joann Sfar & Lewis Trondheim, Kerascoet & Obion, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM)
ISBNs: 978-1-56163-460-6, 978-1-56163-477-4 & 978-1-56163-578-8

As cunningly crafted by prolific artisans Joann Sfar (Professeur Bell, Les olives noires, The Rabbi’s Cat) and Lewis Trondheim (La Mouche, Kaput and Zösky, Little Nothings) with assorted associates of their New Wave-ish collective of bande dessinée creators – most often seen under the aegis of independent publisher L’Association – the Donjon saga has generated more than thirty interlinked volumes since it launched in 1998 and has become a massive cult hit all over the world.

These slim, translated (and re-released-in-one-complete-3-book-package) tales form a mere sub-division of a vast, generational, eccentrically raucous and addictively wacky franchise which welds starkly adult whimsy to the weird worlds of fantasy fiction, and these Twilight tomes take the loony legion of horribly human anthropomorphic characters into territories even wilder than those seen in Dungeon Early Years, Parade, Zenith, Monstres and Twilight.

All wholly defined sub-series of a truly vast epic, these all offer time-separated glimpses of a fantastic magic castle on the magically unstable world of Terra Amata. Inhabitants of this weirdly surreal universe include every kind of talking beast and bug as well as monsters, demons, smart-alecs, wizards, politicians and stroppy women-folk. Whenever and wherever you look there’s always something happening and it’s usually quite odd…

The nominal star is a duck with a magic sword which enabled – and eventually compelled – him to channel and be possessed by dead heroes and monsters. By this declining period on a dying world former hero Herbert of Craftiwich has risen to the unassailable rank of Grand Khan – though he’s still not quite sure how – and the doddering but still puissant old guy is steeped in Total Evil…

Crafted entirely by Sfar & Trondheim, Volume 1: Dragon Cemetery is composed of two original French albums (Donjon Crepuscule: Le Cimetiere des Dragons and Le Volcan des Vaucanson) from 1999. At this time the globe has ceased to spin, with one half eternally seared by light whilst the obverse is frozen into chilled darkness. Life only thrives on the narrow band between the extremes but is as harsh and unforgiving as it ever was…

When a little talking bat is enticed to become the eyes of immortal blinded dragon and political exile The Dust King, the act prompts a cascade of events which will shake and shatter the dying world. The unchanging saurian is a mage of incredible power under perpetual house arrest on the orders of the Khan and, ravaged by ennui, has decided to die at last…

Although Dust King has decided to end it all he is still too mighty for simple suicide. He needs to journey to a special place and requires a little assistance…

He and the Khan were once great friends, but over intervening years the potentate has become increasingly wicked and isolated by a coterie of unctuous, ambitious hangers-on and would-be usurpers.

The dragon’s decision has been detected at the Black Fortress of Gehenna by one of those parasites and vile functionary Shiwomeez fiendishly facilitates the prisoner’s escape. The tedious journey is soon being scrupulously monitored by the malign major domo who despatches waves of military goons with orders to await an opportune moment to strike. The last unit also have instructions to eradicate the sundry soldiery. The plotter believes the old wizard is travelling to the legendary and mystically significant “Dragon’s Graveyard” and doesn’t want too many menials knowing its location…

The trek is more complex than the sneaky pursuers realise. The Dust King needs the assistance of elusive shaman Orlandoh to pass over and is keenly aware that he is being followed. When he catches a crazy red rabbit warrior named Marvin the Destroyer he acts with precipitate haste and almost ends a willing would-be ally…

The obnoxious newcomer – named for a mighty killer of ancient times – attaches himself to the expedition and is stunned to find he is travelling with an old warrior who once also went by the legendary name Marvin…

After finally finding Orlandoh, the Dust King’s necropolitan journey takes a strange diversion and before long the pilgrims are battling Shiwomeez’s murderous minions and a host of diminutive horrors known as Olfs in their colossal citadel of Poopooloo. At long last the trek ends and the original Marvin prepares to let everything go…

However, events take a bizarre turn after the schemer’s mystic meddling accidentally drags long-eared young Marvin and the bitty bat to the Black Fortress where the crimson crusader’s manic skill with a sword causes utter carnage…

Not only is the pitiful plotter unable to stop the intruder but Shiwomeez also disturbs the long-distant Grand Khan, calling him back to the mundane world… and the overlord seems to know everything…

Casually blasted back to the Dragon Cemetery, Marvin and the bat can only await further developments…

The Dust King’s demise isn’t going well and after awhile the blind antediluvian gives up attempting to expire. Deciding to find what has become of his odd acolytes, the testy titan stumbles across red rabbit Marvin dallying with some rather lascivious cat women.

