By David Michelinie & Bret Blevins, with John Ridgway and various (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-79851-6
Thanks to unseasonably chilly weather and a total plethora of astoundingly great graphic tracts in my reviews tray I’ve decided to brave the wrath of the readership by bring up the dreaded “C†word almost a month earlier than usual. I make no apologies. This is a book everybody will have on their wants list…
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A timeless, captivating delight… 9/10
During the 1980s the American comics scene experienced an astounding proliferation of new titles and companies in the wake of the creation of the Direct Sales Market. With publishers now able to firm-sale straight to specialised, dedicated-retail outlets rather than overprint and accept returned copies from general magazine vendors, the industry was able to risk and support less generic titles whilst authors, artists and publishers could experiment without losing their shirts.
In response to a wave of upstart innovators, Marvel developed a line of creator-owned properties at the height of the subsequent publishing explosion, launching a number of idiosyncratic, impressive series in a variety of formats under the watchful, benevolent and exceptionally canny eye of Editor Archie Goodwin. The delightfully disparate line was dubbed Epic Comics and the results reshaped the industry.
One of the most significant hits was a winsomely engaging blend of fantasy, criminology and urban myth with a beautifully simple core concept: “Sherlock Holmes from Outer Spaceâ€. Even that painfully broad pitch-line does the series it became an unforgivable disservice: The Bozz Chronicles was – and is – so much more. It became one of Epic’s earliest sensations and the reasons it never continued beyond its initial 6-issue run (spanning December 1985-November 1986) had nothing to do with poor sales…
The mesmerising mix of Victoriana, super-science and sorcery might even be considered as an early precursor if not progenitor of the visual form of the literary genre K. W. Jeter dubbed “steampunk†in 1987…
Preceded with a Foreword from Brandon Graham, Dave Michelinie’s self-deprecating Introduction ‘Blame it on Spielberg’ plus fond reminiscences from originating illustrator Bret Blevins, an amazing moment in comics history repeats itself as ‘The Bozz Chronicles’ opens on Mandy Flynn, a fiercely independent young woman plying her trade – frequently described as the World’s Oldest – in the sooty, sordid environs of London during the latter quarter of the 19th century.
Saucy, sassy, sensitive and lovely, she is bringing her latest client up to her attic abode when the incipient physical transaction is suddenly curtailed by the discovery of a strange-looking foreigner trying to commit suicide in her rooms…
As her toff flees in terror, Mandy tries to talk down the intruder and realises just how strange he truly is: eight feet tall, pale yellow in complexion, with a hairless, pointy head. He is also gentle, exceptionally well-spoken, has a long tail and can fly…
Six months later Mandy and the creature she calls Bozz are doing exceptionally well. He still claims to be from another world and certainly acts like no human she has ever met: he cannot tell lies, communicates with animals, constantly wanders around naked and absorbs like a sponge every scrap of knowledge she can provide for him through books and papers.
Bozz misses his home: a far-distant world of benevolent intelligences he has no chance of ever returning to. So much so that he was going to kill himself as much through boredom as loneliness and Mandy’s brilliant idea to keep him alive was to engage his prodigious intellect in puzzles. She set them up as consulting detectives based in the less than fashionable Maracot Road, using the profits to better her own hand-to-mouth existence in the process.
The only problem is that when no challenging cases manifest, Bozz’s thoughts instantly return to ending it all…
Thankfully, just as she is preparing to hide all the sharp objects again, a truly unique mystery knocks on the door and the secretary of Lord Giles Morgan requests their help. According to the Press, her employer – and prospective Prime Minister – recently escaped an assassination attempt. She however was with him when it happened and claims he did not survive. In fact, after having made further discreet inquiries she found her master had in fact been dead for some three years prior to the attack…
As Bozz excitedly accepts the commission Mandy is convinced they are dealing with a madwoman, but when their client is destroyed by a bolt of lightning as soon as she leaves their office the retired demimondaine is forced to think again…
The first step is naturally to interview Lord Giles and, although the shady politician proves no help at all, Bozz gleans much useful information from the caged bird in Morgan’s study and is soon on the trail of an aristocratic secret society utilising vast funds and weird science to resurrect the dead in pursuit of a deadly and regressive political and economic agenda…
Sadly even the alien outcast’s uncanny powers prove less than enough to stop the plotters, but Mandy has gifts of her own and beguiles a rowdy American ex-prize-fighter she found in a bar to assist in the climactic final confrontation…
Besotted, punch-drunk Salem Hawkshaw then joins the detectives to handle any future physical exigencies that might occur, but despite everything he sees is never convinced his big, bemused boss is anything other than a crazy circus freak.
The new comrades are all utterly aware that their sudden success has brought them to the attention of Scotland Yard’s most privileged operative and the trio have barely caught their breath before Inspector Colin Fitzroy comes calling, deviously offering them a case the police have no interest in.
Apparently a drunk had seen demons in Park Lane…
As the shamefully-employed scion of Britain’s richest family continues trying to impress the ravishing Miss Flynn, further arcane incidents are occurring, ‘Raising Hell’ in the capital’s swankiest district and before long the Private Inquiry agents have found troubled Samantha Townes whose husband has fallen foul of the vilest black magic and his own gullibility…
Wealthy Inspector Fitzroy has his own, more pressing problems. A rash of exceedingly orderly murders has turned up odd artefacts which defy explanation by any expert Scotland Yard can muster: things that cannot possibly have been built by any craftsman on Earth…
In ‘The Tomorrow Man’ (inked by Al Williamson) a trip to the funfair does little to alleviate Bozz’s boredom but does lead to the gently gullible giant being gulled and lured away by a wily pack of street children who use his powers and naivety to go on a crime spree.
Later, when the shady Fair-owner tries to kidnap Bozz for his freak show, the ultimately unsuccessful attack leaves the alien blind and kids’ ringleader Oliver brings him to underworld surgeon Dr. Paine, who runs a subterranean clinic as a sideline to pay for his researches into time travel. He sees in the alien a perfect opportunity to advance the causes of science…
Redeemed by Bozz’s unflagging trust, Oliver at last realises the enormity of his betrayal and fetches Mandy and Salem to effect a rescue, but by the time they arrive, chronal chaos is erupting everywhere…
As engaging and enthusiastic as the tales have been until this point, ‘Were-Town!’ is (at least for history-buffs and especially Londoners) a truly stand-out moment in the series as the ineffably marvellous John Ridgway stepped in to illustrate a pithy, punchy deep midwinter tale disclosing something of Mandy’s past whilst introducing her reprehensible absentee father Egan Thorpe.
We’ve always whined in Britain about how Us and Ours are represented in American productions and, despite the obviously strenuous and diligent researches Michelinie & Blevins undertook, frequently the tone of their Bozz Chronicles often smacks more of Hollywood than Cricklewood. It’s not something that non-Brits will even notice, but for us aging “Cockney Sparrers†the differences are there to be seen.
Such is not the case (as gratefully acknowledged by the creators themselves in their respective, respectful Introductions) when Ridgway applied his meticulous line and copious pictorial acumen – gleaned from decades drawing a variety of British strips for everything from Commando Picture Library to Warrior to 2000AD to The Famous Five – to a genuinely spooky and photographically authentic tale of deranged artists, dastardly squires and infernal paintings which come to unholy life in the snow-drenched rural wilds of Southeast England…
Michelinie & Blevins reunited for ‘The Cobblestone Jungle’ as Inspector Fitzroy again called upon the Consulting Detectives; impelled as much by his lusty fascination with Amanda as the demands of an African king who needed the assistance of the British Empire if he was to guarantee a steady flow of diamonds from his equatorial realm…
Apparently a white man had stolen the tribe’s sacred jewel and brought it to his hidden jungle playground in London. Thanks to some canny legwork from little Oliver the detective trio are able to track the bounder, but nobody expected the filched jewel to be capable of emitting destructive death-rays…
After a spectacular battle high above the city Bozz was able to end the threat, but his biggest surprise came when the grateful king asked to thank him personally and revealed a millennia-old connection to Bozz’s extraterrestrial race…
It all culminated in a desperate voyage to the Dark Continent for Mandy, Bozz, Salem and Fitzroy in search of ‘King Solomon’s Spaceship’ and the achievement of the marooned alien’s most fervent desires… unless of course, a gang of German raiders or Mandy’s own selfish self-interest somehow ruined everything…
Rounded out by a superb ‘Bonus Artwork and Cover Gallery’ from Blevins and closing with an effusive ‘Afterword by John Ridgway’, this is a long-overdue collection of a magnificent moment in comics collaboration which will now hopefully reclaim its place at the forefront of fantasy fables.
The Bozz Chronicles © 1985, 1986, 2015 David Michelinie. Introduction © 2015 David Michelinie. Foreword © 2015 Brandon Graham. Afterword © 2015 John Ridgway. All rights reserved.
The Bozz Chronicles will be in stores from September 16th 2015 and is available for pre-order now. Check out www.doverpublications.com, your internet retailer or local comic shop.