The ancient mage has an announcement: seemingly emboldened by his brush with death he has decided to force a meeting with his old friend the Khan. All they have to do is retrace their wearisome path and fight their way through the legions of warriors determined to stop them…

The expedition results in a vast pile of exotic corpses but one fine day old Marvin and his former friend Herbert have their long-deferred conference. The Dust King pleads with the Grand Khan to renounce Evil and his ultimate power. Of course if he does Terra Amata will begin to rotate again and soon explode…

Naturally Herbert refuses and with no other option The Dust King tries to kill him. The cataclysmic clash ends inconclusively and Herbert, mentally displaced by one of the many monsters which periodically possess him, gives orders for the blind beast and his puny companions’ capture and execution…

Fleeing on giant war-bats into the nocturnal zone the trio soon arrive at the troubled military outpost of Craftiwich, built on a huge volcano. The site is an armoury operated by fanatical duck soldiers, ruled by the Grand Khan’s son Arch-duke Papsukal. It also houses Herbert’s ogre son Elyacin and his libidinous, troublesome daughter Duchess Zakutu. There’s no love lost between this father and these children…

Papsukal is developing firearms and explosive ordnance, and to make conservative warriors give up swordsmanship he’s ordered that all smiths are to be hunted down and destroyed…

Pretending to be an envoy from the Grand Khan, bunny Marvin tricks the military technicians into fitting him with the first fully functional suit of nitro-powered super armour…

His impersonation – and assignation with the sexually voracious but insecure Zakutu – come a cropper, however, when the Khan arrives at the head of an army and resumes his death duel with the Dust King…

 

Illustrated by Kerascoet, the saga resumes in Volume 2: Armageddon (containing the French albums Donjon Crepuscule: Armageddon and Les Dojo du Lagon from 2002 and 2005) with the fugitives hiding out in the village of the cat women. The Dust King had been terribly maimed in his struggle with the Khan but was still unable to die and had regained a terrible power which he anticipated would come in most useful when their pursuers finally caught up with them…

Packing the women off with Red Marvin as guardian, The Dust King stays to meet the deadly duck forces. The result is the end of the Khan’s army and ambitions but in the aftermath, as birdlike shaman Gilberto helps the dragon and his faithful little bat hunt down his missing limbs, the surface of Terra Amata detonates, fragmenting into thousands of tiny floating islands above a core of lava…

Jaunting from islet to islet the mystic duo eventually track down old Marvin’s missing parts before landing in the remnants of once-formidable Poopooloo. Here they encounter no Olfs but a far more deadly, invisible threat…

Pausing only to pillage a vast store of magic botanicals and thaumaturgic vegetable pharmaceuticals, the voyagers flee the hidden horrors but blunder into the free-floating Olf bastion of Boobooloo where they are condemned to death…

Whilst awaiting execution the emotionally repressed Dust King shares some of Gilberto’s plundered stash and in a traumatic daze relives the dogmatic days of dragon philosophy which lost him his family and the subsequent event which cost him his eyes…

When he comes to his senses again the Olf courtroom is a shredded, burning wreck and what few survivors remain are fleeing in terror. Gilberto too has swallowed too many drugs and is stricken with a debilitating parade of incredible new powers. One of them makes him a perfect predictor of every floating island’s path whilst another inflicts random, uncontrollable teleportation upon him…

Forced to escape by more prosaic means (at least by Terra Amata standards), old Marvin and his bat buddy find their way to Orlandoh and the drifting Hut of Spirits to await fate’s next move…

One day Red Marvin turns up and is promptly recruited as the Dust King and shamans of the Spirit Hut make plans to combat the remnants of the Grand Khan’s forces. Despatched on an infiltration to the rapidly approaching remnants of Craftiwich, the dry old lizard unexpectedly goes off the reservation and drags his bunny disciple to a passing islet inhabited by dragons. As the bunny makes eyes at a reptilian firebrand who subsequently swipes his super-armour, the elder Marvin is meeting a seductive sorceress who was once, so long ago, his wife…

The Dust King is desperate to amend the sacrilege which drove them apart and is astounded when he meets his grandchildren. The rabbit meanwhile has joined a school of dragons learning how to be true warriors. Sadly, he is having trouble being taken seriously by the colossal students, let alone their grizzled old tutors. It takes a few pointers from the crestfallen Dust King to make the mockers pay proper attention to his eager friend…

And once he’s got them listening, the saurian sage goes about dismantling the doctrinaire dragon religion which cost him his love, his children and his eyes before the heroes return to their shamanic mission in time to rescue Duchess Zakutu from a parched death.

However taking the faithless trollop back to the dragon isle proves a big – almost fatal – mistake for the besotted rabbit…

 

Volume 3: The New Centurions

The final volume starts with the world’s various exotic survivors eking out a perilous existence on isolated islands chaotically afloat hundreds of metres above a global sea of molten lava…

Again comprising two translated albums it all kicks off with ‘The New Centurions’ (formerly Donjon Crepuscule: Nouveaux Centurions from 2006 illustrated by the delightfully adroit Kerascoet). Herbert has lost much of his might and is being increasingly bullied by his advisors. Moreover his kids have also joined the ranks of those trying to remove him…

The Dragon students forge a tenuous association with the ducks of Craftiwich and are being fitted with flying armour as the vanguard of a new type of super-soldier ,but carmine lepine Marvin has started to chafe under the Machiavellian intrigues and back-biting which dominate life in the ruined court-in-exile of the Khan. Tasked with training assorted soldiery who still won’t take a rabbit-warrior seriously, yet keenly aware that the vultures are circling, boy Marvin knows that when the take-over attempt by Herbert’s double-dealing lieutenant Fayez begins, no one will be ready…

Inevitably that day comes and the usurpers are victorious, even though Herbert survives to regroup: however mammal Marvin and his mentor Marvin the dragon are fed up with the whole interminable push-and-shove of politics and promptly quit.

Sneaking away they go looking for some uncomplicated adventuring among the floating Islands in the Sky…

In ‘Revolutions’, with art by Obion, the nomadic duo become stranded on a giant chunk of land slowly rotating in a downward spiral. With their flying beast dead and Marvin’s armour lost to carnivorous grass the wanderers are forced to continually climb upwards just to stay in place. The alternative is a rapid and terminal plunge to the surging lava-lakes below…

Eventually they come across a group of bears and other unfortunate creatures endlessly hauling a gigantic villa and attendant gardens in a circle around the tiny world, keeping everything one step ahead of the rotational doom.

Why do the bedraggled and exhausted volunteers pull so determinedly? Is it for the eight hours of rest and sustenance in the paradisiacal arbours they are granted every third shift? Is it the favours of the willing women of tiny Lord Takmool‘s family? Or is the diminutive aristocrat simply the slyest snake-oil salesman and most duplicitous capitalist conman in the universe?

The Dust King is not so easily fooled but even he eventually joins the eager Marvin on the team – it is, after all, the only game in town. However this Garden of Eden supplies its own temptations and serpents and the darkly satiric allegory looks set to come to a bloody end until unexpected catastrophe strikes the entire island and a whole new world comes into being in the spectacular aftermath…

Surreal, earthy, sharp, poignant, hilarious and brilliantly outlandish, these wittily sophisticated fantasy comedies are subtly addictive to read whilst the vibrant, wildly eccentric cartooning is an absolute marvel of exuberant, graphic style. Definitely not for the young reader, Dungeon Twilight is the kind of near-the-knuckle, illicit and just plain smart read that older kids and adults of all ages will adore, but for a fuller comprehension – and even more insane fun – I strongly recommend buying all the attendant incarnations too.
© 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2009 Delcourt Productions-Trondheim-Sfar-Kerascoet-Obion. English translation © 2006, 2010 NBM.

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Thorgal volume 2: The Three Elders of Aran/The Black Galley

By Rosiński & Van Hamme, translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)

ISBN: 978-1-905460-31-1

One of the best and most celebrated adventure series of all time, Thorgal achieves the seemingly impossible by being able to both please critics and sell in vast quantities. The prototypical Game of Thrones debuted in iconic weekly Tintin in 1977 with album compilations beginning three years later.

A far-reaching and expansive generational saga, it has won a monolithic international following in fourteen languages and dozens of countries, generating numerous spin-off series and thus naturally offers a strong presence in the field of global gaming.

In story-terms, the series offers the best of all weird worlds with an ostensibly historical milieu of bold Viking adventure seamlessly incorporating science fiction elements, horrendous monsters, social satire, political intrigue, soap opera, Atlantean mystique and mythically mystical literary standbys such as gods, monsters and devils.

Created by Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme (Domino, XIII, Largo Winch, Blake and Mortimer) and Polish illustrator Grzegorz Rosiński (Kapitan Żbik, Pilot Śmigłowca, Hans, The Revenge of Count Skarbek), the feature grew unstoppably over decades with the creative duo completing 29 albums between 1980 and 2006 when Van Hamme moved on.

Thereafter the scripting duties fell to Yves Sente who has collaborated on a further five collections to date.

By the time Van Hamme departed the canon had grown to cover not only the life of the titular hero and his son Jolan but also other indomitable family members through a number of spin-off series (Kriss de Valnor, Louve, La Jeunesse de Thorgal) under the umbrella title Les Mondes de Thorgal – with all eventually winning their own sub-section series of solo albums.

In 1985 American publisher Donning released a superb series of oversized hardcover book translations but Thorgal never really found an English-speaking audience until Cinebook began its own iteration in 2007.

The original French series wanders back and forth through the hero’s life but here, following the childhood exploits seen in volume 1, the saga opens in the full bloom of young manhood for this second translated collection, comprising third and fourth albums (Les Trois Vieillards du pays d’Aran and La Galère Noire from 1981 and 1982 respectively) in one double-sized barbarian bonanza.

Thorgal Aegirsson was recovered as a baby from a ferocious storm and raised by Northern Viking chief Leif Haraldson. Nobody could possibly know that the fortunate foundling had survived a stellar incident which destroyed a starship full of super-scientific aliens. Growing to manhood, the stranger was eventually forced out of his adopted land by ambitious Gandalf the Mad who feared the young warrior threatened his own claim to the throne.

As a boy Thorgal had been inseparable from Gandalf’s daughter Aaricia and, as ‘The Three Elders of Aran’ opens, the now adult couple are travelling together through lush unexplored country, having recently eloped to escape her father’s lethal jealousy and obsessive terror of losing his throne…

They are startled by the sudden appearance of a strange little man named Jadawin who welcomes them to the beautiful land of Aran and invites them to a feast. The land might be glorious but the village is a pitiful hovel inhabited by people on the edge of extinction.

The lordly “Benevolent Ones” who extended the invitation dwell in the colossal Castle of the Bottomless Lake, but even before the couple can boat across Aaricia solves a tantalising Gordian puzzle and wins a glorious necklace.

That show of keen wit electrifies the populace who declare her their Chosen Queen and brutally mob Thorgal when he objects…

As the horrified Aaricia is bundled off the castle, her husband’s presumed corpse is dumped in the forest but later that night a lone warrior swims the uncrossable moat and scales the impenetrable keep to take back his true love.

Sneaking into the main hall Thorgal overhears Jadawin discussing the new queen with a trio of elderly sages. Now that they have a queen again the triumvirate are planning to invite princely suitors to compete for her and rule of Aran…

The lone invader has his own plans but when he finds Aaricia, she doesn’t recognise her man and calls her guards in genuine panic. Baffled, Thorgal barely escapes with his life and has no choice but to devise a plan B…

Some time later, ten princes arrive in Aran determined to win the beautiful queen (and her staggeringly valuable dowry) and are promptly presented with mystic challenges which soon winnow the field to brutish Karshan of Urizen, sly Volsung of Nichor and a masked bravo who turns out to be Thorgal…

The Elders seem rather unconcerned about the deception and allow all the finalists to continue. Before long the competitors have fetched up on Whirlpool Island where seductive sorceress the Key Guardian assesses their worth and warns Thorgal that all is not as it seems…

The final feat finds the questers tested with doom and monumental wealth, but as Thorgal travels to another time and place through a fantastical realm he at last discerns the truth about The Benevolent Ones and changes the rules to rescue his beloved and bring down a true kingdom of the damned…  

‘The Black Galley’ – opening sally in an epic continued tale known by fans as the Brek Zarith Saga – starts some time later with Thorgal and Aaricia enjoying the hard but gratifying life of simple peasants in a village of serfs. Thorgal is happy to be an industrious farm-worker, with solid dependable friends and a wife only weeks away from giving him his first child.

The idyllic life is far from perfect however since the headman’s teenage daughter Shaniah has developed an unhealthy fixation with the glamorous Viking and is determined to take him away from Aaricia…

When the girl acts up after a harvest feast the hero tries one last time to reason with her but their heated conference is interrupted by a man in manacles who steals Thorgal’s horse. Later, when knights of Shardar the Powerful, King of Brek Zarith come looking for an escaped prisoner, spurned, petulant Shaniah accuses Thorgal of aiding the fugitive…

Ignoring all his protests the warriors, led by seasoned veteran Jarl Ewing drag the vigorously resisting Viking to their distant galley and a painful interview with decadently effete Prince Veronar…

The promised inquisition results in Thorgal utterly humiliating the prince and killing the spiteful scion’s favourite murder-pet before boldly escaping. All too soon however the Jarl recaptures the Viking he has grown to admire and it takes all his energies to foil Veronar’s attempts to take bloody vengeance.

Unable to give any information on the whereabouts of fugitive rebel Galathorn, Thorgal is sentenced to join the other captives at the oars where his indomitable spirit makes even more enemies amongst the slave-masters and new friends of his fellow slaves…

Sometime later Ewing tries to recruit the Viking to his cause – taking the throne from Shardar – but the wily prince overhears and sentences both warriors to a painful death… As the sentence is being carried out the tribute-filled Black Galley is discovered by a small fleet of Viking drakkars (raiding ships) which give frantic chase. In the chaos Thorgal escapes and frees the oar slaves before dealing with Veronar…

The raiders are old friends. Thorgal is immediately recognised by hulking Jorund the Bull who embraces his lost comrade and informs him that as new king – since Gandalf has died – his banishment is ended and he is welcome to return home with the Northern Vikings.

Thorgal regretfully refuses. All he wants is to be with Aaricia and his coming child, spending peaceful days as a farmer.

Sadly when he reaches the village all that remains is ash, corpses and Jarl Ewing. The traitor had hired mercenaries and awaited Thorgal’s return, intending to use Aaricia as a hostage to ensure her husband’s cooperation. She chose death and drowned herself, refusing to be weapon aimed at her man’s heart…

The debacle sparked a disaster as the mercenaries went wild and pillaged the hamlet and now, the two warriors must end their ill-fated association with yet one more death…

It’s certainly no spoiler to remind you that Aaricia and Thorgal’s story doesn’t end here and that this is but one moment in the magnificently illustrated, astoundingly addictive and completely compelling epic.

The enchantingly wondrous world of Thorgal is every fantasy fan’s ideal dream of unending adventure. How can you possibly resist?

Original editions © Rosiński & Van Hamme 1981-1982 Les Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard). English translation © 2007 Cinebook Ltd.

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Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant volume 10: 1955-1956


By Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-800-7

Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur launched on Sunday February 13th 1937, a fantastic and fabulous full-colour weekly peek into a world where history met myth to produce something greater than both. Creator Hal Foster had developed the feature after leaving the landmark, groundbreaking, astoundingly popular Tarzan of the Apes strip.

Valiant provided action, adventure, exoticism, romance and plenty of laughs in its engrossing depiction of noble knights and wicked plunderers played out against a glamorised, dramatised Dark Ages backdrop. It followed the life of a refugee boy driven from his ancestral homeland in Scandinavian Thule who grew up to roam the world and attain a paramount position amongst the heroes of fabled Camelot.

Foster wove his epic romance over decades, following the progress of a near-feral wild boy who grew into a paragon of chivalric virtue: knight, warrior, saviour, vengeance-taker and eventually family patriarch in a constant deluge of wild and joyously witty wonderment. The restless hero visited many far-flung lands, siring a dynasty of equally puissant heroes, enchanting generations of readers and thousands of creative types in all the arts.

The strip spawned films, an animated series and all manner of toys, games, books and collections based on Prince Valiant – one of the few adventure strips to have run continuously from the thunderous 1930s to the present day (4000 + episodes and still going strong) – and, even here at the end times of newspaper narrative cartoons as an art form, it continues in more than 300 American papers and via the internet.

Foster crafted the feature alone until 1971 when John Cullen Murphy (Big Ben Bolt) succeeded him as illustrator. Foster continued as writer and designer until 1980, after which he retired and Cullen Murphy’s daughter Mairead took over colouring and lettering whilst her brother John assumed the writer’s role.

In 2004 the senior Cullen Murphy also retired, since when the strip has soldiered on under the auspices of many extremely talented artists such as Gary Gianni, Scott Roberts and latterly Thomas Yeates with Mark Schultz (Xenozoic) scripting.

This latest spellbinding and luxuriously oversized (362 x 264 mm) full-colour hardback collection reprints the pages from January 2nd 1955 to 30th December 1956 (#934-1038) but before we proceed kicks off with an illustration-strewn, memory-stuffed and erudite Introduction from contemporary adventure-strip master Timothy Truman in ‘Schooled by Foster’.

What Has Gone Before: Having brought Christianity to Thule and been instrumental in repulsing an invasion of Saxons and Danes in England whilst his wife Aleta single-handedly dismantled an incipient coup in her homeland of the Misty Isles, Valiant and his family make ready to return to Thule…

The eternal saga picks up as the voyagers encounter a slight problem. An upsurge of piracy makes sea travel all-but impossible and a rising of barbarian hordes from beyond the Danube has cut off overland routes through northern Europe. They are seemingly stranded until Aleta’s Viking handmaiden Katwin offers a solution.

Her father, a great seafaring king, sometimes plied an eastern route to Scandinavia via fabled Constantinople which his men called “the Long Portage”…

Soon a brace of well-stocked trade-ships are in the bustling trade capital and Katwin is rounding up Northmen homesick and bold enough to sign up for the risky venture. Before long the assembled crew, Sir Gawain and the astounded royal retinue are approaching Sevastopol on the Crimean coast of the on the Black Sea, readying themselves for the perilous trip up the Dnieper River and overland to the Baltic…

The journey is arduous and made worse when nomadic Ukrainian Patzinaks begin stalking the vessels from the banks of the river. Wary pursuit soon devolves into repeated archery assaults but war-wise Valiant and Gawain quickly devise suitable armoured defences – and even a few land-based counterattacks – and the trek continues.

The cautious progress hits a real snag only after one of the flat-bottomed ships breaks its mid-river mooring whilst Valiant and the majority of the crew are scouting ahead. It floats silently to shore in the dark night and in an instant the vigilant Patzinaks seize their chance.

Rushing the beached boat they capture Aleta – although she is quick enough to hide her children from them. The attending Northmen guards become berserkers and fall upon the Ukrainian raiders but are too late to stop some carrying off the golden-haired queen to their fortress.

By the time Valiant’s party return with the dawn the defenders have buried their dead and are preparing to follow the plunderers. As the enraged Prince leads a column of warriors across the grassy plains, in his dingy city the Great Dragda Khan is finding his glorious new captive far more than he can handle…

Once he is humiliatingly disposed of, Aleta than turns his ambitious lieutenants and potential heirs against each other and by the time her husband arrives to besiege the Patzinak stronghold his job is already half done…

When the Northern reivers finish sacking the city the journey resumes. Valiant wants to avoid any more delays but is convinced by his wife that they should spend time and money in the far more civilised bastion of Kiev where again Aleta’s diplomatic acumen comes into play when the bored and boisterous Vikings begin making trouble.

Departing with a third barge – packed with fabrics, brocades, booty and a flight of dressmakers – the voyage continues.

The pace slows however when the river dwindles and after Valiant is wounded hunting an Aurochs the travellers are forced to hire local natives to guide and even help carry the ships overland to the next navigable section…

Before too long – and after only a few murderous incidents – the boats and goods are hauled through a swamp to another river and the final leg of the voyage can begin. The crew are happy that now they will be going downriver but joy turns to fury when they are attacked by a party of far-travelled Swedish raiders from Gotland.

The already weakened Val almost dies and is relegated to a bed for the remainder of the trip, allowing Foster to reprise and embellish the story of Prince Valiant’s origins and earliest battles (as seen in volume 1 of this series), becoming storyteller to little Arn and his twin baby sisters…

By the time the flashbacks conclude the ships have reached Baltic salt marshes and the ecstatic travellers are preparing to cross the seas to their northern homes. Arn meanwhile has begun his martial training and his doting parents realise with horror that he is going to as headstrong, reckless and worrisome as his sire…

In mid-ocean a tense moment with three Irish raiders ends happily as the Celtic corsairs recognise Valiant from his memorable trip to the Emerald Isle and join him to create a formidable flotilla of seagoing might.

Gawain’s exceedingly homely, inept yet oddly effective servant Pierre experiences a joyous moment when the journey is almost concluded. As he and his master switch ships and divert course for Britain, the bumbler discovers his even dumber brother Jex is a slave at the oars of this new vessel. Before too long the glamorous knight is encumbered with two idiots, not one…

Val and Aleta meanwhile have concluded their arduous ordeal by sailing on to Thule and an exuberant welcome from regal patriarch King Aguar just in time to enjoy the beauty and bounty of a Scandinavian summer.

Seasons turn however and as autumn begins, the northern practice of overturning their ships and stocking up for the long hard winter begins throughout Thule. Ever eager for excitement, Val uses the time to explore inland from the populated coastal region, seeking suitable fields for the populace to cultivate, rather than depend on chancy fishing and raiding to supply their needs in the cold, infertile months.

His expedition is most fruitful as the search yields splendid unused meadows for arable and pastoral farming, lacking only suitable road routes to move people to and crops from them.

Whilst charting the region the party discovers a vast forbidding mountain and Arn falls in love. Amazed and beguiled by the daunting snow-capped peak, the little princeling simply must scale it and nothing his father can say will dissuade him.

Capitulating to the inevitable, Valiant grudgingly allows the escapade, taking some comfort from the fact that his little boy will allow doughty and taciturn Garm the Hunter to accompany him…

Honour and youthful independence upheld, the party returns to the coast and palatial Vikingsholm which is frantically preparing for winter. This soon entails a state visit to the nearby fief of Earl Jon for recreational hunting and bond-building. Even Aleta enjoys the hardy sports and endeavours – at least for the first day.

The second finds her and Katwin staying home to luxuriate in soft pillows and warm baths whilst the menfolk continue to prove their rugged manliness by shooting animals.

Thus the manor is practically defenceless when brutal and scurrilous Northern neighbour Gunnar Freysson and his son Helgi decide that they will supplement their inadequate winter stores by stealing everything the provident Jon has cached away.

If they leave no survivors, who will know that it was friend and not foe who committed the atrocity?

Striking when all the able-bodied men are away, the raiders meet with complete success until they confront Aleta. Taken aback at such a prominent potential victim, Freysson momentarily baulks, allowing the quick-witted queen to craftily light a signal fire.

With no other choice but concealment, the panicked raiders lock Aleta and Katwin in the house and fire it, intending that when the already returning hunting party arrives there will be none to accuse them…

However the rogues have not reckoned on Aleta’s quick wits. She finds a cunning way for them to survive and when Jon, Aguar, Valiant and the warriors storm in to quell the blaze they discover the women scorched but safe. On learning who is responsible they lay their plans for revenge…

As the raiders struggle over frozen mountain passes with their ill-gotten gains, losing many men and much loot to the artic conditions, Valiant and maimed shipwright Gundar Harl concoct a cunning plan. When the exhausted villains finally return to their hall they find their own women and children safely sequestered and vengeful men-at-arms waiting for them…

With Harl now the new lord of Freysson’s fief, the Royal Family return to Vikingsholm for the winter but little Arn is restless and still craves to prove himself. Arguing that the farmland Valiant discovered is useless without a safe route through the mountains, the crafty child campaigns long and forcefully that he be allowed to find one before the snows come…

Sustained pester-power wins out over parental concern and with faithful Garm at his side Arn sets off. What follows is a mesmerising 16-week epic of endurance and bravery to rival the best of Jack London as the old man and the indomitable boy scale mighty peaks only to be trapped in an unseasonably early blizzard. Having found the crucial route, the pair battle against phenomenal hazards with startling grit and ingenuity, and eventually man and boy struggle home to a rapturous welcome…

As winter cloaks the land old friends straggle in as the year turns. Aleta’s former maid Tillicum visits with her son and Viking husband Boltar, as does courtly scoundrel Gawain. All are aware that Arn is of an age when noble sons generally leave home for other houses to begin their long path towards knighthood. Gawain has come to escort Valiant to King Arthur’s annul Grand Tourney in celebration of Pentecost…

During the bombastic spectacle Val befriends a young knight named William Lydney, even accompanying the neophyte to his home in Cornwall as cover for his true mission for Arthur: ferreting out traitors and rumours of sedition in that troubled region…

Young William has the potential to be a great hero but is sorely troubled. He is utterly devoted to and wants to marry his neighbour’s daughter, Gwendolyn of Berkeley. Indeed, she is pledged to the next Lord Vernon but William’s succession to the title is not clear. There is an older brother, who by rights should hold the title, but he has been missing for years and the impatient younger sibling must prove him dead or wait years until he is of age…

The star-crossed love affair descends into tragedy and incredible sacrifice once Valiant and William’s devoted Steward Alfred unpick the mystery and discover a shocking secret. When the drama finally concludes Alfred leaves William’s service to become Valiant’s latest squire

To Be Continued…

Rounding out this gloriously chronicle are two more fascinating features on Foster’s pre-comics career as an advertising artist and the impact of his “Mountie” paintings on early 20th century American ads in the stunning pictorial essay ‘Maintain[ing] the Right [Stuff]: A Gallery of Hal Foster’s Mountie Painting’ and ‘Reclaiming Foster’s Mountie Legacy’ compiled and annotated by Brian M. Kane.

A mind-blowing panorama of visual passion and precision, Prince Valiant is a non-stop rollercoaster of boisterous action, exotic adventure and grand romance; blending epic fantasy with dry wit and broad humour, soap opera melodrama with shatteringly dark violence.

Lush, lavish and captivating lovely, the strip is an indisputable landmark of comics fiction and something no fan should miss.
© 2015 King Features Syndicate. All other content and properties © 2015 their respective creators or holders. This edition © 2015 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

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Shame: Conception, Shame: Pursuit, Shame: Redemption


By Lovern Kindzierski, John Bolton & Todd Klein (Renegade Arts Entertainment)
ISBNs: 978-1-908217-01-1, 978-0-986200-5-2 and 978-0-99215-088-4

It’s an unshakable adage that comics are a visual medium and that’s never been more clearly proved than in this enticing allegorical adult fairytale from writer Lovern Kindzierski, painter John Bolton and letterer Todd Klein.

The blithely inviting trilogy began in 2011 for then-new multinational Indie publisher Renegade Arts Entertainment (generally Alexander Finbow, Doug Bradley, Alan Grant, John Finbow, Luisa Harkins, Nick Wilson and Jennifer Taylor: a loose coalition originating comics, audio books, movies, animation, prose and graphic novels, merchandise and games) and after much too long a wait concludes here…

Always remember, appearances can be deceiving.

Once upon a time in Shame: Conception a rather lumpen and unlovely witch named Mother Virtue spent all her days doing grand good deeds for the unfortunate, and for these kind actions she was beloved by all.

She lived her life well growing old and content but one day a selfish thought passed idly through her mind: she longed for a daughter and wished for but a moment that she was a mother in fact as well as name…

It was all the opening malign Shadow of Ignorance Slur needed. With dark magic he instantly impregnated the champion of Good with a dark and evil seed and in gloating triumph bragged to the witch that her diabolical daughter would be named Shame…

Repenting that selfish thought and dreading the horrors to come, Mother Virtue turned her cottage into a floral prison dubbed Cradle; designed and repurposed to isolate and contain the thing growing in her belly.

The miserable mother-to-be also assembled an army of Dryads to care for and guard the baby. After Virtue finally bore Shame, she quickly abandoned the devil’s burden to be reared in the mystic compound, where it grew cruel but so very beautiful…

Eventually, however, minions of Shame’s sire breached the green walls and began schooling the child in vile necromancy and her dire inheritance. Slowly Shame remoulded her guardians into something more pliable and appropriately monstrous…

As she physically ripened, Slur himself came and through him Shame learned the power of sex. With the aid of a demonic incubus which had stolen seed from many men, she quickened a child in her own belly and birthed a baby girl.

Into the infant Slur poured Mother Virtue’s soul, gorily ripped from her aging carcase at that moment. Even the nunnery she had locked herself within was not proof against the marauding Shadow of Ignorance…

With her despised mother now her own child securely bound within the selfsame floral penitentiary, Shame went out into the world to make her mark…

Shame: Pursuit was released in 2013 and took up the story sixteen years later. The Virtue baby had grown up strong and beautiful, despite every effort of the malformed and mystically mutated Dryads and Shame’s diabolical sorcery who had made every day of her young life a test of survival.

This made Shame, now queen of a mortal kingdom, furious beyond belief. When not burning witches and wise women who might threaten her absolute domination or having her unconquerable armies ravage the neighbouring realms, the hell-spawn spied upon her mother/child with infernal devices.

Elsewhere a valiant knight lay dying and bade his simple, ugly son Merritt farewell. Even with his last breaths, the father dreaded how his foolish and naive boy would fare in a world ruled by the Queen who had killed him…

The hopeless dreamer was stubborn if nothing else, and when Merritt discovered the vegetable hell-mound of Cradle, stories his mother told him as a child and a strange inexplicable yearning compelled him to overcome appalling odds to break in and liberate the beautiful prisoner… although she did most of the work…

Once free of the mound, all Virtue’s mystic powers returned and far away Shame’s world reeled. Mocking Slur cared little for his daughter but much for his plans and thus revealed Merritt was Destiny’s wild card: a Sword of Fate who could reshape the future of humanity. Of course it all depended whose side he was on…

As the heroes neared the capital they were ambushed and, after a tremendous mystic upheaval, Merritt awoke in a palace with a dark-haired angel ministering to his every need and desire. Far below in a rank, eldritch dungeon Virtue languished and remade her plans…

The epic concludes in classic fashion with Shame: Redemption as Merritt falls deeper under the sultry sway of the dark queen. As he slowly becomes her tool of human subjugation, in a fetid subterranean stinkhole, Virtue weaves her magic with the paltry materials at hand under the very noses of her tormentors…

Even in the Queen’s bed Merritt is still a child of his mother’s stories and when Virtue contacts him he readily sneaks down to her cell, dreams of nobility and good deeds filling his slow and addled head…

Now the scene is set for a final fraught confrontation between mother and daughter, but first Virtue sends Merritt straight to Hell on a vital quest to recover the hope of the world…

The narrative core of all fairytales is unchanging and ever powerful, so tone and treatment make all the difference between tired rehash and something bold, fresh and unforgettable.

Moreover, the photo-based hyper-real expressionism of John Bolton’s lush painting transforms the familiar and potentially mundane settings of fantasy standards into something truly bleak and bizarre to match the grim, earthily seedy meta-reality of Kindzierski’s script.

Dark, nasty and packed with sumptuous seductions of every stripe, the sage of Shame is every adult fantasists’ desire made real…

Shame: Conception, Shame: Pursuit, Shame: Redemption the story, characters, world and designs are © Lovern Kindzierski, John Bolton and Renegade Arts Canmore Ltd.